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Battleground: Dwarves of Runegard Starter Price: £12.99 Card based wargame by Your Move Games The fifth army for the Battleground world, the Dwarves of Runegard enhance their natural combat prowess with magic derived from sacred runes. ----- Battleground: Fantasy Warfare is a revolution in point-based table-top tactical wargame in which units are represented by cards instead of a collection of figures or models. We bring you all the charging, flanking and intricate manoeuvring of a great wargame in a convenient package for a fraction of the cost. Each BFW army comes in two decks. Army Starter decks contain 18 unit cards as well as that army\'s unique deck of Command cards and a rulebook. Army Reinforcement decks expand your design horizons with 50 unit cards, including two units not found in the Starter. ++++++++++++++++++++ Counter magazine review ++++++++++++++++++++ 2 players, 60 minutes designed by Robert Dougherty and Chad Ellis reviewed by Alan How I have never really been into miniatures. I found the painting difficult with results that meant I had an army of Mr Blobbies, rather than pristine Napoleonic or American Civil War soldiers. I can admire those people who have mastered the art, but I also found that the miniatures kept falling over and this somewhat destroyed the image that was meant to be conveyed. Along came cardboard counters (die cut) and suddenly my wars resolved around Avalon Hill and SPI based solutions. That affinity for cardboard solutions remains, but the urge to fight wars with cardboard had gone. Until Fantasy Warfare. I\'d heard good things about the game and decided to take a punt on a couple of card packs. That was good because the game is not collectible, though it can be expanded. It takes up little space, which for me is an increasingly important criteria, and I like card games. What you get is a deck of cards for each side (so you need two to start with), which are pleasantly depicted from an aerial perspective to represent the fantasy armies. For example, the Orc deck includes a troll and goblin spearmen troops. On each card is a picture of the troop and a chart in three colours, while the reverse has information about its vital stats - points cost, movement ability and special benefits. On the card front, there is a check box for the unit\'s health with the green zone representing the area where you are unaffected by battle results, the yellow zone being where the negative aspects kick in and the red zone being the area where you are up against it, but not quite dead. The cards are laminated, so you can draw on them to check off the boxes in each of the zones. There is also a large box on the card which is the troop\'s default movement, which you write on the card. This can be stand still (hold), range attack the nearest unit, move closer to the enemy (attack), or close which means get closer to the enemy and attack when you can. The movement of the cards is all linked to the size of the sides of the cards. Each unit moves a combination of short and long sides of the card and this is a really easy translation to make. It also reminds me of the horrors of moving miniatures using rulers that didn\'t bend over 3D terrain or finding that the terrain over which you moved your miniatures was uneven and the figures could not balance on that terrain. Battleground deftly avoids these problems. Once you\'ve picked your army (based on a point score), you are ready to do battle. The set up is fairly simple, such as using the edge of a table for each army. Once you\'ve assigned the default movement for each unit (in secret) and laid out your army, you have several options on each turn. First, your troops will follow your instructions unless you say otherwise. To change their existing plans, players can spend command points, which are acquired depending on the size of your army. Command points can also be used to buy the other type of card in the game. These are modifiers to your attacks or defence, usually by one dice point. So they are not overly potent, but useful in certain situations. The differential between offence and defence skills provides the number on 6 sided dice that you need to throw to achieve a hit. A similar mechanism translates hits into damage by comparing power and toughness. It\'s pretty simple and with a low unit count, it does not take much time to resolve each encounter. The wounds inflicted are marked on the card and the next fight begins. The luck of the dice does tend to balance out and as you resolve a few fights each turn, the tension builds as you hope to achieve a breakthrough or perhaps stand strong against a heavy attack. The overall feeling is that you are the general in charge of the army and can watch your troops charging into battle, while taking charge of those selected battles where you want to effect the most change. The leadership of the troops is good as you feel as though you are influencing affairs, but not micro managing things. The balance of interfering (changing your mind) and drawing fresh attack and defence cards is also good as the trade off is in the hope that things will be okay for a round. The system is described on 47 small pages (to fit into the card deck), really works well and you are soon on top of the nuances of command. And finally, most importantly, the game is fun. You do form associations with that friendly troll, you do hate the way the enemy archers are protected by the row of troops in between and you look forward to the time when your cavalry outflank their opponents and wreak havoc. And even when your troops are in their final stages of collapse, you hope you\'ll inflict one more wound that will make their combatants move from green to red. Personalising a game always makes the feeling more intense and Battleground: Fantasy Warfare hits the mark. (For those folks for whom there is not enough, a new card deck has been produced - Elves with additional reinforcements for the Elvenly deprived) More ...

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