Battle Masters

"Battle Masters" is a board game by Milton Bradley made in collaboration with Games Workshop in 1992. It is a game the simulates the type of battles as seen in "Warhammer Fantasy Battle", but with much simpler game mechanics not based on its parent game. The game, like its sibling Milton Bradley/Games Workshop partnerships "HeroQuest" and "Space Crusade", was designed by Stephen Baker, who later went on to design the popular game "Heroscape".

In Germany it is called "Die Claymore-Saga", in France "Seigneurs de guerre" and in the Netherlands "Ridderstrijd".

Gameplay

"Battle Masters" focuses on a battle between the forces of good, or The Empire, against the forces of evil, or Chaos, which is a combined army including forces from the Chaos and Orcs and Goblins armies of the "Warhammer Fantasy" setting including creatures such as Ogres.

The game is played on a large vinyl mat which is painted to look like a battle field with large, almost 8 inch, hexes superimposed on it. A large number of plastic miniatures included in the game are similar in size and style to the "Warhammer" miniatures produced by Games Workshop. However, instead of individual bases they are designed to be mounted on unit bases of 5 infantry or 3 cavalry miniatures.

The figures are all unpainted so they are ready for players to decorate any way they wish. Some decals are included that are ready to be used out of the box on the figures. The decals mostly go on the shields of the various units. The miniatures were used by budget-minded gamers for other games as mass production meant they were significantly cheaper than equivalent miniatures.

The miniature units and a few terrain pieces are placed on the vinyl mat based on the setup described in the scenarios booklet.

The game play goes through a series of turns by drawing cards. When a card is drawn the unit or units whose picture(s) is on the card is allowed to first move and then attack (with the exception of archers, crossbowmen and the mighty cannon, who may move or attack). In some instances the card may show multiple units in which case all of those units may move and attack. Two special units exist with unique movement/attack rules, the Ogre Champion (Chaos) and the Mighty Cannon (Empire). They are also mounted as individuals on the unit bases.

Chaos Army

Champions of Chaos

This unit is the Chaos general, Gorefist, himself. It is the main calvary of the Chaos forces. It has the highest dice rating and its special card is a Charge, where it can roll one extra die.

Wolf Riders

The other mounted forces of Chaos, the player gets two wolf rider units. They are extremely weak in combat, but can move quickly. They are most commonly pictured unit in the chaos cards, and their special cards lets them move two spaces instead of one.

Ogre Champion

When an ogre champion card is played the six ogre cards (three saying ogre moves and three saying ogre attacks) are shuffled and drawn one at a time. The ogre must then move in the order of the cards (i.e. if the cards are in the order moves, moves, attacks, moves, attacks, attacks) then the orge champion must move and attack in that order, but can always choose not to take the action. For every wound the ogre takes, he draws one less card. The ogre champion has 6 hit points, while all other units have only 3.

Chaos Archers

Chaos Archers are the only ranged units in the Chaos Army. They can only attack or move and they are unaffected by ditches.

Chaos Warriors

Powerful infantry for the chaos army. They can roll combat dice of four, where most infantry can attack with only three.

Imperial Army

Lord Knights

This unit is the equivalent to the Champions of Chaos. They have five attack dice, plus they their own Charge card, and one that they share with the Imperial Knights.

Imperial Knights

The second group of mounted units along withe the lord knights, though they are not quite as powerful. They also have a special charge card that allows them an extra attack.

Men-at-Arms

The rank and file infantry of the Imperial Army.

Imperial Crossbowmen

A unit unique to the Imperial Army, they function the same as archers, as they can only move or attack. However, their range is three spaces instead of two.

Imperial Archers

The archers can either move or attack but not both like other units. They are unaffected by ditches and have a range of two spaces.

The Mighty Cannon

The mighty cannon also moves and attacks differently than other units. The player who is the empire selects a target (the closer the better) and places the pieces at random between the cannon and the selected target. The cannon tiles are then flipped over if it shows a cannon ball flying, move to the next unit, if it shows a cannon ball bouncing the unit on that square takes one skull token (the wound system for the game) and continues to the next tile. If it shows an explosion the unit is destroyed and the cannon's turn has ended. In the event that an explosion happens right next to the cannon it is a misfire; another cannon tile must be placed on the cannon and its effect applied.

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