Schneider Wins Second Battle Cry Championship!

Once again, there was a strong turnout for Battle Cry, the Civil War version of the Commands and Colors series of games. As usual, the format is single elimination with a mulligan round. In the mulligan and first round, we play two games (match play), and each player has two chances to advance.

For the mulligan round, we had 16 players. An additional 13 players showed up for the first round on the second weekend, for a total of 29 participants this year.

The scenario for the first round was Chickamauga, which plays pretty quickly (perfect for match play). In the 34 games that were played, the Confederate side won 25 of them. Three matches were tied in banners, but Jeff Lange, Greg Staton (who made it to the Final), and William Kendrick were able to advance by eliminating more figures than their opponents.

Fifteen players advanced to the second round, and the scenario for this round was Murfreesboro. This scenario played more quickly than expected, so we plan to play this one in match play next year. However, the format for this year was single games for the second round and on. Players bid infantry figures for the side they wanted. The results of this scenario were very balanced, as the Confederates and the Union each prevailed in 4 games. In the closest match, 2016 champion David Schneider squeaked past perennial contender Joe Harrison 6-5.

Since the eliminator won the second round match, 7 players advanced to the third round. The scenario for the third round was Gaine’s Mill, which poses several challenges for the players, as a river is in between the enemy forces. Thus, the Confederate player must decide how best to approach the Union while minimizing losses to artillery fire. Because of these challenges, the Union won 3 of the 4 matches. Peter Stein won 6-5 over William Kendrick, Greg Staton advanced on the strength of 6-2 Union victory, and 4-time champion Jeff Cornett won 6-4 over Ed Kendrick. The sole winner as the Confederates was David Schneider, who beat Jeff Lange, Sr. 6-2.

The Semifinal was at Wilson’s Creek. At setup, the Confederates are forward in the center, with Union troops near their back line on the left and right flanks. Thus, the action was fast and furious from the beginning of the game. Greg Staton won over Peter Stein 7-5 as the Confederates. In the other Semifinal, Jeff Cornett bid 5 figures for the Confederates but was quickly overwhelmed by David Schneider’s Union forces. David played coordinated advance, fight back, and outflank early in the match to take a 4-0 lead.

Thus, Greg Staton and David Schneider met for the Final at Gettysburg (Devil’s Den and Wheatfield). David bid 3 figures to play as the Confederates. After just a few turns of long range artillery fire, David’s troops began an all-out assault on their left flank to try to take Little Round Top. Although he inflicted some serious damage, Greg was able to eliminate an infantry unit for the first banner. However, a second forced march card in a row resulted in three banners for David, including one as a result of eliminating a 3-figure unit with 3 dice. At the end of this turn, Little Round Top had been taken and there were no Union troops remaining on the left flank.

The action then shifted to the Confederate right flank, and Greg was able to eliminate one of David’s artillery units. There was then a pause in the action, as the generals got new orders and shifted their troop alignment. Greg shifted some units from the center in an attempt to regain Little Round Top. Greg killed a Confederate infantry unit near Little Round Top to tie the game at 3.

However, an outflank card allowed David to reposition and take back some lost ground, as well as take a 4-3 lead with another Union infantry eliminated. Even though the score is close at this point, Greg is seriously depleted and essentially pinned on his right flank. He only has one unit in the center. In addition, David used a bombard card to get his artillery into the woods.

After some more repositioning and some artillery exchanges, David played Battle Cry to order 2 artillery and 1 infantry. This results in the elimination of 2 more Union infantry for a commanding 6-3 lead. David followed this up with leadership to eliminate a 3 figure artillery unit on 4 dice to win his second Battle Cry championship.

Next year, we will try to hold the mulligan on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday night instead of on the first Saturday. We will also try to make some refinements to the bidding system. If you have any ideas, suggestions, comments, or input on the format, please email Geoff Heintzelman at grheintzelman@gmail.com.