Battlelore doesn't skimp on the playing pieces.	They didn't make counters like this in my day.

Battle Lore improved on its initial turnout this year, which means it has survived the "curious" stage and moved on to the folks who aren't playing it for the first time. In our early rounds, we played the original Lore scenario, Wizards and Lore. In these rounds, half of the games were won by the French leader, Sire Bertrand, and half by the Englishman, Sir Robert. It was an all-around slaughter, in which the strongest, wisest, and, in some cases, een the newest players, pulled ahead.

The quarter-finals singled out the eight best for single elimination. Five out of eight games were won by the mighty French leader. In many cases, it was a brutal slaughter, but in some, it was more surgical with not many kills. In others, it was a slaughter on both sides until the moment when one side or the other pulled through by the skin of their teeth!

The four winners advanced to the semis field of battle, the Crossing of the Rhone. In these games, the players got to choose their own councils to lead their forces. These battles were fairly quick to the slaughter and winners came out quickly. None of the battles ended without deep scars in the winners lines, though, and many were close.

In the Final pairing, we brought in the famous dwarves and not-so-famous goblins to join the fray West of the Rhone. We were down to our two wisest and strongest players, Allen and Steve, as they sat down to battle it out. There was a major upset, though, where the goblins outlived the dwarves, and even succeeded in killing many of them. By the end of the game, the goblins were intact while nearly every dwarf on the field had fallen.

Next year, the preliminary rounds will change. We will probably use pods of four or five and have everyone play one another to lessen the likelihood of ties for the quarter-finals. Also, there will be new scenarios, though the first rounds will again tend to simpler fare.

Mark Guttag (left) seems to have stumped Rob Kilroy.	Gordon Rodgers (left) considers his options.