The Art of Command
The play of Command cards to activate Units of miniatures on the battlefield gives the game a feel and flow that will be familiar to Memoir ‘44 users, but which merits a few more observations.
As evidenced in the game turn description above, on his turn, a player is not necessarily always in position to do exactly what he might want to accomplish on the battlefield. If you do not have a Command card to activate those troops on your left flank, they won’t move this turn, no matter how badly you might want them to!
At first, this might seem deeply troubling. However, rather than being frustrating, this actually leads to interesting in-game decisions that reward competent gameplay much more than sheer luck.
Indeed, once you’ve tried it, you will quickly realize that this system of activation via Command cards forces you to manage your hand: Moving all your troops on your Right Wing into contact with the enemy, just because it happens to be the most powerful card you have in hand at a given time, is not necessarily your best play!
If you have no other Command card to follow through on this move during future turns (e.g. if your hand is for the most part composed of Command cards in other sections of the battlefield), a more controlled, slower approach on another Wing, developed over the course of a couple of game turns, might be preferrable.
A deliberate move to the front…
Think of the Command cards you have in hand as of the (limited) set of battle instructions you can send to your troops in the midst of battle. And think of the game itself as of a succession of cinematic “vignettes” showcasing the game’s most salient and decisive actions, as if you were in the director’s seat, capturing only the most memorable scenes at key moments in time!
A key reason why this system is more balanced than it might appear at first glance is that the way the battlefield is set up and the section cards designed - one player’s Left Wing constitutes the other player’s Right Wing. Since all Command cards are drawn from a single, common Command deck, if a player holds a lot of Right Wing cards in hand, the deck will now contain commensurately more Left Wing cards in reserve; once in the hands of the opposite player, those new cards will allow him to activate troops precisely opposite those of the first player’s Right Wings’ positions!
Another thing this accomplishes is to make Tactic cards more valuable, and the ratio of Section to Tactic cards in the deck more important: Tactic cards usually offer a player the flexibility to activate troops anywhere on the battlefield, independently of the Troops’ location. As such, even a measly Tactic card that lets you activate a single unit might become critical and really handy!
Yet another impact of this Command card system is the advantage it gives to certain hexes on the battlefield, specifically those split down the middle by one of the red dotted lines.
Being at once in two sections (the Left Wing and the Center, or the Center and the Right Wing, depending on which of the two red dotted lines they sit on), these hexes allow units occupying them to be activated much more frequently. As such, these hexes convey a real positional advantage, and can become hotly contested.
For all the above reasons, learning how to “manage” your hand of Command cards, setting up the right cards for play on successive rounds, learning the enemy’s pattern, etc… all become key to a victorious strategy.
Many additional subtleties result from the Command deck’s constitution; discovering them all is integral part of the pleasure of learning the game.
The Commander - a key character, who dictates the size of your hand of Command cards.
Even veteran Memoir ‘44 players will discover a few new twists that require adjustments. For example… some Section cards activate a number of units “Equal to Command”, which in turn links back to the number of levels allocated to one of your War Council’s most critical character, the Commander. Also you might notice that the red dotted lines are off-set by half-a-hex from the M44 boards.
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September 27th, 2006 at 3:39 pm
Glad to see some introduction to the War Council. But I want more info!!!! This hasn’t added a whole lot but to show what the commander token looks like and help confirm that the rogue token we saw on day 1 is also part of the war council (based on the shape and layout). But we have yet to see what she does or how the Council impacts us. With every update, I just want more!!!!
September 27th, 2006 at 4:21 pm
Yep, let’s hope the next post is about either the Lore stuff or the War Council
September 27th, 2006 at 4:42 pm
Sweet…
September 27th, 2006 at 4:58 pm
By the sound of it, your commander improves as a campaign progresses. The most likely result, more command cards in hand.
That is what I get from the snippet.
September 27th, 2006 at 5:02 pm
or a specific commander could be more focused on combat (=more command cards) and another on magic (=more lore cards)?
September 27th, 2006 at 5:20 pm
^
Yes, look at the symbol on the Commander - he has the crown that appears on command cards. We can assume a Wizard will have the same symbol as the one that appears on the Lore cards (the gems?). Also note that the Rogue has a mask on her token. What could that do?
