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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.