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Sunday 12 September 2010

A day of wargaming

Every month or so during autumn, winter and spring, a group of us try to have a get-together in Central London so that we can play wargames. We usually start at some time between 10.30am and 11.00am, have a break for snack lunch at about 1.30pm, and finish between 4.00pm and 4.30pm. Often one of the group will stage and umpire a game that they have designed, and the rest of us pitch up (with food and drink for the lunch)and play.

Because several of the group are either away from the UK working, or have just returned from overseas postings and are settling down to life in the UK, it was decided that we would each bring along a game and if time allowed, we would play one or more of them.

By sheer coincidence, one of the group had brought along a game that he has designed using the board from BATTLE-CRY, the old Milton Bradley game about the American Civil War, and I had taken my copy of Richard Borg's BATTLE CRY, which was sold by Avalon Hill.

Milton Bradley game is a strategic-level wargame which allows the players to refight the entire Civil War, whereas Richard Borg's game is a tactical-level game for re-fighting the main battles.
We started by playing BATTLE-CRY, and the game ended when a small Confederate Cavalry Division managed to capture and hold Philadelphia just as the might of the Union was about to be unleashed on an offensive that would cut the Confederacy in two. As one of the Union commanders, I may be a bit biased, but I felt that we were unlucky not to win the War.

Because we had enjoyed ourselves so much, we were only just able to have a quick battle to try out BATTLE CRY. None of us had played it before, and we chose the Battle of Bull Run for our 'lesson' in how the rules worked. In actual fact, the result was reasonably historical, and we all agreed that it is a nice simple game that uses lots of good game mechanisms ... some of which I suspect will be copied and developed.

It was a great way to spend and Sunday, and I am looking forward to the next one!

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