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After a very short Endless Struggle, Patch and I did our usual round of Commands & Colors: Ancients. Up this time was the Battle of Vercellae from Expansion #2. This is the final wrap up of the Cimbrian War, and is pretty much the denouement of First Man in Rome, so I’m in generally familiar territory. It’s a large battle, with the Germanic army largely bunched up in the center (four deep in places!).

I had the Germans first, and did nothing with my opening ranged attacks, while Patch Ordered his Lights forward, and got one hit on an Aux. I Darkened the Sky, and got three hits, driving back an Aux. Patch moved up his left, and a Line Command got my entire mass moving, and finished off a Light, and drove off another. Patch Ordered Lights, and forced two units back with ranged fire. I Ordered Three Right to send in the cavalry, which had so far only avoided retreating off the map from ranged fire because of my leader. However, I merely traded two blocks on a LB for two on a MC.

Patch Ordered Two Left to send in his cavalry, knocking out the weak MC, doing two blocks to another, and forcing my leader back in return for one block. I came back with Order Two Right, and knocked out one MC and finished off his LB. Patch Ordered Mounted (all one MC…) and lost his last MC after driving off my weak one and doing a block to the one with my leader. Order Three Center let my main mass start getting into action, knocking out an Aux, and forcing a Light to evade with a loss. Leadership Any Section let Patch counterattack, nearly taking out two Warriors, but he lost a Med and took 3 hits on another in return. Order Three Center let me protect one of the Warriors (and Beorix) while finishing off his Medium. Then momentum finished off an evading Light. 8-1

For the second round, Patch opened with Two Units Left, which thankfully got no hits in ranged combat. He tried again with Three Units next turn, and got a hit on an Aux. I Ordered Mediums to deploy more of a line forward. Patch Out Flanked and wiped out a MC and did a block to a Med in return for one hit on a MC. I Double-Timed my right into the barbarian flank, forcing two LBs to evade after taking a block, and knocking out an Aux for one hit on my damaged Aux. Patch Counter Attacked, and wound Warriors through his packed formation, doing a block each to a Med and the damaged Aux, in return for two hits on a Warrior. I reshuffled the Aux out of the way with Leadership Any Section, and a First Strike kept one of my Mediums from doing anything after taking a hit, but I knocked out two Warriors while taking two hits on a Medium.

And then Patch used a Line Command for his big mass, which stayed out of contact, but finished off Sulla’s Medium and drove the remnants of my right back with banner hits. A Coordinated Attack got a hit on a Light and let me reposition slightly. Inspired Left Leadership deployed his flank a bit, but got no hits in all ranged combat. Order Three Right got my remaining Mediums and Sulla back to the barbarian line, and I knocked out a Warrior, forcing Beorix back, while momentum got a hit on a Light.

Another Line Command let Patch advance a bit more and cause ranged hits to two units while knocking out Sulla’s new Medium at a cost of two blocks each on two Warriors. Order Two Right let Sulla join the last Medium on the flank and force a Light to evade. Patch Ordered Lights, but did no more than force Sulla to retreat a hex. I Ordered Three Center, and knocked out an Aux, but lost one of mine in return. Patch Ordered Four Center, and knocked out a weak Medium, but took two blocks to a Warrior in the process. I Ordered Mediums, taking out a Warrior while taking one hit, and a pair of our MCs reduced each other to one block.

Patch then sent in a Mounted Charge, finishing off that MC, picked off a 3-block Medium and forced a LB to evade with a hit. I used Line Command on the remnants of my left flank, and reduced two units to one block each while taking a block on a Medium. Patch Ordered Three Right and finished off a Medium. 6-8

Afterword

The first battle started slow for me, but as soon as I got into close combat my dice were unbelievably good, and Patch went down before he could do much. The barbarians only get four cards, and by the end of the game two of them were basically junk, but the rest of my hand let me do what I wanted.

The second game dragged out a lot more, and is probably a lot more typical of the scenario.The Romans have good tools, including a six-card hand, though Patch’s two Line Commands and Mounted Charge helped him out a lot. We’re still getting used to Marian infantry, and I only remembered mid-turn at one point that one of my Mediums had a shot. All our leaders got a good workout in the second game, and Sulla especially gave better than he got.

