State of Play: Sarmada - 29 June 1119 - "Field of Blood" (Commands & Colors: Medieval – Crusades Exp.)

 

 

Scenario set-up.

Another Monday Tuesday Night game at T’s; another Commands & Colors: Medieval (GMT Games 2019) Crusades (GMT Games, 2024) scenario. This time we visited the field of Sarmada, site of the Battle of Ager Sanguinis ([the] Field of Blood). T took his traditional role the Crusaders, in this case Roger of Salerno, in an incursion that took place in the brief lull between the formal First and Second Crusades, while I played the Artuqid Turk defenders, under the leadership of Il-Ghazi.

The scenario covers a portion of the situation of battle. For background; after a couple of years of uneasy peace in the region following the death of Ridwan of Aleppo in 1113, Roger captured Azaz in 1118, which left Aleppo vulnerable to attack. Il-Ghazi, under whose rule Aleppo had fallen at Ridwan’s demise, recognised the danger facing the city, and had crossed the Euphrates River with his army, making camp less than a day’s ride south of Aleppo. There he was to wait for another contingent of the supporters under Toghtekin of Damascus, but he received intelligence of Roger being on the move.

Not a bad opening hand.

The night before the battle, Il-Ghazi encircled the Crusader camp, which only realised their predicament at first light. The only avenue that offered a chance of survival for Roger and his men was to attempt to break through the envelopment. This scenario reflects that attempt to escape through the Artuqid lines.

The Artuqid move first in the Sarmada scenario. I opened with an Order Medium Troops, which saw five of my Medium Cavalry descend on T’s Turcopole mounted archers on his Left flank (my Right), and the Medium Cavalry vanguard on his Centre/Right. The Retreat and Panic rule is in play for the Crusaders in this scenario, and this, rather than straight combat, led to my first Banner of the game, with both Turcopole Cavalry fleeing and breaking, one completely lost and the other reduced to half strength. Pressing their advantage, the brave Medium Cavalry took on a Knight Cavalry unit under the leadership of Robert of St Lo. Though reduced, Robert’s men stood firm against the onslaught. On my left, my second banner was temporarily denied me as a Crusader Medium Cavalry unit weathered my cruel attacks, trading nearly man for man. In response, the Crusaders adjusted their ranks but didn’t engage.

Taking the fight to the enemy: five Medium Cavalry descend
on the Crusader front line.

My second order was to five Light units, none of which needed to move to be able to strike with their bows; this winnowed down some of T’s forces by a block or two, particularly his Right. T Responded with a Leader Right Section card that drove into my thinner Left and earned his first banner for the game.

Robert of St Lo valiantly held his ground.

While the Dice god seems to have forgiven T for his past infraction, the god of the Cards still takes umbrage, dealing my opponent unhelpful hands. Nearly all of T’s efforts too place in the centre, which by the third turn I’d begun to hollow out. 

The Card god continued to smile down on me, offering a useful card for every turn in the action. But those who the gods would cast down, they first build up; I tried to save myself the indignity of a second banner loss in the third round, when Geoffrey the Monk’s Knight Cavalry hit one of my reduced Medium Cavalry units on his Right, but my rolls amounted to naught and the squadron was swept away in a deluge of crossed-swords and helmet results.

End state. Not much left on the board for the Crusaders.

With the scores at 6-2 in favour of the historical victors, we entered the seventh round. In my last turn I needed just one more banner to seal the seven-point game. The Leaders card allows a side to commit all their Leaders and any attached troops, which may manoeuvre as normal but will attack in close combat with an additional die. All of my leaders had at least partial units attached, and so I went at it. As is our habit of long standing, we played out the whole round – I took all intended actions while T responded where and as he could. I took a banner in the first round of combat for the turn, winning the game. As the bouts continued, we exchanged two more banners each, bringing the final score to a convincing 9-4.

Crusader casualties: seven full units, Robert of St Lo and Guy de Frenelle.

