However, the links with Fighting Fantasy are strong, not least because the cards were created by Steve Jackson. However, they are not officially part of the Fighting Fantasy collection, even as a licensed product. So closely are BattleCards associated with Fighting Fantasy, that many sources, especially Fighting Fantasy websites, list them as part of the Fighting Fantasy collection. Interestingly, on the back of the US packs, The Trading Post (BattleCard) is referred to as card #7, which is the number of that card for the UK edition. Cards could be bought in packs of 10 and also in boxes containing 36 packs of 10 cards.
Thus there were 148 cards in the US set, with the Emperor of Vangoria (BattleCard) being 140, and additionally there were 16 Limited Edition Treasure Cards bringing the total to 164. Additionally, in the US a special promotion was run on Treasure Cards whereby under certain circumstances special Limited Edition Gold Foil and also Silver Foil cards could be obtained (see Treasure Cards article for details).
This meant that the US set had three ways of obtaining Treasure Cards rather the two. Also, The Quests of Vangoria yielded not gold, but actual Treasure Cards. The artwork on the Secrets of Vangoria cards was the same as that used on the Shield Cards in the UK set (by Terry Oakes), but in all other respects the Shield Cards had been dropped, and therefore so had the use of shields in combat. The information on these cards was spread across 5 cards called Secrets of Vangoria. Also, two cards were dropped from the series, Quest Clues (BattleCard) and Battle Secrets (BattleCard) (which happened to be illustrated by Alan Craddock). For a reason not at this time known, Martin McKenna's artwork replaced that of Alan Craddock. Also, a number of other developments were apparent. The cards were smaller than the UK edition and were published in a different order. The US edition was simply known as "BattleCards", dropping "Steve Jackson" from the title, although his name was explicit in the copyright notice. US Edition See also, List of BattleCards (US Edition) The cards were popular enough to spawn a US edition. The very rare Emperor of Vangoria (BattleCard) was numbered 150. Also, Shield Cards and Magic Spells could be employed. Battles could be fought in two ways (detailed below in the Battle Mechanics section). Treasures could be found in the packs, if lucky, but more often were gained via The Trading Post (BattleCard) in exchange for gold accumulated through winning battles and/or solving The Quests of Vangoria. The cards, being published in the UK, were slightly larger than their US counterparts. The UK edition was the first to be published and one of its striking features was the artwork it employed, from some of the most well known and respected artists in the fantasy genre, including Iain McCaig, Les Edwards and Peter Andrew Jones amongst others. UK Edition See also, List of BattleCards (UK Edition) Jackson later said that the game was "probably too complicated for the time", stating that he had no idea how many people got the final Emperor of Vangoria. The success of BattleCards was eclipsed, however, by Richard Garfield's Magic the Gathering which came out a few months later. based on the scratch-off system and in the UK version there were also shield cards that added to the complexity of the battles. There were lots of other features, like spell battles etc. The cards "fought" each other by rubbing scratch-off spots on each card, looking for blood symbols underneath. There were a number of sub-games as well. The main objective was to gain the Emperor of Vangoria (BattleCard) by accumulating the eight Treasure Cards, which could be won via The Quests of Vangoria, or bought via the accumulation of gold from winning battles with other cards. It was later published in the US by Merlin Editions, Incorporated in a different order but with virtually the same pack and largely the same artwork (the major difference being that artist Alan Craddock was replaced by Martin McKenna). In the early 1990s Steve Jackson came up with a collectible card game rooted in fantasy fiction.