The Components

Call to Arms is one of the small BattleLore expansion sets, each of which are packaged in a plastic tray inside a cardboard sleeve. This one contains 60 cards and a punchboard full of new cardboard bits, plus some new flags.

Cards: The heart of the supplement are the 42 deployment cards and the 10 specialist cards, which together describe a new way to set up troops. There are also 8 new summary cards for the three new terrains and one new weapon type (the long bow). they're all printed on the medium-weight glossy cardstock used in BattleLore.

Cardboard Bits: There are eight new terrain tiles featuring marshes and cliffs and three new obstacle chits featuring archers' stakes, a stone bridge, and ramparts. In addition there are 12 feudal levy tokens, which are circular chits in red, green, and blue that are used for one of the new setup methods. These are all printed on the usual linen-textured cardboard.

Flags: Six new banners which may be required to layout some combinations of troops.

Overall the pieces exactly match the original sets. The quality is high, but there's nothing notable here, so the expansion earns an average "3" out of "5" for Style.

The Gameplay

A Call to Arms contains a number of new components which can be used in various ways.

New Terrains: As noted above there are three totally new types of terrains: marshes, cliffs, and archers' states. (The ramparts and stone bridges are repeats from the original game.)

Marsh. A terrain that stops movement and limits attacks in and out to 2 dice.

Cliff. An elevated terrain that blocks line of site and melee along specific edges.

Archers' Stakes. An obstacle that stops movement and battle when you move in, except for units with ranged weapons. Ranged weapon units on the stakes also ignore a yellow sword-on-shield result and are bold.

However, these various new terrains are all pretty minor; the heart of the supplement is really in the new way to set up your game.

Impromptu Deployment: The game actually contains two ways to lay out units. The "impromptu" mode is the more casual one. It centers on the six deployment decks, three for each side, each of which contains seven cards.

The game starts with the players choosing a battlefield. However, unlike the scenarios in BattleLore, a battlefield just shows a board with terrain, not units. Then each player selects one of his three deployment decks, shuffles it, then draws four cards.

Deploying the Troops. Each deployment card shows four rows of three or four hexes, and then some number of units laid out on those spaces. This corresponds to the first four rows in a section of the board, minus the in-between hexes which lie along section lines. Each player determines his initial deployment of troops by laying three of the deployment cards face down, respectively in front of the left, middle, and right section. When these are all laid out, both players reveal their cards and lay out their troops on the board. If a troop would be placed on an impassable obstacle (like a river), it must instead be placed on the base (back) line of the section.

Scouting the Opposition. After initial deployment, each player counts up the green units on his side. The player with more has "out-scouted" his opponent. The out-scouted player reveals his fourth card, which was set aside as his reserve, and deploys two units from that card anywhere on his base line. Then the scouting victor does the same and begins plays as the first player.

From there on, it's just like any game of BattleLore.

Generally the impromptu mode is the quicker, more casual way to do things. It assures the players that they always have all the figures they need no matter what cards they select (though actually they'll be short if they both played a deployment card with a creature) and it minimizes choices while still allowing some freeform layout.

Organized Deployment: In organized play, each player selects two deployment card sets, possibly including decks from his opponent, mixes them together, then draws four cards. As usual each player selects cards for each section, with the fourth becoming reserves.

However, because of the greater variability, players are no longer assured of getting the units that their cards describe, and that's where the game starts to change.

Deploying the Troops. Now the troops are laid out progressively, one section at a time. Care must be taken to make sure that the troops in a unit match the banner bearer, and if there aren't enough, those troops can't be used. In this case a feudal levy token of the appropriate color (green, blue, or red) is laid down instead.

Scouting the Opposition. After all green units (including levies) have been counted, the player who was out-scouted lays out the rest of his units. This means his two reserve units, as before, but now he also gets to replace his levy tokens: he may substitute any unit of the same color or less for the levy token. Afterward the starting player does the same.

Calling the Specialists. There is one final step before play begins in an organized game: selecting specialists. Each player takes two cards from the specialist deck and plays them, slightly changing the composition of his troops. These cards allow the deployment of archers stakes, upgrade bows to long bows, add a unit, allow reserve units to be deployed forward, provide various bonuses based on war council composition, and allow regular units to be replaced with goblins or dwarves.

From here on play now proceeds normally.

Relationship to Other Games

Call to Arms is a supplement to BattleLore. However, it's a particularly crucial expansion because it allows a more freeform method for playing any BattleLore game. It's also been well integrated into all the more recent BattleLore expansions, thus Epic BattleLore contained rules for use with Call to Arms while the BattleLore Specialist Packs each contain new specialist cards that allow them to be used in Call to Arms play.

The Game Design

At heart BattleLore is a relatively casual game. It's got a lot of depth to it thanks to the possibilities of Lore and Creatures, but it's nonetheless a game that could as easily be played by couples or light gamers as by the more serious wargamer.

Call to Arms is the supplement that instead moves BattleLore into the realm of miniature wargames. One could easily conceive of tournaments being played using these rules as well as long-term campaign play.

And this pretty much speaks to the supplements strengths and weaknesses.

On the downside if you're a casual player you're probably not going to be that interested in Call to Arms. The setup is longer and more thoughtful and thus you can't get play it as quickly. If you're a casual gamer, Call to Arms isn't for you.

On the upside if you're a serious player Call to Arms is exactly what you've been waiting for. It allows you to be strategic in your setup, thanks to choices in both the deployment cards and specialist cards. It also allows you to keep playing beyond the published scenarios and provides the opportunity for more balanced scenarios. Finally, it gives an easy way to introduce new units with new powers into BattleLore, without them being limited to use only in new scenarios--something that Days of Wonder is already taking advantage of.

I expect that most players won't use the impromptu system, except as a learning step: casual players will stick with set scenarios, while serious players will go whole-hog with organized play.

This whole deployment system is, of course, an alternative to the point-based army creation systems that you can find in current miniatures wargames. I've never had the yen for that type of game, so I can't say if this system will appeal to wargamers or not, but it definitely strikes me as a way to accomplish similar objectives of allowing players some choice in army layout without going into a very complex point-based model, and thus the sort of thing that might get more people into the miniatures hobby.

I'm not convinced that I'll see BattleLore organized play replace Warmachine at my local hobby store, but this is the exact sort of supplement that Days of Wonder needed to produce to make it possible, and they did an excellent job of it, changing the whole focus of the game with a remarkably simple expansion. As a result I've given it a full "5" out of "5" for Substance.

Conclusion

Call to Arms changes the entire focus of BattleLore, allowing for more freeform play that could translate to campaigns or tournaments without requiring a complex point-based army creation system.