After finishing up Bertoldo the Brave, Patch and I went to our between-games round of Commands & Colors: Ancients. Up this time was the Battle of Scirthaea from Expansion #2. The Romans have a compact force with a lot of Mediums, while the slave revolt has a more strung-out line with a lot of Warrior units.

I had Salvius’ slave army first, and had a decent hand despite being down two cards (4 to 6). I Out Flanked to send the MC into flank of the Roman army, trading one block each with a Light. Patch used Line Command to move up, driving off the MC and doing another hit to the weak one. I used my own Line Command to get closer and come into contact on my left, driving off a Light. Patch Counter Attacked to destroy an Aux, while taking to blocks on one of his. Order Mediums let me destroy a Medium, and do two blocks to a Light, but two of my Warriors took hits and retreated.

With both of our lines now fractured, Patch played Order Mediums to pick on the center, picking off a Warrior, forcing another to retreat to the baseline after taking two hits, and destroying a Medium, killing Salvius. However, he lost two blocks each on three mediums and lost one of his leaders. I Ordered Three Center, bringing up the retreated Warrior to destroy two weakened Mediums, and then trading one hit each on our intact Mediums. Patch Ordered Two Center to do one block to a Medium, and I Ordered Three Right, destroying an Aux while taking one block, and forcing a one-block Light back to the baseline. Inspired Center Leadership got about half of Patch’s army moving, and finished off a Warrior and Medium. 5-6

Patch started the second game with Order One (Heavies, and there aren’t any in this scenario) to trade two hits to a Light to one on his MC. I Ordered Three Left to get at his MC but merely lost my MC for my trouble. Patch advanced with Order Four Left, and I Coordinated Attack to take a hit on an Aux after again failing to affect his MC. He advanced some more with Order Two Left, and I issued a Line Command to force an Aux to retreat and finally knocked out his MC.

Patch Counter Attacked, coming into contact on both flanks, forcing back an Aux while doing three hits to another, but took two hits on each of a Warrior and Aux. I Counter Attacked in turn, finishing off the Aux, forcing the Warrior to retreat after another hit, but taking a hit on a Medium in turn, while on the other flank, I reduced an Aux to one block, killing Athenion, taking two blocks on a Medium in turn. Leadership Any Section let Patch get his center into action, finishing off a weak Aux, and doing a block each to four Mediums, but taking two blocks each on three units in turn. Losing the Aux broke my line, but Line Command still covered the majority of my units, closing the gap and finishing off two weak units. 6-2

Afterword

With only four cards, the performance of the slave army is going to depend a lot on what they draw. They’re also a bit more fragile with the reliance on Warriors, which can quickly see them at a dice disadvantage. However, the two-hex move into combat, and especially, momentum combat helps a lot here and helped me make the first game very close.

Both of these were surprisingly fast fights, with three leaders going down, two of them to two-die rolls when a unit merely took a loss. The biggest delay is that both armies set up fairly far back, so coming to grips would have been a lot slower without the multiple Line Commands.

After failing to rescue some hostages, Patch and I went to our between-games round of Commands & Colors: Ancients, with the Battle of Pydna from Expansion #1. Unfortunately, I forgot to record a log of the bulk of the second game, so I won’t have as detailed writeup for that one. The Macedonians have a fairly Heavy army, with Lights and Aux out front, while the Romans are centered on Medium infantry with a pair of Elephants on one flank. Stretching across the middle of the map is a bunch of rough terrain, which makes this a very different battle.

For the first game I had the Macedonians, and I started by Ordering Four Left, and Patch countered with Four Right, with his Elephants doing one block to me. I Counter Attacked, driving off one Elephant, and doing a block to the other, in return for a Light and HC loss to rampage. Order Two Right destroyed the HC, even while evading, and his Mediums moved up to drive off my Lights. Three Left lost me a block on a LC to another rampage, but that unit also finished off the weakened Elephants, and then drove back his Lights on momentum. Out Flanked let the remaining Elephants to two hits to a medium, take a hit, and do a third to the Medium with rampage, and do an archery hit on the other flank. Leadership Any Section let my left keep moving, and finally pick off the remaining Elephant, and force back his Medium and Light.

