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Patch and I just finished our usual pair of C&C:A games between bigger games, this time playing the Battle of Piraeus from Expansion #6. The Athenians have a lighter army, but have occupied a hill near the center of the board, while the main line of Spartan hoplites are way back on the baseline.

Patch led off with a Line Command as the Spartans in the first game, pushing his Auxilia into the hills and doing one block damage. After a couple turns for both of us to get better positioned, an Order Mediums brought more of the line up, and Patch killed an Auxilia on the hills. I Out Flanked to deploy the wings of the army, and then Two Right followed by Inspired Center Leadership allowed him to occupy much of the hill while killing four light units at a cost of two blocks.

I Ordered Four Center to finally engage my hoplites (uphill), and a lucky hit killed Pausanias, and further attacks got the unit he was with at a cost of three blocks across two units (it would have been much worse with the leader). Patch used Line Command to bring up the left half of his force and we traded a couple blocks. I Ordered Three Center onto the hill, knocked out his Warriors, chased off an Auxilia and traded blocks on the flank. Patch Ordered Three Center in turn against my weakened line, but couldn’t quite kill any units, and took one more block than I did.

I used Clash of Shields to order five units… including a LS adjacent to a pair of fresh Spartan Hoplites, and two units that were down to a single block each. I picked off the two easy units, but couldn’t get his leader or a MC, and while a lucky roll reduced a Spartan Hoplite to one block, it also chased it away out of range of my last active unit. That managed a solid three-hit strike against his last intact unit in the area, but got eliminated in turn. Patch Ordered Mounted to activate most of his army, and finished off an Auxilia for the win. 5-6

I also led off with Line Command as the Spartans, but ended up splitting my line in the process. However, I nearly wiped out a LS as it evaded out of range, caused a hit on his other evading LS, and forced a LC to lose a block by retreating into the baseline. An Order Left and Line Command got me barely onto the central hill, where I chased off a Light with damage, and my Warriors traded two blocks with a leader-led Auxilia. Patch used Move-Fire-Move to reorder his flanks, but only did a single banner. Order Three Left continued my advance on the hill, and destroyed an Aux. Patch Ordered Four Right to force a couple units back, and cost me a couple blocks, but I also forced his leading Hoplites back to the rest of his line. A followup Darken the Sky did a little more damage, and finished off an Auxilia.

Order Lights weakened his flanks a bit, but Patch used Leadership any Section to finally get the main line of Hoplites engaged but, having to fight uphill, traded three blocks for five. I used Leadership any Section to keep my left going, but took two to one losses. Patch used Line Command to order the entire center, and eliminated my Warriors and a Hoplite for minimal losses. Order Three Center put good units in action, but the only good result was eliminating a weakened Hoplite, and driving off a leader. Patch Ordered Mediums to knock out the remaining Hoplite on my left, but blew a roll against my 1-block Auxilia and lost his Hoplites instead.

I moved up my remaining left units, and Patch had Inspired Center Leadership to continue the fight for the hills. He blew another attack against my Auxilia, and lost another Hoplite unit to them, but knocked out a 3-block Hoplite in two attacks that cost him two blocks, and also traded two blocks between an Auxilia and my remaining engaged Hoplites.

I used Leadership any Section to keep the remnants of my left flank going again, and my slingers finally finished off his LC at range, while my MC finished off a 1-block Hoplite. 6-5

Afterword

Both plays of this battle were unexpectedly brutal. The Spartans have a great force hampered by having the Hoplites so far back, with everything else in the way. The Athenians start with a position on the hill, but their truly good units are a bit far back. Both times it looked like the Spartans were going to have a pretty good time of it when some timely die rolls or cards gave the Athenians what they needed. I was worried about a shutout in the first game until that lucky leader loss, and in the second game, my hand went steadily from ‘pretty good’ to ‘junk’, and I never had much I could do to engage my right flank.