Richard Borg on the Commands & Colors System

I just got back from Mayday in Edmonton and I am a little tired so I will just leave you this comment from Richard Borg, designer of the Commands & Colors System

In regard to Battle Cry and Hasbro… By design Battle Cry is the simplest game in the Commands & Colors system. Hasbro wanted to target Battle Cry to mass-market buyers as well as us gamers. So the rules were written to create a game that is fun to play, moves along at lighting speed and except for the leader rules is about as basic as it could be.

About the same time as the American Civil War game rules were being written, other historical and fantasy versions were all at various stages of completion. We had played Fantasy, Medieval, Mexican American War, Crimean War, World War II, Colonial, Future, and actually had the Napoleonic rules and American Revolution rules completed prior to Battle Cry hitting the stores. It really helps to have fellow gamers with a deep interest and knowledge of history and the miniatures to play around with…

What was so interesting about developing all of these periods around the same time, from the designer's standpoint at least, is that we could focus on each period, making sure we use the best rules and Command card ideas, so that each would play different and have the proper historical feel. Sure some of the rules or Command card concepts from one period could be applied to another period, it will work, I know we have tried… but the questions I always had to ask were: where does this concept work best, or where does it help most to enhance the historical feel?

It has been suggested that… a more accurate assumption would be that Mr. Borg just got better as he designed more games… actually I hope I am becoming better at my trade, but if the truth be known, most of the differences, or the so called improvements, for each game in the Commands & Colors line, are intentionally as we tried to take you from simple to more complex…