[Jeu de Plateau] Battles of Westeros

Spoiler:

La source vient de notre fameuse Garde de Nuit (chapeau à eux pour trouver ces infos.

En tout cas, ça fait rêver, ça devrait s'inspirer de Battlelore. Et vous avez le contenu de la boîte pour le spoil.

Date de sortie? Georges RR Martin vient en Novembre voir FFG... à votre avis?

Le compte-rendu d'un playtester dans la langue de Shakespeare

Chouette ! J'avais hésité me lancer dans Battlelore, mais cette édition risque de m'y décider...

Ah bah tiens, FFG vient de l'annoncer ici



Et ils viennent de lancer leur mini-site aussi; miam miam

Annoncé à 80 dollars, on aura:
* 1 Westeros Battle Guide
* 1 rulebook
* 138 plastic figures with bases
* 1 six-panel, double-sided map board
* 8 dice
* 110 cards
* 32 map overlay pieces
* hundreds of tokens

Vivement que ça sorte (on va se renseigner pour une VF)







On va pouvoir jouer avec des petits bonshommes maintenant



EDIT: et apparemment, on jouera que et sur ce qui sera un Coreset. On aura donc accès à d'autres maisons avec les extensions qui suivent.

Sont trop cons ces Américains. L'annonce de ce jeu les fait hurler: "j'aurai préféré Warhammer Quest", ou encore "Et à quelle heure Dune?" sans oublier "Et mon Twilight Imperium"... tout ça en dessous du fringant "J'aurai préféré aSoIaF Adventures Game".

Du coup (enfin je pense que c'est à cause de ça, petite justification), FFG nous livre une petite interview de C.Petersen.

Christian Petersen sat down over the weekend to answer a few
questions about Battles
of Westeros and BattleLore.
Check out his responses, as well as his insights into the future of
this exciting game, below! Q: Does Battles of Westeros
use the same game system as BattleLore?
CP: No. While both
are games of medieval army battles and have some slight similarities,
they are different games. Q: How are they different?
CP: In the coming months we’ll post a number of previews on this
site that will delve into the details, so I can’t (and won’t) spoil them
here. The classic BattleLore game is based on Richard Borg’s “Command
and Colors” game system, while Battles of Westeros is an entirely new
engine, one that is significantly more involved than C&C and more in
tune with FFG’s design principles. We’re really excited about this
system and we think that players will love it. Q: Why call
it “A BattleLore Game”?
CP: We acquired BattleLore to
be our core brand for medieval tactical warfare games (in the scale
represented in the classic BattleLore game). The BattleLore name is not
necessarily tied to Richard’s “Command and Colors” system. Q:
Why George R.R. Martin’s “Westeros”?
CP: The IP of GRRM’s
epic series of novels “A Song of Ice and Fire” is closely tied with
FFG’s history. For example, one of FFG’s best-selling games of all times
is the “A Game of Thrones” board game. Also, we have been publishing
the “A Game of Thrones CCG” since 2002 (which in 2008 was converted to
our LCG format), and we have the “A Song of Ice and Fire Adventure Game”
in our R&D hopper. This is an IP that we love, that we’re proud to
be associated with, and that has been very commercially successful for
FFG over the years. GRRM’s Westeros, while a created
world, is not “fantasy” per se. It’s a wonderfully deep, gritty,
medieval setting that channels the historic “Wars of the Roses” rather
than “The Lord of the Rings”. The classic BattleLore game (which we
purchased from Days of Wonder in ’08) had an eclectic mix of a Fantasy
and historic medieval theme that FFG has never been comfortable with. We
solve this problem with Battles of Westeros, which will take on the
role of our gritty, no-magic, medieval warfare game, while the classic
“BattleLore” game’s trajectory will be of more traditional fantasy.
Q: Does the “Core Set” subtitle on the Battles of Westeros box
imply that there will be expansions?
Absolutely. The core set
includes the main forces for Houses of Lannister and Stark, and we look
forward to introducing the other major Houses as well as the many
smaller houses, characters, and (often brutal) factions that inhabit
Westeros. It’s going to be great fun to see a great variety of Westeros
character and battles come to life over the next 2-3 years. Q:
Will the classic BattleLore game continue to be supported?
CP:
Yes. We are working on new releases as we speak, one of which will be
announced on the FFG site in the near future.