T has broken his non-scoring streak, which made for a more satisfying win. Historically we’re pretty evenly matched across all the flavours of Commands & Colors, though we’ve both experienced losing streaks. The longest was recorded by me, with fourteen consecutive losses. There’s no telling when that particular brand of lightning nay strike again, but it wasn’t this week.

 

Artuqid cards played.

 

State of Play: Tel Danith - 14 September 1115 (Commands & Colors: Medieval – Crusades Exp.)

 

Camping, Crusader-style.

Sometimes I feel bad for my long-time Monday game night partner and longer-time brother-in-law, T. In all flavours of Commands & Colors we’re pretty evenly matched. But every so often the gods of dice and cards take umbrage at some perceived offence, and in their petty manner they contrive to deny him any gaming satisfaction.

To wit, this week we played at T’s place, so, of course, a scenario from the Crusades Expansion* (GMT Games, 2024) for Commands & Colors: Medieval (GMT Games 2019), as set up and ready to go when I arrived. This time, it was Tel Danith; I went to sit on the Seljuk side, but T insisted I was to take charge of the Crusader forces. After our previous exchange and the humbling 6-0 defeat he recently suffered as the Seljuks at Harran, T would have been eager to return to the Crusader camp, but he insisted, and I didn’t argue.

Initial set-up.

On the face of it, the Seljuks may have an advantage in numbers – twenty units on the board, compared with the Crusaders’ fourteen. For mobility the Seljuks have fourteen mounted units to the Crusaders’ eight, although five of those are Knight Cavalry. On top of that, all the Seljuk Medium Cavalry are armed with bows. Personal artillery seems to have a greater diminishing effect in C&C Medieval than in any other flavour of Command & Colors.

I’ve learned the hard way not to underestimate a smaller Crusader force (again playing the Seljuks), receiving a particularly clarifying lesson on the shores of Lake Antioch. There, a combination of the disfavour of the card and dice gods on my part, along with some clever execution of orders and outstanding rolls on T’s side, saw an 8-1 victory for the Crusaders.

First blood (and poor sticker application).

The situation in this scenario is as follows; supporting Crusader forces gathered to Baldwin I of Jerusalem’s aid when news was received of an invasion lead by Bursuq under the auspices of the Sultan. When Bursuq heard of the gathering force, he demurred, crossing the border once again. When some of the Crusader forces had dispersed, Bursuq, himself having lost some of his forces due to internal disputes, chose to attack Jerusalem with his own diminished but still viable army. Baldwin’s superior intelligence warned him of the danger, and he rode out to meet the treat, descending on Bursuq’s army while they were setting camp. The Seljuks counterattacked, but at the end of the day, the bloodied Crusaders prevailed.

The first five Orders for the Crusaders,

My Crusaders opened with movement on the Right flank, making for the camp tiles on that side. A special rule states that if a Crusader unit occupies a Camp hex at the beginning of their turn, the player can remove it; when all four are removed, the Crusader player earns a permanent victory banner. It took five rounds to accomplish, but the decampment of the Seljuk aggressors earned my fourth banner.

In all, the bout covered eight rounds. Auxilia, Medium Infantry, and Light Bow Cavalry fell like wheat before the scythe. Everywhere was blood and fear.

End state.

Whatever led to T’s loss, it could not be blamed on a lack of fighting spirit. With what cards he had (and with the occasional murmur of, “Who dealt this rubbish?”), he brought the fight to the Crusaders. This may have been his downfall. In the same situation, I would have (where I could) use my light troops as artillery, trying to pick off the enemy as I could with arrows and javelins rather than committing them to near certain death. In consecutive ruounds, two banners were secured for the Crusaders by defending units putting multiple retreat results on Seljuq Light Cavalry, forcing them off the board

If I have a score advantage, I can often get a little callous with my troops, taking greater risks to press an advantage. I’m willing to risk the loss of a unit or even a leader if it will bring me closer to victory. In this case, an Order Two Units Left allowed me to activate the Turcopole Light Bow Cavalry on my Left who, capitalising on their accomplishments on the previous turn, gained the last three banners I needed to secure a win of 8-0.

