As promised I am posting what I can about BattleLore and future expansions. I do apologize for not posting sooner, a family issue came up last week and I am just getting back on track today.

First off, because we have been playing BattleLore for some time now, we have experimented and have hammered out quite a lot of material for BattleLore over the years. Some of the culture and armies that have worked out well in our playtests include:

Dwarf Culture:  Shadow Army, Dwarven Lords

Elf Culture: Forest Elves, Shadow Elves, War Elves

Goblinoid Culture: Ork (actually we called them Torks, a strange race that are a combination of Troll and Ork discovered in Greenland by Barbarian Raiders)

Human Culture: Barbarian Army, Tribesman, Ice Army, Man'chines, Wolven Migration

Rat Nation, Reptilian Army, The Swarm (Bugs)

Necromancer Skull Army (featuring the dead and much more)

With so much material to work with, perhaps you can better understand what Days of Wonder and now Fantasy Flight is going through as they try to decide what is the best in the most marketable packages.

In regard to BattleLore material, I always enjoy reading when members of the community post their visions of different fantasy troops and how they would work in the world of BattleLore. Please keep those ideas flowing!

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Looking to the near future, Fantasy Flight plans to release three expansions this year that add to the BattleLore game. Battlefield Heroes, will be the first, I believe, but I cannot state with any certainty when. 

Battlefield Heroes Overview

... The Age of the Grand Masters and lifetimes dedicated to the study of Lore are now ancient history. War has spread through the entire know world and the demand for council in battle has brought on an age of specialization and the rise of War Council. But after years of almost constant warfare the field of battle is about to experience another transformation. Welcome to the Age of Heroes… An age where the troops you command for the most part, are Battle Savvy veterans that understand the strike and counter strike of combat. An age when a Hero's traits and skills will impact the outcome of a battle and often can change history. The battlefields of BattleLore are about to become a lot more bloody...

The Battlefield Heroes expansion has been a long time in coming but when it arrives it will provide players the opportunity to enjoy the game in a very different and unique way. The one aspect I really have enjoyed over the years is that each player's Hero character is truly a unique individual that lives, will grow and progress over the course of multiple adventures. The skills and artifacts that are gained by a Hero give each Hero his own unique personality that allows him to modify a number of game elements.

The Hero figures that are included in this expansion are very nice, and if you are into painting they really look GREAT! Perhaps you have already seen a few images of the Hero figures that have been posted in various places on the Internet. Perhaps I can convince Fantasy Flight to preview the entire line up on their BattleLore web site.

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In regard to the other two future expansions, at this point in time I am not at liberty to go into any detail without hanging myself out to dry . Perhaps as we get closer to the expected release dates I can share more about these two expansions ( _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _    _ _ _ _ ) and ( _ _ _ _ _ _     _ _ _ _ ).

I really wish I could share more information but Fantasy Flight like DoW wants to make sure all is proper before making any announcements that cannot be meet in a timely manner.

One final note, I have had many productive conversations with Fantasy Flight and they are very interested in web support of BattleLore as we all await the next expansion. May be I can get summary card details in regard to our Dwarf Cattle Rider's  Bull Rush and Goblin Slinger's Spiked Shot as we wait it out.

Enjoy!

Richard Borg

Great stuff Richard.

Now, let's all relax and wait..

Relax and wait!?

Heck no!

I'm getting BL back to the tabl as soon as I can!!

Ooops - missed the laughing smiley...

Still want to see a monster expansion of some kind though !!

Thanks for the information, Richard :)  Patience comes easy for me, but it is even easier with foreknowledge of what is in the works.  I know that you've been working on this stuff for close to (if not more than) 10 years, so there's no end to material - getting it produced and distributed is another matter altogether :)

Thanks Richard..the overview really is off the scale from what many of use were expecting.I hope FFG doesn't keep this under wraps much longer,the more information that gets out on BL the greater the chances of restarting interest in the Game beyond the die hards who have for the past couple of years.

OD

Excellent post, Richard!  The news about the Heroes expansion sounds great.  I'm very excited to see that they won't be implemented the same as C&C:A's Leaders.  For some reason I kept thinking that I read or heard that Heroes were initially supposed to add a Role Playing (lite) element to the game system.  It seems that this may be still in the works with Heroes gaining abilities or objects that increase their functionality.  Its interesting that it is inferred that youwill likely command only one Hero.  Also its starting to sound campaign-y which is awesome (I think campaign rules/expansions were thought to be in the works already as well).  Thanks for all the news, great to hear that the game is headed in a direction that will keep me interested for years to come.

Edit: ok, here is where I remember reading about the Heroes: "By giving you a way to place yourself on the battlefield proper, and letting you gain experience in battle and loot hard-fought, highly-cherished magical items..." found in the old DoW blog:

blog.daysofwonder.com/2007/04/23/the-long-view/en/

anyone know of any other Hero miniatures pics besides the ones seen in the other DoW blog?

blog.daysofwonder.com/2008/01/08/battlelore-of-heroes-and-some-missteps/en/

I'm just hoping to get access to some of the new armies. Torks! Necromancy! And I'm interested to see what the plans are for the Uchronia setting that's been advertised for so long.

This is great!  Thanks for the update and revival of excitement for things to come.  Sounds like you and FF are going to make this worth our wait.  Looking forward to it all!

I'm still wondering how the new armies will be packaged.  Piecemeal like the dwarves and goblins or all at once?

And another THANKS from a so far read-only german fan. This is definitely worse it! THX a lot, Richard, I'm very excited about this news.

Does anyone else have the impression that BL seems to be developing more towards High-Fantasy rather than the alternate history thing we know from DoW?

For the 2 other expansion Mr. Borg mentions (-------- ----) and (------ ----). Which both fits 2 words. The first 2 words of 8 an 4 letters and the second is a combination of 6 and 4 letter. The latter midth be  the "Shadow army" (6 and 4 letter). Any others speculations?

They usualy don't call the boosters the name of the factions, jus like we didn't get a goblin army set, but a goblin maruaders.

Thus, guessing the tittle I beleive is impossiple since they could use any sort of name that we don't know of

SirWillibald said:

I was thinking the same thing,but this is just what RB said he developed it not a run down of  FFG actual plans.Again it would be nice if FFG finally stepped up to the plate & gave us some real information.We all see what DoW's information policy did for BL,FFG would well advised NOT to follow that example.

OD

Kluuetje said:

"Undead Army"?

Personally, I'd be very excited to see FFG split the differnce between high fantasy and alternate history.  Provide a rules mechanism for both and allow their players to utilize whatever fits their needs.  DoW seemed to do this well when they gave new weapons but supplemented that with a fantasy figure.  Want Scottish Highlanders?  Done!  Or how about a Dwarven culture?  Done!  See....everyone is taken care of.

-rob