Picketts' charge succeeds!

One thing I've noticed about Battle Cry, compared to Borg's later Commands & Colors series games, is that it has a greater tendency to turn on a few "good turns" that can be very hard to counter. An anniversary recreation of Pickett's Charge between the Young general and the Old Warrior illustrates this well.

The initial Confederate setup encourages, naturally, something like Picketts' Charge to occur. The strongest part of the Rebel forces is poised in the center, facing rather weaker Union opponents. But the cards need to cooperate. Old Warrior's initial draw as the CSA was spread between all three zones, but did have a Assault for the center zone. The grizzeled veteran decided to enagge in few truns of preliminary maneuvering around the flanks to see if he could draw more support for center offensive. With just a four-card hand it's hard to organize exactly what you need without some help from the draw.

But that aid was forthcoming, as over the next few turns the Old Warrior drew a Force March card and a fe coordinated advances. This allowed him to sidle forward a bit while getting ready to launch the Force March fueled charge, with a plan to follow up with the Center Assault.

Meanwhile the Young Generals didn't seem to have drawn the cards he needed to engage in his usual all-out offensive style and he contented himself with some dressing of the lines and long-range sniping. He also happened to draw the Reinforcements cards and rolled up Cavalry, so a brigade of horse made an appearance, much to his pleasure. Young General enjoys dashing around and he evidentlay already had the Hit and Run card he was about to use.

But it was a little too late, as the Force March rush was upon him. The valiant cavalry made their hit and run to attempt to blunt the charge but it had little impact. The Rebels followed up the Force March with the Center Assault -- and drew an All-Out Offensive! Needless to say the hammer blows were too much to withstand and Pickett and Armistead lead their boys in triumpnh over the Angle to to the Copse of Trees to a 6-1 victory.

Pickett and Armistead lead their boys in triumph through the Angle to to the Copse of Treees.

Despite the decisiveness of the victory, however, it was hard for the Old Warrior to take much credit for it, or see what he would have done from the other side had the positions been reversed.

It was fun, it was dramatic, but it's wasn't really a display of superior generalship.