battlelore core; lore deck discards

By pinnimon, in Battlelore

finnished the scenario #5 of the battlelore. First lore adventure with levek 1 wizard.

dramatic change of the game, bit too much magic.Had a feeling that the luck factor became to big, so less planning.

but i have a question about the lore deck. didn't find in the rules what happens with the discard pile.

Is it reshuffled when you run out of lore cards or is it over with those silly spells once you go trough the deck?

---we went trough the lore deck twice, a bit much if you ask me.

thanx

It is reshuffled to make a new lore deck. If you feel that lore is too strong, I suggest you to use the medieval lore rules, which limits the cards to more 'realistic' lores and makes it more expensive to use lore cards. The medieval lore rules can be found in the Hundred Years War expansion rulebook.

I recommend a few more games with full lore rules though. The 5th scenario contains only the wizard cards, thus it's indeed magical.

To elaborate upon what Sevej posted, what I found as I repeatedly played (and boy, have I played this game repeatedly ;) ) lore adventures and became more familiar with the effects and best situations for playing particular lore cards, I became very confident in controlling the game through lore and felt that the game was less to chance than playing without it. Now, I still am not convinced that I am not just fooling myself and simply get uncannily hot with the dice at the right time ;) , but I am quite certain that if you stick with the game you will come to the same conclusion: Lore=control. Also, the game becomes much richer through the full war council than just the "Wizard + command" version, but playing the Wizards & Lore scenario through a couple of times, and then playing it through as Rogue & Lore, Warrior & Lore, and Cleric & Lore, respectively, will give one a very good sense of the cards. Adventure 7, Crisis in Avignon is also a wonderful adventure for growing accustomed to Lore, before having level 3 Wizards face off against level 3 Clerics gran_risa.gif

If ultimately your tastes dictate that "full Lore" is too much for the game, Medieval Lore is the way to play. Still cunning and surprising twists and turns, but a backseat to the units' own interactions.

thanx for the answers guys!

I'll try scenario 5 with the rogue first-....

I recommend that you play the next scenarios though. The reason why you go through the deck twice is because you only play using the wizard cards. In scenario 7, you'll use all but 4 cards.

Scenario 8 is the first real deal with simulating 'actual play', with all lore types in the deck. But here you will have some cards that don't 'belong' to you (ie. getting a rogue card, but not having a rogue in your council), and you need to pay extra 3 lore tokens to play such cards, increasing the chance that you get less favorable lore cards and thus somewhat decreasing lore play.

Quick notes about scenario 8: This is the scenario that begins to build the level 3 Cleric's misbegotten (my opinion) reputation as "out of balance" or, even, "broken" when the game was first released (the next scenario, loaded with hills and forests, is what pushed many over the edge towards reaching that conclusion...). While I understand why one would reach that conclusion, I respectfully disagree. However, what scenario 8 (A Burgundian Chevauchee) does illustrate very well, is the danger of taking a level 1 lore master when the opponent has a level 3 of the same type. This affect on the game is most pronounced with the Cleric.

This scenario also demonstrates through game play the benefits of taking a level 3 lore master of any type: begin with 3 lore and 3 cards, able to carry 4 cards during the game.

While the potential power of the Cleric will almost always be on display, learning how to defend against that power as an opponent is also a valuable part of this particular scenario.

The trade off between taking a level 3 non-commander lore master, spreading levels amongst the other non-commander lore masters, and placing tokens upon the commander is yet another part of the game on display here. While the choice of War Council construction is not given to the player, dealing with the consequences is certainly left up to them and there are lessons to be learned about the do's and don't's of shaping ones war council.