Having said that, I
want to make a clarification on the expectations for BattleLore. Last
year, Richard posted some ideas for “future releases” for BattleLore.
Unfortunately, some fans took this post as canon, and are now expecting
these specific releases. I think it important to note that while they
were well-intended ideas of Richard’s, they did not fall in line with
FFG’s vision. What we’re working on with Richard currently has no
relation to anything in that old post, but something entirely new and
different. Q:
Speaking of BattleLore, the main BattleLore game has been out of print
for a while. Will this come back into print?
CP: There have
been, and continue to be, some very serious issues in reconciling the
production methods and expectations in the way Days of Wonder produced
the BattleLore main game and those of FFG. We understand the lack of
availability is an issue and we’re working on a solution. This issue has
also affected the German version of BattleLore, while there are still
good supplies of the French edition. There’s a particular
trap in manufacturing games, and it’s one that applies here. The initial
printing of a game is typically printed in large volumes, which means
that certain efficiencies of this volume are not able to be replicated
in a smaller (i.e. reprint level) production. This is a trap that FFG
works hard to avoid in its own manufacturing, but the original
BattleLore printing was of course not in our production control. Not
only was BattleLore caught in this trap, but the game was priced
aggressively to begin with, even assuming the best of production
efficiencies. On top of that, the factory that DOW used for this
production essentially admitted to pricing their manufacturing of the
original BattleLore “to get the business in the door” -- which means
that the costing levels on the first run was eminently underpriced.
This, set against the overall backdrop of an already steeply
escalating cost in game manufacturing, has made the core game a serious
issue. Reprinting the core game “as is,” would essentially result in a
near $200 retail price point, which is obviously unacceptable. Q:
Was this a surprise?
CP: When we took over BattleLore, the
key value to FFG was the BattleLore brand. Which, as you can see, we’re
carrying forward with Battles of Westeros. We were
concerned that the classic BattleLore base game, as had been created by
Days of Wonder (“DOW”), was going to be troublesome on a production
level. We did not, to be honest, expect it to essentially be
non-manufacturable, as is the case. So, as I said before,
we’re working on a solution to this problem, and we have some
short-term solutions that I think will work very well for players
looking to get into BattleLore. Q: Such as?
CP:
I’ll have to defer the details and the exact “when” for another day
when the details are more concretely in place (they are subject to
change at this point.) Q: In terms of German BattleLore,
it has been noted that the most recent expansion “Creatures” will not be
available in the German language.
CP: That is correct. The
German publisher Heidelberger Spieleverlag, has done an outstanding job
of taking on the German BattleLore mantle. Unfortunately, related to the
manufacturing issues of the core set, it is not feasible for them to
continue a localized edition of BattleLore. Heidelberger will continue
to distribute the English language version, and will make German
translations available online for all the new content. This is not a
reflection on the German Battlelore fanbase, which has been amazing, but
simply a casualty of the transition. Q: Who is your
favorite “Song of Ice and Fire” character?
CP: Why, Tyrion
Lannister. Isn’t it everybody’s? Q: No
CP: Oh,
well. Q: Do you know when the next GRRM book is coming
out?
CP: Nope

Comme ça sent la petite moquerie, la dernière question...


Bon, bah, une adaptation du TDF avec une base comme battlelord, moi, je prend. Le matos à l'air d'être de bonne qualité, le principe reste alléchant... Et en plus y'a du lannister inside, alors franchement, de quoi se plaindre ?

Les joueurs de Battlelore sont "disappointed" sur les pages US. En effet, ils attendent depuis un petit moment des extensions apparemment, alors ils sentent qu'on se soit un peu foutu de leur gueule sur le coup.

De ça l'on peut se plaindre donc ^^

Mais comme leur a rappeler quelqu'un: "M'en fou de Battlelore, je suis fan de aSoIaF. Mais je vais quand même me mettre à un jeu Battlelore, alors arrêtez de pleurer". Il a pas tord, au pire, ça leur fera des joueurs en plus (puis franchement, l'univers de Battlelore me faisait pas rêver perso).

Plus qu'à attendre que ça sorte; pour le coup Edge a intérêt à vite pondre une VF ou ils risquent de perdre des joueurs. Battlelore existant déjà en VF, il sera pas dur de jouer à la version Westeros en Vo.

Je connais pas du tout Battlelore, mais d'après l'interview, ça n'a pas grand chose à voir, donc c'est pas grave.

C'est cool de voir que FFG lance de nouveaux produits autour du TdF. J'aimerais bien voir ce que ça donne.

