Stripped Down for Parts: Commands & Colors: Medieval – Expansion #1 Crusades Mid-Eastern Battles I

  

 

Someone recently pointed out in a Facebook groups that the wait to see an expansion for Commands and Colors: Medieval (GMT Games, 2019) was the longest of any of the Commands and Colors games from GMT. The Spanish Army (GMT Games, 2011) came out the year following the release of the Commands and Colors: Napoleonics (GMT Games, 2010 core game’s release, while Greece and the Eastern Kingdoms (GMT Games, 2006, the first expansion for Commands and Colors: Ancients (GMT Games, 2006), arrived in the same calendar year as the base set.

If C&C: Medieval was a movie it’s what would be referred to as a slow burn (or maybe today, a cult classic). It took longer to win people over than other games in the family, and there was some open ill-feeling toward the game (I touch on this in my review, which you can find here). I haven’t done any hard research in this regard, but I’d wager the most popular historical periods for wargamers would be World War II, Napoleonic, American Civil War and Ancients (and within that broad category, mostly Roman Republic/Empire), which have been covered already in the Commands and Colors umbrella, the second and fourth by the above mentioned games, the first and  third by Memoir ‛44 (Days of Wonder, 2004) and Battle Cry (Avalon Hill, 1999). In light of this, it’s to be expected that the good folks at GMT would want to be sure of an audience before committing to an expansion. C&C Medieval eventually sold well enough to warrant a second printing (earned it’s place in the queue through the P500 process like most other reprints), and now, we have in our hot little hands Expansion #1 Crusades Mid-Eastern Battles I. This is an unboxing article, not a review or an AAR, so I’ll try not to slip too much into gushing over the promise of twenty new scenarios, with new unit types and new tactical choices, but let it stand as read that I’m even more excited about this having opened the box than I was when it arrived.

Before I go on, I want to make it clear that this isn’t a self-contained game. Well, duh!, I hear you say, but enough people have proven to not read the fine print when it comes to this kind of thing that I didn’t want to leave any room for confusion.

Please don't ask me why there is an umlaut over the 's' in Crusades;
I don't know either.

I may be in the minority here, but to me, the cover image may be the least inspiring part of the whole package. I’m not sure why, maybe I’ve just been spoilt of late with cover illustrations like the Duke of Normandy painting on the cover of Norman Conquests (GMT Games, 2023) or the illustration for Justin Fassino’s upcoming Levy and Campaign game, Seljuk (GMT Games, ~2025 – available for preorder here). It’s a break from tradition for the Medieval line, the core-box cover taking its cues from Rodger McGowan’s C&C: Ancients series covers. It’s not a deal-breaker, it just feels a little like a missed opportunity.

The box back (please note the cards pictured are from
the core box; no cards here, folks).

The box itself is a typical three-inch GMT box with the sturdy grey-board construction and firm seal we’ve all come to expect from GMT releases. I was a little surprised to see an absence of any detail, product highlights or historical notes, on the side panels of the inner box-half. This isn’t a criticism, merely an observation; they’ve been a feature of I think every GMT game I’ve ever opened – it was just a little jarring, like being hearing a familiar album with one of the songs out of sequence.

The back of the box advises that this is a two-player game, taking roughly an hour per scenario, and appropriate for ages fourteen and up. I’d agree with all of this, though I’d mention that I’ve played Epic Napoleonics (GMT Games, 2016) with a smart thirteen-year-old (for the record, I beat him, but it was a close-run thing). Like all Commands and Colors games, C&C: Medieval is designed first and foremost as a two-player game, though a workaround is available with the CDG Solo System Pack 2 (GMT Games, 2023, but also downloadable for free as a print-and -play kit from the GMT website).

Expansions for other C&C family games typically introduce some new units and some new rules. But the sheer scope of new stuff on offer here is dazzling, reflecting five centuries of evolution in the arts and sciences of war. The box-back blurb hints at these, mentioning seven new unit types and seven new concepts to embolden and bedevil attacker and defender alike.

Being an expansion to an existing game, the box lacks a board and cards, but it makes up for it in a hefty combined rulebook/scenario book, new unit reference cards, Two sheets of terrain tiles, a small sheet of victory banners and other markers, three sheets of stickers (one about ¾ size, 170 blocks in four colours to accommodate the stickers, six (three sets of) Inspired Leadership action PACs, and another set of battle dice, which are always welcome

The book: combination rulebook, stickering guide and scenario booklet.

The rulebook for this expansion comes in at 36 pages, 20 of which are, of course, devoted to the twenty scenarios featured with the game. Five pages are given over to a brief introduction, a run-down of what’s included I the box, new Inspired Leadership Actions, and some clarifications to the original ones. Another seven pages offer the typical breakdown of the units introduced in the expansion, along with a survey of all of the units old and new, which will feature in the current set’s scenarios. New units include (in order of appearance) Auxilia Bow Infantry, Medium Crossbow Infantry, Foot Knight Infantry, Military Order Foot Knight Infantry, Turcopole Light Bow Crusader-Allied Cavalry, Heavy Knight Cavalry, and Heavy Military Order Knight Cavalry.

Heavy Military Order Knight Cavalry, one of the new unit types
introduced in this expansion.

