by Dan Pinkham, 18 April 2012

Designed by Richard Borg for GMT Games

Unleash the armies of Rome and Carthage upon your dining room tables, albeit with much less sand and blood than their historical counterparts.

Introduction

Commands & Colors Ancients, the ancients boardgame from GMT Games, brings the armed conflict between the Romans and Carthaginians to life on your tabletop. Designed by Richard Borg of Battle Cry and Memoir ’44 fame Commands & Colors Ancients continues to build on the concept of the “command card system.” The Commands & Colors Ancients game is the base of GMT Games’ series that allows you to delve into ancient warfare on your gaming table. This block wargame was designed with two players in mind but there is a variant for solo play to be found online. Most scenarios should be able to be played in about one hour, however expect to spend some time assembling the game before jumping into your first gaming session.

Components

The first thing I noticed when picking up my copy of Command & Colors Ancients is how heavy the box is. This has something to do with the bag of 345 gray, brown and black wooden blocks representing the Roman and Carthaginian units, and victory blocks respectively. To go with the blocks are five pages of stickers representing the various units used in the game, all of which must be affixed to the front and back of their corresponding block. Along with the blocks and their stickers are seven large black battle dice that need their corresponding stickers attached to their six sides. The game board is a double-sided hex-tiled battlefield representing a flat and barren landscape. One side of the game board is missing one of the short edges border in order to combine multiple boards to play larger scenarios. To help spruce up the barren battlefield the game contains 45 double-sided terrain tiles; including broken ground, forest, hill, fortification and water feature tiles. A set of 60 command cards are also included. At the bottom of the box you also find the ‘Core Series Rule Book,’ scenario book, and two quick reference cards. Continue reading →