The Long Awaited Present...

Christmas morning has finally arrived. I was up at 4.30am before the rest of the family were awake, busy catching up on some last minute cleaning and organising. As I tiptoed quietly around, my eyes kept being drawn to the Christmas tree in the corner of the lounge room beneath which lay the waiting gifts. I haven't looked forward to opening a present this much since I was a kid. I've felt the excitement growing each day over the last week. So what present was generating this level of expectation and yearning in myself, you ask? It was the big, square, heavy one right at the front taking pride of place under the Christmas tree. The latest boardgame from Days of Wonder - BattleLore!

BattleLore is a 2-player board game of battling fantasy armies using a rules system called Commands & Colors by designer Richard Borg. I've played all the other Commands & Colors (C&C) games and love them all. There is an American Civil War version called Battle Cry by Avalon Hill, a WWII version called Memoir '44 by Days of Wonder and an Ancients version called Commands & Colors: Ancients by GMT Games.

I've been aware of BattleLore since September 2006 and it was the first game I've ever pre-ordered. I knew straight away this was the game for me, and with the incentive of a free Hill Giant miniature for all pre-orders I was more than happy to commit to purchasing BattleLore. Days of Wonder have a BattleLore blog where they've been releasing titbits of information over the last few months and I've been visiting it daily with an insatiable appetite, ever hungry for more news about the game.

BattleLore was released worldwide in late November 2006 but my copy didn't arrive until Tuesday 19 December 2006. As this game was my wife's gift to me, she immediately wrapped it up and put it under the Christmas tree. And there it has sat, so close, yet so far for the last week. It's been difficult, but I must admit I've been proud of my restraint in waiting until Christmas day to open it.

So, Christmas morning finally arrived. When I did get around to opening the BattleLore box I was very pleased. Very pleased indeed! Not only did I receive the Hill Giant miniature but I received the Earth Elemental miniature as well! I knew what every piece of the game would look like, but now, holding it in my hands it was better than I could have hoped for. Everything was simply beautiful. I couldn't wait to read through the rules, fondle the miniatures and set up the board, but as the relatives were arriving at 7.30am for a BBQ breakfast I sadly had to put BattleLore away in a cupboard where it would patiently await my future inspection.