Par contre, 80$ pour un jeu à 2 (qui plaira pas à ma femme, j'en suis sûr ), ça fait un peu chèros...

Disons que si le matos est à la hauteur de Battlelord (qui était effectivement vendu à un prix sacrément bas vu le matos dedans), je comprend les 80$
En espérant qu'ils évitent quand même le classique 1$=1€ pour une fois.
:/

Pour information,

il y aura bien une version française édité par Edge pour la fin de l'année. Je devrais être sur le coup pour la relecture.

En tout cas, en ce qui concerne Battlelore, le jeu ne devrait pas s'arrêter suite à la sortie de Westeros dixit Edge.

Gourry (qui vient de finir d'acquérir, il y a moins d'une semaine, toutes les extensions de Battlelore)

Quels sont les améliorations du système et autres petits plus que vous auriez souhaité par rapport à battlelore, si il y en a?

Tant qu'ils collent des démonstrateurs compétents à ce jeu, ça m'ira.
(J'ai été écœuré de Battlelord parce que le jour ou j'ai voulu l'essayer, le démonstrateur était un connard finis. Et pourtant, il partait un territoire conquis.)

sakurazuka38 a écrit:

Quels sont les améliorations du système et autres petits plus que vous auriez souhaité par rapport à battlelore, si il y en a?

Personnellement pas grand chose si ce n'est le système de conception d'armée que je ne trouve pas top dans Battlelore (bien que novateur avec le système de cartes...)
J'ai été élevé au système d'achat de troupes...(AT43, Battle, 40K... et j'en passe)

Gourry *l'hiver vient...*

Première ébauche d'annonce de date : en juin chez FFG.
A moins que ce soit juillet chez Edge, ce sera en VO pour moi... je tiens plus en place.

Source (avec plein d'autres infos) : http://thehopelessgamer.blogspot.com/2010/03/10-question-with-battles-of-westeros.html

ps : sous réserve de blagues du 1er avril, mais l'article a l'air assez sérieux

pour les lyonnais curieux, je posséde battlelore classique, si ça vous dit de voir comment ça marche pour vous faire encore plus saliver en attendant la sortie de battle of westeros.

pour ma part, battlelore est un bon jeu, mais sans plus. Un plateau en duel reste quelque chose qui m'attire moyennement,préférant les grandes tablées.


je suis impatient de voir ce que nous réserve cette série spéciale TDF.

Ouais Hugues, faudrait qu'on essaie à l'occasion.

Et, même si le nouveau jeu de FFG m'intéresse, je suis d'accord avec toi qu'un jeu de plateau à 2, surtout quand la partie va durer 2 heures ou plus, je crois pas que j'y jouerai souvent.

D'après les infos qu'on a, y aura pas mal de changements entre les systèmes de Battlelore et de Battles of Westeros.

Le principal changement tient aux ordres qui pourront être donnés soit via les cartes comme dans Battlelore (à la différence qu'il y aura des cartes spéciales en fonction des persos/généraux présents dans l'armée), soit via des pions si les unités sont à portée d'un général. Bon point pour moi, ça évitera le côté aléatoire de la pioche à Battlelore ("mais phuk ! pourquoi j'ai que des cartes sur le flan droit alors que j'y ai plus aucune unité !!!")

Le système de combat utilisera des dés 8 au lieu de dés 6, c'est peut-être un détail pour vous, mais pour mois ça veut dire beaucoup car il y aura plus de faces vertes que de faces rouges.

Bref y a plein d'infos dans les news/teasing de FFG dont l'annonce (déjà !) d'un supplément pour les Lannister.

Bon ben voilà... le simple fait d'écrire un paragraphe dessus, j'ai envie d'y jouer

Un anglais qui a testé le jeu et qui donne son avis sur BGG.
Pour ceux qui connaissent déjà Battlelore/Mem44, ça donne une bonne vision d'ensemble (d'autant plus avec les previews du site de FFG).

Citation :

I have had this for a week now and demoed it over the weekend at UK Game
Expo. Managed to keep hold of the demo copy. I was initially unsure
whether I wanted it seeing the game was coming out. I have not read the
books and own Battle Cry, Memoir 44 and Battlelore. My worry was it
would be just a tweak to the system in a setting which was not a draw
for me. The fact I was very keen to keep the copy is testament to the
quality of the game.