Patch got his middle-right going with his own Leadership Any Section, doing three hits to a Heavy, but taking seven blocks across three units in the process. With both of our flanks exhausted, I Ordered Three Center to move up, with the depleted Heavy finishing off a Medium. Patch Ordered Lights to do another hit to a LB, and finished off a weak Medium. I used Line Command to move up, did a hit to a weak Medium, and finished off his LC. Patch Ordered Lights again to drive off my LB, do a block each to two other units, and finally finish off my Heavy.

Order Two Left drove off his LC with a loss, and he came back with Move-Fire-Move to do a block to a Light and drive it off, and then get much of his line up to the rough terrain. I used Order Two Right to kill an Aux, but it got two banners on an MC which drove it back to the baseline and reduced it to one block, and the other MC followed it to the baseline after a momentum attack. Patch used Inspired Left Leadership to get into the rough and do two blocks to an Aux in return for one block. I used Order Four Center to mostly pick on scattered units, but got nowhere. Coordinated Attack got him a couple hits, and Darken the Sky did no more than a single hit for me.

Patch announced that He Was Spartacus, but did no more than order a Medium and an Aux (the last on a wildcard), and finished off a Light and reduced an Aux to one block. I Ordered Three Right to drive back an Aux and reduce a Light to one block, and Patch used Mounted Charge to finish of a MC and kill Perseus. Line Command let me press forward, and I eliminated a blocked Light with two banners, reduced his HC to one block, and traded blocks between a Medium and my Heavy. Clash of Shields let patch activate three units, and nearly wiped out a Heavy while finishing off another, and I did one block in return. Order Three Right forced the HC to evade, but didn’t finish it off, and ranged fire got a block on his Aux. Double Time let him shift to his left and finished off my Heavy. 6-8

As mentioned, I don’t have a detailed writeup for most of the second game, but we kept a fairly even score (5-5 at the point my log picks up), with Perseus dying early in the action. Both sides lost a lot on the Roman left flank (the opposite side as all the early action last time), and the fight in the center rough got fairly fierce while the right did not really engage.

Patch then Out Flanked to reduce one of the Elephants a block, and I Ordered Heavies to pick off a Medium at the cost of the weakened Elephant, and then got a weakened Heavy, but failed to finish off a one-block HC on momentum, and took two hits instead. Another Heavy also missed in rough terrain, and lost a block in return. Patch Ordered Two Center and wiped out my weak Heavy and killed Paulus. 7-8

Afterword

Both games were pretty close and tense battles, the second one especially, since I’d had a very good chance of winning it on the previous turn. The rough terrain did a really good job of making it a very different battle as we struggled to maneuver and deal with the dice restrictions.

There’s also a Roman camp along their edge, but none of the action even got close to it, and in fact, most of the action stayed very close to the middle of the board. It’s a good fight, but a long one; we went two sessions both times, and even on the bigger scenarios, we usually have one of them only go one session in our limited time.

After Patch and I finished up in Budapest, it was time for another between-games bout of Commands & Colors: Ancients. Up this time was the Battle of Cynoscephalae from Expansion #1. Somewhat unexpectedly, the Romans have a unit of elephants, and a mix of Medium and Heavies, largely back near their baseline, while the Macedonians have a string of light units in a line of hills, with a number of Heavies further back. Both sides get five cards, and we used an optional scenario rule where unsupported Macedonian Heavies only get three dice in battle back, to represent the ability of manipular legions to get around the flanks of a phalanx.

Patch had the Romans first, and Ordered Three Center to get that in motion, while I Ordered Heavies to start getting them into play. Patch then used Line Command, which moved almost everyone, and started getting him into the hills. This put him into range for a few shots, and he managed to pick a block off a LS. I used Double Time to get some Heavies into his line, however hills limited what could be done, and I did three blocks to an Aux, two to a Med, and took five blocks in return across three units.

