So Battlelore Command is on sale, it is great computer adaptation of awesome board game that is "Battlelore 2nd. edition" and yet, despite supporting multiplayer, it seems that there is no one who uses this mode. I thought we should change that. Thus idea was born:

The Unofficial Battlelore Command Tournament .

Below you will find link to BGG site, where all the rules about pairing and scoring, and the rest of needed information, are posted:

https://boardgamegeek.com/article/19508065#19508065

If you want to participate in tournament and you have account on BGG just let me know in thread to which link I posted above.

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Quick additional info about this event:

We organized group on Steam for "Unofficial Battlelore Command Online Tournament", you can check it out by clicking link below:

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/bctu

Ok, so the tournament started!!!

In total 8 bold players signed up - 5 Daqan players and 3 Uthuk players.

I'll update this thread in case someone was interested with how whole tournament, individual players and fractions are going.

So then, without further ado, I post pairings for the Round 1:

https://boardgamegeek.com/article/19584092#19584092

Hi Guys!

So the round 1 is already behind us. With the exception of one paring all players were able to play their matches.

According to tournament participants all played battles were really close, full of dramatic turns of fate. That is good because it looks like round 2 will be full of epic battles as well!

Below, you will find pairings for the Round 2:

https://boardgamegeek.com/article/19656926#19656926

And finally, below you will find tournament table with current standings after Round 1:

And another round is already behind us. This time Lady Luck was unfavorable for the Uthuk players. Let's see if they will be able to back at the top in the coming round!

In link below you can find pairings for Round 3.

https://boardgamegeek.com/article/19720784#19720784

and finally, below you can see tournament table with current standings after Round 2:

So the Round 3 is finished, unfortunately holiday time made itself known, two of the four pairings ended without actual battle played, because of players absence or schedule conflicts.

After showing strong performances in all of his games, tournament participant G1ul10 collected 46 points and is getting closer to final victory; nontheless he cannot be certain of it - each of the four players who are behind him can still win the whole thing, assuming that they will collect enough points in final round. It seems like final round will be really exciting till the very end!

In link below you can find pairings for Round 4

https://boardgamegeek.com/article/19789643#19789643

and finally, below you can see tournament table with current standings after Round 3:

I think these results are extremely interesting: 4 of the top 5 players are Daqan players. Considering some still argue about Daqan being weaker than their counterpart, this ranking is definitely worth pondering

I think these results are extremely interesting: 4 of the top 5 players are Daqan players. Considering some still argue about Daqan being weaker than their counterpart, this ranking is definitely worth pondering

True. But the question is, where are Daqan weaker? While they may be considered weak in the board game, most of us in the tournament seem to be of the consensus that the Daqan Lords have the power advantage for various reasons. But I'm not surprised at all that the Daqan Lords are in the lead.

The biggest reason [i think] is the archer buff (33% chance to hit when using Double Shot). Also, Citadel Guards don't sacrifice damage to use Superior Tactics, so they basically have 2 die faces to hit and 2 die faces to retreat, plus Pursue 1. That makes them pretty potent.

Contrast that with the Uthuk where Blood Harvesters must use Frenzy on a "heroic" result (can't choose not to activate it). The one buff that the Uthuk got was with the movement increase on the Chaos Lord and since I knew I wanted to play Uthuk, the best army for me was 6 Chaos Lords since it was the only unit of the Uthuk Y'llan that got better. That would never succeed in the board game, but worked well for deathmatch-type scenarios.

I feel that if I fielded anything else besides 6 Chaos Lords, I would have been torn to shreds. Of course, the only way to find out is to play other armies now that I've finished my tournament matches. So I'll be looking for more opponents in the future!

I agree, I'm also of the opinion that Daqan are actually stronger than Uthuk. In addition to the point you listed, I'd add that placing Rune Golem into buildings with VP banners is a *nightmare* for any Uthuk player.

Anyhoo, good to see some people enjoying the torunament. I'd love giving this a try one day. Still, time constraints, sigh

I'd love giving this a try one day. Still, time constraints, sigh

I'd love having a chance to face you. Maybe someday.

I think these results are extremely interesting: 4 of the top 5 players are Daqan players. Considering some still argue about Daqan being weaker than their counterpart, this ranking is definitely worth pondering

True. But the question is, where are Daqan weaker? While they may be considered weak in the board game, most of us in the tournament seem to be of the consensus that the Daqan Lords have the power advantage for various reasons. But I'm not surprised at all that the Daqan Lords are in the lead.

The biggest reason [i think] is the archer buff (33% chance to hit when using Double Shot). Also, Citadel Guards don't sacrifice damage to use Superior Tactics, so they basically have 2 die faces to hit and 2 die faces to retreat, plus Pursue 1. That makes them pretty potent.

Contrast that with the Uthuk where Blood Harvesters must use Frenzy on a "heroic" result (can't choose not to activate it). The one buff that the Uthuk got was with the movement increase on the Chaos Lord and since I knew I wanted to play Uthuk, the best army for me was 6 Chaos Lords since it was the only unit of the Uthuk Y'llan that got better. That would never succeed in the board game, but worked well for deathmatch-type scenarios.

I feel that if I fielded anything else besides 6 Chaos Lords, I would have been torn to shreds. Of course, the only way to find out is to play other armies now that I've finished my tournament matches. So I'll be looking for more opponents in the future!

I think this is the most important reason - with an obligatory activation of this ability Uthuk forces are too much of a suicidal type of army.

