"Battle Cry AAR" Topic

Played the Shiloh scenario for Battle Cry last night. There's a full game report on my blog, along with some pictures. Forgot how much fun that game can be.

link

Fun report! I love Battle Cry. (I left a comment on the blog as well.)

Just curious, was Maj. Moron a live opponent, or were you doing double duty with solo play?

It was solo. Maj. Moron was the only one available for a last minute game on a Sunday night.

I just flip a card for my "opponent". The only time I draw another one is if the card makes no sense to play, which I think only happened twice. I played the full four card hand because I knew I would be attacking. Sometimes I just flip a card for both sides depending on the scenario.

As illustrated by the AAR, flipping a single card worked better than my big plans. It also provided some moves that I wouldn't have chosen myself, which certainly made the game more unpredictable.

Good report, looks like a fun game. I love the blog too. Great tutorial too. Have you tried plastic rulers instead of the wood? It should prevent the warping problem. just a thought. I will be using your ideas for my terrain.

Thanks and regards, Bill

I do the same thing for solo, only now I actually give the "opponent" the full hand and flip the top card, adding the new card to the bottom of the stack. I figure this repeats the actually progress of the game denying me at least a few cards I might otherwise end up with.

Inspired by your efforts, I played the Pea Ridge battle solo during lunch… AND LOST!!! Those "All Out Offensive" and "Coordinated Attack" cards make a big difference when your opponent gets them (and you're stuck with two Sharpshooters, a Rally, and Out of Supplies for response). In my case, though, my note of complaint regarding headquarter's ineptitude will be addressed to President Lincoln.

I'm a lot fonder of "Battle Cry" after playing a five hour JR3 game this past weekend.

It is pretty humbling to be beat by a non-existent opponent drawing random cards, isn't it? So much for our superior generalship that comes from reading all that military history and studying battles.

I think setup to finish was two hours for this game. I was familiar with the rules so that sped things up, but the focus was on the fun strategy aspects, not rolling dice for who was low on ammunition, calculating fatigue or referencing complicated charts. Sometimes I'm half tempted to just throw all my rulebooks away and use this system with my miniatures, because all the "realism" just bogs down into dice throwing anyway.

In our defense, we *do* "play" the imaginary opponent's actual movement. (And I try to make the best decision I can under the limitations of the card throw.) So, see, we're really tactical geniuses when operating under great restraint!

We always play the "all out offensive" card as an "assault in any one sector" instead. We feel that it's just too powerful as published.