Holiday Sale -- what does this mean for BattleLore?

By Budgernaut, in BattleLore

They also have Drakan and Cave Troll on sale, both of which JUST... CAME... OUT!!! I know people get concerned when games go on deep discount, it doesn't necessarily mean the game is dead. Obviously, Cave Troll and Drakan may not have had a whole lot of expansion options to begin with, and can be viewed as one offs, but a sale is a sale, nothing more.

Not getting that 4th faction doesn't exactly make me want to dive into the Runewars miniature game. Who's to say I get into heavily collecting that just to have it dropped before all of the necessary elements are explored? They sort of set their own bar with faction representation in that setting. If they can't deliver a game that fully explores the setting, or at least fleshes it out a bit more, then I'm sort of not interested. This may not be a big deal for a casual board gamer, but I'm looking for a setting to invest in as a collector as well. When considering the Runewars Miniatures Game I'm not exactly filled with confidence.

Edited by GMmL

I'm from Russia and know a plenty of guys who love Battlelore a lot. Tournaments, painting, fan-art, etc. I got all of expansions and want to triple it (include the base). What about to create petition or public letter on BGG or something with the heading WE COULD BUY ELVES (if ffg loves money so much - its possibly to add - DONT LOSE OUR MONEY)? Maybe they could go on kickstarter with it. Maybe it will be four or six small packs with Elrond siblings? I have been waiting it so much. Come on! Let's do something! Just try to look how many fans across the world and send this to ffg? P.s. Sorry for grammar.

Let's just hope there was still one piece of unfinished product left that was halfway through the design process when it was decided to switch attention to RW:TMG and that renewed interest through holiday sales will give the momentum to bring it to a launch.

Wishful thinking? You bet it is.

Hard decision. I have missed most of the discounts and uk postage eliminates the savings anyway. I only have the Battlelore core set at the moment.

However if Battlelore is fading away then i will have to buy expansions or maybe forever miss out stock wise.

I like Battlelore but do i now buy expansions or just wait for Runewars next year and get that instead - choice between an expanded Battlelore or two different core game sets - cant make up my mind at the moment but i do like the simplicity of Battlelore without measuring etc. But if Runewars expands into elves then that would become more tempting. Tough call to make.

Hard decision. I have missed most of the discounts and uk postage eliminates the savings anyway. I only have the Battlelore core set at the moment.

However if Battlelore is fading away then i will have to buy expansions or maybe forever miss out stock wise.

I like Battlelore but do i now buy expansions or just wait for Runewars next year and get that instead - choice between an expanded Battlelore or two different core game sets - cant make up my mind at the moment but i do like the simplicity of Battlelore without measuring etc. But if Runewars expands into elves then that would become more tempting. Tough call to make.

Elves are already teased in RuneWars, so if elves are your thing, RuneWars may be the better way to go. And typically, I feel that a core set for a new game is better than expansions for an existing one.

For me, X-Wing takes up the slot RuneWars would occupy, though, so BattleLore is my main Terrinoth game. There's no way I can get into RuneWars, as much as I'd like to.

On the other hand, if BattleLore is ending, prices will skyrocket on the remaining army packs.

Great points all around. Mentioning X-Wing also makes me realize how heavily invested I am in Armada. Do I need a fantasy version of x-wing/armada? The more I considered that the more I found it unlikely. It's more likely that I'll choose to be content with my 3 faction Battlelore set and try to avoid the wash, rinse, new coat of paint cycle the last generation of product lines have offered.

As for RW:TMG, I'm under the impression it's a sort of "test game" to come out later (maybe announcement at GenCon 2017) for a similar game with a SW setting allowing to simulate ground battles. Dunno, maybe I'm mistaken, but isn't it a bit odd we have two miniature games for space battles in the SW setting but nothing allowing us to emulate the battle for Hoth, for example?

As for BT... they could also pretend the line's dying, to see how many people will convert to RW:TMG, and then return to BattleLore after a year of flying under the radar. Who knows. I find odd that they have purchased the BattleLore system, used it for two different games (Battles of Westeros and BattleLore 2nd) and then do nothing with it.

This said, I don't know a **** nothing of what will come, but I'd love to.

i decided to stick with Battlelore rather than Runewars Miniatures - the main reason is that when i dabbled with other rank and file war games it always felt like it ended up with a large groups of rank enemies all mashed together in the middle of the table or once engaged two groups fought away until one lost, hard to explain but it never felt as engaging as Battlelore does and i am not a fan of measuring and then finding out you missed by 1cm. Battlelore i have always enjoyed with its simple dice mechanic, command and lore cards making things different, and objectives that are not just kill the other team. Also i can successfully take to someone new, explain and play without it all becoming way to complicated for them to pick up. Finally i like the board and tiles. That said the dial mechanism still looks interesting on Runewars but i think Battlelore just hits the better board gamer spot.

So it will be sad if Runewars expands and Battlelore stops, but we can hope that an elf revival in 2017 get spread across all their games, Runewars, Battlelore and Descent in a mass release series - that would be good. Its not like FFG have the Gamesworkshop games to keep going any more so there may be some capacity to make up.

I bought Heralds of Dreadfall from a UK online store while prices are still quite good but i can see some are pushing them up already. That gives me a choice of 3 core army sets to play and leaves 3 more expansions still possible if i find someone selling off. I dont think i am that worried by the neutral ones at the moment. It is a big investment but if you own all the expansions i must say you have a pretty good variety of set ups going for you with the 3 armies.

