I don't think it's a resurgence. There has always been a huge Boardgaming crowd. I suspect you've only just recently noticed them because of the boardgame thread here. I know I've been playing a lot more boardgames in the last year. I've purchased about 30.
Thats worse than me. I've bought 8 in 7 months, mostly all oldtimers though. Definitely a resurgence for me.
However, I've also seen more players at local store playing them than a few years back. And at a local convention, there were way more playing board games than any of the past 3 conventions, although attendence at the convention was also up.
I'd never looked at Memoir 44, but I said to myself "Looks like Battle Cry." about 1 second after seeing Soth and Midaski's picture there. The difference between Memoir 44 and Battle Cry is that Battle Cry didn't have any further support and Memoir 44 has at least 10 expansions for it, maybe even closer to 20.
Saw all the Memoir '44 expansion items, although this doesn't really attract me too much. The initial purchase is $60 and thats more than I paid for any of the other games recently bought. Going to really need to like the game for me to buy more.
I haven't seen Battle Cry. However, when I was a kid, Milton Bradley produced a Battle Cry game that covered the entire ACW with one big map. I recall playing it many times, although it had a quirky system that doesn't lead me to want to play more, except maybe for nostalgia. With the hex grid on Memoir '44, it does remind of Command and Colors a bit, the latter I've only played once, and as a Miniature table top game using the system on a large playing area, and yes, with hexes.
