Battle Cry (game)

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For other uses of Battle Cry, see Battle Cry (disambiguation).

Battle Cry is a board wargame based on the American Civil War, designed by Richard Borg and published by Avalon Hill in 2000.^[1] While superficially similar to conventional board wargames, it borrows from miniatures wargaming with its use of plastic figures and its simplified rules.^[2] The map is initially composed of blank hexes, although additional cardboard hexes can be placed to alter the printed terrain and recreate a wide variety of battles, as per scenario instructions.^[2] The game manual includes fifteen official scenarios (battles) and Avalon Hill published three extra scenarios, called The Jackson Campaign, for the Origins 2000 and Gen Con 2000 conventions.

Players command a variety of units: infantry, cavalry, and artillery. Each unit is composed of a varying number of plastic figures. During each turn, players alternate playing cards from their hands. These cards allow a player to activate a number of units on a specified flank-left, center, or right.^[2] Attacks are made by rolling a number of dice, depending on the attacking unit and any defensive terrain. Each six-sided die is labeled with each unit symbol; if the rolled symbol matches the target's unit type, a single figure is removed.

The player who scores the required number of victory points, as determined by the scenario instructions, is the winner.

The same game mechanics were later used in Memoir '44 and Battle Lore, published by Days of Wonder, and in Commands & Colors: Ancients, published by GMT Games.

According to reviewer J.C. Connors "Battle Cry's simplicity means that grognards who cut their teeth on past Avalon Hill games ... will probably find themselves unsatisfied. It's not a historical simulation ... a particular strategy that worked in real life might not be possible. But Battle Cry isn't meant to reflect those things -- it's meant to be a fast battle game with a historical flavor."^[2]

Battle Cry won the 2001 International Gamers Award for General Strategy, 2-Player category.^[3]

[edit] Milton Bradley game

The title, Battle Cry, was also used for a 1961 Civil War board game produced by the Milton Bradley Company as part of their popular American Heritage series, which was reprinted in the 1970s.