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of city
growth is essential. It's fun, but it
probably won't be
played often due to its length. Rating: 7.5
OHNE FURCHT UND ADEL [aka CITADELS
-Ed]: Wonderful fun. Kudos to Bruno Faiduti on this wonderful
game which is a joy to play. This has become a regular staple at
our Westbank Gamers sessions. There aren't many games which play
well with 7, and this one certainly does. This one will be
played for a long, long time to come. Rating: 8
BATTLE CRY: This is one I
shouldn't like. I don't like miniatures games. It has been
pointed out to me, however, that this one shouldn't be
considered a miniatures game as it doesn't use the measure and
move method inherent in most miniatures scenarios. That's a good
thing. Let me state flatly that this game rocks. It's
BATTLEMASTERS without the flaws with a wonderful 'historic' feel
to it. This isn't deep, fellas, but it is tremendous fun!
Initial rating (for what it is): 8
DRAGON DELTA: ROBO RALLY meets
TWIXT. Surprisingly fun game of crossing a flooded delta by
laying planks and stones. Pre-programmed moves (ala ROBO RALLY)
lead to unexpected surprised ... and often a bit of chaos. This
has proven to be a surprise hit. Rating: 7
ESCHNAPUR: A pleasant little game
in the family environment, but quite heavily prone to luck
concerning the draw of the 'key' and 'bid' cards. However, this
one has proven popular as a lighter game in a family
environment. Rating: 6
SILBERZWERG: Sid Sackson's BAZAAR
concept and mechanism is utilized yet again, but this time there
are other nasty elements incorporated which add player
interaction and harassment. There's more here than initially
meets the eye. There are a few problems which can be easily
fixed. Rating: 7
PORT ROYALE: Trick taking game
where players compete for one card at a time, which is then
loaded onto a ship. Get too many points of cards on a ship and
the ship goes under. Would be OK if the game played in 30
minutes, but it takes 1 1/2 - 2 hours. Just WAY too long for
what you get out of it. Initial rating (1 play only): 5
LAGUNA: Puzzle-like game where you
try to maneuver your ship across the seas without having a reef
appear through the holes in the boat. You must move the marbles
in the boat before moving in attempts to cover these holes.
Movement time is limited by a 30 second timer. My wife would
like this one as it has a puzzle-like feel to it, but I found it
rather bland. Initial rating (1 play only): 5
ALADDIN'S DRAGONS: This is a
revised version of Richard Breese's KEYDOM, which caused quite a
sensation a little over a year ago. This new version is slimmed
down and plays much quicker. I will admit that it is cleaner,
but I'm simply not a fan of the central mechanism wherein
everyone allocates ten or so tokens face-down to various regions
of the board. I find this to be nothing more than a crap shoot
and guessing game. I've warmed a bit to the game ... but not
much. Rating: 5
DER WEISSE LOTUS: I had
tremendously high hopes for this game from Martin Wallace, which
was billed as a great negotiation style game. The rules sounded
cool, too. Unfortunately, it used the exact same card play
mechanism for each and every turn. Each battle had several card
play rounds, and there were often 5 or more battles to resolve
each turn. Can you spell 'repetitive'? I've tried various
variants in hopes of improving the experience, but all failed.
Rating: 4
DEMOCRAZY: If you enjoy FLUFF or
DAS REGELN WIR SCHON (sp?), you'll adore this Bruno Faiduti
title. Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of either of these, so I
wasn't too keen on DEMOCRAZY. I tend not to enjoy games where
there is no real point and no strategy at all involved. That
doesn't make Democrazy a bad game ... it's just not my cup of
tea at all. I'll stick with Bruno's other release, OHNE FURCHT
UND ADEL. Rating: 3
DIE WEINHANDLER: I should have
listened to Peter Sarrett who informed me earlier that this game
'worked' and had solid mechanics, but it simply wasn't fun.
Still, I just had to try it. Peter was right. There's no obvious
holes or flaws in the game, but it isn't fun to play. Boring.
Rating (1 play only): 4
Greg
Schloesser hosts the "Westbank Gamers", is a founder
of "Gulf Games" and is the new president of "Strategy
Gaming Society."
BATTLE CRY
by Richard Borg
ORIGINS
We
started working on the BATTLE CRY game system around 1990.
Originally written and sold as a set of historical miniature
rules called COMMANDS & COLORS-ACW and actually it was the
second set of miniature rules we developed for the ACW period.
