Hello Gaming Community,

I am the new marketing intern here at Fantasy Flight Games and I am working on a Comprehensive FAQ project and I need help from you, the fans. If you have any questions about the game that you feel were not addressed in the most current of the FAQ for Battlelore, please post them here.

Thank you,

Fantasy Flight Games
 

Where is the Battlelore FAQ? Can't find 'em?

We are working on a German FAQ-Projekt. And one of the best resource are the Forums from DoW.
There are the most important questions and answers. And you should know the compenium of creatures and the compendium of war-council!

They are inofficial Fan-products. Nearly every question is answerd there. Just a hint...

Yes, I'm looking for the old FAQ too!! Where is it? DOW site?

A question/clarification:

The manual states that when playing Call to Arms each player must choose an Army, take all its flag bearers in front of him and use only those flag bearers. So let's say for example that I choose the Standards army {the one with the Dwarves}. If I'm playing with the Organized mode rules and I resolve a Deployment card that tells me to place Goblin units I can't because I don't have their flag bearers. I must place a feudal Levy token because I don't have their flag bearer. Am I right?

FragMaster said:

When it tells you to take all the flags, it means either all Pendants or all Stamndards.  Goblins and Dwarves, though typically assigned to just one or the other, are not limited to one side.  You take the units and insert the correct banner type (which is the same as the human equivalent for the most part) from your army's banners.

There is nothing preventing you from having a Standard Goblin Archer and a a Pennant Goblin Archer, for example.   The only limiting factor, and reason to pull a Levy token is if you run out of Goblin Archer units.

selbuorT said:

Look at the french forum of the Edge website there are some questions about the troll (among others)

@Coltsfan

Thanks. That's how we played. I wanted to clarify it just to be sure.

brol2 said:

I wasn't looking for answers about the troll...
Just wanted  to let Roxas know, where to find a lot of questions with answers

It is maybe because I am not a english native speaker...

Other than the 2 FAQ that Colt did at DoW, those are the only 2 FAQs I know about.    I believe they are posted on BGG as well in the Battlelore forum there as well.

But also I suspect there are other questions/answers that never got officially answered - can't think of any at this time.  

More importantly than a FAQ would be to give information to the community AS a whole on what is going with Battlelore.   As a representative for FFG, I would think that would be more important than losing customers because the customers have been left in the dark for the past 2 years (and don't EVEN get me started on the Troll expansion release!) on things to come and never got released.    I would think that getting that type of information and posting it here in the forums would be MUCHO more benefitial than a FAQ at the current time.    Some people might disagree but the customers have been given promises and/or no information and the always popular "Something is coming" routine too many times.

Cab

Caboose said:

We will get the news after the 11th Feb., R.Borg said.

I hope this is true. And I hope they will give us the informations about BL not so secretly like DoW did.

And it ist not what the customers want: 1 year of silence - than a big BL-Bomb exploded in 2009 - silence again....

But that is not the issue here in this thread

Well the most F&Q is When will we get some "Real"News on BLThe after the 11th Statement by Richard isn't exactually FFG and it begs the Question how long after the 11th.?

The BL Fan base has been jerked around long enough (again mostly by DoW-but FFG has had this Game long enough now to get out some real information)and the Big News at some future date just doesn't cut it.

So rather than rule clarfications on a Game that been stagnent for a couple of years,JUST GIVE US WHAT FFG PLANS FOR 2009

I'm sorry if my post(and others)seem to highjack this thread but this thead is about the first  from an actual FFG person concerning BL and it has nothing to do with what the Fan Base has been asking for,we have been to this dance before.

OD

My point exactly Dwarf - the fact that the info is coming from the designer and still really no word from FFG folks when you would think there would be some.   Since they do news items on the other games, why they heck are they basically "ignoring" Battlelore when they know there is a built in customer base - but at the same time, they are losing customers due to lack of information as well.

Cab

Hello Roxas,

may I offer help from the german community?

1.) UniversalHead from www.battleloremaster.com and myself maintained graphically pimped PDF- versions of the famous online compendia for Lore Cards and Creatures on the DoW BL- page. This is something you could find useful.

