Depth in Miniature: Battlelore, 2nd Edition, part I

Some of the interesting mechanics that set wargames apart as...

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Great article. Wished I got deeper into this one.

I sold my 2nd ed stuff, but it is a great system like all the C&C games. I would love to see a 40K system developed.

charlest wrote: Great article. Wished I got deeper into this one.

Well, since it's out of print and will probably never return, maybe not...?

@jake: I'd never even considered the idea of a 40K version. But it doesn't seem unreasonable. Would be kind of weird to think that FFG going into Runewars Miniatures was what killed this game AND what lost them the GW license for things like BB: TM and Forbidden Stars, though.

Command and Colors 40k seems like a license to print money. Lots of people like the 40k setting but have no interest in the clunky rules. Tie it to a solid set of rules and I’d be into it.

It's a shame that Heroes of Black Reach didn't stick. Not the same thing, but still a company level 40K game.

Yeah, I liked the concept of Heroes. I suppose I just wasn't in the right mindset for that kind of list-building game at the time. I ended up trading my copy to Ah_Pook for a copy of Outer Rim which I detested enough after one play to trade it for a copy of Ethnos, which I've enjoyed. But, yes, definitely more approachable than the main 40K game for those who aren't into modeling or sprawling, multi-thousand point armies. Of course, Warhammer Diskwars was a similar kind of thing and- Hey! Guess who lost the license to that one, too?

Commands & Colors with Epic 40K would be something I would buy. But the C&C ruleset would scale pretty well down to squad. Leaders like from Ancients. Faction specific Tactician deck. Take my money.

I'm curious how much the Game of Thrones "Battles for Westeros" C&C game competed with Battlelore. I no longer remember the timeline of the 2 games. I have (had? I think I sold it off long ago when the show soured all things Westeros for me) most of GoT and IIRC its big "innovation" on the C&C formula was more impact of specific leaders. Seemed like something that could easily lend to a more fantasy battle system versus the historic based GMT C&C stuff. Westeros specifically seemed like a poor fit for C&C since there are precious few battles in the books described in any detail and the battles everyone WANTED, i.e. versus the White Ones and their ice spiders, never materialized after several decades.

There is a digital Battlelore game as well, Battlelore:Command, if anyone is interested in checking this OOP game out. Been a stretch scince I've played it but IIRC it is a series of battles with a narrative link.

Yep. Battlelore Command is actually pretty good for a phone version. They also updated the point cost on at least one unit, which means they were still working on the game when it died.

I'm so glad I managed to grab all the bits for this when they were being sold off cheap, it really is a great implementation of the system.

jason10mm wrote: ...and IIRC its big "innovation" on the C&C formula was more impact of specific leaders. Seemed like something that could easily lend to a more fantasy battle system versus the historic based GMT C&C stuff. Westeros specifically seemed like a poor fit for C&C since there are precious few battles in the books described in any detail and the battles everyone WANTED, i.e. versus the White Ones and their ice spiders, never materialized after several decades.

It seemed like FFG had two things: a generic C&C+ rules system, and the ASOIAF license, and they decided to just smash them together and hope people bought it. It absolutely made little sense in a series of books where the early battles were barely detailed, and were mostly over in the span of three pages.

It's also funny that you can still find Battles Of Westeros stuff on cheap clearance nearly a decade after its release. Talk about the proverbial "swing and a miss."

I had all the battle lore 2e stuff at one point. Grabbed it on the cheap when it was going OOP. Really enjoyed this game but couldn't find opponents, so it got traded out. Would have been happy to keep it around of it was every going to hit the table but yknow. Easy come easy go. Very fun game though.

I kept the 1ed BattleLore since I liked the non-Terrinoth setting. Now to find players......lol