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Patch and I have just finished off another round of Commands & Colors: Ancients between our bigger games. This time was the Battle of Megalopolis from Expansion #6. A Spartan rebellion while Alexander is off campaigning in the east, it features a hoplite army versus Macedonians with heavy infantry. The Macedonian army is a bit bigger, with some reserve Auxilia, and slightly better in cavalry. There’s notable hills on both sides of the board, which the Macedonians have a better position in.

I had the Macedonians for the first round, and moved up my right while Patch Ordered Light to do two hits on a Med with ranged combat, while his LC came in contact, and was driven off by battle back from my LS. I moved up my left, and Patch Ordered Four Left to drive off my Med with one block left. I Ordered Four Center to bring a Heavy and fresh Med into play, while filling holes in the line with Auxes, and destroyed one of his Auxes while taking one hit on each of the two units after a First Strike. Patch Out Flanked to drive off a LC and do a block to my other Heavy, while he reduced the weak Heavy to one block, losing five blocks across two units in return.

Line Command allowed me to shelter the weak Heavy while moving everything up and engaging the weakened units. I drove a LB off the hills, and reduced another unit to one block, but lost an Aux in the process. On the other flank, I lost two blocks on a LS, and drove off an Aux. Patch used Leadership Any Section on his shattered left to pull one unit back, while an Aux stayed on the hills and engaged at range. I Counterattacked to follow up on that flank, and forced that Aux back. Patch Ordered Three Left to move the Aux back onto the hills, and tightened up the line, transferring Agis III to an intact MH. He reduced a Med to one block, but it finished off that Aux on battle back. I Ordered Three Right to occupy the hills, and finished off a weak MH at range. Patch Ordered Two Center to move to his right, and did two blocks (uphill) to the Heavy there, who drove the Spartan MH off with a loss on battle back. Move-Fire-Move allowed me to bring up the third reserve Aux, and do a block each to a MH and LB.

A Mounted Charge allowed Patch to order half of his remaining army, forcing my MC to retreat off map, finishing off a Heavy, and its leader, killing the Aux I’d just brought up, and doing a block to a second one, who did a block back. I used Coordinated Attack to shift a leader from a wrecked Heavy to the damaged Aux while two units fired at a Spartan MH without effect. Clash of Shields ordered Patch’s MC and two MH, the latter of which each wiped out an Aux. 3-7

Patch led off with Order Three Left for the second game, driving me back in the hills there. I moved up with a Line Command, and drove off his MC. Patch Counterattacked, bringing us much closer together than I had planned. Move-Fire-Move got my LS and LC forward, and a lucky banner caused his LC to retreat off the board, but no other damage was done. Leadership Any Section let Patch engage on my left, killing an Aux and MH, with Agis III fleeing for the baseline (I should have taken two banners on the MH to get him out of range of a Momentum follow-up, but didn’t think of it in time), with another MH taking two blocks, and doing one in return.

With my line thoroughly shattered, I used Leadership Any Section to engage near the center, and pull back the weakened MH, destroying a Med, and driving back an Aux to the baseline with one loss while taking one block. Patch Ordered Two Center, engaging a couple of separated units, finishing off the weak MH, but taking three hits on a Med. Order Three Right drove his Heavy back a hex, but nothing else happened. Patch Double Timed three Aux from the baseline, doing a block to a Spartan MH, and taking three blocks in return.

I Ordered Two Center to bring Agis III up to command my remaining MH there, and finished off a 1-block Med. Patch Out Flanked to trade blocks between a Med and MH, drive off an Aux, and knock out a Spartan MH, and do two blocks to a second, taking two blocks in return. Mounted Charge ordered four remaining units (two of which were hoplites). I blocked a LS’s retreat with LC, but while they took two hits from a banner, they did a banner in battle back, to wipe out the LC. My MC drove off the LS with another loss, but I wiped out his Warriors, and Momentum bagged his weakened Heavy and leader, and then another attack got a 3-block Aux. 7-5

Afterword

The most surprising thing about both games is that it looked like the Macedonians had it until a surprise upset. It was less certain in the first game, as many Macedonian units had been smashed, but I’d pried a small edge out, and had a good position until Mounted Charge and Clash of Shields suddenly changed things. In the second game, I was struggling with a poor hand (two Order Two Right, and a need to do everything else), but good cards kept coming up.

I think the Macedonians do have the advantage here, but as you can see it’s a fairly even fight.