BattleForge is a video game developed by EA Phenomic and published by Electronic Arts. It was released on Windows in March 2009. BattleForge is a card based RTS (Real-time strategy). It revolves around trading, buying and winning through means of micro-transactions. Micro-transactions are not required for playing the game, only for buying new cards. On May 26, 2009, BattleForge became a Play 4 Free branded game with only 32 of the 200 cards available. In order to get additional cards, players will now need to buy points on the BattleForge website. The retail version comes with all of the cards and 3,000 BattleForge points.

Status: Final
Official Site: http://www.battleforge.com/

The BattleForge Play4Free Client offers you complete access to all areas and functionality of the game, including all content updates (new PvP maps, Renegade Campaign) made available since release.
Along with all functionality of the game, BattleForge Play4Free includes two decks consisting of 32 cards. You can play any scenario in the game, including the Renegade Campaign. With BattleForge Play4Free, you are also able to purchase Booster Pack and bid on cards in the Auction House.
However, you can only offer a card in the Auction House once you have reached level 4 in PvE and level 10 in PvP. Direct trades and sending in-game mail with attachments are also blocked until you reach this experience level.

There are a total of 200 cards available, almost equally divided between the powers of fire, frost, nature, and shadow. Players can buy and sell cards at an in-game auction house, using BattleForge Points (BF Points), an in-game currency. Players can also invite each other to conduct a direct trade.

There is a PvE mode (player versus environment) and a PvP mode (player versus player). In the PvE mode, players can complete missions. Some of these missions can only be played by 1 player, while others can be played with 2, 4 or 12 players. There are three modes available in missions: standard, advanced and expert. In order to unlock advanced and expert modes, players will have to complete the series of missions on standard mode first. The rewards for the missions are gold, card upgrades and PvE experience points. These experience points will increase a player's PvE level.

For PvP, players can choose between ranked and unranked PvP. Unranked PvP will not give any rewards, but can be useful for testing cards and strategies or for a simple, friendly match. Ranked pvp will give players gold, ELO points and tokens as reward. Gold and tokens can be traded for card upgrades, while ELO points will increase a player's PvP level.

In the 90’s Blizzard set the bar for Real Time Strategy games with their smash hit, Warcraft and later, Starcraft. Their near perfect formula of balance, strategy, and replay value has been what hardcore strategy gamers have hoped for in all other games of the genre. Does BattleForge live up to such a high expectation?
Calling BattleForge an RTS (real time strategy) just isn’t enough. This game is one-half real time strategy game, and one-half trading card game. As such, it requires you to pay real money via micro-transactions for more cards. A once Pay-to-Play game gone Free-to-Play, BattleForge still offers a full game but also the option to buy additional cards. Read More»