Below is another fantastic article from The Boardgames Chronicle, this time discussing the minor similarities/differences between Commands & Colors: Ancients and Commands & Colors: Medieval. Part 1 discussing major changes between the two games can be found here. Enjoy! -Rachel

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We continue this series of articles discussing the changes between Commands & Colors: Ancients and the newest addition to the series–Medieval. In the first article, I focused on major changes between them–things like cavalry superiority over infantry, inspired and battlefield actions, as well as the pace of the game. Today I would like to wrap-up by focusing on the minor changes and subtleties in C&C: Medieval. GMT has really made this new installment a refreshing experience and added layers of strategy to the game.

Relative Infantry Strength

In the last article, we talked extensively about the superiority of cavalry over infantry. However, the relative strength of foot units also changed, increasing their importance on the battlefield.

Let’s look a bit deeper. The table below summarizes the changes to infantry characteristics in C&C: Medieval:

Conclusions? The only unit which is better in C&C: Medieval than in C&C: Ancients is the often disregarded Light Infantry. First of all, now all light infantry units are equipped with a bow. Secondly, they always have a range of 4. The only unchanged unit–Warrior–seems to be the most flexible and strong foot unit on the table now. Heavy Infantry is not anymore a prevailing force in infantry clashes (unlike warrior, it cannot ignore flag and momentum advance + close combat). As for Medium and Auxilia types, both are more mobile but weaker in attack. The latter, due to Superior Stature and Superior Armor Class rules, is cannon-fodder for cavalry and the majority of infantry units.

Deck Composition

There were also essential tweaks to the cards and changes in deck composition in order to reflect medieval tactics. In essence, we see two tendencies.

1. Predominantly, the cards in C&C: Medieval order less units than in C&C: Ancients:

• Leadership Any/Left/Right/Center section activates one less unit. Note: these can be played in conjunction with Inspired Actions, giving a great boost to the cavalry/infantry, so limitation is obviously needed.
• Mounted Charge can give Super Heavy Cavalry +2 dice but will only order 3 units.
• One of the most popular cards, Order Green/Medium/Red, only allows 3 units to move, instead of 4.

2. On the other hand, there are two specific cases where new cards will allow the player to move more forces:

• Line Command no longer pertains to foot units only; now, the player can move the whole line, intermingling Cavalry and Infantry.
• Double Time (more units–equal to command) and Foot Onslaught are both very nice but usually completely useless due to the inferior role of Infantry in the majority of battles.

Parthian Shot & Cavalry Equipped with Bows

The early Medieval Era saw significant usage of bows. The game reflects this by allowing such equipment not only for specific Light Bow Cavalry units but also for Medium, Heavy, and Super Heavy units.

There is also a neat mechanic which allows retreating Light Bow Cavalry units to fire on the attacking units with 2 dice and score hits on color. The so-called “Parthian shot” was a standard tactic, introduced by Sassanid/Persians, and it is a welcome addition to the game.

Subtleties

On top of the aforementioned changes, there are also some subtle tweaks which were essential for matching the game mechanics with medieval tactics. Let me elaborate more below:

• The board is deeper, providing more space for Cavalry to maneuver–the standard C&C: Ancients board is 9×13 hexes while C&C: Medieval is more square, 11×13. This gives additional space to regroup your units–or if the need arises, to retreat.
• The ability to add a leader with a Rally card is a really cool addition. You are, of course, limited by the number of Leader blocks (six), but that card can really change the game dynamics.
• The Cry Havoc card replaces “I am Spartacus” and in addition allows you to move (with flag) the units without fighting.
• The Ambush card is an interesting new concept. Everyone in the Commands & Colors world knows the dreaded First Strike; here we have a chance to lure in units using momentum, advance, and force them to battle with the adjacent unit of your choice. This can be very powerful in certain situations.
• There are also siege rules for scaling gates in some of the scenarios (e.g. Dara or Satala); thus the attacker has the chance to siege cities and gain victory points.

• We have two interesting bonuses in the game:
  • The last-stand/survival mode scenario at the end of the rulebook
  • Very high quality custom dice.

• Just as in Commands & Colors: Napoleonics, a unit must have 2 unobstructed hexes towards its baseline in order to evade.

Summary

All in all, looking at the amount of differences between C&C: Ancients and C&C: Medieval, it is completely justifiable that we got the new game system. The Commands & Colors Series is very well equipped to add new nations, to span across a large variety of conflicts & locations, and to incorporate different tactics depending on the epoch. For now, I encourage you to see how the system works in my Belisarius Campaign session reports series. However, rest assured that this is not the last time you will hear from me about the differences between C&C: Medieval and C&C: Ancients–an interesting surprise is brewing…?

Thank You!

The BoardGames Chronicle

https://theboardgameschronicle.com/

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Articles in this Series: Part 1 Part 2