Seljuq banners and casualties.

T must have greatly offended the gods of chance. While his Seljuq army (at least the ones he could bring into the contest with his limited card options) fought bravely, and sent many Crusader souls to their eternal rest, he once again could not gain a single banner.

 

* I tend to use the Crusades Expansion as short-hand for what, in truth, should be referred to as “Commands & Colors: Medieval – Expansion #1 Crusades Mid-Eastern Battles I”. This distinction is crucial, as the I at the end of Mid-Eastern Battles suggests at least a second set in development, and, of course, the Holy Land wasn’t the only place that saw Crusader battles. I for one would be overjoyed to see an expansion covering major battles from the Northern Crusades, a crucial but often overlooked portion of European history.

State of Play: The Battle of Harran – 4 July 1187 (Commands & Colors: Medieval – Crusades Exp.)

   

 

Opening set-up, Crusaders' POV.

For the first time in a while, T and I played games on consecutive weeks. Last week was at my place, and we took a run at recent arrival WWII Commander, Volume 2: Market Garden (Compass Games, 2025 – there’s an “initial thoughts” post available here), but this week we had to play at T’s place, so I told him to set up whatever he liked. After an exchange of comments with Grant from Pushing Cardboard, I nearly asked T to pull out Commands & Colors Tricorne (Compass Games, 2020), but I gave him carte blanche to pick something and, of course, he went with Commands & Colors: Medieval (GMT Games, 2019), specifically the Battle of Harran from the Crusades expansion (GMT Games, 2024).

Game set-up from the Seljuq side, with Claude officiating.

Now, here at A Fast Game, the clue is in the name. I like a long and complex game, but most of my face-to-face gaming opportunities have about a two-hour or so ceiling, so we play a lot of shorter or smaller-scale games. But now and than a game truly lives up to the moniker of a fast game, and the Battle of Harran was it. I wasn’t familiar with the battle before we sat down to play, and honestly, I can’t really claim superior abilities or insight for the win, just a stellar card draw on the opening round.

The Seljuq opening hand.

The Seljuq player starts first. He has some other advantages in the scenario as well; one extra card in his hand (6-5) and a few extra Inspired Action tokens 4-2). Looking at my opening hand, Line Command jumped out at me. I had a line of eleven units, ranging from Light Mounted Bow running from the Center to my Right Flank, with three Crusader mounted units – A medium Cavalry flanked by two Mounted Knight Cavalry, led by Baldwin II and Jocelin respectively – before them. An envelopment was by no means a sure path to victory, but it was historically accurate.

At the end of that action, both Heavy Cavalry units had fallen, their respective leaders escaping to the infantry line on the back of the Crusader lines, while the remnants of the Crusader Medium Cavalry, reduced to a quarter of their initial strength, held their ground in a delaying action. (Two banners.)

The Seljuqs' big opening move, just before the carnage.

T’s response was to try to get two cavalry units up to challenge the Seljuqs in the Center, where I happened to be weak, and brought his Medium Infantry, rallying to Jocelyn’s Command, to brashly meet Jikirmish’s bloodied but ready Heavy Cavalry.

The Infantry took a block, but their strength was halved in the Heavy unit’s retribution. Throughout the first round, the Crusaders fought valiantly, causing losses along my lines, but they could not translate their successes into Victory Banners.

The battle was decided quite definitively on the Seljuq Right flank.

To open the second turn, I opted for an Outflanked order which allowed me to get a couple of my Light Mounted Bow into the fray on my Left, while my Heavy Cavalry to deal with the remaining block of Medium Cavalry and Jocelyn’s Infantry. (Two more banners.)

In response played a Scout order, and in true knightly tradition had Baldwin advance his Heavy Infantry – which he had enjoined after his narrow escape in the previous round – to meet Soqman in battle once again, only to fil in lading a single blow on their target. In return their numbers were depleted, but they remained on the battlefield, their honour allowing no escape.

