Command and Colors Plataea

Tonight we tried the new Epic rules out with the Command and Colors boardgame pictured in the previous post (sorry took no photos).

The new 100 card deck is excellent, and makes it rather easier to play the big games; the cards tell you exactly what you can do with moves, and it is easier to understand what combination of cards you can play.  This should help in games where novices are involved, as with Zama.  The rules have changed slightly from the previous Epic set.  I think they are improved (not that there was much wrong with them before).

We played the Plataea scenario in roughly 2 hours (I was in slooow mode).  In the final move, I was the Persians, and we were both 8 blocks down out of 10.  Because of the way the units were positioned, I knew I had to win that turn, or Persian hegemony of Greece would fail as Ian hit all my weakened units in his turn.

I launched multiple attacks against the 3 nearest (full strength) Greek units in a desperate attempt to seize victory from the jaws of defeat; one succeeded, but two failed and left me short the one block I needed for victory.  In the next turn I would certainly lose as my units were all down to single blocks and were vulnerable to a counterattack.  However, in my final unsuccessfl attack, I had inflicted a single hit on the Spartan General's unit, and there was a 1 in 36 chance that he would fall in combat.  I rolled my final pair of dice of the game, and we both dissolved in laughter as I got the required two "General" symbols!  Pausanias fell and Greece became yet another satrapy... it is amazing how almost every C&C game goes right down to the wire.

Ian and I discussed the game afterwards, and agreed that we really prefer the feel of the larger epic games, to standard C&C.