State of Play: Commands and Colors: Medieval – Crusades Expansion: Lake Antioch, 9 February 1098

 

After T had to cancel our Tuesday game due to work commitments, we managed to squeeze a game in last night (Thursday) at late notice. I arranged to go to T’s place and gave him carte blanche to set up whatever he liked.

When I got there, I learned we’d be playing the Lake Antioch scenario from the Commands & Colors: Medieval – Crusades expansion (GMT Games, 2024 – you can read my review of the expansion here). A slight delay ensued as T had set up the Persians from the C&C: Ancients – Greece and the Eastern Kingdoms expansion (GMT Games, 2006); to be fair, they are similar in block colouring, and T hasn’t labelled his army cases yet. This went a long way to explaining why there weren’t enough Medium Cavalry for the Seljuq to field (the leader illustration should have been a giveaway, but T hasn’t spent as much time with the Medieval blocks as me).

T has two cats, Claude and Eustace. Claude sits close whenever I visit. Eustace only
comes by stealth to attack the unwary. I've become quite wary. 

After we sorted out the Seljuq forces, T poured coffee while I shuffled. Based on straight numbers, the Lake Antioch scenario looks a little one-sided. The Crusaders have just six units on the board to the Seljuq player’s fifteen. T, who has only ever played the Crusaders, probably thought he was letting me win as a salve for coming to his place, but I’ve played enough C&C: Medieval now to recognise a difficult situation. For starters, if you have to have reduced numbers, it’s always a help to have Mounted Knights, the absolute tanks of the age. Five or the complement of Crusader units were thus, accompanied by a single formation of Medium Cavalry (no doubt mostly third and fourth sons, minstrels and poets, there to record for posterity the valour of their compatriots, but no slouches in a fight, either) – and they have a disproportionate number of leaders, three in all.

The corrected set-up (using the correct blocks).

Secondly, they hold the high ground. A hill doesn’t provide as much of a benefit as in other flavours of Commands & Colors, but this range is located in the narrow neck of land between the Orontes River and the Lake Antioch of the scenario title (to the Seljuk right – the river tiles mark out the shores of the lake), blocking any kind of enveloping action by the Turks.

Finally, there are the cards. The Crusader player receives six cards while the Seljuk gets just four. Any player can still win a game with a smaller hand than his opponent, even if some of those cards are sub-optimal, but I’d managed to deal myself two flank leadership order cards when   my sole leader was in the dead centre of the heard.

In my initial hand, the only useful cards I held was an Attack Center (three units ordered). But in this scenario, the Crusaders have the initiative, making the first move. Of course, when dealing the two hands, I managed to give T a Mounted Charge. Three of his Mounted Knight formations descended upon my Light Cavalry like the Hand of Judgement, driving all before them. On the T’s left, two retreats rolled saw one Light Bow unit flee off the board for a victory banner, then with their advance, the Crusaders halved the strength of the next Light Cavalry unit. The other two units took a banner each for three banners on the very first card of the game. Did I mention this was a five-banner scenario?

The situation after the first card play. T likes a big opening number.

I brought up my medium cavalry to counter the onslaught on my first card play. This handed T his fourth banner for the night when his untroubled knights slew an entire Seljuq formation in a reactive strike.

After nearly winning in the first round, we settled in for a slog. Total victory alluded T for a few rounds, and I managed to finally win my single banner for the game on my third card play. My fourth card of the game proved to be my undoing, however. I played Foot Onslaught*, bringing up my Medium Infantry to spoil the Crusaders’ advance, but their strikes were like lances against the storm. With his fifth card, Leadership - Center Section, T delivered the killing blow, wiping out a complement of infantry with a roll of two crossed swords, two blue triangles and a superfluous retreat.

My single moment of glory. One banner for the whole game. At least I made
his general flee like a frightened donkey.

T was humble in victory. He genuinely thought I would take the field with superior numbers, but I could tell he was chuffed with his win, and he deserved it. I did what I could with what I had, but sometimes the cards don’t fall in your favour. A short but nonetheless satisfying game.

 

* One of the small joys of Commands & Colors Medieval is how so many of the order card titles sound like tag-lines for a Cecil B. DeMille epic.