Battlesystem
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| Bruce Laue |
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| BattleSystem is the best miniatures game I've found for playing out
large battles (or wars) from your D&D campaigns. It is limited in
what magic is put into the book, but there is plenty to be had at
the various web sites. The rules are fairly well covered, and can
handle most situations, but there are times when you will have to
make a decision as to how you will handle specific situations. This
isn't all bad: we get the chance to be our own game designers in
the process.
The points system for "balancing" games leaves much to be desired. I've found that you can't really rely upon their point ratings, but they offer a good starting point. Magic is very powerful, and it's quite easy to under-estimate its impact on a game. Terrain is not covered as to how it will balance/unbalance a scenario either. These are matters which can best be learned from experience. The saddest part about this game, is that it continues to gain in popularity at conventions, and with gamers across the country, long after it went out of print! The last edition was printed in 1989. If you enjoy this game, please write Wizards of the Coast a polite letter requesting that they reprint this game. It is, after all, one of the better fantasy miniatures games around. |
| Douglas Rockwell |
| I have been playing miniatures for about 20 years, both historical & fantasy. Battlesystem is
above average for fantasy rules. I like the CRT. Rolling different-sided dice for various strengths and the table showing how many hits you get is a nice way of expressing a non-linear function. Bowfire is weak -- you only get one shot before they charge you & then melee. I am thinking about doubling the bowfire distance. The game suffers from not having an 'Evade' rule. This is critical for skirmishers. It is difficult to make up points armies -- the points values are not well thought out. Magic is not bad -- usually this aspect overpowers the game & it is where most fantasy rules sets fail.
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| Andrew L. Miller |
I like Battlesystem as a set of fantasy miniatures rules for three reasons:
As an AD&D gamer, I like a system where I can use armies as part of the AD&D campaign and have player characters participate. Also, my figures do double duty as Battlesystem miniatures and as AD&D encounters, and I don't have to make up stats for them! Since AD&D and Battleystem are highly compatible, anytime I see a cool miniature for an AD&D monster type, I can buy it and use it in Battlesystem using their AD&D-to-Battlesystem conversion guidelines. There is no arguing about the creature's attack and armor values among players. Also, I don't need to buy a whole new book just to learn the monster's abilities. There are some things in Battlesystem that need to be changed, but overall I like it best of all the fantasy miniatures rules I've played.
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| Bryan Donaldson |
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I've played a couple of times with the BattleSystem.
The first time was
just a small war, 3 battles or so. The second time was a relatively
large battle (defense of the homeland). My impressions were:
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| Adanial |
| Battlesystem is a fun game, especially if you are new to wargames, but it is
extremely
limited. In the campaign I played for about 6 months, every week, we had more
house rules written down than the rulebook had real rules. There are also a few flaws in logic in the game, and I don't like the figure ratios: It is not trying to re-create real battles, and as a system supposedly compatible with AD&D, it falls WWWAAAAYYYYY short -- the spells for Battlesystem have nothing more in common with the rpg spells than their names. It is a fun game, but ONLY if you play it as a separate game from AD&D. It might seem a little pathetic, though, if you are used to more complex wargaming rules.
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