Patch Ordered Mediums, and tried hitting a damaged Heavy, but only took a block and banner in return. He did a block to an intact heavy, but took two and a banner on his Med in turn. I used Move-Fire-Move to get better positions in the hills, and got lucky with two hits on an Aux, and three on a Light (two from a blocked retreat). Order Three Center let Patch take out an intact Heavy, but an Aux took three blocks and retreated in the process, and then momentum let him take out another Heavy. Order Three Right let me start bringing up my MC over there (I thought they’d get to Philip V, who had just lost his Heavy, but miscounted). Patch pulled out a unit and shifted another with Order Two Left, and I used Order Two Center to push the remaining Heavy forward, and join Philip V to it, knocking out a Med, and bringing another to one block which retreated to the baseline.

Inspired Center Leadership (…with only two units) knocked out my Heavy, and Philip V managed to survive retreating through a Light to one of my Lights, who lost three blocks on the next attack. Order Lights let me rearrange much of what was left, but did nothing to Patch. He then closed the gap with Mounted Charge, and did three blocks across two units, taking two blocks on a MC. I drove that unit off with Out Flanked, and then Patch moved in on my last remaining intact line with Inspired Right Leadership, forcing a Heavy to retreat. Line Command let me reorganize that flank, and knocked out a Med on the hills, taking a block on an Aux  in return, and trading three blocks on one of my Heavies for two on an Aux. Order Four Right let him wipe out the weak Heavy with his Elephants (who’d been a while moving up), and do three blocks to a Heavy, while I did one to a Med in return. I tried a Clash of Shields, doing one hit to the Elephants, but taking two in return, and doing two blocks to his Heavy, but losing mine in the process. Patch then finished off the Heavy with his Elephants to end the game. 2-6

I started the second game with Order Four Right, and Patch used Move-Fire-Move to take control of the hills, and do a hit on a Light. Order Two Left let me drive off an Aux, and get a MC on the hill and then do a block to a Light. Patch Ordered Lights, did a block to a Heavy and forced a Med to retreat. Order Two Left let me push a little further, doing a hit to an evading Light, and forcing a retreat and hit on another Light. Patch Ordered Three Center to do another ranged hit to my weakened Heavy, while starting one of his Heavies forward. I Double-Timed my center, getting close, but not really into contact, though I forced another Light to retreat.

Patch Ordered Lights again, which allowed him to start assembling a real line, and did a block to a Light, who then forced his Aux to retreat. Two Center put my Mediums into contact with his units on the center hill, one of which evaded, and the other took a banner. Order Heavies didn’t cause any action, but Patch was getting a nice force in position on my right. With no leaders on the right, I used Inspired Leadership Right as a ‘or one unit’ card to move up a MC, and Patch Ordered Two Right to drive off my other MC there, and do a block to an Aux. Double Time let me move a Heavy onto the center hill to help my Mediums, and getting two hits on one of his Heavies, while the others went right, driving a light to the baseline, and occupying a corner of that hill.

Patch Ordered Four Center, bringing three Heavies to bear on my Heavy, forcing it to retreat twice, and doing three banners in four battles (including momentum), while doing five blocks to two units. I went for Clash of Shields, which only activated two Mediums (on hills) doing one hit each to two units, forcing a Heavy to retreat, while my other Med retreated. Patch Ordered Three Center, forced a Med to retreat, but took a block and retreat on a Heavy that assaulted another Medium. I called out I Am Spartacus, to order three lights, and traded one block each on an Aux and Heavy.

Patch used Line Command to order about half his army, causing three units to retreat, and costing me two blocks, and I Counter Attacked with the bulk of my army, finishing off a weak Heavy at the cost of a block, and driving off a Aux with two losses. Order Lights didn’t do much than cost me two blocks, on units that were already a bit ragged. Mounted Charge let me go after a couple of 1-block Heavies, getting both of them (with Philip V evading to the baseline). However, I also lost a MC to battle back from a Aux I did one block to. Patch Ordered Three Center to get Philip to his MC, and did a block to one of my MC.