Guys, all expansions for BT went sold out during the Holiday Sale in something like 3 days...

Guys, all expansions for BT went sold out during the Holiday Sale in something like 3 days...

Myeah, was super excited when I saw the expansions + a bunch of other titles on sale. Then FFG told me shipping would be $102 US (I'm in Canada).

Was a nice dream.

just the shipping was $102? how far out do you live in Canada?

Guys, all expansions for BT went sold out during the Holiday Sale in something like 3 days...

ok. I think we all agree (at least since the non-anouncement @ the Con) that FFG will probably let die BL2. The sell was quite the next step to do that. So if they sold really big amounts of BL2-Sets it might be possible that they reconsider this decision like the game has more reach, a bigger player base. Would be nice, but I would be very surprised. I think I will just accept that there will be no more content until there is another oficial statement.

@Budger: I agree with you about reinforcement packs. I would also surely get another faction army pack rather then buying just an (imo overprized if compared with army packs) legendary unit.

Hope the forum will survive the next months, I like to discuss tactics and more with u guys...

Edited by phalgast

They never shut down forums, they simply move them into the Legacy Games area. It's more a problem of users who stop posting once the game is moved from the main boardgame section. Usually then debates migrate on BGG.

I don't think that anyone should buy into RuneWars. I'm calling the game lasts 1.5 years. This is FFG we are talking about, Julia is probably correct that they are just testing out the ideas for Star Wars. You just really can't trust FFG to support a game that's not Star Wars or LCG (and with Destiny here, LCGs aren't even safe anymore. Play Descent I guess.)

This is FFG we are talking about. You just really can't trust FFG to support a game that's not Star Wars or LCG.

I disagree here. Did you see what they did with Eldritch Horror? Even if they promised not to bloat the game after basically ruining Arkham Horror?

That's actually what annoys me. They made 5 expansions for Eldritch and they have one more on the way. They keep almost every game in their library alive by feeding the fans lots of extra content to the point of going way too far, but they didn't do it for Battlelore. And again, I don't believe that a game that gets so high praise and free publicity like this one can do that bad in sales. Even then though, they could have done one last faction to round the game up and make the fan base satisfied (and gain a bunch of money in the process as well, because we would have bought it).

Isn't Battlelore also like #110 game on BGG?

Edit: #112. 3000 voters, 459 fans, #28 Wargame of all time.

Compare to Armada:

2300 voters, same average of 8.0, #161 game, but somehow #25 Wargame (the rating system confuses me) and about 80 more fans. Pretty comparable stats. But Armada gets all the support in hopes that because it is SW it will sell.

Edited by Toenail

I'm from Russia and know a plenty of guys who love Battlelore a lot. Tournaments, painting, fan-art, etc. I got all of expansions and want to triple it (include the base). What about to create petition or public letter on BGG or something with the heading WE COULD BUY ELVES (if ffg loves money so much - its possibly to add - DONT LOSE OUR MONEY)? Maybe they could go on kickstarter with it. Maybe it will be four or six small packs with Elrond siblings? I have been waiting it so much. Come on! Let's do something! Just try to look how many fans across the world and send this to ffg? P.s. Sorry for grammar.

I'd gladly sign such a petition

But Armada gets all the support in hopes that because it is SW it will sell.

I think there is more pressure to push Armada because of the added cost of holding the Star Wars licence. Also, brand recognition means there are likely more people that picked up Armada on a whim and play it at home without being a part of sites like BGG. I bet if we had access to overall sales, we would see Armada trump BattleLore, despite Armada's $100 price tag.

Still, I agree that all the popularity on BGG should amount to something . Maybe as an in-house IP, it is a case where they can take a rest for another year and add the expansions later.

I hope is not the End! I hope at least FFG will bring us the two Latari Elves Army Packs! And why not two Dwarfs Army Packs? Its not too much Work, so i can help as well! ;-) thanks!

I don't know if anyone here is aware of this, but GMT Games + Richard Borg recently announced Commands & Colors Medieval . I'm an owner of BL 1st Ed. who followed the series through its transition from Days of Wonder to FFG. IIRC, when FFG purchased the rights for the BL series from DoW, it was actually a license for using the C&C system for anything Medieval themed as well as fantasy, as that's what BL was; a medieval/historical fantasy hybrid. That GMT has now collaborated with Borg to do the initial design of C&C:M (it's already cleared the 500 preorder requirement & scheduled for production), leads me to believe that FFG may have allowed the license to lapse a while back.

I'm not at all surprised to see BL2 offered at deep discounts in a holiday season sale, as that fits the pattern of BL1 and BoW before they were officialy discontinued. Lots of fans of BL1 also wanted an Elf faction -albeit more of a Euro/Celtic flavored one- but never got it, so I think I understand your pain despite not being a BL2 collector.

The new one is focused on the Byzantine army, and the core set focuses only on battles in the Middle East. I don't see it as a direct competitor of BattleLore, in the same way as C&C: Ancients or Memoir 44 are not.

Also, BoW was never officially discontinued. The main problem with FFG is that almost nothing becomes officially discontinued; simply, at some point, a new game, or a new edition arrive, and you understand the other one is dead.

Given that the core set is all that is left of the sale, is the game still worth getting? Looking through the instructions, it anticipates that players will use expansions or even additional core sets to amplify the experience, which has me wonder if the core set is a strong self-contained game. If I only have the core set, is it a game that has good variety and replayability?

Thanks!