Battle-Cry is a combat board game set in the American Civil War that was published by the Milton Bradley Company in 1961 as part of their popular American Heritage series.
Battle-Cry is a two-player board game between units representing the Union and Confederate armies. There are also special rules for a 4-player game.[1]
Each player begins with 22 color-coded counters (10 infantry, 10 cavalry and 2 artillery), which are set up on the map on specified starting locations.[1]
The active player rolls two 6-sided dice; the resultant total can be allocated as movement to any units. Infantry moves one square per dice pip, cavalry moves two squares per pip. Any unit reaching a mountain square must stop for the rest of the turn. Units at a railway station can each use 1 movement to immediately move to the next station.[1]
The attacker lines up a column of pieces either horizontally or vertically to attack an enemy column. In order to begin combat, the attacker's column must have numerical superiority, calculated as 2 points for each infantry and artillery unit, and 1 point for cavalry units. All units in the defending column are eliminated, and the rear-most unit in the attacker's column is moved to the front of the attacker's column.[1]
Battle Cry was published as a cooperative effort between Milton Bradley and American Heritage to mark the 100th anniversary of the American Civil War.[3] It was one of a series of four collaborative games that the two companies published, the others being Hit the Beach (a Pacific Theater of World War II-based island hopping title), Broadside (a naval game set during the War of 1812), and Dogfight (a World War I air combat game).[4] Although the designer was not credited, box cover art was by James Walker.[1]