Has anyone played Battlemasters?

[Decipher]

Speaking of Warhammer, 1st. print 1986. Got it for $5 at a yard sale. Talking about some great HeroQuest scans.




I've seen people play Battlemasters and I dont think it is interesting enough for me personally.

[Daedalus]

Likewise with the TSR Battlesystem, here.

I used to play that! That is, the second edition soft cover. The Skirmish book was our favorite, however.

Regarding Battlemasters, I always played Chaos, because my egotistical friend who actually owned the game, always had to be the "heroic" iconoclast. I always figured he cheated to beat me every time, because the one time he played me in Chess I humiliated him. I never bothered learning the rules.

He wasn't necessarily cheating. The game favors the Empire forces. If he'd been a better sport and switched sides, I imagine you would have trounced him in return.

[roomandu]

WOW this is the first time I have seen anyone else admit to playing BATTLEMASTERS in public. A true bugga of a beast to set up yes, but sooo easy to play. Many, many games were had when I lived I Sydney and we had others from our wargames club over most nights. Generally with a meal and drinks and everything spread over the lounge room floor or on the dining room table. Best part was the fact that even after a few bevvies, gameplay didn't suffer(gotta luv simple rules ).

[Malcadon]

I have two sets, but mostly for the miniatures. I played in a few times as a kid, but the game was not that fun -- mostly with having to draw cards to move and attack. Also, having to find space to playing, which was tricky in a cramped apartment.

I have been reconsidering Battlemasters is a more playable format' and I have been thinking a lot about how to make this work. The first idea was to reduce to large play area to a smaller hex map, with each hex representing 50-100 yards, and each figure representing a formation of 50 or so men. Originally, I was going to use some old Battletech maps, but with the advent of Heroscape terrain sets, I have a great 3D enviroment to work with (the large terrain piece seems to be design to make a nice square area. if paired-up. Which is great, if you would rather avoid the uneven boundaries and outlandish heights seen in most HS terrain setups). A Company (Warband, etc.) would be made-up of three figures - one command unit, and two basic units - which would move and attack in unison. All units would have cards that notes their basic stats - Attack Dice, Defense Dice and Body Points - as well as special actions and abilities (like with HS, but looking more like normal cards). I also want to add some kind of simple moral system to prevent tho battles from becoming a war of attrition (where both sides relentlessly out slaughters each other like its an all-or-nothing fight). Destroying a Command Unit lowers the moral for the Basic Units attached to it. The 3 basic Body Point represents the strength of numbers of a unit, with any extra representing tougher soldiers. Lowering a unit's BPs will lower their Attack Dice and Moral. Like most hex-based wargames, different types of terrain effects movement, attacking/defense rolls, and line of sight. An other idea I have its to have both players roll a d6 (or two, still considering things) each turn for Command Point (CP) which is used to activate units, call upon special orders or resources or even unusual events. These extra options would make the game less predictable. Special cards maybe required. I would prefer to not use hit/bonce/miss tiles for cannons and other artillery. Instead, I would rather use a Scatter Die or something else like it (to keep the turn from being held-up by the player flipping cards or tokens for each hex the cannonball moves).

All this is not even a work-in-progress, as I have not even started to get a project like this started, to to a lack of interested players to help playtest it.

[sajungzak]

His mom put a stop to that saying it would attract demons or something.

I had some cousins that weren't allowed to play HeroQuest with me for the same reason.
My parents almost followed suit. Luckily, my Dad was into fantasy novels like Edgar Rice Burroughs and Ray Bradbury when he was young and besides, they are the ones who gave it to me one Christmas.

Jezus people! That makes me so angry sometimes

It's parents like that who make Jezus people look stupid.

The populace just loves something to hate. In fact, there seems to be an actual need to vilify. From my perspective in the US I can think of a few examples. Racism is an easy one. Americans have also vilified things like alcohol, sex, communism, hippies, illegal drugs (as if legal ones are somehow any better), and more recently, things like guns, cigarettes, homosexuality and transgender-ism, and even obesity.
Back to vilifying RPG type games. Their intent seems to be to squelch creativity, which leads to hindering free thinking. They want their kids to be yes sir robots who do what their told and believe what they are told to believe without any questions. The world is full of them. Most people have never had an original thought in their life and simply regurgitate what they have heard. I see it everyday. The media tells us what to think.

Illuminati?

Now be a good little robot and respond to this post. Free thinkers welcome.

[knightkrawler]

The key to free thinking is knowing that
... not obesity is to be villified, but the food industry
... not drugs are to be villified, but the need for them
... not guns are to be villified, but the perceived need for them.
The list goes on.

The problems have roots, but for anyone to see them you have to be free or at least unimpressed from media coverage.
And those who see the roots are oh so fearful to be the first to change something. See the guns in the US theme for that one.

[sajungzak]

I researched this just now. Conservative religious types have vilified RPG's for a few reasons. It started because some hard core brainwashees/ers saw it as a gateway into the occult. (really?) They don't trust their children to be able to distinguish between fantasy and the "real world" (seems to me the parents are the ones having trouble with that. "The monsters are real Johnny! They're really demons and if you cast spells they will steal your soul!). There was apparently an urban legend in the early '80's about a guy in Minnesota committing suicide because his character died. Some people really believed this.
Some were worried that people would get carried away and neglect their duties (like school, work, or financial responsibilities). This one does happen, but the same can be said for any hobby.

So to tie this in to your post KK, RPG's are not to be vilified, but the inability to separate fiction from non-fiction.
Sarcasm: And the demons of sloth and gluttony! /Sarcasm
But you'd have to be on some pretty hardcore *lemony goodness* to really have that problem. Can you say Schizophrenia?

[Goblin-King]

Well, I think it's pretty justified to vilify stuff like drugs, guns and obesity. All three are potential dangerous to a high degree.
It's not in the same category as hippies or RPGs, not by a longshot. Drugs ARE dangerous no matter how you look at it.

Two points though...

1. The reason these things are dangerous are because of the disease in our society. Drugs, guns and obesity are symptoms, not the real problem. Like knightkrawler said... roots...

2. Why are weed illegal while alcohol and tobacco is not? I'm not pro-weed but it's an insane situation. Really, if anything alcohol and cigarettes should be illegal as well! Somebody has just sat down and said, this is legal, that is not legal. It's random!
Think about it. If alcohol were just invented today, do you think politicians would make it legal? Or cigarettes?
Those of you in the EU may or may not know that the amount of cinnamon allowed in bakery has been determined by law. Apparently big doses of cinnamon represent a slight health risk?!
Yet cigarettes are still legal?

Out of EU NOW!

[knightkrawler]

It's the tobacco industry.
When people found out that smoking is dangerous to your health in the degree it is, it was already too late.
The three big tobacco companies were far too powerful, far to rich, and far too politically lobbied by that point.
Simple as that.

And I'm so anti-EU it's not even funny. In fact I'm anti-political. Not anarchist, mind you, but actual ANTI-political.

[Sjeng]

Jezus people! That makes me so angry sometimes

It's parents like that who make Jezus people look stupid.

Heh, I like what you did there. Just to clarify, I said: "Jezus, people." As in "Come on, people." But yes, it was about "Jezus-people" in this case