Rindis.com

Having finally finished off our SFB game, Patch and I did our usual round of C&C:A between big games tonight. This time was the Battle of Amphipolis from Expansion #6.

This one is different. The Athenians get points for running away. Which is to say, there’s three hexes on their right that they can exit the board from, and get a victory banner per unit. The Spartans are charging out from a fortified city to stop them. As is usual for this period, this is a hoplite battle, though there’s actually light and medium cavalry on each side this time (one unit each).

I had the Athenians first, and Patch started with an Order Light to sort out his line. I did the same to try and assemble a line for a Line Command I was holding. Patch Ordered Three Right, and forced my lights to evade and break the line in two. I used Leadership to bring my line into contact, and move up a leader who started unattached. We did four blocks to each other, all of his on a Spartan MH, and mine spread over two MH.

Patch used Order Medium to move both flanks up, and eliminate my weak MH, while a First Strike knocked out his weak Spartan MH, though without killing his leader. I echoed Order Medium to bring up my center, and nearly wiped out two Aux. Out Flanked put both of his leaders in motion, and killed a fresh MH and Aux. I used Counter Attack to use my flanks, exiting a Light, and managing to finish off an Aux. Patch cried “I Am Spartacus!“… to order one light and one medium (and one heavy, if there were any in the scenario), and picked off an Aux, nearly killed a MH on momentum, and forced my MC to evade.

I responded with Mounted Charge. My LC caused two hits on his light trapped against the city wall, an MH got two blocks on a fresh Spartan MH and forced it back two hexes, while my MC finished off an Aux and MC. Patch Ordered Two Center to activate the units I’d just hit, and I got a hit and banner on battle back against his light unit to end the game (he could have, and should have moved to avoid that). 6-4

For the second game, I started with Line Command to move up the entire right flank. Patch moved up with an Order Three Center, driving back one unit, and trading three blocks for two against my Spartan MH. I moved forward again with Order Four Right, and drove back three units while reducing an Aux and eliminating a MH. Patch came back with Inspired Left Leadership and drove off my LC.

Since he was sitting too close to the exit with five units, I Ordered Three Right, but only did three blocks to four, and couldn’t eliminate anything. Patch Ordered Two Left, and pressed the attack to finish off a MH and trade blocks with my leader-led MH. Out of right cards, I used Double Time to slam into his center, doing six blocks to zero. Patch Ordered Mounted to eliminate my right-side MH, forcing my leader to escape through his LC to an Aux, while forcing another MH back three hexes!

I used Order Medium to get my center in motion (no Mediums were left anywhere else), and eliminated an Aux. Patch Darkened the Sky to get four blocks, three of which were on my center MHs. Inspired Center Leadership kept my compact center mass moving, eliminating an Aux, MH, MC (on leader momentum), and forcing his leader to evade off-board.

Patch Ordered Three Left to exit his remaining leader, a Light and a LC. Worse, his Aux was in range to exit next turn. As a one-block unit, I would have liked to go after it, but only a couple of lights were in range. I Ordered Three Center to go after his intact MH after cutting off its retreat, and hope he didn’t yahtzee me on a battle back. I got him on the second attack, losing one block in the process. 6-5

Afterword:

It’s a very different and very interesting scenario. There’s no units in range of a one-turn exit at the beginning, but it’s a real possibility, and if the Athenian player can get the right cards could probably get very close to a win without much interference. But that leaves the rest of the battle at a disadvantage in troops. Both games were fairly close, though I had a lot of good cards, even if they weren’t always easy for me to use.