From 1990 to 1991, as the game
developed, my family and I were living in the Midwest and with
the help of Pat Kurivial, Roy Grider and other gaming buddies,
we hosted ACW games at local Midwest conventions including
GenCon, Little Wars, CapCon and many CITW game days. You may
remember us from those earlier Cons.
We relocated in 1993 to Orlando
FL. and started hosting ACW events at Historicon, Origins and
Avalon Con. Perhaps you
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may have
had the opportunity to play in one of these events. Today, after
almost nine years, we still play ACW at local and national
conventions.
The point here is that the basics
of the game system has withstood the test of time and we still
believe... COMMANDS & COLORS-ACW, by design, is not overly
complex. The game mechanics are presented to allow most novice
gamers an opportunity, after a few turns, to feel competent in
command, grasp the basics of the game, and enjoy the contest.
For the experienced player, the game system will provide many
hours of challenging competition. (Excerpt from the original
COMMANDS & COLORS-ACW rules introduction.)
In 1999 we licensed the game
system to Hasbro/Avalon Hill.
GAME
BALANCE
From
the start, we acknowledge that BATTLE CRY is a stylized
representation of American Civil War historical actions. It was
designed this way, and it is presented by Hasbro/Avalon Hill in
this same manner.
Once again let me refer to an
excerpt from our original rules: "COMMANDS & COLORS-ACW
is an unique historical game system which allows players to
effectively portray epic historical battles as well as small
skirmishes. The battles, showcased in the Battle Book section of
the instructions, represent a stylized battlefield. The battle
maps, although stylized, focus on the key terrain features and
highlight the historical deployment of Union and Confederate
forces in scale with the game system. Most battles depicted will
play to a conclusion in less than an hour.
The Commands & Colors game
system, although simplistic and fast paced, will still require a
sound and aggressive battle plan, strategic card play, and
timely dice rolling to achieve victory."
BATTLE CRY is a board game where
in less than two hours; two players can refight a historical ACW
battle, switch sides and play again. We call this game style,
match play. The winner, of the match, is the player who captures
the most flags after both battles are played.
Match play is necessary, for when
we set out to depict a battle, we research historical accounts,
review the numbers engaged and note how the opposition
commanders performed. We then lay out a stylized battlefield and
the deployment of troops. From the start, our battles are not
designed to be balanced. Balance games where both sides have an
equal opportunity to win... is really not true history.
Therefore our scenarios are set up as a snapshot of a historical
moment and from this moment on; the battle is in the hands of
the two commanders... The stage is set. The battle lines are
drawn. You are in command. The rest is history...
At one time, I truly enjoyed
games, which took a long time to play out. I have fond memories
of many board games and miniature battles, from the early
Seventies to the late Eighties. We would set the games up and
play all day, sometimes for the entire weekend, guided by an
encyclopedia of rules and accurate data. Today however, I don't
seem to have the desire or the time for the type of contest,
which devours a day's time. I consider myself very lucky to get
in a few hours of hobby gaming each week.
SCALE
BATTLE
CRY does not have a set scale. There is no precise troop to game
unit ratio. Neither is there a set ground scale. The game scale
varies so we may portray both epic battles and small skirmishes.
In some scenarios, an infantry unit may represent an entire
infantry division, while in others it represents a single
regiment. The battlefield's ground scale is tied to what a unit
represents in the battle. The terrain is positioned in scale
with the size of the engagement and only when it affected or was
key to the battle.
Some may question the accuracy of
the weapon ranges as the ground scale changes. To this end, it
was a common tactic to deploy a skirmish line forward of the
main force. We also believe that BATTLE CRY's combat philosophy,
which is... as the range to the enemy increases, the accuracy of
your combat and damage delivered is reduced, will hold true at
all ground scales.
Visually, some might not like the
fact that one figure may deliver the same amount of damage as a
full strength unit. Please keep in mind that the removal of
figures is only a tracking device to determine when a unit is no
longer combat effective. For a more appealing game visually, my
ACW miniatures are mounted five infantry figures on the unit's
flag stand and one figure on the other three stands. With this
mounting system, as stands are removed, the unit does not look
so anemic when down to its last stand. Actually, in our COMMANDS
& COLORS-WARS OF NAPOLEON game, as stands are removed, the
battle strength of the unit is reduced, but that's another story
and game history.
One final note regarding the
number of units in each army and the size of the game board. The
unit mix for both armies is the same: 10 infantry, 3 cavalry, 3
artillery and 3 generals. The size of the game board
(battlefield) is 13 hexes wide by 9 hexes deep. From the very
start, we
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