My third – and last – order was given to the Seljuq Leaders and their attached units, but as it was, only one saw action, The Leaders order grants the activated units an extra dice in combat. T had no First Strike to hand to counter the blow.

The Crusader casualties.

In keeping with history, Baldwin was lost to the Crusaders with his Heavy Infantry who were cut down with roll of three Red symbols and a pair of crossed swords. A helmet result on a single die ensuring his fate, though Jocelyn did escape such an end this time. (The final two banners of the game.)

That was the fastest route to victory either of us has seen. Commands & Colors doesn’t normally play out quite that quickly. The shortest game we had seen in the past was when we were both old hands at Commands & Colors: Napoleonics (GMT Games, 2010), playing a five-banner game – probably our second or third run at Rolica (French First Position), and was resolved in favour of the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance in just five turns. This was more like the judgement of an angry god with his thumb on the scales of chance. But a win is a win. T took it stoically, no table-flipping involved.

The orders played on both sides.

We should have one more game before he’s off again overseas for a couple of weeks, so I’m going to try to get a Ten Wargame Challenge game to the table. In the meantime, I’ve got a couple of other games I want to write up, and I’m working on A Fast Game’s first feature article (which I have alluded to in a post a few months ago, but regular readers will know it when they see it), and I’m going to try to squeeze some solo play in there as well. So, I have enough to keep me busy for now.

Claude was unimpressed by the Crusaders' performance on the night.

Note: The keen observer will note that the Crusaders’ Heavy Mounted Knight units, which made up the bulk of their cavalry, are represented by regular Heavy Cavalry units. T had already set up the game when I arrived, so rather than taking the extra time to replace the units, we played them as their superior units. This might have affected the results if not for the fact that all the units, even the Seljuq Light Bow, were hitting predominantly with Red symbols when they hit. The mix-up had any adverse bearing on the result, which was glorious, and will be spoken of in hushed tones by the old men who sit at the city gate for many years to come.

 

 

State of Play: The Battle of Ascalon - 14 August 1099 (Commands and Colors: Medieval – Crusades Exp.)

  

 

All in all, not a good day for the Fatimid defenders.

Just a quick report this time. I was to get In the Shadows (GMT Games, 2025) to the table this week, but T has a conference in San Fransisco and asked if I could come to his for a quick game before he left. I gave him carte blanche to set up whatever he liked (I owed him that, since he’s bringing some stuff back from the States), so T chose Commands andColors: Medieval – Crusades expansion (GMT Games, 2024), a set that has seen a lot of milage this year.

T had nearly set up the Ascalon - 14 August, 1099 scenario, just putting out the last pieces for his Crusaders. Given the choice, T will always play the Crusaders in C&C Crusades, the French in Commands & Colors: Napoleonics (GMT Games, 2010), and the British in C&C Tricorne: the American Revolution (Compass Games, 2017).

At first glance, the Fatamids seem to have an advantage of numbers (twenty units on the board to the Crusaders fourteen), but as past experience has shown, the Crusaders can never be underestimated. Historically the Christians had the element of surprise and managed to roll up the Fatimids from their flank, pushing the infantry back into the still forming-up cavalry.

About five rounds in, and the ranks are thinning. Normally I'd have a photo of the
 initial set-up; I thought I did this time, but I didn't check at the time, and nothing
had been saved. A bit like my Fatimids.

Art imitated life for the first three or so rounds, as Godfrey (on T’s Left) came forward to engage my weak right flank, supported by Crossbows and conventional archers. I countered with some Light Cavalry under an unrecorded leader. It took some chipping away and lucky rolls, but over four or five rounds I was able to dispatch Godfrey and his Mounted Knights with those Light Cavalry, though it cost me two units. That was to be the Fatimids' high watermark.

Crusader casualties, mostly piecemeal, but Godfrey may be ransomed back,
so not a total loss.

