Battle Cry variants

I was idly surfing the Internet this evening when I came across a number of BATTLE CRY variants that were featured on the BOARDGAMEGEEK website.

I was quite amazed to see how many there were ... and the range of wars that they covered. The list included:

• British in Egypt and Sudan: Battle of Kassassin (28th August 1882)
• Zulu Wars: Rorke's Drift
• Zulu Wars: Isandhlwana
• Afghanistan: The Man Who Would Be King
• Afghan Wars: The Battle at Tezeen (1842)
• Afghan Wars: Battle of Ali Masjid (21st November 1878)
• Afghan Wars: Battle of Peiwar Kotal (2nd December 1878)
• Afghan Wars: Battle of Futtehabad (2nd April 1879)
• Afghan Wars: Battle of Charasiab (6th October 1879)
• Afghan Wars: Battle of Ahmed Khel (19th April 1880)
• Afghan Wars: Battle of Maiwand (27th July 1880)
• Indian Wars: Battle of the Little Big Horn
• Indian Wars: A battle from the Seminole War of 1836
• Sheridan in Mexico: challenging the French in 1865
• Franco-Prussian War: Battle of Gravelotte 1870
• Italian invasion of Abyssinia: The Battle of Adowa (1896)
• The Great American War of 1904: The Confederate advance on Ciudad de Mexico
• Russian Civil War: Operation White Sword (1919)

These variants are the work of two people – Michael Dippel and Pete Belli – and I must admit that they seem to have taken the development of BATTLE CRY into a generic set of wargames rules for fighting battles during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to new levels.

It is interesting to note that Pete Belli uses lots of readily available plastic wargames figures for his games as well as 'borrowing' playing pieces from other published boardgames.