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My latest ASL defeat by Patch was just about finished up, so we decided to do another round of Commands & Colors: Ancients tonight. This time was the Battle of Sepeia, a very strange Expansion #6 battle between the Spartans and the Argives. There’s a forest (sacred grove) behind the Argive lines, and every other Argive unit that enters it causes both sides to get a banner. In addition, the city of Argos is in one corner, with three Light units and a leader that cannot move from the walls (actually the women and children of the city led by a female poet). The Spartans have a decided advantage with a bigger, heavier army and an extra card.

I had the Argives the first time, and Patch started with a Move-Fire-Move to get his Auxilia and Slingers into motion. First contact was on the Spartan left as it pushed forward, and after some light losses and retreats, I got lucky with a four-hit roll to knock out a an Aux. Patch moved up the center, and nearly every Hoplite on the board came into contact. I ended up with two units in the sacred grove, which I didn’t mind, as I was ahead, and wanted to shorten the game while that was still true. Patch weakened my entire Hoplite line and killed a leader, at the cost of another 4-hit roll that knocked out more Allied Hoplites, and another that nearly wiped out a Spartan Hoplite.

I Ordered Mediums to keep the battle in the center going, finished of the weak Spartan Hoplite, and forced the other two to retreat. Patch came back with a Mounted Charge to put everything in contact again, knocked out two weakened Hoplites, but couldn’t get the remaining leader-led one who weakened two of his leader-led Hoplites. I used Inspired Center Leadership to order the remnants of my MH (two one-block and one full unit) to mop him up. 6-4

The second time around, I started with Move-Fire-Move to get the wings in motion. Patch voluntarily moved his left flank into the sacred grove to keep them away from my Aux. He kept pulling back, while I struggled to move up and not let the line fall to pieces in the process. I ended up playing an Inspired Left, Leadership any Section (on the center), and Inspired Right to move everything up to or near contact in turn. He had one MH out in front, and I got it on the second turn, and momentum advanced to the main line. That nearly cost me the unit on a 4-hit Battle Back (Spartan Hoplites…), but I got the unit on the next attack, and forced his leader back into the depths of the sacred grove or face a 2-die momentum attack alone (not that bad but I don’t think either of us thought of the 2-die limit on forests at that moment). Instead the momentum attack hit the next unit in line, causing two hits and a retreat. Then my Aux got a 3-hit attack on his weakened Aux….

Desperate, Patch played Mounted Charge (again! why can’t I get that?), and got his own weakened unit knocked out on the first attack, but finished off the weak Spartan Hoplites and killed the leader after that. He followed up with Order Medium to knock out another weakened Spartan Hoplite, an Allied Hoplite, and momentum attacked to wipe out a three-block Aux to win. 5-6

Both games took about 45-minutes, instead of the usual hour, so after all that we went back and finished off the ASL game.