Board Games Blues & Greys - A Board Game

Nytram01

First Sergeant
Joined
Sep 13, 2007
Location
Portsmouth, Hampshire, England
My Aunt works in a charity shop and occaisionally brings home things she thinks will be of interest to family members. A while ago she brought me a board game called Blues and Greys. The description of this board game is found on the back cover of the box and reads:

Blues & Greys
An intense old strategy game for two players
Originially inspired by a battle in the American Civil War. A challenging amusement for all age groups 7+

The games is set up with two teams of different coloured marbles - grey for one side with a red "General" and blue for the other with a yellow "General", hence the name - these are called "Soldiers", and the board is a square on a nine by nine grid. There are white lines on the grid leading from the General's staring position across the board and through a square which had two star shapes at opposite corners - the square is called "the Fort" the white line is called "the Road", the stars are the path for the road.

The aim of the game is to move one General to the center of the Fort, and the first one to reach it emerges victorious. The General cannot move off of the Road and can only move one space at a time and cannot capture or be captured by any of the other pieces.

The Soldiers can move in any direction but only one square at a time unless capturing an enemy piece, then it much jump over an opposing Soldier into an empty space - a bit like draughts/checkers - if a soldier is in position to take an opposing piece then it must do so or else it will be removed from play by the opposing player on their next turn. The Soldiers are not permitted to enter the Fort.

Only one piece may be moved per turn.

The rule book states that "A good player will move quickly to block the opposing general's road, while building stout defenses to keep his own road open."

I tried to find a picture of the game online but this is the best I could find, a page on amazon where it says it's currently unavailable https://www.amazon.co.uk/House-of-Marbles-Blues-Greys/dp/B0019E803U

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What is now my game has yet to be opened properly - only the box has been opened, the board remains sealed in a plastic wrapping - and I may never actually play the game myself.

The purpose of making this thread was really to ask if anyone knows any background information about the game.

It says it was inspired by a battle from the Civil War but does not say which battle. The picture on the box would suggest it's one the Confederates lost as there are two Confederates depicted waving white flags and another holding the hilt of his sword towards the advancing Federals.

Does anyone know which battle supposedly inspired this game?
 

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