You can get the files here: www.battleloremaster.com/guild_downloads.html. I am willing to take up the work again, if FFG will put up a online-or-whatever-type-of platform for questions and official answers for those two parts.

2.) Funny that you mention a comprehensive FAQ. SirWillibald and myself had the same idea some months ago. We started to scavenge the german DoW forum for already answered and open questions. Together with a bunch of german speaking fans from Germany, Switzerland and Austria we extracted the essence from many, many sometimes long and twisted forum threads. SirWillibald and I spent some amount of time to bring the entries into a presentable Q and A form.

Currently, the text is proof read, polished and open questions collected to be sent to R. Borg himself (after getting his permission to do so). The next phase would be to start the graphical part / layouting. We were also planning to look through the english DoW forum to further expand the FAQ... when you kicked in with that announcement.

What we could offer is this: We add any missing Q&As from the english DoW forum, finish the text editing, translate the whole stuff to english and send you the package. FFG is doing the graphical stuff and, tataaaaa, you have a BL FAQ.... if this is something FFG could agree to.

Best regards from the german community @ www.worldofbattlelore.de

Dark.

Here is an item that should be added to the FAQ - this came from ColtsFan and I copied this from DoW website.

It is talking about the Goblin Drummer and Band units :

Summary of Goblin Band & Drummers support Sun, 12 August 2007 11:53
(Courtesy of ColtsFan)

Goblin Drummer (figure)
1. Can only be embedded in a Goblin unit
2. Replaces 1 figure of that unit when it is embedded
3. Makes the unit inherently Bold (a la Dwarven units)
4. The unit may still receive Support from other units to go up +1 Bold
5. May receive additional Bold from a Landmark to go up +1 Bold
6. May receive additional Bold from a Lore Card to go up +1 Bold
7. May receive any combination of #4, #5, or #6 and go from Bold 1 to Bold 4, which meane ignoring up to 4 flags
8. Embedded Drummers do not affect the number of dice rolled nor how they hit in battle nor the number of hexes the unit may move

Goblin Band (unit)
1. Consists of Goblin Bass Drum (banner bearer) and 3 Goblin Drummers
2. Since it has at least one Goblin Drummer, it becomes inherently Bold like any other Goblin unit with a Goblin Drummer imbed (does not cummulate - see the above description)
3. Goblin Bands give ALL friendly units 1/2 Support (called "support presence") in the same section of the battlefield.
4. Sitting on the seams gives support presence to both sections.
5. ALL friendly adjacent units (except webbed units) give support presence as well. Therefore any combination of 2 bands in the same section or 2 adjacent units give full Support which equals one level of Bold
6. No matter how much support presence is available, a unit can never receive more than 1 Level of Bold from support.
7. Goblin Bands may give support presence to each other BUT may not give support presence to themselves*
8. A Goblin Band adjacent to a friendly unit gives full support to that unit (1/2 from the music, 1/2 from being physically adjacent)
9. Goblin Bands fight and move like typical green goblin foot units: 2 dice in melee, no ranged attack, move 2 hexes and battle.

Coltfan's Q&A with DOW - January 8, 2008 (questions from 12/12/07)

BattleLore Open Questions as of 2007-DEC-12

Goblins
Q: Can a Blue Goblinoid foot unit rush 2 spaces where there is no viable target but then attack if one becomes available (as the result of a retreat from another battle for example)?
A: No. If there was no viable target when the Blue Goblin unit made its two hex move, the move does not qualify as a Goblin Rush; the Goblin unit may not attack a unit that would come next to it this turn.

Q: If a Goblin Foot Unit rushes adjacent to a single enemy unit but that enemy is destroyed or retreats, can they target a adjacent an enemy that was not there at the time of the Goblin rush move (again as a result of a retreat from another battle)?
A: Yes, the Goblin may redirect its rush attack against this new target.

Shadow Walk
The card text states that units in the shadows can only attack or be attacked with one die. Subsequent Compendium answers clarify that Lore cards that are carried out without units (such as Chain Lightning) still roll the full amount of dice on the Lore card just played. Units that attack a unit in the shadows may still increase their dice through Lore / Command cards having only their base dice capped to 1 die. However, units in the shadow that attack cannot use Lore / Command cards to increase their base dice and have their total dice capped at 1 die....