T meanwhile had been dressing his ranks for a major push in the centre. When readied, his Heavy and Medium Infantry, supported by ever more Mounted Knights and brandishing consecutive Leadership cards, fell like an avalanche on my unsupported front line, quickly breaking its cohesion and forcing some to flee, others to fight and die.

Ascalon is another scenario that some may point to and cry “unbalanced”, but I could see ways to defang the Crusader onslaught. I was hampered by a bad opening hand; well, but really bad, but nothing that gave me an advantage out of the gate. If I’d had a Darken the Sky card, or anything that allowed me to Order Units Center, I may have been able to thin the Crusader ranks with my Auxilia Bow; I’ve had great success – and suffered playing the other side of the board – from Light and Auxilia Bow managing to whittle units down before they get a chance to engage in melee. But that's the beauty of the C&C system - it insists you make the best of what you have available (troops, orders), and sometimes you'll surprise yourself. Just not every time. 

End state. Camps defended, but at what cost? (Final score: 7-3 for a Crusader victory.)

As it was, my opening hand offered three Flank unit orders and a Counterattack, which may have been useful if T had done more than tinkering at the flanks himself in those first couple of rounds. I’m proud to say I didn’t lose any points to real estate grabs. The Crusaders would gain a Victory Banner for each Camp hex they managed to hold until the beginning of their next turn, but they didn’t need to. In a small act of defiance, the anonymous Fatimid Leader and the remnant of his Light Cavalry responsible for Godfrey’s ahistorical capture, survived to the end, albeit with a mere vestige (a single block) of his original unit. And the gates of Ascalon held firm.

 

 

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.

 

 

Review: Commands & Colors: Medieval, Expansion 1: Crusades Mid-Eastern Battles 1

 

 

Commands and Colors: Medieval (GMT Games, 2019) offered a new theatre of war to be viewed through the lens of the Commands & Colors system. There was some discontent expressed in the usual forums regarding the decision to begin the series at the beginning of the medieval period, at the decline of the Eastern Roman Empire. Eventually, however, the unique qualities of the game and the strengths of the system shone through, leading to a second printing, and, eventually, the product we’re addressing here, Commands & Colors: Medieval, Expansion 1: Crusades Mid-Eastern Battles 1 (GMT Games, 2024). As we’re told on the back-of-the-box description, this set of twenty (yes, that’s “20”) scenarios, spanning ninety years, through the First and Second Crusades and the intervening years, up to the Battle of Hattin in 1187. The course of the scenarios is a journey through history, with the rise and waning of successive Arab and Turkish powers challenging the European knights over control of the Holy Land.

Let me be clear (again) that this is an expansion for Commands & Colors: Medieval game. That is to say, you need the base game to be able to play Crusades. I would also not right now, that given the unwieldy name of the expansion, I will hereon refer to it as either Crusades, or the expansion, mostly for the sake of my own sanity.

Antioch set-up, from the Crusaders' edge. Note the sneaky (if ultimately unsuccessful)
counterattack from behind by the Seljuq Turks. Also worth noting is the Auxilia Infantry
unit carrying a piece of the True Cross, or maybe a finger of St Andrew (lower right).
In Crusades, relics have power.

Appearance

I’m not going to spend too much time on the look or the component quality of the Crusades expansion; I’ve already posted an unboxing of the set, and anything else I added would simply be repeating myself, something I try not to do (though sometimes, I just can’t help it). Everything will look familiar to those who have played C&C Medieval, with the exception of new units introduced in this expansion. The Crusades leverages the existing blocks form C&C Medieval. Some have complained that this lessens the distinctive flavour of the expansion, but I would have to disagree. I’m truly grateful for the designers and panners of this expansion not insisting on a completely new set of blocks for two full armies, with all the extra cost in materials and shipping that would entail, let alone the hours of stickering, and the need to house a full second army. I can live with anachronistic uniforms or armour (if they are really that radically different) for the sake of these savings alone.

