
2006 · Wargame
Commands & Colors: Ancients
Tactical ancient-era wargame covering engagements from roughly 3000 BC to 400 AD. Players deploy and maneuver armies on a modular battlefield, using unit blocks that represent infantry, cavalry, and leaders at varying scales depending on the scenario. Gameplay is driven by a command card system that limits and shapes orders, creating a fog-of-war effect and forcing flexible planning. Combat resolves with custom dice that produce hits, leader results, flags and banners, and the scenarios emphasize historical deployments and terrain. Fifteen scenarios present stylized recreations of classical battles and typically finish within an hour.
- Players
- 2
- Playing time
- 60 min
- Age
- 12+
- Complexity
- 2.7 / 5
About the game
- Design
- Publisher
Expansions
See them in Ludoya
Commands & Colors: Ancients Expansion Pack #1 – Greece & Eastern Kingdoms2006
Commands & Colors: Ancients Expansion Pack #2 – Rome vs the Barbarians2007
Commands & Colors: Ancients Expansion Pack #3 – The Roman Civil Wars2007
Commands & Colors: Ancients Expansion Pack #4 – Imperial Rome2009
Commands & Colors: Ancients Expansion Pack #6 – The Spartan Army2011
CDG Solo System2022
Commands & Colors: Ancients Expansion Pack #5 – Epic Ancients II2009
Commands & Colors: Ancients Expansions #2 and #3 – Rome vs the Barbarians; The Roman Civil Wars2014
CDG Solo System Pack #22023Where to buy it
Shop prices and second-hand copies, checked every day.
On Ludoya's tables
Full stats in Ludoya- 143
- Plays logged
- 75
- Players
- 1h 25m
- Average play
- 49
- In collections
- 8
- On wishlists
- 1
- Pre-ordered
6.7/10
from 19 Ludoya reviews
Evan5.9 This is a two player war game, where each side gets a pre-set army made up of wooden blocks, and then each player takes their turn playing a card to command one or more of their army groups, then draws a new card. There's some substantial luck here in that the cards you draw determine which armies can act, and combat is dice based, although it's an interesting dice system, not normal dice but dice that has the color of the target printed on it, with increased hit chances depending on if a general is near them. That being said, the luck didn't bother me as in the case of the cards, you have a big hand, and can usually do something relevant. In the case of the dice, there's strategic mitigation if you position yourself right, and also, a unit still hits at 100% it's strength even if there's only a single block left in it, which really mitigates a lot of the die luck. I found the game to be extremely interesting in terms of tactics, and I hope to play this more, although it's rare I wind up playing in 2 player groups. My opponent commented that the system was similar to Memoir 44, but more complicated and interesting as this game has more unit types. I don't plan to explore other games, since CC Ancients has so much content for it, and I'm thematically turned off by games that feature any kind of modern warfare. ★ Art, Iconography and components functional ★ Clever or interesting mechanisms ★ Reasonably low downtime between turns with mildly AP players ★ Multiple plays stay interesting ☆ Low or mitigatable luck elements ★★★☆☆ Raw enjoyment
FinnTroll8.0 that's pretty much the only wargame i like to play.
Buen juego de batallas. Muy rápido y con ganas de jugar otra....
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Game facts (players, playing time, age, credits) from BoardGameGeek.