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Battle Report: The Battle of Five Armies Part 1

By June 2, 2015July 26th, 2019Battle Reports, Videos

Do not speak to me as if I were some lowly dwarf…

Will and I struggle before the Lonely Mountain in this long overdue battle report for The Battle of Five Armies by Ares Games.

Will and I did film a battle report for The Battle of Five Armies some time ago, but upon reviewing the footage I realised that not only were we a little tired from a long day of gaming (and several beers), but we got a few major rules wrong and—well it all fell apart in a heap really. So during his last visit a good battle report for the game was a must. And here it is, in two parts no less!

The Battle of Five Armies is an excellent game in the grand tradition of War of the Ring and we’ve hardly begun to touch the surface of the many strategies that will no doubt provide years of gaming enjoyment. Enjoy the video! The final part will follow soon.

7 Comments

  • The8thPagan says:

    How does Battle of Five Armies compare to War of the Ring? How long did it take to play?

    • It shares many of the same systems, most notably the action dice system, but there’s also a ‘timer’ in the form of the Fate track. It’s a much more focussed experience as you’re just dealing with the one battle. In general, it has the same excellent feel but is very different to play.

      As for time, oh it took about 4 hours, but then we were filming and mucking around. I’m sure experienced players could finish a game in a couple of hours.

  • razide says:

    Thanks to Will & yourself yet again for such an entertaining BattleReport.
    It looks to be wonderful spectacle on your table with those painted figures.

    I’m looking forward to the next part to see who those fickle dice gods favoured.

  • WonderSlug says:

    Entertaining video, Peter.

    That said, I wonder if you could include more of the “as it’s happening” stuff next time, similar to how you shot/edited the Wrath of Kings reports.

    The way this one was edited was very much “Here’s what happened in the last turn.” Numerous attacks were shot, but overall I felt I was missing the movement of the troops around the board. I sort of felt lost, or left behind a bit, if I wasn’t fully aware of the table state before/after each edit was made. Does that make sense?

    Anyway. Thanks, as always, for the entertaining videos. Looking forward to more.

    • Thanks for the feedback WS, will definitely keep that in mind. We walked you through one combat but after that it is a bit ‘this is what happened’. Though probably, if we filmed more of the movements in what was a very long game, the entire video would be twice as long! I’ll see if I can find some kind of happy medium.

      To be honest, filming can be a bit chaotic in the heat of a game and sometimes when I go to edit it later I have to make do with what I’ve got! 🙂

  • WonderSlug says:

    Understood on all points. 🙂

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