I have played through the scenarios in the rulebook of the both Battlelore and C&C Ancients, and ultimately I found that I enjoy Ancients more. This review is an attempt to explain my preference.
Components: I will concede that Battlelore wins the battle of the components because it is lavishly overproduced. However, Ancients does have some positive qualities as well.
I am not a painter, nor do I wish to spend my time painting plastic miniatures. Thus, I found the wooden blocks to be preferable. The blocks are attractive, easier to move, and easier to store than the Battlelore miniatures. However, in all other aspects Battlelore has superior components.
The terrain tiles, cards, and board of Battlelore are more substantial, more attractive, and ultimately, I suspect, more durable. The reference cards, card racks, and removable flags are all great touches and make the game feel really polished.
Gameplay: Here is where Ancients soundly thrashes Battlelore. The differences in mechanics between the two games are subtle, but these differences ultimately make Ancients a deeper game from a tactical and strategic standpoint. Overall, I'm impressed by how Ancients consistently rewards skillful play. Here is a breakdown of the mechanical differences that I found most significant:
Evade/Retreat: In Ancients, you can evade an attack. This option is not available in Battlelore. Choosing when to evade is critical, not only because it decreases the likelihood you will suffer casualties (if you evade, the attacker only scores a hit by rolling your unit color symbol), but because the retreat rules truly punish you. In Ancients, units retreat their full movement which means a retreat is more likely to break up a line, you are more likely to lose units during a retreat, and the retreating unit is much more likely to be left in a position where you have to use valuable command cards to bring it back into a relevant position on the board.
In contrast, retreats in Battlelore are not serious drawbacks and I often find that I can retreat into a supported position.
Battleback: In Ancients all units can battle back. This makes combat much more intense and exciting. Will you wipe out the last heavy infantry unit with your warriors or will the infantry be able to battle back with 5 dice? Tense stuff!
In contrast, Battlelore provides that only "bold" units can battle back. 237
Units are typically bold when they are supported or have advantageous terrain, and of course, dwarves are always bold. This means that you want to take advantage of unsupported units and create isolated units whenever possible. It is simply not very tense attacking a foe that can't fight back - this feels artificially "gamey".
Battlelore uses the boldness rule to encourage you to form little "knots" of supported units. This is like hitting you over the head with a 2 x 4. If you don't do this you will die! If you isolate your opponent's units you will win! Smash! Boom! Ow!
Ancients rewards good formations but more subtlety. Supported units can ignore 1 flag which is simple enough. However, Ancients rewards good troop management in another way as well, through a more intriguing command deck.
Command Cards: The command cards in Ancients offer more rewards for creating strong formations, and they also reward a player who wisely utilizes his leaders. The deck feels more balanced and does a superior job of allowing me to feel like a general maneuvering his troops into position to play the decisive card. The special cards are well chosen and well balanced.
In Battlelore, the command deck is clearly overshadowed by the lore deck. Many of the great effects of the Ancient command cards, such as First strike and Rally, have been ported over to lore cards. The are replaced by scout cards which affords a player a way (albeit a rather boring way - move 1 unit, draw 2 command cards at the end of your turn, keep one of them) to get better command card quality in his hand.
By porting over the dramatic and exciting command cards of Ancients to the lore deck, the importance of the command deck is diminished, and I think that is unfortunate. Wisely using and timing the play of command cards is the most enjoyable aspect of the game to me.
The Ancients command deck creates also seems to create more intriguing and tense battles. I recognize that a lot of the elements that I enjoy in the Ancients command deck are picked up on and expanded by the lore deck; however, the effects in the Ancients deck are in every game and they are well chosen. The lore deck is somewhat of a crapshoot in comparison, and games can be much more uneven because of this.
One person may call this replayability, another person may call it randomness. I simply find that there is a greater opportunity to grow as a player with a the Ancient command deck versus the Battlelore lore deck.
I guess it could be akin to mastering bridge versus poker. 237