Being between ASL games, Patch and I started another round of C&C:A last week, with the last scenario from the original set: Zama 202 BC.
We would have done a pair of games, but the Vassal server crashed shortly after we began the second game.
For the first round, I had the Carthaginians (again). We started with a little bit of cavalry skirmishing that I came out the worst on, and then started deploying my flanks.
The Carthaginian army isn’t too bad in this scenario, though their leaders are tucked out of the way, and the entire formation is crowded against the base line. Moving up is difficult since there’s three elephants in front of the middle, and I wanted to keep them out of action until there were some weakened units to mow down.
However, two Mounted Charge cards changed my mind, especially when Patch moved a couple mediums up ahead of the rest of the line. I picked on one of the two, and got it as well as damaging two other units and being forced back (without any rampage hits—friendly or enemy), while nearly losing one of my own LC. Patch then Ordered Mediums and we exchanged MC, nearly exchanged a Warrior and MC (down to 1 block each), he killed an Elephant and damaged another while taking heavy losses on a Med.
My second Mounted Charge picked off that Med, killed another, and damaged a third, while I lost a LC that was trying to cut off his LC with Masinissa. Patch moved in a heavy to take out the damaged Elephant, but missed and ended up retreating with two losses.
I would have liked to have let the Elephants stand and moved the army up to support them, but I only had one center card, so in they went to cause as much mayhem as they could before his dice finally caught me. I exchanged his damaged heavy for the damaged Elephant, and got a depleted Med before being (thankfully) driven back out of his lines.
We were still mostly out of contact so, there was a pause for maneuver. I got a lucky shot that killed a leader though, and he finally wounded the remaining Elephant and drove it back to my lines. I played a Darken the Skies with only two units in range to pick off a LC and win the game. 8-4
And then we had our second round of Zama, with me as the Romans, tonight.
The beginning of the battle was a bit frustrating for me, as I started with a Mounted Charge card, quickly drew another, but had nothing else that would get the MC on the left into range.
The battle started with lots of activity on the right flank. I moved up the LC there with a Order Light Troops, Patch activated nearly that entire flank with his own Order Light, and then I Counterattacked to keep my LC moving. My first round did nothing (archery), and Patch wiffed on his attacks in his turn (one hit). I nearly eliminated a LC with a banner in the battle back, while getting hits on another LC and Aux. I then cut off the damaged LC and eliminated it, and drove back the Aux with another loss.
About the only other thing I could do was advance the center into elephant range, so kept up hammering with my leader-led LC, eliminating the retreated LC, and doing more damage to the Aux while taking two hits myself before Patch brought up a Med.
Not having much else I could do, I started the center forward. And then the elephants went charging in. The dice still weren’t with him. The first one died, the second one retreated, doing one block damage to each side, and the the third one died after taking out a couple blocks on my Scipio’s Med.
I finally decided that I couldn’t wait for a left flank card to show up and set off my Mounted Charges. The LC managed to pick off an Aux and do a hit on a Med in return for one hit. The second one got the MC into contact, with his MC being sent back to the base line, and trading two block between my MC and a Warrior.
Patch got his remaining elephant back into action, and punched a hole in my line, killing a Med. I finally got a Order Left card and killed his damaged Warrior. Patch hit back with a Line Command that got most everything in archery range, and killed my good MC with three banners. He followed up with a Double Time that knocked out a Med, but not before they nearly got an Aux.
I hit back with Darken the Sky, which started poorly, but ended by weakening a couple units and picking off a one block Med. Patch then Ordered Mediums and got the last of my MC while forcing the rest of my left flank back. Then I Ordered Center, and picked of an Aux with archery for the win. 8-4
MVP award for this game definitely goes to Masinissa and the LC. They were far more effective than I’ve ever seen LC be before. Patch had an absolute awful time at first, but actually pulled it together really well once he got his center in motion, all four banners I lost happened after I was at six banners.