Q: Why is it that units in the shadow are more restricted attacking out than units outside the shadows attack in? Why is it that both unit types would not be affected in the same manner?
A: To maintain design consistency and continuity. The main intent of Shadow Walk was to offer a sneaky way to move a unit around the battlefield. The player has a choice of when the unit will pop out of the shadows and strike. Giving the unit in the shadows the same ability to use lore battle modifiers would have made the Shadow Walk lore card too strong.

Lore Drain vs. False Orders
Q: This is a specific example of a general question: What is the timing of Lore card types? If I play Lore Drain on my opponent and he reacts with False Orders, which is resolved first? Rulebook says last card played is resolved first when there is a conflict. Is this considered a conflict?
A: Lore Drain is played along side your Command card - first Lore card played.
* False Orders is played in reaction to your opponent's Command card - it is the second Lore card played.
* False Orders is resolved first, and trumps the effect of the Lore Drain.

Dwarven / Goblinoid Mercenaries
Q: The cards state replace X unit(s) of your choice with the same weapon and banner type. What are the restrictions on these cards? For example, must the game come with that specific unit: can a human green archer be replaced with a Dwarven archer unit?
A: No. As the card states the same banner color and weapon are required.
Currently there are no green Dwarven archer units in the game so this is not a possible replacement option.

Q: If not, can a human green archer be replaced with a Dwarven Crossbow unit?
A: No, neither.

Q: Can a red human arbalester be replaced with a Goblinoid arbalester unit?
A: No, because there are [no] Goblin arbalester units in the game.

Epic & Reluctant Allies (RA)
Q: Clarification on the precise meaning of "Equal to Command" when using the Reluctant Allies rules: does this mean the total number of cards of both players in one camp (a possible 12 cards with two L3 Commanders) or is it back down to your own card since each player has his own hand?
A: A player's "Equal to Command" is computed in the same way as when the active player is playing a regular 2-player game.

Q: Using Call to Arms with the Reluctant Allies variant does not allow Reserve units to be called; therefore, Specialist cards dealing with Reserve units are ignored (in particular, Vantage Point, Forced Enrollment and Goblin Marauders). However, the Goblin Band says add these units to your reserves, can you still use this card to add the Band even if you do not have reserves?
A: No.

Q: In Reluctant Allies mode, can the same unit be ordered on both your turn and your ally's turn?
A: Yes it could.

Epic & Call to Arms
Q: When using Call to Arms to set up an epic game, each player draws 5 cards and selects a Scout Guard card to place first. Which player places the units first?
A: Players tally up their Green units on their Scout Guard. The player with the highest number of Green banners "out-scouts" his opponent, and becomes the Starting player for this adventure!
* The Starting player will deploy his Reserve last.
* In the event of a tie in the number of Green units deployed, the Starting player is determined by rolling 6 battle dice. The player that rolls the most Green helmets starts.

Call to Arms
Q: When using the Organized mode of Call to Arms to set up a game, which player reveals the first card first?
A: In Organized mode section - 4.2 Deploy your Guards - should read the same as Impromptu Mode. Where both players are revealing at the same time.
* Both players deploy their Guards, revealing the Deployment cards they played on their Right Wing, Center, and Left Wing.
* Do NOT reveal or play your Reserve card yet, only your Guards!

The rules state that when deploying guards, you may only place them within the highlighted area on the card or the special red/blue areas for Epic. It specifically states that no unit can be placed on the hexes shared by two sections....

Q: When dealing with Calling the Reserve, no mention is made of these restricted areas; only that of placing them on an empty hex of your baseline. Can reserve units be placed on the hexes shared by two sections?
A: Yes, p.7 Call to Arms

Q: In addition, can units placed next to existing units (as the result of a Specialist card) also be placed beyond these restricted areas as well (the 5th row or the hexes shared by two sections, for example)?
A: Yes

Q: Can Specialist units replace Levy Tokens as long as the "color" rules are applied?
A: Yes

Q: Why is it that Levied units go to the baseline and not where the original unit was to be placed?
A: Because we want to encourage players to try and plan their deployments in ways that minimize the number of levied units they will use (since, to some extent, these levied units are "wilds").

