Commemorating the anniversary of the Battle of Chancellorsville, fought on this date in 1863, I hauled a copy of Battle Cry down to the local game store where one of the behind the counter guys can usually be counted on to try out some new (to them) game.
This scenario does a pretty good job of replicating the historical situation despite the limited detail of the game's tools. In this case the numerical edge of the Union force is illustrated with 12 units to the Rebels 8.
But the Confederate superiority in Command gets a three-fold expression, resulting in a significant advantage for that army. First off, they have 2 generals, to just 1 for the USA. Secondly, and more importantly, the CSA player has a 5-card hand of Command cards while the USA player has a mere 3! Thirdly, and perhaps most important of all, except for one unit, the entire Federal force is set up in the center zone, resulting in the majority of sector cards being useless to them. The CSA is set up on both flanks and has every incentive and opportunity to move into the center zone, so nearly all sector cards are usable to them.
I took the USA side because I felt that the Command problems would probably overwhelm a new player.
The course of the battle was not unexpected. As it turned out the CSA drew a well-balanced set of initial cards and their subsequent draws were useful as well, resulting in a strong and sustained pincer attack on the Federal position. The USA cards, on the other hand, were not great. About the only bright spot was that the US drew the All Out Assault card at the start, which came in useful once the CSA forces closed into contact and helped keep the game closer than it might have been.
Nevertheless it wasn't really a close affair, as attested to by the 6-2 ratio in victory flags. It only took about 45 minutes to play the game, so the battle took brely more time than the set up!
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