I very much agree on what has been said. I think that the weak point of the Uthuk army in the board game are the Viper Legions. It's true that the poison can give you an increased probability to inflict a damage, BUT you pay it in terms of Lore. Thus on a moderately long game, an effective utilization of Uthuk archers implies a reduced availability of lore for the Uthuk player. So much so that in the second campaign I designed I decided to improve the effect of Poison, by requiring any poisoned unit to roll a die before the command step and take a hit on a Lore result. In this way the Daqan player feels more compelled to pay the Lore to remove the poison from his units and ultimately this tends to balance out the lore count. Another solution would be to allow the collection of a Lore point also if the Lore is committed to inflict the damage to the poisoned unit. The second solution seems less elegant though, as it contrasts with the general idea of "committing" a die result.

I agree about Viper Legions. When I face them I don't try to take them out the same way I do the Yeomen Archers. If they poison me and then inflict damage I think, "Man, that shouldn't have happened; I should be able to ignore these guys," and then I go wipe them out. From that point of view, they could be valuable to distract and harry the opponent, but that role doesn't seem worth 4 points to muster.

I very much agree on what has been said. I think that the weak point of the Uthuk army in the board game are the Viper Legions. It's true that the poison can give you an increased probability to inflict a damage, BUT you pay it in terms of Lore. Thus on a moderately long game, an effective utilization of Uthuk archers implies a reduced availability of lore for the Uthuk player. So much so that in the second campaign I designed I decided to improve the effect of Poison, by requiring any poisoned unit to roll a die before the command step and take a hit on a Lore result. In this way the Daqan player feels more compelled to pay the Lore to remove the poison from his units and ultimately this tends to balance out the lore count.

Wow! I like that idea. It actually seems a lot more intuitive than the current version for poison in addition to being more effective.

So, Ladies and Gentlemen, final round is finished. What a round that was - full of close battles and exciting competition!

You can find results of the final, 4th round, in this post:

https://boardgamegeek.com/article/19508065#19508065

Congratulations to g1ul10. He showed strong performances during the tournament and won the whole event with 10 pts lead. Also I want to thank all of tournament participants - I hope you had as much fun playing as I had organizing this event!!! Stay alert, I am planning to run a 2nd Unoffical Battlelore Command Tournament in a few days!!!

And for all of you interested, below you will find table with the final tournament standings:

Woohoo! The Uthuk take the bronze medal!

Woohoo! The Uthuk take the bronze medal!

If you were a little bit lucky you could even take 2nd place. Only one point difference there.

Congrats to the winner, and to all the partecipants

I'm proud of 4th place, but there is a clear difference between the upper tier there in points scored. Well done, everybody. And thanks, Embir82, for hosting!

Thank you Embir for your excellent organization. I managed to play all four games and it has been very entertaining and extremely instructive.

Personally, I would give the prize for the most innovative army to Garret (Budgernaut). The idea of mustering six Chaos Lords was great! It took me by total surprise. Later, thinking about it and reading what he wrote on BGG, I realized that it is in fact based on very sound tactical considerations.

I'm looking forward to another similar event. Embir already stated he wants to organize a second tournament soon... I'm sure more people will join BUT I'd like also to play against Embir himself sooner or later...

Yes, the most innovative squad was definitely Budgernaut's. My first game in the tourney/first ever competitive game of Battlelore and imagine how I feel when six Chaos Lords materialize on the other side of the board. I was befuddled. And I don't know if this has been said elsewhere, but the fact that the Chaos Lords have a movement of 2 on the online game makes them extremely more valuable than in the board game, I think. But, overall, Daqan is just way more powered than Uthuk because it is so easy to hit the Order 3 Archers + Avenging Arrows combo, and then firing your arrows at pinned targets to really take out a lot of troops. I also think the Daqan lore cards are generally way more useful - Stalwart Defenders, Runic Barrier, and Assault are always worth some value, and potentially extremely powerful, when you play them because they are not as situationally dependent as most Uthuk lore cards in Command.

Yes, the most innovative squad was definitely Budgernaut's. My first game in the tourney/first ever competitive game of Battlelore and imagine how I feel when six Chaos Lords materialize on the other side of the board. I was befuddled. And I don't know if this has been said elsewhere, but the fact that the Chaos Lords have a movement of 2 on the online game makes them extremely more valuable than in the board game, I think. But, overall, Daqan is just way more powered than Uthuk because it is so easy to hit the Order 3 Archers + Avenging Arrows combo, and then firing your arrows at pinned targets to really take out a lot of troops. I also think the Daqan lore cards are generally way more useful - Stalwart Defenders, Runic Barrier, and Assault are always worth some value, and potentially extremely powerful, when you play them because they are not as situationally dependent as most Uthuk lore cards in Command.

You hit on some really great points about the lore cards. I do feel like many of the defensive Uthuk lore powers are easy to play around. It's not as easy to play around Daqan defensive abilities since many of them affect all units.

Personally, I would give the prize for the most innovative army to Garret (Budgernaut). The idea of mustering six Chaos Lords was great! It took me by total surprise. Later, thinking about it and reading what he wrote on BGG, I realized that it is in fact based on very sound tactical considerations.

Thanks for the kind words! For those who may not have considered all the benefits of a Chaos Lord army -- here are some points:

• The two movement, as mentioned above, is a huge boon.
• Six health concentrated into a single unit instead of 3 health in two units can be tactically advantageous since you can move all that health with a single command card, and with Immovable, you aren't going to give up ground easily.
• Terrifying a pinned unit deals a lot of damage! Effectively, this guy is only missing on a single face of the die.
• You are never weak!

Of course, it can crumble under the Darken the Skies-Enchanted Arrow combo, but so do a lot of other squads.