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Last night, Patch and I did our usual between-games round of C&C:A. Up this time was “Anapus River 415 BC” from Expansion #6. This deals with the beginning of the Athenian campaign on Syracuse, so while it features orange blocks, they’re not Spartans. (Being Greek colonists, I suppose the orange set is more apropos than the brown Carthage set.) The Syracusans are at a decided disadvantage, with four cards to six, only one leader, and one of their MH stuck behind the line. But they do have the first MC we’ve seen in a long while, and if they can (somehow) get into the Athenian camp, they can loot it for banners.

I had Athens the first time, and we started out skirmishing on my right (near the camp), before I used a Line Command to bring my entire army up. Annoyingly, I was concentrating so much on my right, that I forgot to do ranged attacks with the bows on my left. I did eliminate an MC by rolling four triangles as it evaded.

Patch used Mounted Charge to get his main line into contact, and did seven blocks damage, not knocking anyone out, but killing a leader, and forcing two units to retreat, so I only did three damage to one unit in return. I Counterattacked, and wrapped around his line, and managed to wipe out the forward line (3xMH), leaving his leader’s unit intact, while reducing a Auxilia and taking six blocks myself.

Patch used Order Medium to get his leader in action with his two remaining MC while bringing the rear MH up, and knocked out my two weakest units while only taking one block in return. I played Mounted Charge, and knocked out the Auxilia while forcing of the MC to evade, and forcing a Light to the baseline. Patch Counterattacked to knock out another two MH while I weakened his MC and drove them to the baseline.

Since Patch had the only good MH units left, I started trying archery to whittle a few things down, while trying to figure out how to get at all the juicy targets at his baseline. Patch got his two MH together and moved his weak units out of the way before assembling together. I got his leader-led MH from four blocks to one, but just couldn’t get hits on the weaker units in range. Patch moved up the MHs with a Light in support, and finished up the game in two turns. 5-6

Patch opened the second round with Order One (Order Heavies…), and did a point of archery damage to an Auxilia. With four cards, my hand was not great, but I had two left cards, so I started with sending my MC against the light units on his flank. They evaded across the river into the camp, and I followed into the river, and nearly knocked out his Light.

Patch used Double Time to bring half of his MH over to deal with this, and knocked one MC out. I used Leadership to bring the bulk of my MH into range, and then Ordered Light to straighten out the flanks. Patch knocked out the other MC and forced my Light to evade before I used Line Command to head for the gap in his line, and knocked out one unit in return for two blocks. Patch Out Flanked me to eliminate an Aux, while reducing the other to one block and forcing it back.

I Ordered Mounted to attack two detached MH, but a bad sequence of rolls saw me lose a MC (took two banners) and a MH while only doing three blocks. Patch Ordered Three Center (only had two left there), and traded three blocks for three on one side, while doing one block and forcing a retreat on the other. Center Leadership killed both MH of Patch’s MH on the right, but failed to get his leader.

Line Command got Patch’s remaining MH in motion, and he killed a separated MH. 3-6

Afterword:

The first game was brutal. The end dragged out a bit as we were both at five banners and didn’t have a lot left. Patch should have moved a bit faster with his intact MHs, but archery just wasn’t enough for me to finish him off. The four cards for Syracuse is bad, but the one leader just makes it worse. Half of my hand was Left/Right Leadership. Outside of that, they technically have a decent force, with just as much MH as the Athenians and three MC, but it starts in poor shape, and I was never able to move the MH on the baseline (I certainly wanted to bring it up before using the Line Command!).