The Components

Epic Battlelore is a pretty small expansion. It comes with: one 6-panel map, which is identical to the map in the original game; a 24-page rulebook; and a sheet of cardboard counters.

Rulebook: Contains rules for "Epic" battles which you can play with up to 6 players and "Reluctant Allies", which can be played with 4 players--but requires an extra copy of the game. Also contains five epic scenarios and 2 allied scenarios.

Cardboard Sheet: A set of cardboard markers, including 19 additional lore tokens, 36 double-sided alliance tokens, and 4 player-turn markers. These are largely needed only for the reluctant allies game. We didn't use any of these bits in our playtest.

Overall, the quality of the components is identical to that of the original game. There's nothing particularly notable here, so the game earns a Style rating of "3" out of "5".

The Gameplay

Epic Battlelore increases the scale and scope of the Battlelore game, making it possible to play with up to six players.

Epic Setup: To setup Epic Battlelore you take your two map boards, flip them each over to their back--which shows half of a double-sized map board--and then set up a much larger scenario on that map.

Players are split into teams. In a six-player setup each side contains one player running each of the three areas of the map (left flank, center, right flank), with the player running the center flank also acting the "Lord Commander".

Finally a special "Epic Command Rack" is placed to the side of the board and three command cards are drawn and placed on it; these cards will be available to both teams.

Epic Play: On a team's turn the Lord Commander chooses one or two section cards or one tactic card to play; if playing two cards one must come from the epic command rack and one from his teams personal command rack. Otherwise the card can come from either location.

The effects of the two cards are summed together. Then each player on that team moves pieces in his own section, with the overall order chosen by the Lord Commander.

Epic Wins: Epic battles usually require 7 banners, with a 2 banner margin of victory needed for a decisive win, or else 9 banners for a marginal win.

Playing Epic with Fewer Players: You can play Epic Battlelore with fewer players on a side, with the Lord Commander taking over extra sections.

(I think that gives the Lord Commander too much to do, so when we played with 4 players we instead gave the other commander on the side the extra section.)

Playing Epic with A Call to Arms: A Call to Arms is a special unit deployment expansion for Battlelore. There are rules here for how to use ACtA with Epic Battlelore.

Reluctant Allies: The above-mentioned Epic Battle system is the main emphasis of this expansion. However, there are also rules for how to play a special "Reluctant Allies" variant of the game with exactly four players.

The general gist is that each player has his own troops and his own war council and will take his own turn. Each player may order his ally's units at a cost of 2 orders. When a team has 8 flags, they win.

However Reluctant Allies requires two full sets of Battlelore to play (though apparently if you buy them from the Days of Wonder site, you'll then get this Epic Battlelore for free).

Relationships with Other Games

Epic Battlelore is an expansion for the original Battlelore game.

As already noted there are rules for integrating with the first expansion, A Call to Arms. There are no scenarios involving the more recent two expansions for Battlelore, the two racial specialist packs, but they could be used if you run a deployment scenario from A Call to Arms.

The Game Design

When you have a good two-player game, there's frequently a desire to figure out how to turn it into a multiplayer gaming experience. Epic Battlelore does that.

The changes to the core game mechanic are minimal. Scenarios are a little bigger, with some more units and a few more victory points required for victory. This probably makes any individual scenario a little more intricate and slightly increases the time required to play.

However the big difference comes in the team structure, where players share responsible for the battlefield, each controlling a different portion thereof. Generally, this worked very well for us. All of our players quite enjoyed interacting with their partner to figure out the best way to deploy their troops. It thus added a new social dynamic to the game that's not present in the original. It really felt like an interesting and enjoyable group experience.

Beyond that it felt like each player got enough activity during a turn. This was primarily due to the mechanism of playing not one but two cards on most turns. In our 4-player game everyone took part of the action every turn. In a 6-player game I expect each player would take actions on most turns.

I could see some concerns if one player on a side really dominated the social interaction, but if you're gaming with a group of up to six people that you get along well with Epic Battlelore is a superb option for play.

I've given it a full "5" out of "5" for Substance, with the hope that more high-quality scenarios that allow for Epic Battlelore play soon appear.

Conclusion

An interesting method for playing Battlelore with up to six people that allows for enjoyable social interaction.