Sunday, February 4, 2018

Battle Cry with Peter Laing Figures

    While trying to work out how to use toy soldiers with Memoir '44, I also started thinking of what other games I could play using different Richard Borg games with my Peter Laing figures. I decided to try using Battle Cry with my Peter Laing Boers and Victorian British parade figures.  It's a simple answer to using my toy soldiers in games.  I used the First Bull Run scenario for the game.  My poor cards shuffling led to a large part of the game taking place on the Union (British) left, and on the right of the Confederates (Boers) line.
The board set up, with the British on the bottom and Boers on the top.

The British moving up their left flank. I always try to keep units on the dividing  line so they can respond to either  zone.

The Boers attack the British artillery, killing one gunner. The British cavalry counterattacks ...

...and drives the Boers off. The card drawn by the British was the "Hit and run" card which allowed the cavalry to attack, the move again. The cavalry takes the hill, giving them advantage against the Boer cavalry, should the Boers choose to attack. The blue mounted Boer is a General figure.

The Highlanders advance to try to take the center ridge line. The Boers had poor luck in drawing cards for the center.

The one Boer unit on the ridge has a General with them, giving them an extra dice. The Boer cavalry on the left attacks the British artillery again.

The Boer cavalry eliminates the British artillery, and the Boers on the ridge kills one Highlander.

One Highland unit climbs the ridge and kills two Boers.

The Highlanders kill the Boer General and wipes out the Boer unit he was attached to.

The Boers now attack the ridge and eliminates the Highlanders holding the ridge.

Another unit of Highlanders push onto the ridge.

On the Boers' right, the Boers wipe out two British infantry units.

The British fire on their left eliminates one Boer unit, and forces the other to retreat. The Boers retreat to the ridge.

The Boers counterattack on the ridge destroys another Highland unit.

The British, led by their General, drives one Boer unit off the ridge. The British used a "Leadership" card, which gave units with a General attached extra movement and fire benefits.

The Boers draw a "counterattack" card, which basically lets the Boers use the last card the British played.  The Boer cavalry on the ridge has a General attached to it, giving them the benefits of the "leadership" card. The Boer cavalry sweeps off the ridge and hits the British infantry's flank. With all  the extra dice, the infantry unit is wiped out. The British has now lost 6 units, which means they have also lost the battle.

The field at the end of the battle, from the Boers line. The game tends to start off slow,  as the  infantry and artillery move 1 hex at a time. Once you get enough units into combat, the game gets interesting. I am thinking of maybe using average dice to see if that would move the game along a little more quickly. 

10 comments:

  1. I've recently run Battle Cry with 6mm Heroics & Ros figures. Originally I used one base for one Battle Cry figure, but that made the hexes look a bit full (I use 20mm square bases). Two bases looks nice - that gives 16 infantry, 6 cavalry and 2 guns to each unit, and I can mark hits with small stones. It also leaves room for proper terrain if I feel like going down that particular route.

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  2. I have thought of using Heroics & Ros with different Richard Borg games. I do have some Napoleonics which I based, with 4 based units, each base having 5 figures. The price of the figures stopped me from buying them, along with the painting of said figures.

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    1. I'm not sure I'd do any especially for it, but I had them already painted and based :)

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    2. I like the looks of H&R figures, and they look great in massed formations. I agree with you though. Unless I was only going to use them and nothing else, then maybe I would purchase them. The few I do have I found on Ebay at a really cheap price.

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  3. John
    Good to see your newest Peter Laings in colourful action on a simple and attractive hex board.

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    1. It was a shame that I hadn't use the newest recruits more. I am thinking of using the Richard Borg boards more. I don't care for the large "Battle Cry" in the middle of the board. I will probably use the Memoir '44 board in the future.

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  4. I've never played Battlecry but it looks good the way you're playing it! It is a shame they put the lettering on the board. I guess you could cut some card hexes the same size as those on the board and make some different scenery to change the scenario?

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  5. Battle Cry is like the other Richard Borg wargames. They come with different terrain hexes that you can arrange to set up different scenarios. As the Memoir '44 game board is the same size as Battle Cry without the name of the game being printed in the middle of the board, I can use that board for future games.

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    1. John my eye-sight has let me down again! I can see the scenery hexes now that you've mentioned them. That's a very nice system.

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  6. It is a great system for wargames. They do have boards that will double the size of the battlefield, which I would like to get. I think I will see if the terrain tiles are interchangeable between Memoir 44, Battle Cry, and Battlelore.

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