Although Lutz Pietschker's site is excellent it is not the only website dealing with the medieval skirmish game 'Cry Havoc' (and it seems not to have been added to since 1999). You can also try the yahoo group and the sites of Alex Henderson and Vincent Foin. Lutz's site is based on the English (Standard Games) rules, Alex's on both English and French rules, Vincent's on expansions for the French rules. I believe the French rules to be generally superior - they modified and clarified the rules of the earlier games, and then developed the rules further in 'Croisades' and subsequent games. The boxes for the French games were also much sturdier - the Standard Games boxes were very weak and tended to squash flat, so look out for the condition of used English versions. http://flyhi.de http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cryhavocinternetclub/ http://cryhavocgames.net http://vfoin.free.fr/Index.htm

Havoc series of medieval man-to-man combat: Following an exchange of emails with Alan Paull, who designed Siege, the list of the games published in English by Standard Games and Publications should now read as below. If anyone does know who designed Cry Havoc and Outremer I would be very pleased to receive that information. I am still estimating the date of the Dark Blades Expansion Set.

1981 Cry Havoc (1st edition in zip-lock bag, 2nd edition in box), designer unknown
1983 Siege, Alan E Paull
1984 Samurai Blades, Peter O'Toole (development by Alan Paull)
1984 Scenario Book 1, Alan Paull
1985 Outremer, designer unknown
1986 Scenario Book 2, Jim Webster & LM Locke (edited by Andy McKay)
1986 Dark Blades, Chris Baylis (development by Andy McKay)
1987 Viking Raiders, David Levell
c1989 Dark Blades Expansion Set, Chris Baylis and Andy McKay

Gary Chalk was the artist involved in most of the games for Standard Games. Alan Paull also designed City of Sorcerers and Thunderin' Guns for the same company, and worked on a major revision of the system for the Crusades period which was never published. He and the company parted ways and Outremer was then designed by someone else. His main criticism of the original system relates to the lack of good morale rules, which his revision would have dealt with.

Alan greatly enjoyed the design process for Siege and told me that the design for the castle was loosely based on Skenfrith Castle (near Monmouth in the Welsh Marches) - I have visited the general area but have never been to that castle, so that is a trip that I must make later this year!. Apparently Siege was advertised before he even started to design it, so the nine months of research, design and playtesting was very intensive.

Alan is still involved with games and anybody interested in what he is doing now should check out Coppertwaddle, a very different type of game published by and obtainable from www.surprisedstaregames.co.uk

My guess is that the second edition of Cry Havoc would have come out in mid 1982 when the price was raised from 9.45 to 9.95, most likely after the first print run had sold out. There was no difference in rules (so far as I can tell), but there was one minor change to the components. "The Crossroads" map in the 1st edition had artwork on the back of one side (side 6) to act as a front cover display in the ziplock bag, while for the boxed version the artwork was transferred to the box lid and the map back was clear. The French version of the rules for 'Cry Havoc' used the improved missile results system from 'Siege', but I have not seen any indication that the English version of 'Cry Havoc' was ever updated in this way.

The identification of Gary Chalk as the designer seems to have originated from a review of the game by Peter Hatton in Fire & Movement 27 (May-June 1982). Other reviews at that time did not say who was the designer, and no information was given with the game. Alan Paull worked as a freelance designer for Standard Games and Publications from 1982 to 1985, so his statement that Gary was the man behind the magnificent counter art leaves us with a hole where the designer's name should go. Does anyone out there definitely know the designer's name?

'City of Sorcerers' appeared in 1982 as did 'Starship Captain' (designer unknown) and "The Forest" supplementary map for 'Cry Havoc'. 'Speed and Steel' (designed by Peter O'Toole, who later designed 'Samurai Blades'), 'Thunde-rin Guns' (correct title!), and 'Siege' appeared in 1983. Standard Games also produced some 25mm 'card warriors' and rpg game aids for Dungeons and Dragons.

The games after the first edition of 'Cry Havoc' were in large flat (easily crushed) boxes. 'Starship Captain' was originally more expensive than the others as it came with 9 "Deep Space" game boards, black with white hex lines, that were the same size as the Cry Havoc maps.

France: Jeux Rexton then Eurogames
1984 Cry Havoc (translation with minor changes by Duccio Vitale)
1984 Siege (translation with minor changes by D Vitale)
1985 Samourae (translation of Samurai Blades with minor changes by D Vitale)
1987 Croisades, Vitale (2 tactical maps by Paull)
1987 Siege Extension 1: The Templars Castle, Vitale
1987 Siege Extension 2: The Fortified Medieval Town, Vitale

France: Eurogames
1990 Dragon Noir volume 1: The Exile, Vitale (2 maps by Baylis)
1990 Vikings, Yves Fagherazzi & Duccio Vitale
1993 Dragon Noir volume 2: The Challenge, Vitale
The new maps for the last 3 games were designed by Jean-Michel Clement

I think that Duccio Vitale may also have translated and published Scenario Book 1 in 1984; I have not yet seen this, but it is referred to in the French rulebook for Cry Havoc. Lutz has already identified that 4 of the 6 boxed games were translated from English into German by Das Spiel and Welt der Spiel - it would be strange if Outremer was not also translated into German, as that came out before Dark Blades.

Standard Games produced one supplementary map (The Forest), and sold the Templars Castle and the Fortified Medieval Town as map sets; only The Forest map was actually used in their published scenarios. Eurogames also had three extra maps (The Open Field, The Ford, The Coast #2). Planned games on the Norman Invasion of England (by Standard Games), and 2 more volumes for Dragon Noir plus an extension for Vikings (The Fortified Harbour), were never completed. Standard Games did, however, produce a spaceship combat game (Starship Captain, in 1983) that used 'Deep space' hex-maps of identical size to the Cry Havoc maps.

There are many additional rules and scenarios; most were published in French games magazines in the 80s and 90s, notably in Le Journal de Stratege, Casus Belli, Vae Victis, and Claymore. Newer material is now being put on the internet, and there are cyberboard versions. I have translated all the French magazine scenarios and rules, and the later French boxed games: all of these are on Alex's website.