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After finishing off our carrier experiment, Patch and I went to our between-games round of Commands & Colors: Ancients. Up this time was Silarus, the final Sparticate scenario from Expansion #2, fighting against Crassus. Pompey is coming up from behind the slave army, so while they start in hills, any block loss from retreating off the board results in the unit being eliminated for them. (Not that it came up, but it’s a nice idea.) There’s also Crassus’ camp on one side, which is worth a banner if the ex-slaves can occupy it.

I started the first game with Inspired Center Leadership to get the middle off the baseline, and into the hills. Patch Move-Fire-Moved to harass the flanks, and got two blocks as well as driving back a Light. I Double-Timed my left into his line, knocking out a Medium, and reducing a second to one block, taking three hits in return. Patch Counter-Attacked to shift the rest of his Mediums over, knocking out a fresh Warrior unit at the cost of retreating a Medium. I Ordered Three Center to hit the flank of that move, and forced another Medium to retreat, and did a block on momentum, but took three blocks in return.

Patch Ordered Mediums, and finished off two Warriors, but not before a First Strike did three blocks, and then an Auxilia and MC traded blocks. I Ordered Three Left and finished off a Medium then forced a MC to flee the field (three banners) and finished off another Medium with momentum. Patch Ordered Mediums again to finish of an Auxilia and do a ranged hit on a Warrior. Coordinated Attack only traded one block each.

Line Command let Patch reorder his center a bit and do three ranged hits from his line at the wall and finish off the last Warrior unit. I started forward on the other flank with Order Three Right, and Patch met them with another Line Command and eliminated a Medium in two attacks. 4-6

Patch led the second game with Order Three Left for no result, and I Ordered Lights to deploy my left a little better and force a Light to retreat. Patch then brought his center into line with Order Three Center and I Ordered One (Heavy) for no result, and Patch Ordered Three Right and forced a Light to retreat. I Ordered Two Left and forced a Light to evade, while Patch Out Flanked, forcing a Light to retreat from the wall.

I stepped forward with Line Command, which didn’t get me into contact, but allowed some ranged fire, and I got a block that way. Patch Ordered Three Left to regroup on that flank, and a second Line Command got me into contact across my left and center, but left me fighting uphill to do a block each to two Auxilia, and knock out a Medium to break his line, and I took one hit each on four units. Patch Counter Attacked with the left half of his line, taking out four Mediums, and only took five blocks in return.

Order Three Center did three blocks to a Warrior, but I took two each on three units doing it. Patch activated his right wing with Line Command, which lost me another two Mediums. 1-6

Afterword

I went in aggressive for both games and primarily paid for it with well-timed Counter Attacks from Patch. The second game certainly would have gone better without that, though assaulting hills is just a tough proposition. The first game saw a lot of dramatically big results from the dice, mostly for Patch.

The scenario is interesting, as the slave army has to worry about being too close to the back line, but staying in the hills is essential to dealing with all those Mediums.