Big Game Hunter

I've been at it again on eBay. Previously, my buying focus was 90% miniatures-centric. That's because I'm a tabletop wargame enthusiast and collector of miniatures / toy soldiers. But lately, a new beast has crept into the sights of my Big Game Hunter's scope: board games.

Recently, I got an out-of-print board game that's been on my wargames wishlist for quite some time: Battle Cry. This is a classic 2-player wargame about the American Civil War by the very talented game designer, Richard Borg.

Battle Cry was the first game in Borg's command & colors wargame series, which also includes Memoir '44 (WWII battles), Command & Colors Ancients (ancient/medieval warfare), and Battlelore (fantasy battles).

I own Battlelore, which is really no big surprise since the fantasy genre is my favorite. But I also enjoy historical games as well, and since my ACW games consisted of the old American Heritage version of Battle Cry from the 1960's and Gettysburg from Avalon Hill (which I've never played -- anyone who wants to buy an unpunched edition, I've got one for sale!), I felt it was high time for a fresh look at the period. Plus, the new edition of Battle Cry is really a classic and a worthy addition to any gamer's collection. The trick was finding this game for a reasonable price. I've seen it sell for well over $100 on eBay, and more frequently fetch bids in the $65 to $80 price range as the norm.

So color me pink that I was able to buy it for only $42 plus nine bucks for shipping! I can't wait to try out Battle Cry, and will be adding it into the mix of 2-player games that I'm planning to play over the next 3-to-6 months.

The second board game that I recently acquired via eBay was Lionheart. Truth be told, I didn't really know much about this game until I saw it on eBay. The game's subject matter (medieval warfare) is a personal favorite of mine, but what really interested me was a combination of a chess-like game with cool looking miniatures. I'm a big fan of Feudal, an underrated 3M classic, so anything along those lines piques my interest.

Unfortunately, the reviews of Lionheart on BoardGameGeek were mediocre at best. But after reading several reviews, the game's mechanics seemed easy enough to tweak and the plastic minis were very enticing. I figured that if I could get this game for $10 or less, I would have some extra minis to use for other wargames, as well as a fun little game to tinker with and improve through the use of my own design variants & house-rules.

So I held out and was able to snag Lionheart for $5.50 plus nine bucks shipping. That was another satisfying purchase for me. There are definitely good deals to be had on eBay if you're willing to dig around. I'm still waiting to get this game in the mail, but it should come in within the next few days or so.

Until next time hunters, may you bag some big game!