As a relatively new player to BL I decided to have a look through the FAQ post above and noticed a number of mentions to Reluctant Allies (RA).

I have purchased (although not yet opened) a couple of the expansion packs (Call to Arms, Hundred Years War (impossible to find in the UK)) but have never seen any mention of the RA pack?

Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

The Reluctant Allies rules are for 4+ player games using the Epic expansion. The rules are found in that expansion as well.

It differs from the "straight" multi-player version of the epic scenarios in many ways, but mainly in that each player controls their own forces, with their own set of command cards, lore cards, and war council. I love this version of the multi-player aspect of BattleLore.

Hi all!

Bringing this old post back to life as it relates to some questions I hope to find answer to.

According to the Epic Expansion manual, you actually need another full Battlelore game to play RA variant. So you actually need the Epic Expansion just for the rules and for the two scenarios, and then also 2 full Battlelore games.

Questions:

Are these the only reasons you need the second full Battlelore game:

• usual trinkets: cardholders, Warcouncil sheets for 4 players (items that you can live without with minimal effort)
• miniatures required for the scenarios (E.g. no two spiders in one full box, or not enough troops to show the strength of the unit)

The "you need two games" -wording made me doubt that if I got something wrong, E.g. if you are ment also to use two lore / command decks from two Battlelore games, or something else like that (unlikely, but I want to be sure, as I found the rules for the variant to be quite compact in the Epic expansion manual).

Fronx said:

Note that the Epic Expansion was free for the owners of two base games for a limited time.

Fronx said:

Nope, you are right. Its really only the Warcouncil sheets and one missing spider. I think no scenario even needs troop not present in a single game.

If playing Call to Arms using the Reluctant Allies variant, that's where one will see the figure shortages from just a single base game start to crop up. It is still not necessary to use two base games, as the Levy Token mechanism is in place (and if one has the majority, or even a few, of the figure expansions, this is a good way to get those in play).

As more races/factions are released and they each get their own Deployment Decks, I think this will be an even more fun and interesting way to play. Dwarves loosely cooperating with elves to fight off a Goblin/Undead onslaught...sounds good to me

We played the Rulctant Allies variant last night for the first time and had no problems with fielding the armies. The only two things we came up short on were the card holders and the war council tokens...no big deal. There just aren't enough of them for four people to be able to hold all of their cards and to fully represent their war council. We just wrote down what each player's war council was and improvised on the card holders.

The game was a blast with my ten year old son and me battling against my 15 year old son and his friend. My ten year old used the giant to great satisfaction, driving him up the middle of the enemy forces and wreaking havoc all around while I chipped away at the enemy flanks with my dwarves on the right and short swordsmen and cavalry on the left. The giant alone took five banners and was never killed. Another of his units took a sixth banner before my troops finally claimed the seventh and eighth banners in one turn and we won 8-5. It was a very fun 1 1/2 hours of play!

Also the fact that in RA format, EACH player gets equal turns - thus if you have a bad turn, you hopefully might be able to make up for it in a future turn (unless of course it was the last turn..duh!)

Cab

So if I am reading this correctly, I DO NOT NEED to have two copies of the core set in order to play epic with reluctant allies if I have a copy of every expansion. I would only need a second copy of the core set if I would want two spiders. Is there an official scenario where you need two spiders?

Thanks in advance,

Pickle4192

Pickle4192 said:

The only glimpsed scenario for the forthcoming Creatures expansion, on a mock-up of the rules booklet at GenCon, had a scenario where the Standards army had 2 spiders on there side (one using the standard Green banner, one using the Blue banner spider rules that will be in that set). I don't know of any that are currently available, though.

Two things:

First, would someone please acknowledge that, I DO NOT NEED to have two copies of the core set in order to play epic with reluctant allies if I have a copy of every expansion.

And second,

bcwMD said:

I was under the assumption that there will be another spider in the Creatures expansion, or are they just giving us a blue banner for a duplicate spider that we should already have?

My gut tells me that it will be a blue banner and not a spider - since the spider was included in the base game. Just a hunch though - no real facts to back it up. Obviously the Earth Elemental and Giant probably would be included in the Creature expansion since not everyone got one. But still for getting 2 creature figures for $30 is a tad steep though - so maybe there might be a spider figure in the expansion.

Cab

Edit note - oops forgot that Hydra is also included in the creature expansion so I guess $10 / creature is probably reasonable. And based on the pics I've seen from GenCon, there was no spider figure shown so probably more ammo to the fact that maybe there is no spider in the creature expansion box!

So to me it looks like I/we are going to have to wait on the Creature expansion to come out before I/we know for sure if there is truly a need for two spiders.

No need to wait for Creatures, the box and rules specifically stated that it included the giant, the elemental, and the hydra, and that rules were included for using the spider as blue (and I can't recall, but maybe an extra banner as well) but no spider figure. And $10/figure is a bit steep, but better than you can get them for on the open market (sadly)--but then again, they hydra is pretty cool, with a total of 13 pieces to it (the 6 heads, the 3 single necks, and the three double necks, plus the body itself).

Did you see the scenarios in the game as well do you know if there is a need for two spiders?

bcwMD said:

bcwMD said:

but for those who have the earth and giant, basically paying for a hydra and new cards is PRETTY steep. So sure hope they include a spider (doesn't look like it - based on the News feed today, there is no mention of the blue spider card even).

Cab

Caboose said:

This is on the products page:

BattleLore: Creatures Expansion

Creatures from the darkest corners of the realm strike out against their opponents with horrible new attacks that can kill with a single blow. Keep your guard up when fighting with the beasts of BattleLore: Creatures.

Wood Giant
The Wood Giant is a variant Creature based on the promo-only Hill Giant figure with a new lair and new abilities. This Green Banner Creature attacks enemies from afar with a flurry of logs hurled from any forest on the battlefield.

Rock Elemental
Like the Wood Giant, the Rock Elemental is based on a figure (Earth Elemental) that was formerly only able to be obtained by special promotion. The Rock Elemental is a Red Banner Creature that is able to be summoned via a Magic Vortex to almost anywhere on the battlefield.

Hydra
The Hydra is a totally new Blue Banner Creature that gets more powerful when it is damaged. As its multiple heads take hits, they are removed and possibly replaced by even more heads. With an attack based on the number of heads the Creature currently has, the Hydra is a fearsome foe indeed.

BattleLore: Creatures Expansion includes;

3 Unique Creature Figures, Wood Giant, Hydra with 6 interchangeable head/neck pieces, Rock Elemental
3 Creature Banners
A Rules Booklet, including 4 new adventures
2 Landmark Tiles
7 Web Tokens
7 Poison Tokens
1 Conjure Token
7 Cards, 1 Tactics Card, 4 Creature Summary Cards , 2 Landmark Summary Cards

With the 7 Web Tokens, 7 Poison Tokens, and 4 Creature Summary Cards I think that there will be somthing to do with a spider.