Q: If a creature is drawn on a deployment card but none are left, what color Levy token is placed?
A: Currently the creature's banner color on deployment cards is green, so a green Levy token is placed.

Q: What if you wanted a Blue creature and none are left; can you place a Blue levy Token?
A: No

Q: Must you place another creature if it is available even if it was not your first choice? Or may you choose the Levy token or a less desirable creature?
A: If you have creature figures available, it should be deployed, even if it is not your first choice. A Levy token should not be placed if you have creature figures available.

Q: Call to Arms attempts to replace the set-up steps from the basic rules with the new set-up from this expansion. Could we receive a flow-chart for setting up the game that takes into account all expansions which impact set-up? For reference at our attempt at one, please see this thread:  [Editor note : see next post below for this item - it is the scenario setup sequence]
A: We will see if we can draft one up.

Landmarks
Q: Is a Stronghold's placement restricted to just the 3rd or 4th row like other Landmarks or is the only requirement that it is placed under an existing unit?
A: The only requirement is that it be placed under a friendly deployed unit.

Q: If your Stronghold is occupied by an enemy unit, do your units in adjacent hexes still receive Bold status?
A: No.

Q: Is a Creature's Lair considered a Landmark? Does it share the same general attributes as the other Landmarks?
A: Yes, and it behaves the same way unless explicitly specified otherwise on the Creature's Lair summary card.

Creatures
Q: There seems to be some confusion between the rules and the Creature Retreat/Trample flowchart that was issued by DOW. In particular, Step 7 states that the Creature must make a Critical Hit check for each hex that it cannot retreat. It was our understanding that a Critical Hit requires 2 dice rolls and this is consistent with the rules as outlined on page 43. However, there has been discussion on the German forums that the hexes a creature could not retreat are already counted as hits and so the Critical Hit check is just one additional roll of the dice; it was also stated that page 43 was specifically overturned. Which interpretation is correct?
A: The flow chart is correct. The example at the bottom of page 43 is incorrect. The dice should not have been re-rolled. In other words, in the example at the bottom of page 43, the two flags are hits, re-rolled only once, and the resulting dice (a flag and a green helmet, in the 2nd picture at the bottom) are sufficient to kill the spider outright. The 3rd picture (at the top of the right column on p 43) has no reason to be there.

Q: It also seems that the flowchart makes you take your critical rolls for all hexes all at once instead of one hex at a time. This seems counter-intuitive when a 1-figure unit is blocking one of the retreat paths. It seems like only 1 critical hit check should be made, trample the unit, clear the path, and take the remainder of the retreat freely. Is this new method really the intent of blocking a retreat?
A: The flow chart is correct as stated. This being said, this might still result in the trampling and retreat path clearance you describe (but all critical hit checks will have already been accounted for).

Q: A Spider requires a hit and 2 Lore to unleash her poison. When attempting to poison another Creature, in what order do you resolve things? Do you commit the 2 Lore to poison the Creature first? Or do you make the Critical Hit check first (since you had to hit to be eligible for the poison attack) to see if you kill the Creature outright (and store the Lore for later) and if it survives, spend the Lore to poison it?
A: You commit the 2 Lore to poison the creature simultaneously (ie they are spent, even if the Creature dies outright).

Q: If a unit is webbed and typically retreats multiple hexes per flag, does it take one hit for each hex it cannot retreat? If a unit is webbed and inherently ignores flags, does it continue to ignore flags when webbed?
A: No, the webbed unit takes one hit per flag rolled against it (that it cannot ignore), not per hex of retreat it cannot take. If the unit can inherently ignore some flags, those flags are ignored, and the remaining flags rolled, if any, each score a hit.

Q: When summoning an Earth Elemental, the dice used to summon are the same as the melee dice. Does this mean a unit's base number (i.e. 3 for blue units) only? Or can this number be increased due to Command/Lore cards that increase your melee dice (i.e. if Mounted Charge is played, can a blue unit roll 4 dice to summon)?
A: The unit's base dice number only. This number is not affected by Command or Lore cards.

Q: Does an Earth Elemental have to be ordered by a Command Card or can you just pay the Lore tokens and start moving him?
A: The Earth Elemental has to be ordered by a Command Card and its movement paid using Lore tokens.

