Hi all,

I'm hoping my first post is up by the time you get around to reading this one (moderator needs to approve my posts as I'm a newb).

I'd really appreciate your advice.

I'm going to get the base game, and I'd like to get more BattleLore products.

Question is, what should I get?

Is getting just one of the two available Undead army packs enough to have a balanced battle against one of the base pack's two armies? If so, which Undead army pack should I get?

Also, does it make sense to get just one of the reinforcement packs? I know they come with scenarios in which they don't belong to any player, but should I want to add, say, a mountain giant to my army, will my opponent's army be too weak as a result?

Is it a case of buy (at least) two reinforcement pack or none at all?

Hope you can give me some useful advice and insights. Thanks a lot!

Alex

Hi Bxrrr

It's a cool game, you'll enjoy it! I think you've got 2 possibilities going for expansions:

> Base game and expansions for Daqan and Uthuk

This will give you the full experience of this fractions with lot more options then base game only. But you need 2 Expansion sets to buy and you can't "smell" the undead army of Waiqar

> Base game and Waiqar

This allows you to test all available fractions and you only need 1 set. Which set is a good question. I think you should just think about what you like more:

Terrors of the Mists are the walking hords of Skeletons that are ruled by Necromancers and acompagned by Barghests, leaded by a screaming Banshee

The Herolds of Dreadfall are leaded by a giant undead dragon, your skeletons will walk aside of ghostly Wraith's among horrible dead Knights...

Both can be easily played as stand-alone expansions. Terrors of Mists might have a little higher power level, but they don't have a Barrow Wyrm

edit: I would get the fraction expansion first. They influence the fame feeling way more then the neutral Units imo. If you go for the reinforcement packs, I would at least take 2 of them, so that every Player might chose one...

If money is an issue, I'd go for one Undead pack. Otherwise, I say get the red and blue army expansions. If you do, then you will likely be using all products each game. If you got the undead, for example, then anytime you play Uthuk vs. Daqan you'll be leaving options in the box.

I have played only one mission from the neutral packs. They are interesting purchases. I simultaneously felt that I didn't get my money's worth and I got more than I expected. I haven't musteres neutrals because I just love the factions so much more. I think that if you got two reinforcement packs, it is the easier way to keep things even. But the first player always gets first pick of neutral units and since the 1st player depends on scenario cards each game, it should balance out over time. Also, the Dragon appears to be the best neutral unit (costing 2 more muster points than the Giant) so I don't think purchasing 2 will necessarily make things balanced. Balance is really going to come when both players have experience mustering armies and playing the game. I think an experienced player can defeat an army with neutral units even without mustering his/her own bneutral unit.

As for which Undead pack to get, it depends on what you want. The core armies have:

5 infantry, melee
5 infantry, archer, ranged
3 cavalry, melee
2 elite, melee
1 legend, melee

The Heralds of Dreadfall box mimics this distribution, except that it has only 3 infantry-melee units and 4 infantry-archer-ranged units. So if you want the three teams to feel similar, I'd go with that. Terrors of the Mists is more like the Daqan and Uthuk expansions and introduces caster units, which are ranged units with more attack but less range than the archers.

The core set + The Heralds of Dreadfall it is

Phalgast, Budgernaut- thank you so much. This is really helpful.

I'm gonna try out all three factions (and hope Elves comes out eventually as well).

Do that, it's a good choice. You will have enough diversity for quite a time. And you'll keep a big part of new fun for later (the army building will be set on another level when you get the expansions later...).

If you played WH Fantasy, the rules are really easy to learn. They are far away of the complexity of WHF. That's one of the reasons I really like it. The rules are kept as simple as possible, so you may pick the box and start to play (and you won't lose no more an attack because the f**** unit was a half inch to far away ). And there are enough tactical decisions to get motivation. I played WHF a lot, but thats a bunch of years ago. I would never have restartet a tabletop 'cause of its price and also because I just do not more have the time to spend 8 hours just to play a game. With BL2 you get all advantages for fast battles - not as tactically deep or personalised as WHF, but way more girlfriend-compatible ^^

If you have questions starting with BL2, don't mind to come back here. The forum isn't extremly busy, but still alive...

BattleLore definitely seems way more girlfriend (or, in my case, wife) compatible.
And yes- WHF is just too much for me at the moment. Too expensive, takes up too much room, takes too long to play... Placed my BL2 core set + HoD expansion order a few hours ago

Thanks a lot, Phalgast! This is a warm welcome to the forum, and I appreciate it.