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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.

Patch and I’s between-big-things Commands & Colors: Ancients games have now gotten two where we started with the First Punic War (featured in the original set), and we’re up to the earliest scenario from Expansion #2: Battle of Clusium. The Romans have a fairly typical line, with Mediums in the middle, lighter troops on the flank, and a single Heavy in the rear. The Gauls are a bit scattered about, with three Medium Cavalry in the front center in camps. The Romans get a banner if they can occupy all three.

I had the Gauls the first time, and started with Order Four Right, and started deploying that wing, then Patch used Double Time to smash his Mediums into the camps. I evaded out (to keep him from being able to advance as much as anything), and lost three blocks across the three units. I Ordered Three Center to re-occupy the camps and counterattack, which failed, with me losing a MC outright, and two blocks from a Warrior, in return for doing a block each to two units. Patch Counter Attacked to finish off the Warrior, do a block to an evading MC, and occupy two of the camps.

I used Move-Fire-Move to start reorganizing, and did a block to a Light. Patch tightened up his line and occupied the last camp with Order Two Center. Line Command got my center into play, and I did three hits to a Medium on a hill, while only taking a block to a Warrior in return. Patch Ordered Mediums to pull back the weak Medium, and shuffled the rest towards the hills, and finished off the Warriors and did two blocks to an Aux before forcing it to retreat. Another Move-Fire-Move let me finish off the weak Medium while the BCH moved up a little.

Patch Ordered Lights, and re-concentrated on his main line, and did a block to an Aux. I Out Flanked, and forced a Light and MC back, the latter losing two blocks at his baseline, before being knocked out by the BCH on Momentum. Patch Darkened the Sky, but didn’t do more than force the BCH and a Light to retreat. I Ordered Two Right and knocked out an Aux for no losses. Patch Ordered Three Center to tighten up again, and I Ordered Two Left to move up my second leader.

Patch used Inspired Center Leadership, and re-engaged with the Heavy and a Medium, and did three banners to a Warrior, so he lost a block at the baseline, and did two hits to a Aux in return for one on a Medium, and then finished the Aux off with ranged fire. I Ordered Three Center, and finished off a Medium, did a block to a Light, and lost three blocks on a Aux. Patch Out Flanked, and did a hit on a Warrior, but took two on a MC in return, and then knocked out a different Warrior. 4-6

Sadly, I couldn’t repeat Patch’s opening for the second game. My opening hand was almost all left flank cards. Patch moved a little with Order Two Right, and I Ordered Four Left and did two blocks to a MC, and a block and a banner to another, in return for taking a block each on an Aux and MC. Patch Ordered Mediums and knocked out my lead MC with a banner. I Ordered Three Left and forced back a MC while reoccupying a camp.

Patch used Line Command and did a block to the Aux, who did two blocks to a Warrior back (thanks to a double-banner roll). I used Line Command to move up nearly everything and force his MC to evade. Patch used Double Time on his left flank, and made a Light evade. I Ordered Lights and did a block to a Warrior and two to a MC, and took two on a Aux. Patch had Inspired Center Leadership, and got two weak MC out of the way and formed a new line and knocked out my Aux at a cost of a block on a Warrior, and then did a block to a Medium on momentum before retreating back to his line.

I Ordered Two Left, knocking a Warrior back, and killing another. Patch Darkened the Sky, doing one block each to two Lights. I engaged his center with Order Three Center, did two blocks to a Warrior while taking one each on two Mediums, and finished off a MC. Patch Ordered Three Center and finished off two Mediums, and lost a Warrior. I Ordered Mediums to bring up what was left of the line and a MC on the right, forcing a Aux and Light back with a loss each, and eliminating a Warrior while occupying a camp.

Patch ordered two Auxes with I Am Spartacus, and concentrated on a Medium in the hills, destroying it after losing two blocks. I used Move-Fire-Move, forcing a weak Aux to retreat after taking a block, and using the double-move to get a Light into the last camp. Patch Ordered Four Left, and did a hit to an Aux, and then attacked a MC… that I decided to have stand. He did two hits, and I did one back… which killed his leader. At the start of my turn, I got the banner for the third camp. 6-5

Afterword

This was certainly an interesting changeup from all the other scenarios we’ve seen in a while. Four units of Warriors on one side is probably more than we’ve seen before, and their abilities were certainly felt. I got good use out of the the one BCH in the first round; sadly we won’t see too many of those.

The Romans did well both times, with their solid core of Mediums really cutting through the Gaulish troops. The camps and hill group were focal points for us in both plays, and added a lot to the battle.

