"Battle Masters 'Orc Skool' game pics" Topic

Hitting the table today, and getting a lot of looks from shop goers, and few questions from them too, like "what game is this!?!"

I was happy to tell them, it's a 30-year-old Milton Bradley game called Battle Masters, that I've polished up lately.

We played three games and had a hoot the whole time!

That looks absolutely awesome!

Wow, that's amazing. I really need to paint my set. And yes, it's a hoot of a game.

BigfootLover – Thank You!

Parzival, I've got the Chaos Archers, Beastmen, and Champions of Chaos stands yet to finish, but by doing points-matching using the extra Greenskins stands I had completed to flesh out the Chaos side, the three games we played came out really close each time.

These good game outcomes will keep me motivated to finish up all the units yet…..and maybe more! :)

I came up with a few rules to make it a little more tactical:

1.) Shuffle cards and deal 5 to each player.

2.) UGOIGO, Chaos plays first.

3.) On his turn a player may play 1 card from his hand OR discard the entire hand (face up) and draw an equal number of replacements, forfeiting any action.

4.) If the card played matches his own forces, the depicted forces move and/or attack as in the standard game.

5.) If the card matches the opposing forces, 1 unit of any type depicted must retreat one hex backwards and away from any enemy unit. If the unit cannot move backwards it must roll a single die and take any hit which results. The "retreating" unit is chosen by the card's player, but must be one of the units shown on the card. The Mighty Cannon will not retreat, but must instead suffer the result of a single die roll as an "attack."

6.) If the played card shows the entire opposing army (or if that card is in a discarded hand), no unit of either side moves or attacks and the opponent skips his next turn. However, all cards in the discard pile, including the "entire army" card, are shuffled back into the deck. (The only real advantage of this play is to play it last, or when discarding a hand, to redraw to get a new hand and immediately play a new card.)

7.) Any time an "entire army" card is played, the discard pile, including the "entire army" card, is shuffled back into the deck.

8.) Once all 5 cards in a player's hand have been played or discarded, and the resulting action (if any) has been resolved, the player immediately draws a new set of 5 cards.

The above allows for some tactical and strategic cleverness in card selection and thus army maneuvers, while assuring that no card is "held back" for more than 5 turns. And you may get to disrupt your opponent's tactics with a timely forced retreat. Also, the deck will never "run out", as an entire army card automatically refreshes it.

Parzival, have you contributed these excellent modifications over to the Board Game Geek forum?

One modification I have made so far, was to link a unit's hit points to the number of fighting figures represented on their base (excepting the Ogre, that still retains its special rules mechanic).

This change allows infantry units more hits than the stock 3, while mounted troops stay the same at their 3 (all equaling the total number of based figures mounted).

New players (and old) can immediately visualize the starting strength of game units, just like playing a miniatures game where figures mounted factor total strength points.

That takes the game to a whole different level. Really tasty eye-candy! Cheers!

Sarge, you've been so supportive of this project as I've worked it up – thank you for that!

A few weeks ago I ran across an interview designer Stephen Baker had done about the game, and he mentioned the reason for the three identical roads on the game map, was that MB could only print something like a 68cm, repeating section on the plastic matting. There was a full game board originally designed, but that the repeating road map was used because of these printing limitations.

Taking this in mind, I'm considering searching for a nice high-res fantasy map board that I could use to make a more varied play surface (I can add a hex grid if needed).

Anyway, just some hopes to keep the project moving forward.

Great game and love those minis – I have a bunch of the knights painted up as the core of one of my medieval armies

Years ago I mentioned a form of them here (slightly different in the details). I have it as a file somewhere, but I never put it up on BGG.

Interesting idea to tie hits to number of figs. Certainly makes the weaker units tougher! Has it unbalanced the game for you? The Chaos units outnumber Imperials, as do the Chaos cards, which is why Chaos has weaker units. I supposed if the Imperial forces get extra units and/or cards to make up the power difference, it should work out okay.

Thanks Frederick – seems these figs were seed lots for many guys collections.

Parzival, I feel the hits bump-up has worked well for the Chaos foot troops, and sees the same benefit for the Imperial infantry units too.

Though, with only 3 games under the belt with this, hardly something I would want to say "works".

Really miss those days.

@Parzival and others

I am doing Battle Masters Advanced in 40mm. I have moved to a square based table top and allow stacking. While trying to keep the gamey kids feel I have introduced just enough wargamey to it to be a good convention mix.

I have done up the armies for The Battle of Five Armies.

I just finished up some eagles and my last unit of Orcs.

I have printed all of my troops again in 40mm (epic :).

I love these Orcs in Roman Armor.

You can see more pictures at my blog.

link

Chris, this is great!

And……"trying to keep the gamey kids feel I have introduced just enough wargamey to it to be a good convention mix."

BIG BATTLE MASTERS Bingo there!

(likin' your unit charts and labelling too – hope you'll make this one of those free [conversion] rules sets too)

If so, I could see guys wanting to get back into Battle Masters, and maybe at your 40mm sizing Big Time! :)

@FlyXwire

Thanks for the comments. I have been playtesting my scenario and am having a lot of fun both in solo and with friends. If anybody needs the advanced rules that I found I will post a link here as a free pdf download.

CHAOS REIGNS!

With the help of my friend Jamie, who painted over half of these chaos units here, my Battle Masters game armies are at full strength+ now.

So let the Chaos begin…….

really colourfull forces. looks great

Thank You Legend!

(they certainly have on their battle bling for that pic)