Battlelore 2nd Edition, its a strategic Warfare game with clever rules.
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I had this!
I remember playing it with my family and my grandmother being called a “maggot” by the on screen head.
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I played it as a kid and it was terrifying. But it has little replay value - hence the sequels.
coup
looks nice !!!
First thing you need to do is pick a side in the big, divisive boardgame quarrel: ameritrash or eurogames? 
A game inspired by, say, a specific movie would likely have been designed by first deciding on the theme, and then a set of rules gets created to fit that concept. They are strong on narrative, and tend to have plastic miniatures, lots of dice and wordy manuals on glossy paper with back-story “fluff”, etc. Usually the box and components are colourful and flashy. Usually lots of action going on, like killing monsters and attacking each others. These games are known as “ameritrash”.
But then there are games designed the other way around. One can usually tell the idea for the game was a specific “mechanic”. For instance, a card game where everyone but yourself can see your hand of cards. And then late in the design process, the designer have thought up some kind of theme that sort of makes sense, but isn’t really important. These games tend to be (for whatever weird reason) shades of brown with some medieval city as title with components of cardboard and wood instead of plastic. The playtime tends to be shorter than the other category and the rules much more streamlined. Very often the theme is farming, building cities, trading stuff, etc. Also you often can’t attack each other directly. More passive-aggressive gameplay where you by doing something indirectly makes life tougher for the other player(s). This tradition of games are referred to as “eurogames”. My experience is that they can be a bit hard to learn/teach because they are more abstract. “You can kill zombies with a shotgun, but only if you have an ammo token” is easier to grasp than “if you discard two wood cards and a resource cube you gain one victory point”.
…in reality, games don’t fall neatly in any of these two categories. At least not anymore. But if you have an idea whether low-key, slightly abstract gameplay (I think of them as kind-of introvert experiences) or big, narrative gaming evenings where there is a lot of table talk, etc., perhaps it might be slightly easier to navigate the shelves of your friendly local boardgame store… Or perhaps not.
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It is a relatively cheap way to play a strategic wargame, with lots of twists, it has cool mini´s and some magic cards which alter the battle field, or the army to your liking. There are different type of objectives to combine, so it allows 49 different set ups of the area. Each army has its own feel. (I have 4 different armys, which didn’t break the bank.) And they are somewhat easy to paint aswell. (I just did a rudimentary job on them, but that surly optional - i just liked the game so much)
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Thanks for the in-depth report.
Found a shop over Christmas selling board games real cheap so we got Catan, Seafarers of Catan, Ticket to Ride Europe edition, 7 wonders, and splendor. Have only played Catan and Splendor so far. Looking forward to winter to play everything in more detail. I really enjoy Splendor as a card based game.
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Thx man now I’m even more interested 
Will definitely check it out
I have some friends who wanted to get into Gloomhaven with me, but I was concerned that I would end up with a $100 20lb doorstop if we didn’t get on with it.
So instead, I ordered Gloomhaven: Jaws Of The Lion. I think we’re much more likely to be satisfied as a group, especially coming in cold. Well, one player has had a little bit of Gloomhaven experience, but I don’t want to burden her with Sherpa duties, especially when we could just get on with it and all be quickly playing the smaller version.
And if we get addicted, I can always get the full Gloomhaven with confidence that we already know how to play and are willing to make that bigger commitment.
Given all I’ve read, heard and seen, I’m reasonably excited about this one.
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My girlfriend bought gloomhaven a while back. The first few games were ok, (nothing to get excited about, just ok) but it gets old very quickly. Its basically the same thing over and over again. Go in, bash monsters, repeat.
Lots of people rave about it, but it just didnt do anything for us.
Maybe the jaws of the lion is different, but so far, the Gloomhaven monolith sits at the bottom of a book shelf ignored. I’d just rather play other games… ya know, fun games.
I have been through the board game hobby hype cycle over about a 15 year timeframe, and it is really interesting how tastes develop over time. I probably had 200 games at one point (down to maybe 25? now), and have even been to Gencon several times (my first time was back in Milwaukee), but have found myself in my own happy little niche now, completely disconnected from FOMO and the new hotness.
Just a few of my all-time favorites:
Concordia
Terra Mystica
Brass
Caverna
Castles of Burgundy
Samurai
Eclipse
Jaipur
I definitely still have a few thematic and party games around, but these ones are ones that my partner and I play over, and over, and over, and would never tire of them. Going through the whole hype cycle in the BG world helped me approach my synth hobby in a way that makes me happier.
Also… a little ranty, but aside from the rare moonshot small indie designer making an otherwise impossible product, Kickstarter can easily become a toxic destroyer of good design within a hobby. It really hurt my interest in boardgames, since it turned talking about the hobby into some consumerist collector’s brag-fest.
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I’ll see how it goes with Jaws Of The Lion, which just arrived at my door.
Looking inside the full Gloomhaven box was intimidating to say the least. Jaws Of The Lion looks to be much more manageable, at least for me coming in as a Gloomhaven noob. Apparently with a little experience, one can set up and tear down this JOTL version in 5min or less.
With several people I know constantly raving about the full Gloomhaven, I’m optimistic that I’ll enjoy this. Much more optimistic that I’ll get my money’s worth than if I’d gone full HAM on the big box.
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Hey I just picked up Jaws of The Lion as well. Perhaps we can wrangle up a couple more here and do a zoom/teams game.
We’ve played most of the games you mentioned. But now we only can do it on Game Board Arena online, because of the curfew at 10pm in Italy. I really hate this situation
Have you guys seen these on Kickstarter?
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That sounds like fun, but with the legacy aspect of JotL, plus the time commitment, I think I only have it in me for one campaign at a time, and I’ll be starting with my “pod” this weekend.
Side note, I stumbled across these crazy looking Tabletop Simulator conversions of both Jaws of the Lion and the full Gloomhaven.
Wow. Just … wow.
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I just bought Wingspan for my girlfriend as she’s a bird nut. Looking forward to trying it at the weekend.
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That Tabletop community is super dedicated. Amazing how far it’s come along from when it first started.