September 27th, 2006 at 5:31 pm
Well Eric has gotten his wish, he has given us new information and has left us begging for more.
Yes, I am looking forward to the Lore discussion quite a bit.
My guess on the war council member symbols is that various lore cards will be able to be used by war council members with matching symbols.
September 27th, 2006 at 5:38 pm
So far, with all the blogs, it is indeed just another memoir 44 with a fantasy theme slapped on…nothing new to see here…move along…
I mean really–how DEEP can the lore and war counsil be…i am sure they add 1 nifty mechanic to the game but who cares. It’s memoir 44 except memoir 44 didn’t appeal to everyone. Battlelore is targetted to all the people who didn’t buy memoir 44…nothing more…
September 27th, 2006 at 6:10 pm
Fred: Have you played Command & Colors: Ancients? Do you consider it just “memoir 44 with an ancients theme slapped on”? If so, then you probably won’t be interested in BattleLore.
But many of us who have played all of the published games using Richard Borg’s system have been quite impressed how the same basic system with some subtle tweaks result in games that feel quite different, and do a great job of capturing the very different periods of battle. We’re expecting the same from BattleLore — the familiar (and great) underlying system, but a substantially different feel because of the numerous small (and not so small, in the case of the war council and lore subsystems) differences.
September 27th, 2006 at 6:13 pm
Actually, the system is a bit of a blend of M44 and C&C:A, which is all to the good. Adding a “magic” bit to the game (the “lore”) is going to further alter it’s play. It strikes me that this game will be different than even C&C:A (which is a GREAT game). My only reservation is that the follow-up releases might ignore “historical” medievals. (I am looking forward to the fantasy game, but it is such a natural to use the system for historical medievals as well).
September 27th, 2006 at 6:39 pm
The turn summary card mentions the follow-on actions (gaining ground, pursuit, bonus melee, and YES battle back).
I don’t think we had 100% confirmed battle-back would be in this game, and now we have. Pursuit and bonus melee both sound like new things to me. Although my familiarity with C&C:A is not so great. What really intrigues me though is the hinting at a larger campaign system. Love to see something a bit more involved than just playing several scenarios in a row.
…but ultimately, it’s just another teaser that makes me want MORE!!! Sending an email to my FLGS inquiring about a pre-order now!
September 27th, 2006 at 7:40 pm
David:
Nope i haven’t played Ancients because it felt like a poor man’s Memoir.
It looked like memoir with really bad components.
You are probably right, this is just not the game for me. No offense to anyone but it just seems like i am spending my money twice.
OR…
I get out of memoir and jump on this system. Eric has said the future never looked brighter for Memoir…i don’t have the money to support both systems so i may just switch, i just can’t decide.
September 27th, 2006 at 7:55 pm
buy them all.
I love Memoir and just got the Pacific Expansion. Game is tons of fun. CC Ancients is on my bye list. I’ve also played Battlecry with a friend and it’s also a lot of fun.
The underlying mechanics are generally the same, but there are enough twists to make it fun and exciting!
~V
September 27th, 2006 at 8:33 pm
Fred - each game system is sufficiently different. Ancients is really nothing like memoir 44. Definitely not a poor man’s M44 eitther - as the base game, it costs almost 50% more and each expansion is the same cost as the base game. The “paper” products are less quality in my opinion but the wooden block are very nice. Ignore the fact that I have 2 of everything in M44, I have spent more on 1 set of Ancients vs. 1 complete set of M44.
I would suggest you retain all your M44 stuff and if money is a problem, go with BattleLore before you go with Ancients. I feel the game play will probably be much closer between those two games than BL to M44. if you like BL more than, M44, don’t buy anymore M44 at that point.
September 27th, 2006 at 8:34 pm
I talked to my FLGS last night to pre-order and they had no clue about the Hill Giant pre-order only promo figure. Hopefully, the information on Battle Lore will filter down to the FLGS soon.
September 27th, 2006 at 8:40 pm
The information to FLGS will filter down in the coming month or so. We are still (dare I say it? ) about two months away from the game’s actual release worldwide. Getting resellers the information and material (Hill Giant included!) they need is our next priority of business, for BattleLore.
