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After my too-close win in Hatten, Patch and I went to our between-games round of Commands & Colors: Ancients. Up this time was the Battle of Picenum from Expansion #2. There’s a line of hills down the center, and the Romans have two separate armies; one on each side of the hills. Any command card can only order units from one army or the other, so things like Out Flanked aren’t nearly as useful. The slave rebellion has no such problem, and can roll burning logs down onto the Romans (‘rolling fire’). It costs them a block to use, so we hardly did it, but it can generate a series of two-die attacks. Almost as unusual as that, each Roman force has a heavy war machine. Also the slaves can get banners by exiting units off the Roman side of the board.

I had the rebellion first, and we spent a few turns trying to maneuver before I charged down out of the hills with a Coordinated Attack and drove off a unit of Lights. Patch hit back with a Line Command, but merely took three hits for his trouble. I then Out Flanked to knock out the weakened Medium and drive off the Light again, but lost three blocks to nothing on momentum. Inspired Center Leadership finished off my weak Warrior, drove another off, where it took a hit from the HWM, and did two hits to another Warrior.

Order Mediums put me in contact on both sides, and we both had a unit nearly knocked with, with Gellius getting killed. Out Flanked (more Order Two here) let Patch reshuffle while Move-Fire-Move let me move up and knock out a couple blocks. I advanced along the hills with Order Three Center, and finished off two Mediums. Order Three Left drove off my LC with a hit, and Patch did a hit to a Medium, but lost his MC and Lentulus in return. Order Four Left got me into his fraying line, but I only took a hit to my LC. Patch Counter Attacked to finish them off with a blocked retreat, and two of my units barely hung on, but did equal hits in return. Order Mediums finished off a Medium and drove off another with three losses (taking a banner to retreat, and then retreat again on momentum). A final Medium took two hits, and drove off the attacker, survived a second attack, retreated from a third attack, but was finally knocked out on momentum. 8-2

Again, it took a couple turns to get to grips with each other in the second round, and the action started on the Roman right (Gellius) when Patch Double-Timed up to my line and knocked out the HWM, a light trapped against my line, and did three blocks to a Medium, but lost five blocks and a full Warrior in return (18 blocks gone in the first turn with combat!). Line Command let me finish off a Warrior and Medium, and Patch pulled back with Four Units Left. He sent a LC into the middle hills, who evaded a Mounted Charge, which did nothing.

Patch Ordered One (Heavy) for a rolling fire attack that did nothing, and I tried telling the slaves that I Am Spartacus to order three units to do one hit, and take one in return. Patch Ordered Mediums to finish off a MC, and I Ordered Four Right to do two damage while taking one. Patch Ordered Two Center to pull back a weak Medium and knock out one of mine, followed by Order Three Center to get a LC through the lines and finish off a weak Medium. I Out Flanked on the right to wipe out a full Medium. Patch Ordered Three Center for the exit and I Ordered Three Right (with only two left…) to lose two blocks for no gain. Patch Darkened the Sky to finish off a Medium, and knock out the other HWM. 4-8

Afterword

Okay, this is a highly unusual scenario. I think the rolling fire is too costly for what you get, and is really complicated (hard to get around that though). But the terrain is interesting, and the ‘two armies’ bit really takes a lot of wind out of the Roman’s sails.

Thanks to the cards, the fighting stayed on the Roman right in both games. Also, the initial Roman set up is strung out, which led to the game being slow to get going. The slave revolt could rush down to try to pick off units… but they’re out of rang for that too. At any rate, it’s a really wild situation.