Two games of Commands & Colors Ancients

Commands & Colors: Ancients is probably the best of the C&C games, a series that for me sits somewhere between a boardgame and a gridded miniatures game depending on what you use to play it. C&C Ancients and its extension sets offer a huge range of historical scenarios which you can set up in minutes. Ian and I fought two games. In the first, Cynoscephale 197 BC, I commanded the Macedonians against Ian's Romans and won. In the second, Battle of the Sabis River 57 BC, I had Julius Caesar's Romans against Ian's Belgae and lost. It was a close-run game. Ian has a lot more experience of board wargames so he gives me  lot of advice. This means he's often playing against himself. So he always deserves the credit, whoever wins! Like every game, C&C has its quirks and you need to 'play the game' to win. There are no objectives other than the total destruction of a given number of enemy units, and you constantly need to keep that priority in mind. The other priority is to use your opportunities (the cards) as efficiently as possible, which means that you sometimes have to compromise about where to attack. Finally, I was reminded of the importance of supporting units with two other units, something I'd completely forgotten about, and, in fact, don't even remember! Anyway, this has fired up my interest in C&C and I've just ordered a copy of the new Commands & Colours: Medieval which covers the Early Medieval period - Huns, Byzantines and Sassanids.

Cynoscephale. My light troops commence the game with good control of the hills. Ian makes a strong atack on my left. I was tempted to counter this but better opportunities presented themselves elsewhere. My left holds while my centre advances successfully. And it's curtains for the Romans. In the real battle the Macedonians were heavily defeated. Sabis River. I seem to have taken only one shot at the end. I was successful on my right but badly mauled on my left. Caesar survived but the 10th Legion was wiped out. Ian pipped me at the post on the last victory point. In the real battle, Caesar crushed the Belgic tribes.