Battlelore 2nd Edition

Game Setup*

1. Place Game Board: Place the game board in the center of the game area.

2. Choose Faction: Each player chooses a faction.

3. Gather Faction Components: Each player takes the plastic figures, unit reference cards, and deployment cards that
correspond to his chosen faction and places them in his play area.

4. Create Neutral Unit Draft Pool (optional) - Neutral units do not belong to any faction, and can be mustered as part of
any player’s army. Before playing with neutral units, take the deployment cards for all neutral units (from both players)
and combine them to form a draft pool. The draft pool may contain more than one deployment card for a particular
unit.

5. Create the Supply: Separate all the tokens and markers by type and place them in piles to create the supply.

6. Create Command Deck: Shuffle all the command cards into a deck and place it near the game board within reach of
both players.

7. Create Lore Decks and Scenario Decks: Each player takes the lore cards and scenario cards that correspond to his
chosen faction, shuffles them into two separate decks, and places the decks face down in his play area. The player may
choose to use any lore deck assigned to his faction. Then, he places the chosen lore deck face down in his play area and
sets the remaining lore deck aside (see step 10 for optional Lore Deck customization).

8. Option 1: Draw, Reveal, and Resolve Scenario Cards: Each player draws three scenario cards from his scenario deck,
chooses one, and returns all other scenario cards to the game box. Then, both players simultaneously reveal and resolve
their chosen scenario cards
A. Read Scenario Card Text - Each scenario card contains text describing one or more rules that affect the
scenario in unique ways. Some rules are preceded by a game phase or step to indicate when during that player’s
turn he applies that rule.
B. Determine First Player - Each scenario card has an initiative indicator containing both a letter and number.
The player who revealed the scenario card with an initiative letter that is alphabetically first is the first player
and takes the first turn when the game begins. If both players revealed a scenario card with the same letter, the
player who revealed the card with the lowest number is the first player. If both players revealed a scenario card
with both the same letter and number, they must determine a first player randomly.
C. Place Terrain Tiles and Banner Markers - Each player takes all of the terrain tiles, terrain tokens, and banner
markers that are necessary to set up his half of the game board and places them on the appropriate,
corresponding hexes. If water hexes are placed adjacent to each other, the first player must replace them with
river tiles so the rivers connect. If there is a river tile that creates an open river away from a game board edge,
players replace that river tile with a lake tile (if able).
D. Place Fords - Starting with the first player, each player places one ford token on the game board on any water
hex shown on his scenario card that does not already contain a ford or bridge token

8. Option 2: Use Pre-Built Scenario - Players set up the board and the units as depicted on the scenario map provided,
following any additional setup instructions found in the “Setup” section of the scenario. Pre-built scenarios contain an
image of the entire game board, depicting the location of various terrain tiles, terrain tokens, banner markers, and
preset units represented by the unit’s icon.
Additionally, a pre-built scenario may contain a number of hexes shaded in various colors. These shaded hexes often
represent a faction’s deployment hexes for that scenario, but alternate uses may be described in the “Setup” section of
the scenario. Players cannot muster command tents when playing pre-built scenarios.

9. Place First Player Token: The first player places the first player token in his play area.
10. Muster Armies: Each player musters his army by spending muster points to purchase deployment cards. Then, he
deploys his units on the game board
A. Draft Neutral Units (optional) - Players may spend muster points to purchase the deployment cards of
neutral units to include in their army. The first player starts by choosing one of the available neutral units to
muster. If he does not wish to muster any neutral units or is unable, he passes. Then, his opponent chooses up
to two neutral units to muster, or passes. Then, starting with the first player again, each player alternates
mustering one neutral unit. If a player passes immediately after his opponent passed, the drafting phase is
complete and no additional neutral units may be mustered. The three lore cards belonging to each drafted unit
become available lore cards.
B. Choose Deployment Cards - Each player takes 11 decoy deployment cards (optional: and 1 or 2 Barricade
deployment cards) and adds them to his faction’s deployment cards. Then, players simultaneously build their
armies using their deployment cards. Each deployment card contains a muster value which indicates the
number of muster points a player must spend to include that card in an army. Each player’s army can cost a total
of 50 muster points and must consist of exactly 18 deployment cards comprising any combination of units,
terrain, and decoys. When a player is finished choosing his unit cards, he must have a stack of 18 deployment
cards, which represents his army. He returns his remaining deployment cards to the game box. Each player can
add one command tent to his army. A player who chooses a command tent has five extra muster points to use
to muster his army. This means he can muster an army worth 55 muster points instead of 50. Command tents
can also provide victory points to the player’s opponent as described on the card.
C. Place Deployment Cards - Each player places his 18 deployment cards on the game board, placing one
deployment card face down on each of the 18 shaded deployment hexes as indicated on his chosen scenario
card. A player can place each of his deployment cards on any of his deployment hexes of his choice; however, he
must place deployment cards that feature terrain (Barricade, Blood Field, Command Tent, Crystal Spire,
Graveyard, Plaguelands) on deployment hexes that do not contain terrain.
D. Reveal Deployment Cards - After both players have placed all 18 of their deployment cards on the game
board, they simultaneously reveal their placed deployment cards by flipping them face up. Each player
immediately removes all revealed decoys from the game board and returns them to the game box. After
revealing his deployment cards, each player receives one lore token, to a maximum of five, for each unspent
muster point.
E. Place Units and Terrain - After revealing his deployment cards, each player removes them one at a time from
the game board and replaces them with the appropriate figures and terrain tiles. Each player replaces his
deployment cards corresponding to units with the figures that make up that unit. Each figure in a unit matches
the silhouette shown on that unit’s deployment card. All units except legends consist of a number of figures
equal to their health value. Legend units each consist of one figure. Each player replaces his deployment card
corresponding to a command tent with command tent terrain tiles. For each Razorwing unit mustered, a Hill
Tile on the player’s side may be replaced with a Cavern Tile. For each Great Dragon mustered, any Clear Hex
with a Great Dragon on the player’s side must be replaced with a Hoard Tile. Then, both players return all
deployment cards to the game box.
F. Customize Lore Deck (optional) - Each player may secretly remove up to five lore cards from his lore deck and
replace them with an equal number of available lore cards. Available lore cards are any unused lore cards that
belong to a player’s chosen faction or lore cards belonging to neutral units in his army. After a player has
replaced his cards, he reshuffles his lore deck and returns it to the play area. Then, he returns all of his unused
lore cards to the game box without showing his opponent. A lore deck cannot contain more than two copies of
any lore card with the same name.

11. Draw Starting Cards: Each player draws six command cards from the command deck and three lore cards from his
faction’s lore deck. Then, both players secretly and simultaneously choose two of their command cards and one of their
lore cards to place on the bottom of the appropriate decks. After both players have a hand consisting of four command
cards and two lore cards, they are ready to begin the battle!

*For use with Battlelore 2nd Edition (including products BT01 to BT09); Fantasy Flight Publishing Inc