I'm weighing to get more expansions or not for Battlelore, but there are some things that just make me sad

The first is the pennant-only banners for HoHo. I don't know if FFG is trying to save some money, but I think this is a foreshadow for a bleak BattleLore future. What if elves and undead and FFG knows what else come around? If any of them is pennant-only or standard-only, how will 2 pennant armies fight each other? What if they have different banners, making it difficult if I want to pair them with human or different factions?

The second is the *gulp* price. I don't usually be bothered about price. But I just browsed some Memoir '44 stuff, the nice campaign books and huge maps, and finally to the "army packs". For nearly 10$ cheaper they get a lot of miniatures, a bunch of new terrain tiles, markers and 8 scenarios. Am I missing something here?

Finally, I don't think there will be 'human only' CtA. My reasoning is as follows. When you make goblin CtA deck using the "standard" rule, you will get some human units. Using only the CtA cards included in the expansion may cause some unbalanced army compositions (like 6 units of ogres). So for human it's only normal to have some non human mercenaries. So I don't think there'll be human only CtA deck.

Phew.

Sevej said:

Price has been a pretty big factor in my slow lean away from BattleLore. I love the game and at one time bought everything for it, but I've taken a pass on the last few expansions because I just don't feel as if they're providing me with enough value for my money. The pricing on something like the Creatures expansion was downright insulting. In fact, with the Bearded Brave I'll be five expansions behind. I may eventually grab the new army packs if I can find them for a better price the army packs are just the sort of thing I hoped to see for the game (along with a campaign system) but for the moment I feel like I'm getting better value for my gaming dollars via other games.

While I would welcome it, I would be shocked to see another expansion for Battlelore. However, I am not going to let that dissuade me from continuing the game. They are expansions and are not required to enjoy the game.

A lot of people seem to think if the expansions stop, the game will be dead. I have rarely seen that to be the case for any other game. Robo Rally and Space Hulk spent several years out of production. Both games had expansion and those games never "died". They became more and more popular. If anyone is losing interest in Battlelore because they feel that FFG isn't going to continue supporting it, you don't feel you are getting your moneys worth, or you don't like the direction the game is going, sell your games and expansions. I'll buy them. Just don't expect me to pay too much. After all, Battlelore is a dead game.

I think I'm in a glass half full mode at present:

five expansions since FFg took over (debate over value and merit of them I'll leave to others) the 'core' game is pretty much there:

Heroes which plugs a big hole
they did a pretty good job with creatures getting the promo figures out to those without and enough extra for those of us with them (or two)*
dragons are such a staple for fantasy that whilst not core scratch an itch (the minis are pretty darn cool)
HoHo and BeBra will round out the races from the base game

I'm making a big guess here about release speed and communication beyond what has been gleaned from interviews etc. but FFG have had issues getting the base set re-printed, and until it is ready they don't want to commit them selves to a release date for it. I reckon that an announce must becoming in time for Christmas about the base set (I'm just hoping they aren't evil and make it elves and undead forcing my hand to get a third base set or if it is elves and undead they release army packs for 'veterans', as in those who already have or will be getting a DoW version)

Why only half full, well if they aren't ready for a new base set I can't see them releasing much more before it is ready which may make BL releases a bit leaner next year...

Chris

* it's so cool having three spiders.....

My wife asked me the other day, 'Why do peeple have to always acquire new stuff?'.

I explained that it is neurologically built into us. It's caused by the wiring that stops clothes from irritating us constantly and (particularly for the men), being able to quickly detect threats or prey from the existing background noise that our nervous system 'tunes out'. Our nervous system is tuned to detect newness and allow extant items to dwindle into the background.

It appears to happen a lot with gamers, but I don't think we need lotsa new stuff to maintain the enjoyment of a game.

Contraiwise, a reprinted/new Base Game release is, I think, a prerequisite of moving forward, elsewise new players are excluded and expansions cannot be viably produced for the existing (and possibly thereafter dwindling) owners.

In which case FFG should not look back, but forward. With a number of expansions already available, they should simply state that the Original Base Game will not be reprinted. Instead they will print a minimal base game; Board, Terrain, Command/Lore decks, Rule/Senario book, and enough figures for two armies. This will allow new players into the game and thereafter they can expand their armies as they wish ~ yes, I know this will logically then require a human medieval set, but mayhap an expanded 100 years war set would cover that.

El Mikel said:

While newness for the sake of newness to appeal to our primal nature is certainly something that a game company can fall back on, BattleLore was missing (rather vital, in my opinion) parts when FFG took it over.

One was heroes, which was pretty much formulated by the time FFG took over - whether or not FFG polished it sufficiently is another matter - and they did release it.

Another was race specific decks for CtA play. I'm not sure how far DoW had moved towards getting these out, but either it wasn't very far at all, or FFG scrapped what DoW had developed and moved in their own direction with what was made available through Horrific Horde and what we will get through Bearded Brave for the Dwarfs. Whether or not FFG recognizes a need for Human CtA cards remains to be seen. HoHo's CtA cards did not meet my expectations, but I am reserving judgment until the cards for the Dwarfs and the Humans are made available.

Whether or not campaigns and additional races are considered vital to the game, they were both promised (implicitly with campaigns, explicitly in regards to additional races) by DoW when the game was announced. I do view them as vital to the gaming experience that BattleLore promised and has already delivered for me. The question for me since FFG has taken over the game has always been: "Do they see the game the same way DoW did in the beginning?" I still feel in the dark as to the answer, but that is certainly FFG's prerogative, as it was DoW's when they were producing the game.