New units included in the Crusades expansion, Left to right: Mid-Eastern Auxilia Bow
Infantry, Turcopole Light Bow Cavalry, Medium Crossbow Infantry,
Heavy Knight Cavalry, and Foot Knight Infantry.

As it is, you’re still going to put some time into preparing new forces and augmenting existing ones with this expansion. Five new categories of fighting units have been introduced in Crusades, and these are mostly on the side of the Crusaders. The only new Mid-Eastern unit is the Auxilia Bow Infantry. Like their regular Auxilia brethren, they fire at range and fight in close combat with two dice, and in melee will hit on sword results. Unlike the spear-throwing auxilia, they have a firing range of four hexes.

The only Light unit joining the Crusader ranks is the Turcopole Light Bow Cavalry. Turcapole cavalry were local men who had converted to Christianity from Islam, and who hired themselves out as mercenaries to the Crusaders. As converts who had departed from Islam, if they were caught by the enemy, they would be executed immediately under the code of law. These, like all mounted units, may momentum advance and engage in a second round of close combat.

Arguably the greatest man-portable technological advance in the years between C&C: Medieval’s Late Roman Empire and the world of Crusades was the crossbow. Crusades introduces Medium Crossbow Infantry (four units in all). Like all bow-capable units in C&C: Medieval, the Crossbow infantry roll two dice in ranged combat. Unlike other bow units, they cannot engage in ranged combat after movement. They fight with two dice in melee as well, but can ignore a sword from lower ranked units, and, truth be told, there is a psychological aspect to having crossbow-armed soldiers on the field of battle, especially when playing the Mid-Eastern faction.

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon (Knights Templar -
white blocks), and Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem 
(Knights Hospitaller - red blocks) may appear mounted or unmounted.

Finally, the Crusades saw the Super-Heavy Cavalry of the base game fade from view to be replaced by European Knights, fearsome warriors whether mounted or unmounted. Crusades offers both options; Foot Knight Infantry, identified by crossed swords transecting the white-bordered Red-square unit indicator and by the look of grim determination on the figures in the illustration, fight with four dice, but they may ignore one flag and ignore the first Sword hit from a lower-ranked unit. They may momentum advance over the corpses of their vanquished enemies and fight on for a second round of melee. These units are formidable.

They are even more formidable in the saddle. Well, as formidable, but a tad more impetuous. Heavy Knight Cavalry share the same fighting parameters as their unmounted brothers, but unlike regular Heavy Cavalry, the Knights are “motivated” (the term used in the rules) by their training, sense of honour, and a goodly measure of bloodlust, and may advance a second space to engage the enemy in their second round of close combat.

Then there are the Knights Orders. Crusades introduces branded crusaders in the form of Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller, one unit each of Infantry and Cavalry (representing the cohort as mounted or unmounted, as the scenario dictates). These units function very much as their regular Knight-unit collieries, except that these guys always hit on Leader symbols, whether a leader is present or not. Meaning they will have a four in six chance of delivering a result on each die in every fight.

Now we’ve met the new guys, let’s have a look at how Crusades plays out on the table.

I don't want to spend column inches waxing eloquent on it, but the quality of the art in
the terrain tiles really should be noted. For me, it lifts the experience of play a notch.

Play

Commands & Colors games all use essentially the same system; this is how we know a game is a Commands & Colors game. If you’ve played a couple of C&C Games before and you come across a new one, you shouldn’t run into any problems getting your head around the new game. But the beauty of the system is in its flexibility. You’ll never achieve anything close to a true historical a simulation with a C&C game of any stripe – it’s worth noting that this is true of many wargames, no matter how granular you get – but each flavour of Commands & Colors brings a lot of situational verisimilitude of the battle type to the table, no small thing for a single rules set; the only comparable system I can think of off hand would probably be Great Battles of History (GBoH), covering battles from 500 BCE to the Early Modern period.

