Saturday, May 24, 2014

Great Ideas for Battle Cry & Little Wars

     While trying to find scenarios for "Battle Cry", I followed a link that Bob Condrey had for Battle Cry variants. It brought me to boardgamegeek.com and a designer by the name of Pete Belli. He has many battle reports using Battle Cry, Little Wars, Memoir 44 and other rule sets using unusual themes for battles. Everything from Pancho Villa to Alien invasions to H.G. Wells vs. the Kaiser! What's more, he uses unpainted 1/72 plastic soldiers to fight the battles. I had just about given up completely on plastic figures, selling and giving away thousands of my 1/72 plastics; thank goodness I held onto my Airfix and Atlantic figures!

   Mr. Belli also uses Micro Machines toy vehicles and aircraft in his scenarios. I first saw Micro Machines just as their popularity wained.  I did buy quite a few sets until the local stores stopped carrying them. It's a shame that Galoob, the company who produced them, have stopped making them. One of the last sets I got was a set "Merkava Tank Platoon" consisting of three Merkava tanks. The military sets are great little miniatures perfect for war-games. They tended to be painted funky colors and weird camouflaged schemes but can easily be painted and are the right size for 15mm war-games, although they look right if using with Memoir44 games.  I do believe that there would be a niche market if they were to sell "Platoon sets" such as the Merkava platoon set.  I took a quick inventory of what I have in ways of Micro Machines fighting vehicles and show some photos of whatI have.


2 comments:

  1. I bought copies of Eagle Games' THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR and WAR! AGE OF IMPERIALISM specifically to use the figures in battles like those shown in Pete Belli's games. They turned out to be good games in their own right, but I have not given up the idea that I will use them for BATTLE CRY/MEMOIR '44 variant games.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  2. I was going to buy both those games with the same Idea, but never did. I do believe I got some of the artillery from the Civil War set when I bought a lot of toy soldiers and I used them in the war-game which will be featured in my next posting.

    Regards, John

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