OT2026 Round 5

Command & Colors Ancients Open Tournament 
Round 5
Scenario: ...

OT2026 Round 5

Oh Jeez. Thanks Mark. 

This was designed a long time ago and as an historical exercise, not with competition in mind. A bit of special ruling and I don't lay any claim to balance! Nevertheless, a chance to play with the old light chariot rules and I hope people enjoy it. And I appreciate the playtesting by a large group of experienced players so I'd love to hear feedback.

Brent.

Round 5 


Game 1
Gileforn (Canaan) 1 Banner
gdnuke (Egypt) 6 Banners

Heavy chariots were the first 3 banners for Egypt as they fell to ranged attacks. Some tough fighting ending in little result on the Egyptian right, as most of the Canaanites were able to withdraw inside the town walls. 1 Aux fell outside the walls and then a LC with leader was trapped in front of the center town walls by charging Light Chariots. The LC was killed and the leader missed, but here we had a question that we were unable to find an answer to.  Does the leader survive to be withdrawn into the town (with an order) or does he die and give a banner to the enemy? In Napoleonics, we were sure he would die if unable to retreat due to impassable hexes behind him, but we were unable to find an answer quickly for Ancients, and so we played on. It may have ended the game earlier, but it did not affect the final score.  we did want to bring this up since it may affect other plays of this scenario. The Heavy Chariots seemed nice, but they are very brittle. The 6-card Egyptian hand more than made up for those Heavies in both our games.

 


Round 5 Game 2


Game 2
gdnuke (Canaan) 1 Banner
Gileforn (Egypt) 6 Banners

This time the tables were turned. The Canaanites attacked with the 2 Heavy Chariots they had left after the first Egyptian turn, but they fell short to some timely evasions. By turn 3 the 3 Heavy Chariots were gone - again the first 3 banners for either side. They had done some damage, and Canaan was able to score one banner, but that was it, despite several 1 block Egyptian units left on the board and some "halfway there" leader checks. A well-deserved draw as neither of us figured out a way to challenge Egyptian dominance. Andrey was careful to make lots of ranged attacks and withdrew 5 or 6 units into Megiddo when he played Canaan, and I was more aggressive (since I knew I only needed 2 banners to win on aggregate) in closing to CC and on only withdrawing a couple units (down to the last block) into Megiddo. We played differently as Canaan, but did not find a winning (or even getting close) solution to Canaan's mission.

 

 

Looks like this is the entry in the FAQ that we did not find during the game regarding Leader Evade into impassible terrain (in this case the town walls of Megiddo).

Note that is does not explicitly say the words impassible terrain, but it does say that if the leader cannot move back, he is eliminated and a banner awarded.

Q.  When a leader cannot evade is he lost?

A.  After a leader survives a leader casualty check, the leader must evade 1, 2 or 3 hexes. The key word in the rule is must. If the leader cannot move back, toward his own side of the battlefield, he is eliminated and counts as a victory banner. Note however, a leader may make an Escape move through enemy units when the enemy occupies his path. 

Game 1
DanieleC (Canaan) 2 Banner
beckerdo (Egypt) 6 Banners

Game 2
beckerdo (Canaan) 1 Banner
DanieleC (Egypt) 6 Banners



 

Game 1
gotigerssc (Canaan) 4 Banners
soul1st (Egyptian) 6 Banners

Opened up really bad as two HCH fell on  the first four dice rolled....one double red and one double flag. I was fortunate enough to regroup my units a little and use double time and a few fortunate battle backs to get up to 4 banners.

Game 2
soul1st (Canaan) 1 Banner
gotigerssc (Egyptian) 6 Banners

Almost the same thing happened in this game with HCH. Either way, in both games they were all gone fairly early in the battle. I was also able to pull off a 2d LC to claim one of his leaders. All of the fighting was essentially in the middle as Twan brought over his LC from the left to shore it up and I had too many good cards for a good final push.

I know this was meant to be historical but it may help the Canaan side to have one more card to help bring things up even a little.