Q: Units that normally retreat 2 hexes per flag retreat 2 hexes per Lore in a Pushback. If a frightened unit is forced to retreat due to this Pushback, is a panic check made?
A: Yes.

General
Q. If a card states that Lore causes hits or some other effect, can you choose to collect it as a Lore token in lieu of the card's effect or must you apply the text effect first?
A: No.

Q: Terrain vs. extra dice from Command/Lore cards: Terrain limits the base number of dice a unit tosses. Cards that increase the dice are applied after the cap. So if a Red unit battles into Wooded Terrain, he rolls 2 dice instead of 4 and if a card is played that gives him +1 dice in battle, he would now roll 3 into the Wooded Terrain. When does a card that reduces the dice come into effect? For example, Blinding Light is played giving the target -1 die for the turn. Would the Red unit attacking into the Wooded Terrain battle at 1 die (base dice capped at 2 for terrain - 1 for card effect) or 2 dice (original dice 4 - 1 for card effect = 3 and then capped at 2 dice for terrain)?
A: Cards that increase the dice are applied after the cap. Cards that reduce the dice are also applied after the cap.

[Updated on: Mon, 14 January 2008 03:58] by Moderator

Scenario sequence steps - Posted by ColtsFan (updated using latest steps from May 2008 post)

It could be more clear, but this is the way I read it.

Page 8-9 is the basic, no-lore set-up.

0. Select the scenario
1. Place the board
2. Place terrain
3. Place supplimental markers/terrain- the landmarks in this step are ONLY the one called out in the scenario set-up "specially denoted"
4. Place figures
5. Pass out summary cards
6. Shuffle & Deal Command cards.
7. Read the scenario notes / set unused Command cards next to the board
8. First player starts the game.

The rules are modified as such when Lore masters are used (po. 47-48. This is assumed since it is not clear:
4.5. Place War Council (I am using the number 4.5 to be consistent with CtA Organized)
6.1. Shuffle & deal Lore cards
6.2. Take Lore Token(s)
7.1. Shuffle discarded Lore cards into unused Lore cards and set next to the board

Page 58 and 65 seem to add the additional steps (Again assumed numbering):
0.1. Determine the number of Lore Council Levels to be used
7.9. Place Landmarks for Level 3 Lore Masters

Epic adds that card are to be placed in the Epic Rack before the 1st players turn. Since all other cards are out at this point, I assume this should also happen before Landmarks are placed, so I will call this step 7.2.

(everything in italics is an assumed step) I am placing "Place Landmarks" as step 7.9 because it is to happen at the start of the game. The start of the game, based on p. 9, is step 8.

So to answer your original question, it seems to me that all cards are dealt first before Level 3 Loremaster landmarks are placed.

The revised set up should be this:
0. Select Scenario / type of game (normal; CtA = Call to Arms [Impromptu or Organized]; Epic; RA = Reluctant Allies)
0.1. Determine number of Lore master levels if applicable
1. Place the board
2. Place terrain
3. Place supplimental markers/terrain
4. Place figures (if a standard game)
4.1 Select order of battle (if playing CtA - or skip to step 4.5)
4.1.1 Deploy Scout Guard (if using Epic and CtA / N/A in RA)
4.2 Deploy Guards
4.3 Scout Ahead (N/A in RA)
4.4 Call the Reserve (N/A in RA)
4.5 Call the War Council (in normal games or impromptu CtA, go to step 5)
4.6 Call the Specialist (if playing organized CtA)
5. Pass out summary cards
6. Shuffle & Deal Command cards
6.1. Shuffle & deal Lore cards
6.2. Take Lore Token(s)
7. Read the scenario notes / set unused Command cards next to the board
7.1. Shuffle discarded Lore cards into unused Lore cards and set next to the board
7.2 Set-up Epic Command Rack (if playing Epic)
7.9. Place Landmarks for Level 3 Lore Masters
8. First player starts the game

Note, wanted to move everything over before DoW shutdown the message forums.   Thus if there is something over there that needs to be added (oops, forgot the first Q&A..will post that after this one)...better let the folks know.

Cab