A Blizzard of Blows -- Battlelore Session report

Deciding not to let a good blizzard go to waste, Young general and the Old Warrior hauled out BattleLore for a go.

We reviewed the rules, as it had been quite a while since we played, but it turned out Young general didn't need the help. Ahem.

We played the next game in the Creatures expansion, the Magic Vortex, which introduces the Rock Elemental. As usual the creature didn't help much, as will be recounted below.

I had the creature-equipped Standard Army, which in this case broke with tradition and had the Goblins on its side and the Dwarves with the Pennant Army. This suited Young general fine, as he's no fan of the Goblinoids, regarding them as just this side of useless.

Young General's War Council comprised a Level 3 Wizard, and Level 1 Commander, Cleric and Rogue. Old Warrior also went with a Level 3 Wizard, the mandatory Level 1 creature and rounded out his council with a Level 1 Commander and a Level 1 Warrior.

Old Warrior's plan was to pick away at the Pennant Army until he gathered enough Lore to be bale to deploy the Rock Elemental against a weak part of the Pennant line.

And the plan might have worked, too. Several Pennant units were reduced and one was killed off in melee. The Old Warrior drew a Fireball in the initial hand and gave into the temptation to use it, incinerating a Red Banner Heavy Cavalry unit. This was quite satisfying, but in retrospect may have been a mistake, as it took a few more turns to build up enough lore again to deploy the Rock Elemental and by then it was too late.

With a 2-1 lead and a fair number of battered unit in Young General's Pennant army things weren't looking too bad for the Standard troops -- and then Young General dropped the boom. He had been hoarding Lore and finally had enough to play an Assault Card. (It cost him 16 lore because he didn't have a Warrior loremaster.) Well, he had quite a few units within range and was able to slam into the Old Warrior's host up and down the line! By the time the carnage ceased the Standard army had lost four units and the score was 5-2 in Young General's favor. Desperately the Old Warrior's wizard conjured up the Rock Elemental, who did his duty and wiped out a unit for a third flag, but it wasn't too hard for Young General to find that sixth flag and the win as he jumped all over the Goblinoid Lizard riders.

And so that was that. A 6-3 win for the creature-less Pennant army.

Old Warrior was left ruefully considering the possibility that the Rock Elemental, unlike so many of the other creatures, seemed to have serious potential, but he gave up most of it by indulging in a dramatic, but ultimately indecisive fireball.

Next up is Spider river, where Old Warrior will get two chances to see if a creature can make the difference. So far they seem to be more hindrance than help.