Oldies but goodies

Played Battle Cry again, which just reminds me why Memoir, Battle Lore, and C&C are such hot commodities. Still, I prefer Battle Cry (with a bit of handwaving to update the card deck).

Also played a few of the “good every now and then” card games, like Castle, Gargon, and Ark. Ark is still a touch too long.

And I spent hours trying to fix my computer. For some reason Firefox crashes after 3-4 minutes — this was a known issue in 3.0.9, but I’ve got 3.0.10. Fortunately the 3.5 Beta seems stable, but if anybody has any ideas (hint: mozcrt19.dll) on what to do, I’m listening.

Battle Cry & Memoir ’44

Since the games are related, I’m updating both at once. First, Battle Cry:

April 25th, 2000.

I’ve been waiting for this game for a year. I’m lucky; some people have been pining for several years. Richard Borg worked on this for a long time, and it shows. Battle Cry is an amazing game.

The board is a large hex map divided into three areas (center, right and left flanks), with hexes placed on the map to indicate terrain. Rivers, trees, walls, the usual stuff. The buildable map allows for the 15 scenarios provided in the game, and more can be made up by the players. Players also start off with units on the board: Infantry, Cavalry, and Artillery. Each unit has 2 to 4 miniatures, one of which has a flag. There are also some generals (who can move with units or alone). The generals also have flags.

The goal is simple — destroy six enemy flags. Each turn you play one card from your hand (hand size depending on the scenario). Cards range from “Move one unit on a particular flank” to “Move all units”. I don’t like that, too much variability. Any units you activate can move and fire (except artillery, which moves or shoots). The number of dice a unit gets depends on what it is and the range. You roll the special dice, which are labelled (with pictures) “Infantry, Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, Wild, Retreat”. For each die that matches the defending unit, one miniature is killed. And for each retreat, the defending unit falls back a hex.

This game is the genuine article. It’s tense and chaotic. You have limited control over your troops, which adds to the fog of war. The components are the nicest I’ve seen from a non-European company in years. The basic game looks great. Richard Borg has a set of miniatures that were painted that look amazing, by the way. [Of course, he paid $250 to the painter.]

This is a fast, tense game for grognard and non-wargamer alike. The rules take almost no time to explain, and the rulebook quickly answered any questions. The 15 scenarios should keep you busy for a while, and I’m sure that new ones will be published (if only unofficially via the web). A real winner, and I’m glad that I can give out details about it (finally).

Updated May 9th, 2000

I played five games last night, at about 2.5 hours total. Then I let other people play.

Updated Sept 2004.

I don’t play this as often as I like, mainly because of new games but also because of the box size. I did purchase the World War II game in the series, Memoir ’44. (The games using this system are called the “Command & Colors” series, and Richard is trying to get a Napoleonics version published, and has a fantasy battle system in the works, and possibly ancients) One issue on the production values, after a while the flag stickers start to fall off. But I still like this game, even if I don’t play it often.

And my Memoir ’44 review

Sept 13th, 2004

Given my feelings towards Battle Cry, purchasing Memoir ’44 was easy. Battle Cry’s flaw is the oversized box. When you transport games to play at stores and other people’s houses, this matters. So I picked up Memoir ’44 and have played a few times (and watched some of the other scenarios). The basic system is the same, so I won’t bother reviewing it again, but the improvements are worth noting:

• Cards that activate a specific type of unit (such as tanks) say “OR activate one unit of your choice if you don’t have any.” This prevents the frustrating situation where you have a handful of useless cards because you never had any (tanks, artillery, whatever). You may still have flank cards when that flank is empty though.
• The probe card (activate one unit in a flank) lets you draw two cards and pick the one you want. Now they are not strictly inferior to the “Move two/three/four/all units in the flank” cards.
• You don’t have to punch out the pieces (which was a pain)
• The board is double-sided, allowing for beach invasion scenarios as well as having an empty board.

While the basic mechanics are unchanged, the units are different. The main change is that tanks and infantry can “seize ground.” After destroying a unit (in close combat), the infantry can then advance, possibly getting into a critical hex. If Tanks seize ground, they can battle again!

So, the same game, but the details make it play differently. There is one area that bothers me: the scenarios. I’ve only played a few times, and I’ve played the early scenarios. They just aren’t interesting. The first scenario has only infantry (I skipped that one), but one beach invasion has only 5 units on the axis side. Hopefully the missions get better. I think I should just skip to mission #10 or so. There are also scenarios on the Memoir ’44 web site, but I haven’t tried them yet. Memoir also lets you play with two (or more) sets combined to make an “Overlord” scenario. I’d consider playing this, but feel no real need to play a four (or more) player team game. You may have a little bit more decision making, but it seems to me that teams cut your share of the decisions down. Twice the length with roughly the same number of decisions, why bother?

Still, while I’m disappointed with the scenarios so far, I like the system and don’t regret my purchase.

I haven’t played this in a while, so I think I should place the game into the “admired from afar” category. Still, I may buy GMT’s Command and Colors Ancients game. And if Richard should market his Command and Color’s : Fantasy to Fantasy Flight Games. They’d make a ton of money.