Harrison Wins Inaugural Commands & Colors: Medieval Title!

After waiting 2 years, Commands and Colors Medieval made its debut at the 2022 World Boardgaming Championships. Because this was the first time, we were unsure how long each game would take, so the format was 1 game for each round. Players were bidding inspired action tokens (given to their opponent) for the side they preferred.

The first scenario was Thannuris and players had 2 chances to advance to the second round. This battle turned out to heavily favor the Sassanids, as they won all 12 battles with an average score of 6 to 2.25 banners. This was shown in the bidding, as the average bid was 1.5 inspired action tokens to play the Sassanids. As expected, several games were decided by key mounted changes from the Sassanids.

The second round battle was Catalaunian Fields (Roman Left). This was a much more balanced affair, with the Romans winning 3 battles and the Huns winning 2 (average score: Romans 5.6, Huns 5.0). The bids also reflected the balance, as nobody bid more than 2 inspired action tokens, and tokens were given for both sides. Jack Morrell, a perennial favorite in Commands and Colors games, had a tough match against Geoff Heintzelman. Geoff’s Huns started the game with a Line Command and Mounted Charge on their left. The Hun cavalry eliminated the Roman light cavalry in one roll after blocking their retreat. The Huns then managed to eliminate the heavy cavalry and kill the Roman leader (on 2 dice). This early 3-0 deficit was too much to recover from.

Round 3 (semifinals) started with only 4 players left, and the participants decided to switch to match play to avoid the need for bidding. The scenario was Catalaunian Fields (Roman Right). In the first semifinal, Joe Harrison (who finished near the top in all the Commands and Colors tournaments this year) faced off against Bart Pisarik. Joe won both games by a score of 7-2 to advance to the finals.

The other semifinal pitted John Skiba against Geoff Heintzelman. In the first game, John’s Roman warriors moved forward in the center, which put Geoff’s light units in jeopardy (as they had no evade available). Geoff rushed forward with the Hun warriors, but the attack failed badly, and John scored 5 banners in quick order. The Hun heavy cavalry got a few banners, but failed to finish off a warrior unit. Its battle back secured the 7-4 victory for John.

In the second game, ranged fire proved effective. John’s Huns followed this up with his heavy cavalry to eliminate Geoff’s heavy cavalry, leader, and auxiliary for 3 banners. The Roman counterattack (mounted charge) killed off three Hun heavy cavalry units after a failed first strike. The Hun warriors surrounded an overextended Roman cavalry and killed the unit and the leader. Geoff’s final attempt for the win was a foot onslaught with 3 full-strength warrior units, but he failed to score a banner, and John got the win 7-3.

John Skiba and Joe Harrison readied for the finals match at Dara. This scenario has several interesting features, including city gates and reinforcements.

In the first game, Joe commanded the Byzantines, while John led the Sassanids. Both sides opened with missile fire. Pharas and two medium cavalry units reinforced the Byzantine left. Joe quickly put these units into action with a mounted charge. The heavy cavalry eliminated a Sassanid light cavalry by rolling 3 flags. Despite a Sassanid ambush that eliminated the Byzantine heavy cavalry, the Byzantine medium cavalry managed to eliminate a superheavy cavalry for the 2-1 lead. The Sassanids countered with ordering medium troops, but a timely first strike killed a Sassanid medium cavalry and the leader to give Joe a 4-1 lead. After this flurry of action, both sides redeployed and used missile fire for several turns. The Sassanids then used a foot onslaught on their right, but the Byzantine cavalry evaded. Joe countered with moving his cavalry forward on the Byzantine right. John played a mounted charge on that side but was again undone by a first strike (made more effective by an inspired action token) that eliminated his MC. Joe countered the mounted charge and eliminated two infantry units for the 7-1 victory (36-11 blocks).

In the second game, the action started a little more quickly, as John brought on Pharas and two medium cavalry in the second turn. He then countered a Leadership Right card for a mounted charge with 2 mediums and 1 heavy cavalry. He managed to eliminate a Sassanid auxiliary for the 1-0 lead, and followed it up with another auxiliary kill. Joe used line command to redeploy his Sassanid units as well as fire some arrows, managing to eliminate a medium cavalry and cut John’s lead in half. John knew he could not give up another medal and played Cry Havoc to order 2 medium cavalry and 1 heavy cavalry. Unfortunately, he only eliminated one unit for the 3-1 lead. Joe then played mounted charge to order 1 heavy and 2 superheavy cavalry. He eliminated a heavy cavalry and an archer unit to tie the game at 3 and secure the first ever WBC CCM tournament. After Byzantine missile fire, the Sassanids played another mounted charge that killed two more Byzantine cavalry units. John countered with 2-2-2 to kill an archer and one superheavy cavalry, knotting the game at 5-5. Joe then ordered his heavy Sassanid units and killed a medium cavalry for the 6-5 lead. John desperately moves his infantry forward with double time and foot onslaught, but Joe plays another mounted charge to win the second game 7-5.

Although bidding with inspired banners worked well, we’d like to have match play throughout the tournament or find some other alternative to avoid bidding and alleviate potential imbalances in scenarios and cards.

I’d like to thank Andy Lewis and GMT games for their unwavering support of this tournament. In addition, the assistant GMs, John Skiba and Jack Morrell, did a great job helping me prepare for and run the tournament.