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After finishing up “Far From Home“, Patch and I did our usual scenario from Commands & Colors: Ancients at the beginning of June. Up this time was the Battle of the Hellespont, the first of the Successor battles from Expansion #1. Both sides have roughly equivalent armies, though deployment is different, and the big unusual part is that each leader eliminated reduces that side’s Command by one, and if either side loses both of its leaders it automatically loses the battle at that point.

I had Craterus first, and we both led off with Order Two Right, and moved up our flanks. I followed by moving up the center, and Patch used Order Lights to get into range, and did a block to a Heavy with archery. I Ordered Mediums to engage with my MC and did two blocks each to a MC and LC, but unfortunately took two blocks back on one, which retired back to where he started. Patch Out Flanked to chase the weak MC, and surround the other one. My weak MC finished off his counterpart, but was then eliminated by a second MC, and Neoptolemus evaded off the board to keep from being eliminated on a Momentum advance (since the special rule states that you loose a card/Command for each leader eliminated, we figured that did not count, but clarification would be nice). Instead they traded blocks with an Auxilia. On the other flank, Craterus lost his unit, but only after wiping out a MC, and then evaded back to his own lines.

I Ordered Light for no damage, but did force his right MC to evade away. Patch Coordinated Attack to bring back his damaged units, while I Ordered Three Right to solidify my line, and drove off a MC with a banner. Patch Ordered Four Center to bring up the heavier infantry, and I brought up my Heavies with Order Three Center. Patch Ordered Lights to get his LB out of the way, and did two more damage to the wounded Heavy with a lucky shot. Leadership Any Section brought up my right, and reduced two Auxilia and drove off his LC in exchange for one block. Patch Ordered Two Center to bring up a Heavy and finish off my unfortunate Heavy at range. Darken the Sky damaged a depleted Auxilia, and two one-block Auxes ended up retreating two hexes each from various banners.

Patch Double Timed his center into my main line, knocking out a Heavy, doing a block to another, and to a LB, and two to an Aux, and forced two of those to retreat, in exchange for one block. I Counterattacked to bring in my unengaged Mediums, and knocked out a Medium and forced an Aux to retreat at a cost of three blocks on two units. Patch had Leadership Any Section bring his center forward, and knocked out an Aux (sending Craterus fleeing to the baseline), and did a hit each on a Med and Heavy, in return for taking three hits on a Heavy. I used Clash of Shields to activate three units (I get to use it so rarely!) to finish off a Heavy and send other units fleeing with multiple banners. Patch announced I Am Spartacus to order a Medium and an Aux, who drove off a Light and a Heavy with one loss. I Ordered Three Center to get Craterus to a new unit, and did a block to an Aux at a cost of… three blocks to a Medium. Patch Ordered Three Center to finish off a Heavy. 4-6

Patch led off the second game with Order Two Left to get his Auxilia in motion, and I Ordered Lights to bring up my Auxes and do a hit to a MC with my LC. Patch Ordered Mediums to bring up his center Mediums, and force my LC back with his MC. Order Three Left did another block to his MC, and forced it back. Patch used Order Two Right to shift Craterus from the depleted MC to a Heavy, and I used Order Two Left in an attempt to finish off the MC, but couldn’t get any hits on six dice, and my MC retreated on banners. Order Four Right moved up his line a little, and he did a ranged hit on an Aux.

I moved my Heavies up in the center, and Patch reworked his left flank (including detaching Neoptolemus to shift to a Medium), and I brought my right flank up. Patch Ordered Two Left to force a MC back to the baseline, and I Out Flanked to bring it up again and knock out his MC, and do three blocks to an Aux, who did one in return, and I brought up a left MC that had retreated to the baseline there. Coordinated Attack let him move a Medium up, while his Aux struck back, and did another block to my MC, who then forced a two-hex retreat on the Aux. I shifted my center forward, and Patch did the same on his right. I Ordered Lights, and did a block each to two units with ranged combat.

Patch used Mounted Charge… on his one one-block MC to do two blocks to a Aux in return for being wiped out. I Counter Attacked and did a block to an Aux before forcing it back to the baseline on three banners, two blocks to another, who did two in return and forced the MC back, two blocks to a LB, killed a depleted Aux, and did a block to a Light that was forced to evade twice all the way to the baseline. Patch had Inspired Leadership to bring his Heavies forward, and did a block to a MC. I called out I Am Spartacus to order a Heavy, two MC, and a LC. The MC finished off the Light, and the LC took a block for no hits. Patch used Line Command to get two Auxes, a Med, and a Heavy into contact with the rest of the Mediums and Heavies getting uncomfortably close. Neoptolemus’ Mediums one-shotted a full Aux and then did two to an Aux, who then went under to his Aux. The Heavies did two hits to an Aux, who retreated on a banner rather than take a follow up attack, which instead forced a MC to evade. Coordinated Attack allowed me to throw in a Medium and Heavy, and back off a LC to get room to fire, and did three hits to Craterus’ Heavies, and one to another, taking two in return. Order Four Center got all his good units involved to finish off a Heavy, and wipe out a Medium. Order Mediums got my cavalry in motion to work on his flanks, and brought up my remaining Medium. My attempt to get Craterus backfired, with no hits, and losing a MC, while two attacks got rid of Neoptolemus’ Medium at a cost of three blocks, and Momentum went after the Aux he evaded to, getting two blocks on it in exchange for one, and another attack did one more… but my MC was lost on battle back. 5-6

Afterword

You definitely have to be careful with this one, since each side only has two leaders, and losing one is especially bad here. And they start out on the flank MCs, which are a bit fragile. Craterus has the infantry to be effective, but Eumenes’ cavalry can easily decide things early. In fact, the second game was looking like a possible shutout until Patch suddenly turned things around. Some of that was die luck, but I was doing quite well with four MC, and that one-block Mounted Charge was just a gift to me.

I pretty much threw away the first game early by getting my MCs into trouble, and nearly losing both leaders at the start. I did well after that, but couldn’t make up for momentum I’d handed Patch.