The announced release of Hordes, along with the new Call to Arms deck(s) sparked an idea in my mind.

One of the major complains by new players at their first experience with CtA (as Elberon remember in another thread) is the lack of clarity in decks' roles.

Really, the differences are there, mainly centered around Units' order of advancement on the battlefield and distribution (higher risk-reward between stronger and weaker units), with some "greenery" for initiative thrown into the mixes. Obviously, there are the differences in Goblin/Dwarves mercs, but this is overlayed to the general way Pennants differs from Standards.

There ARE also some thoughtful and well conceived analysis by fans on the net, really useful, but, unfortunately, too detailed for their own sake, especially for a neophite.

Another thing to evaluate is the impact terrain has on formations and convenience, but...

Even if perhaps it sounds a bit weird... have you ever thought an easy catchphrase, a nickname to distinguish decks, besides calling them with that bureacracy cold "Pennants C", or "Standard B"? Something like "The Brave Lion" deck, or "Hold on!", or, "Guerrilla", or "Till you see the white in their eyes!" deck?

This could be a great way to teach the game with Call to Arms to new players: it's incredible what a slogan could do for your memory - well, advertising people know this well!

What do you think - and I'm especially talking to you, experienced players, who know the subtelities? How do you call CtA decks? Make the creative flow, well, flow! "You give CTA a baaaad name..."

affro said:

Hey now, I am not sure if I should be offended by this

I still think that the majority of the complaints about CtA are generated from it not meeting the pre-conceived expectations many had for it. The deployment system within the initial CtA expansion does exactly what it sets out to do, and some clunkiness from the expansion Specialist cards aside, I enjoy the impact and variety that the decisions made in designing the decks have brought to the game.

I am very interested to see what the Goblin CtA decks (assuming there even are decks and not just deck) look like and how they differ from the original CtA decks. I am expecting there to be less subtlety and more control over what one ends up with. I don't attach an inherent value to these suspected changes, but I do believe that much of the nuance I enjoy about the original CtA will be given up for the sake of army building.

affro said:

I call Pennants A & C the winning combination

toddrew said:

Ehehehehe, obviosuly not ( ).

I can add that, in general, hardcore board members were, are and will always a resource, being open to discussion as they (well, we, I hope) are: but sometimes n00b are searching the quick and cheap solution and are easily scared (oh, the Goblin N00bHorde)! A "catchy phrase" solution seem a good way to overcome some embarass of theirs - and, yes, in the near future probably I will teach the game to some new players, so I'm trying to hijack some ideas, mine being a little unoriginal and not so explicative ( )!

toddrew said:

I myself really like the route taken with CtA. Being at its core a "Random Deployment Generator with the Brain", it's easy to set interesting and involuted conditions for a Scenario: for example, a player choose the cards for both armies to make a battle harder for its opponent, you can add more Specialist, you can limit them discarding some to enforce the use of unusual troops, etc...

Eheheheheh, I think I know what you mean!

EDIT: **** you FFG Forums editor software!!!

For those of you interested, here's a hopefully easier to read reformatting of those "officially sanctioned house rules" for Call to Arms:

(1) Lightning Mode
After the battlefield is selected and terrain hexes are placed, the Pennant player selects a set of deployment cards, shuffles the seven cards in the set and deals one card face up in each battlefield section and one as a reserve. The Standard player also selects a set, shuffles the cards and deals one card face up in each battlefield section and one as a reserve. Each player then, Deploys his Guards, Scout ahead, Call the Reserves, Call the War Council and Call the Specialists.

Although the Lighting Mode may not be a favorite for those who want some degree of control, it benefits include an extremely quick set up, no need for Feudal Levy tokens and our group has always enjoyed the challenge presented by this shuffle and deal form of deployment.

(2) Strategic Plan Mode
After the battlefield is selected and terrain hexes are placed, the Pennant player selects any four cards from the three Pennant Deployment Card sets and places one card face down in each section of the battlefield and holds one as a reserve. The Standard player selects any four cards from the three Standard Deployment Card sets and places one card face down in each section of the battlefield and holds one as a reserve. Each player then, Deploys his Guards, Scout ahead, Call the Reserves, Set War Council and Call the Specialists.

This Strategic Plan Mode works best when players have time prior to the adventure to study the field of battle and all possible deployment options. We usually a scenario and assign players their camp, Standard or Pennant, at the end of a game session so there is ample time before the next session for planning.

In the Strategic Plan Mode there is a good chance that you may require Feudal Levy tokens. However, because most guys in our group have their own copy of BattleLore, our house rule is that if a player comes to the game and has selected one or more units that he cannot field from his base game or expansions, the unit is lost. This tends to force players to spend some time and thought before the game session.

(3) All Mercenaries Mode
The All Mercenaries Mode is a slight variation on Strategic Plan Mode above? Shuffle all the Deployment cards and deal 7 cards to each player. From the 7 cards each player selects 4 cards that he will bring to the battle. Once again make sure there is ample time to review and plan the best deployments onto the selected battlefield prior to the adventure.

(4) Just Plain Evil Mode
The Just Plain Evil Mode is a slight variation on both the Strategic Plan Mode and All Mercenaries Mode above: Shuffle all the Deployment cards and deal 7 cards to each player. From the 7 cards each player selects 4 cards that he will give to his opponent right before the battle. After receiving the four Deployment cards selected by your opponent, you choose which section to play each card and which card will be held as your reserve. Once again make sure there is ample time to review and plan the worst possible deployment cards for your opponent prior to the adventure.

It seems I'm not alone in hating the wild interface of these boards!

Well, I' was just thinking about that old post of Richard Borg with the variants, you hit the spot ( )!

Best thing: nothing stops you from mixing the "modes" to create, let's say, "Ambush Adventures", where one player deploy in Lighting Mode and the other not, "Trap Adventures" where enchanted or misguided armies deploy in "Just Plain Evil" while the other has laid his well thought plains, "Strategically"...

Another good thing not so often mentioned is that Call to Arms, while obeying to the standard "Scenario Format" of BL, lessen the weight of playtesting on the original Scenario designer - I'm talking about fan made advetures, obviously, not the pros' one - making it part of the game and of the decisions made by the players. This not to say that you can go lazy on design, but rather you can focus on others, less mundane aspect of the adventure (special conditions, objectives, unique Quests, etc) with less risk of being accused of unbalance - well, giving two fortresses, strong defensive position and a VB advantage to Pennants and nothing to Standards may not be a good idea, but while we remain in the realm of sane players...

I love the idea of using Call to Arms to create 'quick' ambush or trap scenarios or similar.

I would be interested to see what a creative designer could do with a 'choose-your-own-adventure' style of creativity and a new set of Call to Arms style deployment cards.

In fact, I wonder whether it would be possible to come up with an interesting campaign system or campaign style set of scenarios based off a bunch of new call to arms deployment cards. You win: add XYZ to your deck, you lose: take ABC, you reach strategic point 1: add 2... you seize strategic point 3: give your opponent 4 etc. I imagine it would be hard to balance like this, and I'm not sure whether it would offer more of less replayability than a scenario book. But it would be excellent fun nonetheless.

Cheers,

Giles.

caradoc said:

While I am not at all averse to fan created/house rule stuff, I have been hoping that FFG comes out with a campaign-type expansion much along these lines...