 

Game 1
alecrespi (Canaan) 5 Banners
Asterisk1 (Egyptian) 6 Banners

The Egyptians opened aggressively with their light mounted units, eliminating 1 Canaanite HCH.
The Canaanites pushed on their left flank with a Mounted Charge, but only forced a few retreats with no losses inflicted.
Egypt answered with a Counterattack card, taking out another Canaanite HCH (0-2).
The Canaanites then pressed the center, wiping out an isolated LBC unit with no escape route (1-2).
A second Counterattack card let Egypt's LCH and W units strike again (1-3).
Still pushing the center, the Canaanites eliminated an Egyptian LCH (2-3).
Egypt's Warriors then broke through, destroying a Canaanite LCH and forcing the leader back (2-4).
Running low on useful cards, the Canaanites played Coordinated Attack but achieved nothing. Egypt kept advancing its Warriors with Order Medium Troops, but the dice favored the Canaanite leader, who held the line at 2 blocks and even won the battle back, eliminating one Egyptian W (3-4).
The Canaanites then finished off an isolated, single-block Egyptian W (4-4), though they began taking missile fire from across the river on their right. Their Aux unit engaged and defeated an already-weakened Egyptian W (5-4).
With everyone now in range, Egypt played Darken the Sky and came agonizingly close to closing out the game (5-5).
The Canaanites tried to pull back out of missile range, but Egypt's Order Mounted Troops card let their last 2 LCH units finish off a badly wounded Canaanite Aux for the win (5-6).

Thanks to Cam for a great game!
The rematch will be played in the coming weeks.
Unfortunately I accidentally deleted the VLOG file, but I managed to convert it to video first — link below

Game 1
EzPickens (Canaan) 2 Banners
Charlescab (Egyptian) 6 Banners

Game 1Player 1 (Canaan) 2 Banners EzPickensPlayer 2 (Egyptian) 6 Banners   Charlescab+ sThe armies of Egypt, commanded by Charles as Thutmose III, met the Canaanite coalition under John before the walls of Megiddo. Egypt struck first with an aggressive chariot advance, but the attack fell short and left several units exposed. The Canaanites countered effectively, but Thutmose quickly regained the initiative by concentrating his light chariots against the enemy's heavy chariot corps. In a series of determined attacks, two of the three heavy chariots were destroyed, severely weakening the Canaanite army. Though the defenders fought back with coordinated assaults and a powerful Mounted Charge that destroyed Thutmose's personal chariot—forcing the Pharaoh to escape to the rear—the Egyptians maintained steady pressure and eventually eliminated the final heavy chariot.With the enemy's elite striking force gone, the battle became a contest of attrition. The Canaanites repeatedly attempted to reclaim ground through skillful maneuvering, but Egyptian coordinated attacks and an effective Outflank maneuver gradually wore down their resistance. A final assault in the center shattered the remaining defenders and broke the coalition's resolve. By the end of the day, the field belonged to Egypt, whose disciplined attacks and early destruction of the Canaanite heavy chariots proved decisive in securing victory.hort recount of the action 

Game 1
RiverWanderer (Canaan) 6 Banners
Azzy (Egyptian) 3 Banners

After taking a couple of hits the Canaanite Heavy Chariots surged forward and soon the Egyptian centre was shredded. The Egyptian left closed in and took out the enemy chariots before they could retire. However, as the Egyptian left closed up for attack, a Light Infantry unit found it's evade path blocked and a lucky "I Am Spartacus" roll allowed the Canaanites to close out the win.

Sketchy cross-border internet troubles plagued our first session; hence two log files...


Game 2
Azzy (Canaan) 4 Banners
RiverWanderer (Egyptian) 6 Banners

The Egyptian had much better cards this game, so it seemed - opening with Move, Fire, Move taking out 1 Heavy Chariot ; a Light Troops to follow up with a second provocative attack,  and a First Strike to take out  a 1 block Heavy Chariot that threw itself forward. So it went from there; a Mounted Charge almost went wrong but even then, then dice let the Egyptians off the hook. From mid-game, they pivoted Left, where good section cards and a second Light Troops maintained pressure on the Canaanites to the end.

R5G1 Megiddo
Alex, Canaanites, 14 blocks lost, 3 banners taken
SteveT, Egyptians, 10 blocks lost, 6 banners taken
The Canaanites advanced in the centre and on both flanks, while my Egyptian light troops shot and evaded repeatedly, interspersed with 2 mounted charges and a final warrior melee with order 4 units centre for the final banners. The Canaanite 2 block heavy chariots proved to be too brittle against these repeated attacks.

R5G2 Megiddo
SteveT, Canaanites, 6 blocks lost, 6 banners taken
Alex, Egyptians, 17 blocks lost, 1 banner taken
This time the Canaanite Heavy Chariots were invulnerable to ranged fire and, assisted by my third mounted charge of the match, were able to close to melee the lighter Egyptians, to devastating effect. Thanks to Alex for these games, the cards and dice were very much on my side. Looking forward to meeting you in the Nap tournament!