Rally gave me two blocks back on a Heavy, and one on an Aux, and managed to knock out a 1-block Aux of Patch’s, and then do a block plus two-hex retreat on a Heavy with momentum. Patch Ordered Three Left to get his remaining Heavies in action, and knocked out my Heavy there, however, I caused the first unit to retreat, and then a First Strike took out two blocks of the second Heavy before it could finish me off. I used Double Time to get my middle Mediums towards the action, and chased a Light to Patch’s base line. Order Mediums was restricted to Patch’s two MC, and we did two blocks to each other’s MCs. Counter Attack let me do a broad offensive, largely against units back on the base line. Two attempts by Mediums on a Light did nothing but retreat a Medium two hexes, but then I picked off a two-block Heavy, and momentum did nothing but cost me three blocks on a Medium, who retreated back onto the hill. My last attempt did nothing at all.

Move-Fire-Move put Patch in motion, and he picked off a one-block MC. I Ordered Two Right to do two blocks to a Light on the baseline, taking a hit on each unit. Coordinated Attack picked off one of my Aux, but an attack on my one-block Med did nothing, and I did two blocks on battle back. I Ordered Lights, and finally got that Light. 6-4

Afterword

The second fight dragged out a while, with the first banner not being scored until nearly an hour in. Also, if I hadn’t missed some relatively easy combats at the end, it would have been 6-2, like the first game.

Part of what lengthened the second game was all the retreats. I rolled a fair number of banners, and the opening setup isn’t very cohesive, so there just wasn’t much support available most of the time. Also, neither of us had great hands.

The hills in the center really dominate the thinking in this scenario, since anyone on them generally has an advantage, and it’s terrain where the lighter units can hold their own pretty well. That and the setup make it unusual, but it will tend to go long as

Patch and I’s latest ‘between bigger games’ round of C&C:A was the third of the ‘early barbarian’ scenarios from Expansion #2 at the end of April. The Battle of Clastidium gives the Gauls a bigger army (12 to 8), the Romans have three leaders to one, and more Command. With such small armies, the battle is only to four banners, which I think is lower than any other scenario I’ve seen.

Patch had the Romans the first time, and started by calling I Am Spartacus. However, the dice gave him a single medium to order one of his MC, who did two hits and a banner to an Aux, and then finished it off with momentum. I Ordered Mounted to bring up my two MC against his Lights, who evaded without loss. Patch did a Coordinated Attack with his MC, driving mine with the leader with one loss, and then hitting a Light with momentum, who took two blocks, but then did two in return to the MC. He then killed the other MC for no losses, and finished off the Light with momentum.

I Ordered Lights to bring up a line of Auxilia, finished off the weak MC, and drove back a second with one loss. Order Mediums let Patch envelop my left, killing an Aux at a cost of one block to a MC. 1-4

I opened the second game with Order Two Right, and lost a block to a First Strike before driving them to the Gaulish baseline in my second attack, and momentum merely had us trade blocks. Patch Ordered Two Center to rearrange a bit, and I did a Coordinated Attack, and did a block to a Light, lost a MC completely attacking an Aux before driving it off on a second attack, and finishing it with momentum.

Patch Ordered Mediums, and surrounded my forward MC and leader, destroying the MC, but the leader successfully evaded to a Light. I Counter Attacked, trading a block each on two units per side. Patch Ordered Lights, to reduce a MC to one block with ranged attack, and then finish it off with a Light (I figured a pair of 1/6 chances to hit was worth sticking around for a die battle back). I Ordered Mediums (with only two left…), and finished off a Light, then got an Aux with momentum, and then did two hits to an Aux in return for one hit on what was my only full MC.

Patch Ordered Two (…one) Right, and I evaded the Aux. I Ordered Two Left, forced back his Aux, and then finished it off with momentum. 4-3

Afterword

I was not helped in the first game with two cards (out of four!) being Order Left, and the first thing Patch did was nearly eliminate my left. Even with a larger hand, the second game wasn’t much better, since it’s too easy to not having anything meaningful except in the center in these small battles.

Overall, it’s a fun little scenario, and will certainly be over in a hurry, but it’s size does mean its going to very swingy, and prone to bouts of lopsided luck.