September 27th, 2006 at 9:31 pm
ColtsFan,
Thanks for the advice. I think you are right about going battlelore vs ancients. I will give BattleLore a shot and if i like it same/more than Memoir i will just stick with that. Since it has a few more mechanics etc and i do like the fantasy theme.
Also, i went to my FLGS since you guys convinced me–and he put me down on the pre-pre-order list so i should have the Mini when he gets it as long as i buy the game from them. So my game has been reserved, sweet! Just thought i would let you know that some stores know all about battlelore coming out etc…
September 27th, 2006 at 9:45 pm
I think the different symbols on the commanders will be important with both Lore cards and Command cards.
Maybe you count the symbols, as well as whatever else, in determining affects of the cards.
There could be the bizzare twist, the more you have of something the less effective, I.E. the more crown symbols you have, the less effective a card could be.
Battling back seems like it is practically required for games like this. Melee is just that, hand to hand combat, hit or be hit type of fighting.
September 27th, 2006 at 9:54 pm
I’m excited about the hints at follow-up combat actions. I wonder if all units will be able to gain ground? It has already been revealed that only Mounted units may make a pursuit. A bonus melee attack appears to be based on the weapon being used by the unit. As for the battle-back, perhaps that will be available to units based on their banner colour?
Still two months away from a world-wide release? That’ll put the release around early December hopefully. Good - just in time for my pre-ordered BattleLore game to be sitting under the tree on Xmas morning. I’ve already explained to my wife that that she doesn’t have to worry about shopping for a present for me as I’ve already bought it for her :).
September 27th, 2006 at 10:09 pm
what? no more left handed pictures? count me out.
September 27th, 2006 at 10:50 pm
Ozvortex, I know that I will have a copy there also. Maybe it will be my second copy.
September 28th, 2006 at 12:45 am
I hate to be slightly critical, but is that the final layout of a turn summary card? It would look a little cleaner if the bullet point text lined up indented from the bullets, and the double space was fixed between ‘actions’ and ‘(gaining’ … (sorry, can’t help it, nitpicky graphic designer here, I’m obsessed, I humbly beg your indulgence etc …)
September 28th, 2006 at 2:00 am
There is no such thing as a turn summary card, so this obviously can’t be one “n’est-ce pas?”.
Rather this is a quickly cobbled up, low res and poorly filtered PDF I grabbed for this blog’s purpose. Guess I shouldn’t have included it in ;-).
And yes, you’re right, there is a double space that shouldn’t be here…
September 28th, 2006 at 2:59 am
Sorry Eric - I couldn’t resist! Should have known DoW would never let such things through the quality net!!
September 28th, 2006 at 3:29 am
I asked this before, but I don’t believe it was ever answered (I know you’re working on it), but my FLGS said that they (that one store) has to order six copies of the game to get the figures. I don’t think they can really afford to invest like that. I’m hoping there is some confusion about the limit (6) as opposed to a minimum, or if some distributors are doing it that way, if you know.
September 28th, 2006 at 5:01 am
TragicHeroBC, this is not the case re- the promo figures (ie you are correct, there is some confusion at play here). I suspect - and expect - things to clear up long before the miniatures, not to mention the games, actually ship. We will be on it.
thanks.
September 29th, 2006 at 4:07 am
When are the pre-order figs expected to be avilable at our FLGS?
September 29th, 2006 at 5:28 am
I checked today with mine, he heard all about it. If i preordered I had the hill giant, and he’s doing a demo of the game on the release day and if we’re there we get an extra figure (can’t remember which one)
September 29th, 2006 at 2:42 pm
I dont know if this question is already asked, but will BattleLore be available at Spiel in Essen, ore at least wil there be a demo?
September 29th, 2006 at 4:31 pm
I think Eric said it would be there
September 29th, 2006 at 4:34 pm
It will be there, but only for demo purposes.
September 30th, 2006 at 11:34 pm
Yes, you should be able to play the game on our booth at Essen (and there should be English and French copies, not just German ones - if all the shipments arrive in time). There just will not be any copies for sale yet.
eric