I will structure this write up to focus on
the components, the rules and then gameplay impressions.

The
Components
Very good, not as good as Battle Lore but still
excellent. The figures are detailed, very few spears or lances were not
straight, and having Lannister as red and Stark white makes identifying
who owns which units a breeze. It is also nice to have more variety of
units (Lannister has two different flavours of infantry plus archers for
example). Unfortunately, there is a note in the box saying some figures
may need glueing. After a nightmare first play with bases constantly
falling off I ended up glueing all 138 figures to their bases! The thick
card of the banners was also peeling in some cases. The board has
subtle centre dots in the hexes to aid LOS and the two sides have
slightly different orientation of the hexes. Counters are Fantasy Flight
plentiful and good thick card. The cards are good quality, but older
viewers did complain about the small text on a few. Rules are standard
Fantasy Flight quality although the layout is not as clear as Memoir or
Battle Lore. There is even a section on craeting your own scenarios a
bit like a cut down Call of Arms for Battle Lore. Overall, the game
looks excellent and gripes are minor.

The Rules
The
game is now a round based game with orders issued by tokens or
commanders via cards - no flanks or centre. The game is round based with
the following structure:

1 Rally Phase

Determine
advantage (who plays the first order each turn) - set initially by the
scenario, it is then decided by whoever had the most command unused from
the previous turn. Early in the game it is unlikely to change, but
later when there are less units and going first can be vital there is
scope to tussle for this.

Refresh Commanders - retrieve command
tokens from commanders

Rally Units - Ready units for the turn.
When units are ordered their flags are rotated to show they have been
used. In this phase flags need to be reorientated for the new round.
This was so fiddly, we found it easier to place a token by each unit
that was ordered and remove the tokens in this phase.

2
Marshalling Phase

Receive order tokens - Each scenario specifies a
number of dice to roll. Order tokens matching the faces rolled are
obtained. The dice have three green, two blue, one red, one gauntlett
(valour) and one morale faces. Thus you can see the tokens will be
skewed to give more orders to green and blue units. They are also used
in combat, so green units are also easier to hit.

Draw Leadership
Cards - Each scenario specifies a number of cards to draw. A deck is
formed for each house in set up of ten base cards and five cards
specific to each commander being used in the scenario.

A single
Leadership card and order token can be saved from a previous round in
addition to the roll/draw.

3 Command Phase (players alternate
orders starting with the player with Advantage)

There are three
choices - Use an Order Token, play a Leadership Card or Pass

Use
an Order Token - Play a coloured token to order a unit of matching
colour banner. The gauntlett (valour) token or two identical tokens can
be used to order a unit of any colour. The unit ordered can be anywhere
on the battlefield. The morale token is used to increase a House's
morale, or at a cost of one morale, can rally a unit (allow it to be
ordered again in the round. The morale tokens can be crucial and should
be used wisely.

Play a Leadership Card - These are more powerful
than the tokens but have more restrictions. Typically, they order two or
more units and some have additional 'tactics'. These tactics are
condition specific and can be very useful. The restriction in the cards
is that they have to be played via commanders. Each commander has a
number of command points and as these are used command markers are added
to the commanders card. Commanders have a zone of command of two hexes
and any units ordered by cards can only be within this zone. The effect
of this is that units tend to move on mass or regroup to stay within a
leader's ZOC. There are also cards which allow all units to rally within
a ZOC, this is powerful but you need to be careful that having rallied
them there are still orders available. Some cards have two commands on
them which requires two markers placed on the commander.

Pass -
once you have passed your opponent continues playing orders until they
also pass, you cannot make any further orders.

Ordered units all
move then all attack like the previous games - I will detail combat
later. They are marked to show they are inactive for the rest of the
round unless rallied.

4 Regroup Phase

Resolve status/Score
Victory Points/Check Victory Conditions - Get points, has someone won?

Discard
Excess Resources - Discard down to one Order Token and oneLeadership
Card.

Recover Morale - Some Morale can be regained for free.
Morale is on a single scale and is affected by losing units or playing
tokens. Some of the tactics cards depend on morale conditions. It can
also be a victory condition.

Advance Round Marker - the scenarios
are played over a set number of rounds.

