Battle Cry - Tips & Strategies

While Battle Cry can certainly be played without any knowledge of the battles of the American Civil War, doing at least a little research can help. The rule book gives set up rules for 30 different prominent battles along with a brief overview of each. This overview is an excellent inclusion that I highly encourage you not to skip!

One thing I’ve noticed, if I keep the basic strategies employed by the forces in mind (as described by the overview) it gives me a new found perspective on the actual event. Sure, the randomness of the Command Cards and the simplicity of the board might not represent every aspect of the event, but in a relatively balanced two player game it helps.

For example, last night I played the game solo using the Fredericksburg scenario. I read the overview and got the ‘gist’ of what occurred at the battle. First, I decided to play the Confederates as a really defensive force on the Left Flank(where they had field works employed at setup), forcing the Union to march their Infantry directly into the line of fire. Meanwhile, I decided the South’s Right Flank would serve as an aggressor, forcing the Union to defend there or leaving the Union to advance the Center. Since the Confederates had little in the Center at setup the only flaw in the plan would be if the South’s Command Cards favored the Center too much. Fortunately, the South gets 6 Command cards in this scenario to the Union’s 4 so even if a Center Command card glut should occur, there should be at least something the South could play.

This game ended with a 6 to 4 Confederate Victory but it was much closer than the margin seemed to imply. The Union contained the South’s aggressiveness but failed to take the Confederate hills. This shows the strength of the game as a balanced entertainment as well as the since of enhancement from knowing the background of the battle beforehand.

If you have a unit that has suffered massive casualties and is down to 1 men, retreat. If you can get that unit out of harms way, you will stop your enemy from moving one step closer to victory by taking that units flag. Also, if the player chases after that flag, you might get a really good shot at his/her units with your stronger units that remain on the line.

I had an issue with the flags not wanting to stick to the minis. I found some super glue that had a brush and it worked like a charm to get the flag stickers to stick without discoloring them.