Crusades is no exception to this, except in that the departure from its original game seems more radical than most expansions achieve. C&C: Medieval was very much its own creature compared to its closest analogue, Commands & Colors: Ancients (GMT Games,2006). I really enjoy playing C&C: Ancients, but playing Expansion 2: Rome and the Barbarians (GMT, 2007) or Expansion 3: the Roman Civil Wars (GMT Games, 20070, while interesting situations and improving learning experiences, don’t really feel like a departure from the play style of the core game   By contrast, Crusades has a feel and a flavour all its own.

The unique qualities Crusades brings to the table are achieved by a combination of novel and interesting scenario design, and the introduction of some new, expansion-specific rules. The big system innovation with C&C: Medieval was the introduction of the Inspired Leadership Action economy. This bears some similarities to the Tactics cards introduced to Commands & Colors: Napoleonics (GMT Games, 2010) in the General, Marshals and Tacticians expansion (GMT Games, 2015), except that instead of choosing from a selection of generic cards that could potentially be used by either side, each player begins with a number of tokens (and my earn more through card play, which they may spend in an action to give one unit some advantage in the execution of their activation (these are referred to as Battlefield Actions), or, if actioned during and Inspired Leadership order, maybe used to unlock one of a selection of special orders, these being mostly unique to one or the other side of the conflict. In the core set there was one set of Inspired Actions for the “Romans” and one for the Huns.

Inspired Action options for the Seljuq and Artuqid Turks.

With Crusades, the stops have been pulled out, and while the Crusaders set of options remains static, the opposing Mid-Eastern forces’ options change depending on their ethnicity. The three different sets of Inspired actions reflect the differences in fighting styles between the Ayyubids, the Fatimids, and the Seljuq and Artuqid Turks.

Another new rule involves the Feigned Retreat; after a medium of heavy Crusader cavalry unit declares an attack on an enemy light cavalry unit, if the unit is in a position to evade, it may instead declare a feigned retreat, before retreating the full four-space distance. Here the Crusader player first rolls for damage, hitting only on green circles (not swords, retreats or helmets, if otherwise appropriate). Then, if any of the light cavalry unit hasn't been eliminated, it retreat its full distance (four spaces), then will the Crusader player rolls two dice; if the roll results in at least one crossed swords symbol, the attacking unit will follow the “retreating” unit, ideally ending up deep among the enemy forces. In their very next turn, provided their hand facilitates such an action, the Mid-Eastern payer may be able to destroy a prize Crusader unit with repeated bow attacks – death by a thousand cuts – or with a handy until of comparable strength, especially if the Crusader cavalry’s retreat has been blocked.

Another shockingly effective manoeuvre introduced in the Crusades expansion is the Light Infantry Swarm attack, available to some Mid-Eastern factions as a Battlefield Action (at the cost of an inspired action point). After any movement from a played order card, the Mid-Eastern player may attack a single opponent’s unit with up to four ordered light cavalry units in either ranged or close combat, with all the dice being rolled effectively simultaneously (the defending unit doesn’t get to retaliate to each attack in turn). Moreover, if a unit in Close Combat rolls a sword result, ALL sword results count as hits, and if a Close-Combat engaged unit has an attached leader, all Leader symbols are considered hits also. If all this hasn’t finished the defending unit, and it was forced to retreat, a single Close-engaged unit may momentum advance and have another shot.

A disproportionate use of force; or, picking the low-hanging fruit.

Between the Crusaders new units and the Mid-eastern factions’ new tactics, Medieval warfare has got a whole lot more interesting. Added to these are the curious set-ups for the scenarios.

One of the virtues of Commands and Colors is the scenario set-up. This is always relatively straight-forward; lay out the terrain tiles, then the two sides’ units, as per the helpful map. With C&C Medieval you may also have to declare whether some cavalry units carry bows and mark them with a Bow marker. When the set-up is complete, the players will often launch straight into aggressive actions. There may be some jockeying for better positions in the first round or two, but you feel like you’re getting straight into the action, This is because the set-ups are designed to pick up the story just at the moment the two sides are about to engage one another.