The scenarios offer a range of diverse and challenging situations. Not all appear balanced, and that’s okay; as I’ve often said, if you want a perfectly balanced game, go play chess. Military history is messy, full of ill-judgement, hubris, and plain bad luck. The majority, however, look reasonably balanced if you look past the simple numbers of units and more closely at their capabilities. I’ll save closer analysis for a review post but suffice it to say this expansion presents plenty of evenings’ diversions.

Sticker sheets 1 & 2. Stickering is an unavoidable part of the C&C experience.

Sticker sheet 3. I particularly like the troop and cavalry illustrations for C&C: Medieval.

The new units nearly all fall on the Crusaders’ side, with – in ascending order – four units of Crossbow Infantry (Medium), four units of Foot Knight Infantry (Heavy) with an additional unit each of Templar and Hospitaller Knights, three units of Turcopole Light Bow Cavalry, and seven units of Heavy Knight Cavalry, as well as one additional unit each Templar and Hospitaller Mounted knights. They are rounded out with some additional Medium and Heavy Infantry units.

The Mid-Eastern forces also get some love, with additional Auxilia and Medium Infantry, Light, Light bow and Medium cavalry, as well as a full five units of Auxilia Bow Infantry. Each side also gains an additional Leader block.

The big bag o' blocks, The white and red blocks are for the Knights Templar
and Hospitaller units respectively.

All of these stickers have to be applied to the accompanying blocks before you can play anything. Some people hate this part of any C&C game; personally, I find it kind of meditative. That’s not to say I’m glad when it’s done, but being an expansion box, it will be around half the number of what you had to sticker in the core box, so there’s that.

Terrain tile sheets (the boring side - sorry).

The two terrain tile sheets (punchboards in game production parlance) offer more forest and hill terrain on the obverse side. On the revers, things ger a little more interesting.

On the reverse of the forest sheet are swampy regions, as well as bridges and fordable river sections. On the reverse of the hills sheet the tiles are a mix of city walls, broken ground, and no less than five camp tiles. Why so many camp tiles? I’ll have to have another look over the scenarios.

Victory Banners, Bow markers, and Inspired Action tokens. And a holy relic.

The third punchboard is a counter sheet with new Victory Banners to reflect the emblematic heritage of the time, more bow-equipped/bowless cavalry markers, and more round Inspired Leadership chits. Also included is one intriguing counter that relates to one of the rules introduced with this expansion: a Holy Relic counter. In some scenarios, one of the crusader units will be entrusted with a relic of significance to the church (and to the unit carrying it, as you’ll see). During the game, the unit to which the relic has been entrusted gains a block (five instead of four – essentially an extra hit point), will fight with one extra battle die, and while defending they, as well as any adjacent unit, may ignore one flag (retreat) result. Potent stuff.

Unit Reference Cards (front and back).

The Crusades expansion comes with two Unit Reference Cards, similar in layout to those from the core set, but, of course, incorporating the new unit types. Foot units are represented on one side, cavalry units on the reverse. The Terrain Effects Charts from the base game still apply here, so there’s no duplication of those.

Inspired Action PACs for the Crusaders (above) and the Fatimids.

One of the stand-out innovations of the C&C Medieval series, for my money, is the Inspired Action mechanic, which can be introduced when a Leadership card is played by spending a token from a number they started with at the start of the match, and selecting an order from a chart of Inspired Actions offered. This can give the active player a slight edge at a crucial moment in the game, increasing the drama and excitement of the play. In the base game, the Byzantines and the Sassanid Persians each had a set of orders, similar but subtly different between the two sides.

The three Mid-Eastern Inspired Actions selections. Lots of options on hand.

In the Crusades expansion, this has been changed up somewhat. The crusaders have a stock set of inspired orders that remains unchanged through the century of fighting represented in the scenarios. They in turn were not fighting a similarly monolithic foe, but a patchwork of rival caliphates and nations joined in the goal of vanquishing a common enemy. This expansion offers no less than six – three sets – of Inspired Orders cards, reflecting the differences in fighting tactics of the Fatamids, the Artuqid and Seljuq Turks, and Ayyubids. I am often blown away by the level of research that goes into the scenario development of these games. It’s the inclusion details like this that refutes those who maintain Commands and Colors games lack depth or authenticity.

More dice. You can never have too many.

Lastly, as I mentioned earlier, this expansion comes with a second set of eight battle dice. I’m not sure who’s idea this was, but I’m very grateful. My regular C&C playing buddy has an annoying habit of hording the unrolled dice on his side of the table whenever we have to share a set, leading to vocal recriminations and some questioning of parental legitimacy. A second set of dice allays this kind of tension, keeping the fighting to the gameboard.

Inside the box (insert, blocks and dice).

It has been a long wait between the initial release of Commands and Colors: Medieval and this first expansion. I made the bold claim that I thought the game-buying public would see a second Medieval expansion making it’s P500 threshold within two years of The Crusades’ release. After going through what is on offer hear, I hope I’m right.

Commands and Colors has been a staple of our Monday night games for the last fourteen years, and I expect we’ll start working through The Crusades pretty smartly. Look out for some initial thoughts on this expansion soon and a review likely before year’s end.