Hasty Wins First Ancients Title!

There were 16 entrants for the tournament this year with several noting it as their first time playing the game. Although, it seemed that many had experience with the Commands & Colors system from other games in the series.

Swiss Round 1 was the Ticinus River scenario with Carthage going 7-1 across eight games. This scenario is interesting because Carthage fields no infantry while Rome consists of 6 units of light infantry and 6 units of medium cavalry. In the actual battle, Hannibal dealt Rome a major defeat, which largely played out here.

Swiss Round 2 saw the fight move to 2nd Beneventum where once again Carthage held the upper hand overall with a 6-2 record. This time the result was a bit ahistorical with Rome falling mostly to the wayside. Interesting history note is that the Roman legions in the battle consisted of slaves, and before the battle Gracchus promised them freedom if they brought back Carthaginian heads. When his men started focusing more on heads from corpses, he changed his order to win the battle for freedom and they did just that but ultimately remained loyal to Gracchus afterward.

Swiss Round 3 was the Orongis scenario that was fought on the Iberian peninsula with Carthage retreating, but the battle was likely more of a draw than true Roman victory. Our results were a bit more evenly split at 4-3 in favor of Carthage. We had two players drop out this round, resulting in one less overall match.

Swiss Round 4, which was the last round before the Semifinal, had us down to eight players. Brian DeWitt was not going to be able to play in the Semifinal or Final and voluntarily switched sides to play as Rome so we would have the right balance. This battle was Castulo where there was a sudden death element built in if Carthage was able to eliminate Scipio. If they did, it was an instant win, but no one managed the feat. The matches split evenly at 2-2 with the average figures lost being only 1 apart from one another.

Semifinal

The Semifinal scenario was Great Plains with Rome striking back from earlier scenarios by taking 3 of the 4 games played, which is true to the historical result.

Top-seeded Carthaginian player, Geoff Heintzelman, versus second-seeded Roman player, Brad Raszewski:

• Game 1:
  • Geoff (Rome) – 6 banners (18 figures lost)
  • Brad (Carthage) – 2 banners (25 figures lost)
• Game 2 was a case of sometimes the cards and dice don’t go your way:
  • Geoff (Carthage) – 6 banners (2 figures lost)
  • Brad (Rome) – 0 banners (27 figures lost)

Second-seeded Carthaginian player, Justin Hasty, versus Top-seeded Roman player, Matthew Miller:

• Game 1:
  • Justin (Carthage) – 4 banners (31 figures lost)
  • Matthew (Rome) – 6 banners (28 figures lost)
• Game 2:
  • Justin (Rome) – 6 banners (19 figures lost)
  • Matthew (Carthage) – 2 banners (25 figures lost)

Final

The Final scenario was Po River and featured another classic Rome versus Carthage battle. Geoff and Justin squared off in an exciting match that went down to the very end.

In Game 1, Justin played Rome and Geoff played Carthage. The Roman lines were able to creep ahead in the center with their medium units in preparation for their play of “Double Time” that led to intense fighting. It went back and forth and the Roman side came out barely ahead with a 7-6 win. Interesting note is that the Roman heavy units were never able to get into the fight as close combat started so early.

In Game 2, the two sides traded a lot of ranged fire trying to weaking units before the inevitable frontal assault from the Romans. When they did finally advance, they did it with emphasis and were ahead 4-2 with several Carthaginian units in dire straits due to taking losses and having no place to run away. Things were not looking up for Carthage, depending on your perspective. Geoff then caught up with a lone single figure medium unit on the baseline by chasing him down with a light unit. However, the cards started favoring Carthage as they played a Line Command to bring 3 heavy units with a leader and one auxilia to their left flank to cut off the Roman assault. This essentially split the Carthage army in two, leaving their right flank a bit exposed. After the Line Command came a Double Time to exacerbate the problem for Geoff’s right and put an end to that pressure. In doing so, Justin was able to chase down a couple of weakened Roman units. Finally, the elephants on the Carthage right finished off a medium cavalry unit on battle back by rerolling a single sword for another sword and the victory.

Final result:

• Game1:
  • Justin (Rome) – 7 banners (27 figures lost)
  • Geoff (Carthage) – 6 banners (30 figures lost)
• Game 2:
  • Justin (Carthage) – 7 banners (23 figures lost)
  • Geoff (Rome) – 5 banners (32 figures lost)