Set-up map for the first of the four Hattin scenarios. The Crusader army was strung
out over several miles and Saladin sought to fight the Europeans piecemeal through
envelopment manoeuvres. The noose tightens with each scenario.

But in Crusades, the set-ups are in themselves are often more interesting than in the core set. It’s rarely a matter or two sides lining up to slug it out, By the time the game starts, there has already been some serious manoeuvring underway. Maybe a quarter of the scenarios included in Crusades are envelopment situations. This was a tactic the Mid-Eastern armies preferred and excelled at, kind of a Light Cavalry Swarm attack but on a whole-of-battlefield scale. In these scenarios, the Crusaders are hardly lambs to the slaughter, and there are often additional rules to allow the Crusader player to gain an extra Victory Banner or two in a way that requires some planning and luck, rather than the annihilation of yet one more opposing unit.

For the seeming one-sidedness of some of the scenarios, they are quite well balanced. If there is a distinct preferred side on paper, the vagaries of the Command Card draw will often level the playing field somewhat. I would not call myself an expert in tactical warfare in the middle-ages, or in C&C: Medieval for that matter – I’ve accrued far more losses than victories playing this expansion thus far – but I’m beginning to see how some actions or tactics may pay off in a given situation. This is something that, with in the region of five hundred plays under my belt, comes as second nature in Commands & Colors: Napoleonics, but I have more games and more losses ahead of me before I can get to that stage with this game. So, it’s a good thing it’s such a fun and challenging game to play.

At the table with my Monday night gaming buddy (and brother-in-law), T. Note
the mass of Crusader casualties I've inflicted on my adversary (lower left corner),
yet he still managed a pretty convincing win.

Appraisal

I already liked Commands & Colors: Medieval a lot, right from the get-go. Either side of this game, chronologically, the antagonists on the two sides feel a little samey, with similar army make ups (though often with radically different Orders of Battle or disproportionate strengths), Commands & Colors: Ancients and Commands & Colors: Samurai Battles (GMT Games, 2022), In fact, the armies in Samurai Battles are each a mirror image of the other. With C&C: Medieval, we were introduced the concept of the Inspired Leadership counters, a currency the player can spend to gain a slither of advantage in a given situation from a table of possible tactical improvements. These have been doubled-down upon in Crusades, particularly for the Mid-Eastern factions.

For me, there was an element of Might is Right to C&C: Medieval (this can be a thing in C&C: Ancients as well, perhaps more so, where you don’t have the game-changing (well, game-modifying) Inspired Leadership currency to weight a given situation on your side a little), where if you can get your heavy units into play, you’ll have a better chance of a win. I don’t know if this is entirely fair to either system, but it was an instinctual response to seeing the action play out in early games, and it’s a tendency I’ve noticed all my opponents I’ve ever played at either game. The new options in Crusades have, I think, broken me of this unconscious preference. I’m keen to go back to the core C&C: Medieval scenarios and apply what I’ve gleaned from Crusades to those.

Nobel prize-winner Issac Bashevis Singer said he chose to write his stories in Yiddish, then translate them himself into English because Yiddish had "vitamins" that other languages didn't possess. As I've already mentioned here and elsewhere, each form of the Commands & Colors system has its own flavour, its own vitamins. This could be why some people adore one stripe of C&C and loathe another. As a first expansion, Crusades offers a lot. Pound for pound, I think there’s (for me at least) a deeper challenge and more thorough enjoyment in these scenarios than in the core box. This isn’t to disparage C&C: Medieval; like I said at the beginning of this post, that is a great game in itself that I’ve gleaned many hours of enjoyment (and moments of frustration) out of. Crusades just brings a little more intrigue into the mix. Okay, I’m going to say it; Crusades is The Godfather, Part II to C&C: Medieval’s The Godfather. The core game is fantastic, but the sequel is, beyond expectations, just a little bit better. But (to torture the analogy just a little more) You really need to have enjoyed the original before you can truly appreciate the follow-up.