Hello,

I decided long ago that I wouldn't fall into the trap of paying high prices for chase figures. I thought that this was supposed to be a fair game for all, not a collectable miniatures game. Therefore, like many others out there, I went the route of bringing my own monster proxies to the game. But, in my quest to save a couple bucks on an overpriced Hill Giant, I spent WAY more on armies. To be honest I have no regrets. All my armies are now painted and look great on the battlefield.

Here's a couple of pics from last night's battle:

The battlelines are formed.

My knights were too impetuous amd charge the English left wing too soon!

The War Council decides that it is time to unleash the were-elefant!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3444/3219986092_8c87d21c95.jpg?v=0

The English answer by calling forth the were-rhino.

Monsters back-to-back.

Well, this is terrible. Why won't the toolbar allow me to upload pics?

Trrops lines up for battle.

BTW, AOL will block the editting pop-up windows. That explains why this wasn't working for me!

My knights being trapped on Ryan's left winds. See those halberdiers? They were the bane of my attempt to roll up the battleline (and thus, the savior unit of the English flank). What does it take to crush them???

Perhaps the were-elefant can deal with those pesky halberdiers?

Not when the English call in reinforcements of their own.

Why do the bigs boys on the block always get the most attention?

Keep them coming, looks great.

sweet

.

This werewolf has made an apprearance on this forum before, but since he's such a beat-stick I thought that I'd showcase him again.

A wizard with a were-lion bodyguard? A mage needs all the protection he can get!

He's a family photo. I included this one for scale reference. I stumbled across the elephant by accident, and was blown away by the depth and detail (McFarlane Toys). And the icing on top of the cake was that this guy was COMPLETELY within scale! He weights in at over a pound, and measures over six inches. I couldn't pass up this guy.

I have a were-croc coming later this week. I'll try to post when it arrives.

-rob

I have also seen your other thread a while ago and I was wondering - and still am - as to how the game works on your self-made battlemat. If I am not mistaken you chose squares instead of hexes, is there any reason for that other than the easier production of the battlemat? I was thinking that it should effect gameplay quite a bit in respect to support etc. When you have hexes there are six neighbouring hexes, with squares there are only four neighbouring squares... So is there actually a noticeable difference in gameplay?

Ahhhhh..... Thanks for inquiring.

You're right about ease of production. My first couple of attempts at making large scale hex mats were met with lop-sided results. I was eventually able to construct a hex template which produced a decent looking play surface. However, the MAIN problem with a hex gameboard was the LACK of play surface. In 90 mm scale I use a 6"x6" wooden tray to place figures upon, therefore a hexagon needs to be larger than 6 inches to accomodate the movement tray. Even with a gameboard with a width of five feet (the short distance), a hex this size seriously curtails the number of usable spaces to maneuver. I think that eight was the maximum number of hexes we could squeeze onto the battle mat; obviously not enough for serious gameplay. It seemed that as soon as any unit moved forward it was immediately subjected to longbow fire.

Thus, we were limited to squares due to size constraints. Even the addition of TWO more spaces changed gameplay radically! Therefore, we tried big/little experiments. Meaning, for each regular BattleLore scenario we played on the small board, we played a corresponding 90 mm game on the large grid surface. And truthfully, we found that the square game surface actually allowed more maneuverability. Aside from the argument that diagonal movement is uneven in terms of distance (not noticable during tactical gameplay), the grid allows for more options. For example, a common tactic is to provide support whenever units are in ANY adjacent contact with an enemy unit, so any unit at a 90 degree square (flank) can lend support. Additionally, we use a house rule where units can form battlelines (and shieldwalls). These units move forward on a square play area where the same type of movement can be restricted on a hex surface due to the nature of the hexagon.

Terrain is much easier to contruct too. That also is due to the ease of working with a square.

In the end we had a choice of using either the hexagon or the square and, surprisingly, the unanimous decision was to stay with the square. The hexagon may look like a nice strategic play area, our testing actually showed that it is limiting compared to the square. Nine directions compared to six won in the end.

-rob

Ok, I see... I thought you downsized from 6 surrounding to 4 surrounding spaces. Instead there are now eight! It surely sounds all well thought and planned out Now that I have that puzzling thought out of my head I must say it looks like an awesome job you did!