So after our deep-space excursion, Patch and I were back for the second Pyrrhic battle, Asculum, from Expansion #1 of Commands & Colors: Ancients at the beginning of September It’s about the same mix as last time, but this time, both sides are pretty much back against their base lines, and the Romans only get four cards to Pyrrhus’ six (but they do go first). A unique twist is that while both sides get to leaders, they do not have a fixed set up; instead, you draw your initial hand, and then place them with whatever units you want.

I had Pyrrhus the first time, and put my commanders at the right end of my Heavies, and with my left MC, while Patch put his at either end of his center. Patch started with a Line Command to move up, and I Ordered Two Left to move into skirmish range. Patch moved the flanks up with Out Flanked, and I used Move-Fire-Move, with hot dice to do three blocks to a Light, and forced another one to retreat. Patch mostly stayed in place while Ordering Lights, and caused a LB to retreat after losing a block. I used Move-Fire-Move again to move them back, and did two blocks to a Medium while forcing the wounded Light to retreat. Patch drove a LC with Order Three Left, and then Darken the Sky did a block and a banner to a Light and forced his wounded Medium to retreat. Order Two Left allowed him to engage my LB, who evaded back to the baseline.

I moved up with a Line Command, and Patch used Leadership Any Section to bring his left flank forward. Inspired Left Leadership brought my left up, and my Warriors (first time we’ve seen those in ages) charged in with a MC, knocking out an Aux while taking two blocks on the Warriors. Order Four Center brought most of his Mediums into contact, but only did three blocks across two Heavies while taking seven blocks across three Mediums. Inspired Center Leadership reorganized things a bit, and I finished off all three Mediums for no losses. A Coordinated Attack let him finish off a weak Heavy, and force a LB to evade, while assembling a better line in the center, but momentum advance with his Heavy did a block to me in return for taking two and retreating back to his line.

Order Mediums put our centers into contact, while on my right a pair of MC traded a block each. The center went horrible, doing two blocks to an Aux, who wiped out a MC and did another block to my Warriors. Order Two Center let him wipe out a Medium and finish off the Warriors at no cost. Order Heavies brought up my Elephants, who finished off a MC, while I did three blocks and a banner to an unsupported Heavy. Patch Ordered Three Center to finish off my Heavy and do two blocks and a banner to a Medium. He then used Momentum to chase it down and finish it off. 5-6

For the second go, I had the Romans, with only four cards. But led with one of three Line Commands after putting one leader on the right Heavy and the other near the left end of the main line. Patch put a leader with the Warriors, and the other at the right end of the Heavies, which moved up with an Order Two Center. Out Flanked (my fourth beginning card) got me to skirmish range while the MC moved up. Patch Ordered Three Left for our MC to trade blocks (and his took a banner to retreat to the baseline), and I Ordered Two Right to do a block to a LC while it evaded to the baseline. Patch Ordered Four Left to cut off my MC who died on a banner, while a Light evaded back to my line. A second Line Command got me closer, and ranged fire did a block to his Warriors. Patch Ordered Two Left to reorganize a little, and Inspired Right Leadership moved me up a little and let me do a block to a MC with ranged combat.

Patch Double Timed his heavies into my line, knocking out a Medium (five hits on his third try… a bit late) and doing two blocks to another, but lost a Medium block and three Heavy blocks, and had to retreat three units. My third Line Command let me wrap around his intact Heavy, and I knocked it out with two attacks, taking no damage myself. Patch Rallied, rebuilding two Heavies to full strength, who then came in and knocked out a weak Medium, reduced another to a block, and took no damage himself. I Ordered Three Center, and came up to the end of his line, and moved a leader who had just lost his unit to a new Heavy, and wiped out Patch’s second Heavy.

Patch Out Flanked, but his MC muffed a roll against a 1-block Medium who did two blocks and forced them to retreat back to the baseline. His Warriors did two blocks to an Aux, who did two blocks back, wiping them out, and then Patch lost the leader with them. Leadership Any Section moved my right up, and I forced his LB to evade, and finished off his 1-block MC. Patch Ordered Heavies, finishing off my weak Medium, and doing a block to an evading Light. I Ordered Three Center to move a solid core up and take out a Medium. 6-4

Afterword

The first game started with some punishing hot dice from me, especially on archery, and I dominated the initial exchange of blows. But one bad turn cost me three good units and put Patch into reach of a win, which he got two turns later. However, both sides were completely smashed with no semblance of a line left.

In the second, an amazing initial draw continued with more good cards which kept me in motion, and concentrated on the center. I despaired a bit when Patch pulled out that Rally, as I didn’t want to fight fresh Heavies all over again, but I got lucky with one of them, and advanced past the other.

Both Heraclea and Asculum live up to the promise of ‘Pyrrhic Battles’, as generally speaking even the victor will be fairly smashed up. My win here as the Romans is probably the best shape I was in at the end of any of the four matches. The Romans won both times for Asculum, but they were accompanied by a heavy dose of good luck.