Combat

This is
very similar to the other games, roll a set number of dice and hit on
coloured symbols which match the targets banner (and normally
gauntletts), flags cause retreats. Line of Site is the same, as are
terrain restrictions. There are three main changes. The distribution of
the dice changes the value of units, stronger ranks are proportionally
harder to hit as well as rolling more dice. The units have key
attributes and units with a commander gain the commander's attributes in
addition. Bold is now called stalwart and it is possible for single
units to be stalwart. Commanders can only be killed once the rest of the
unit has been killed and need to take multiple hits in a single attck
to be captured themselves. The biggets change is down to engagement
rules. A unit which attacks an enemy becomes engaged with that unit.
This is marked with a token of the attacking house's colour. If there is
no token on either unit this is straightforward. If there is a token
already between the two it is replaced with the attacking house's token
if necessary. If the defending unit is already engaged with another unit
and has a token of its colour between them, the token is removed and
replaced with a token of the attcking players house between the
attacking and defending units. If there is a token of the attacking
players colour between the defending unit and another unit, the attack
becomes a flanking attack. Flanking attacks are allowed to reroll misses
of one symbol to try to obtain more hits. This rule was one of the
hardest to unpick from the rules! Disengaging to move away or attack a
different unit allows the unit being disengaged from a free attack.
Another interesting point is that counter attacks are not provoked from
archers firing from an adjacant hex, only melee units.

Gameplay

Battles
of Westeros takes the simplicity of the previous games and completely
overhauls the order system. This gives, in my opinion, a slightly more
complex but much more satisfying experience. I ahve onle played the
first scenario so far - having played or helped others for ten games.
The results have been five wins for each house, with all the games very
close. There is much more control of what you want to do but still has
the charm of the draw of the cards and roll of the dice for possible
orders. The commanders are strong and give more flexibility, they all
have special abilities plus a once per game ability. Battles seem to
flow and there is never the sight of units sitting isolated on the board
because there were not the cards to order them or it was not the best
move to do so. Because the game is more about objectives and plays over a
set number of turns there seems much more focus. In the first scenario
Stark has 8 units to Lannisters 9 and has to prevent Lannister advancing
to hold two positions at the end of the fifth turn. Early on it is
much about maximising your orders (three cards and four dice rules per
round), later it is about quality as the units are eliminated. There
tends to be a rolling battle between Lannister's supporting cavalry and
Stark's reinforcements. This is while Stark's archers try to stem the
advance of Lannisters blue infantry nearer the objectives. Although no
official multiplayer rules there was much discussion about how a
commander could be taken each, allowing up to four players.

I
cannot really comment on how well it fits the books but will give my
impressions of the commanders in the first scenario.

Rickard
Karstark - a tank! His unit is the rallying point for Stark and hard to
eliminate.

Maege Mormont - solid, dependable and tough. Brings up
the reserves and links well in the later game. Not as influential
directly as Karstark.

Addam Marbrand - Brings in the cavalry. His
best ability is his sneaky use of terrain to take unexpected moves. He
can win a game without your opponent seeing what is coming.

Kevan
Lannister - Solid and inspires other units to huge acts of bravery. He
is key to inspiring the massive attack.

Overall, the game is
great - it has overcome my scepticism and takes a well deserved place in
my collection. I have rated it an 8 (my average game rating on the Geek
is 6.11, and I have rated 62 out of 640 games rated 8 or higher)

FFG a posté ce matin un descriptif des 5 premiers scénarios contenus dans la boîte (il y en aura une dizaine en tout).
La bataille du bois aux murmures a l'air prometteuse avec masse de personnages sur le terrain, mais la principale information c'est que FFG annonce qu'ils posteront les règles in the next few days !!!

La boîte est dispo outre-atlantique.
Donc dans quelques jours chez nous via les sites de VPC bien connus.

Ça y est j'ai reçu la boîte.
Y a plein de cartes, plein de gurines, plein de jetons... reste plus qu'à tester tout ça

La boîte est attendue en boutique pour jeudi/vendredi de cette semaine.

Dispo VF la semaine prochaine apparemment:

http://www.edgeent.com/v2_fr/edge_news.asp?eidn=611

Je confirme la rumeur, la version française sera disponible en boutique ce vendredi.

Des retours positifs pour ceux qui ont joués ?

Oui, c'est un très bon jeu pour ma part, c'est de la pure bataille par contre. Si tu connais BattleLore, c'est dans le même esprit.

C'est de la stratégie de guerre sur champs de bataille en gros.

Je ferais un retour sur ce jeu très prochainement ! En attendant, si il y a des Lyonnais qui veulent tester, n'hésitez pas à demander