For my first review I decided to do Avalon Hill's BattleCry. This is the first game I purchased after becoming a member of BGG with the help of other reviews posted here. It is also where I turned to for help when I had some rules questions and got some very helpful (and quick!) replies. I hope this gives back some, especially with recent posts questioning whether they should bother getting BattleCry and how well it simulates civil war combat.

BattleCry is a game designed by Richard Borg. You probably have heard of him. He devised the pretty brilliant Command and Colors system that was first implemented in this game.

Let's break it down:

Box -- The box is big. Not enormous, Twilight Imperium: 3rd Edition big, but large. I bought this game off eBay and at first I couldn't really figure out why it was so large height-wise. There is even a cardboard insert that fills up the bottom half of the box, while you place everything on top. My best guess is that when the game was new, all of the plastic miniatures were down there and you had to punch them out.

But whatever, if you are purchasing a game based on box dimensions, possibly this review is not for you.

Inside the box is a board with a blank hex map, some tiles representing terrain, dice, plastic army miniatures, and, of course, rules.

Rules -- The rules are quite simple....for a wargame. This being the first "wargame" I had played since Risk, certain concepts didn't immediately click with me the way they would with most anyone familiar with anything more complex than Risk.

Now that I have played the game maybe 30 or so times and even created my own scenario, let me see if I can explain.

Their are three types of units:

Infantry: There are four pieces to a unit. They can move one space and fire on the same turn. They can fire up to 4 hexes.

Calvary: There are three pieces to a unit. They can move three spaces and fire. They can only fire at an adjacent hex.

Artillery: There are just two pieces to a unit. They can move OR fire. They can fire 5 spaces.

There are also Generals, which can move three spaces on their own but cannot fire by themselves. However, once attached to an Infantry or Calvary unit (on the same space as them) they add an extra attack die.

Attacking

If a unit can see another unit is within range (and is not firing through their own people) then they may attack. The attacking unit rolls some dice. How many dice will be determined by how far away the two units are and if a general is involved. Terrain may also be a factor.

The dice are made up like this: of the six sides, two have infantry symbols, one has a crossed-saber (kills everything), one has a calvary, one has an artillery, and one has a flag (retreat one space).

After the dice are rolled, one piece is removed for each of the dice rolled that have a symbol matching the type of unit being attacked. After the pieces are removed, the unit retreats for any flags that were rolled. If you roll enough to destroy a unit you capture that unit's flag. The goal of the game is to get 6 of your opponent's flags.

One of the biggest complaints I've read about this game is the lack of "battleback" or defensive response to an attack. I suppose this is valid, however I would make two points: 1) on the next turn it is quite likely the unit that was attacked will turn around and attack it's attacker; and 2) this is hardly a simulation of actual Civil War combat.

There are just two more important points you need to know.

One is that you have a hand of cards. The number of cards in your hand will vary based on scenario, but will usually be between 3-6. I don't ever think I've won a scenario where I had only 3 cards, so don't use one of those for your first game.

Anyway on these cards, called Command Cards, are usually instructions named things like Probe, Co-ordinated Attack, and Assualt. These allow you to activate (or order) units in a certain part of the board. Cards like the ones listed will allow you to move and/or attack with 2 units on the left side (or flank) of the board or maybe 3 units in the middle of the board, for instance.

What will happen is that you will want to move a unit on your right flank (probably very, very desperately) but you will only have cards in your hand that allow you to move units in your left flank. This is part of the game. It is meant to simulate "fog of war." I like it. Some people get horribly, horribly frustrated by it.

This is why I don't recommend starting with a scenario in which one player only has 3 cards.

The other thing you should know about is terrain. I recommend printing out one of the player aids that BGG has here as you will probably need to reference the terrain rules quite a bit in the beginning. I think explaining each type of terrain is beyond the scope of this review, but basically having a unit move into the forest is good for defense and having a unit move onto a hill is good for both defense and offense (if artillery is placed there).

So basically, that's the rules and gameplay. So...um, is the game any good? Oh gosh, yes!

This game is so much fun. It is my highest ranked game at 9.5/10. Even my wife loves this game. It's quick, plays in 30-45 min. including setup; is not a brain-burner but has plenty of strategy; has gobs of replayability; and can be taught (once you yourself have the rules nailed down) in 5 minutes or less. I cannot compare it to the other Command and Colors games because I haven't played them, but on it's own merit this is quite a good game. The only reason I can't give it a 10 out of 10 is because of a couple of issues I have with the rules for retreating and one card in the deck that tips the balance too easily. Otherwise, this is a great game. I've even expanded into creating my own scenarios based on Civil War battles and you can find extra ones both here on BGG and other sites. Really, this is the perfect game for someone who likes the theme of a wargame but not the actual time and investment required in playing a full-on simulation of war.