Command and Colors Ancients
Expansion # 2
Rome and the Barbarians
Who were the Barbarians? According to Rome, anyone who was not living within the Empire was a Barbarian! This included the Germanic Tribes like the Goths and Visigoths (Eastern Goths), the Britons and Gaul. The Romans looked down on these “savages” and clashed with them on a regular basis. The first clashes were due to the Romans expanding their conquests into new territories in an effort to increase the wealth of the Empire. 
On the fringes of the vast Roman Empire these peoples would make incursions into Roman territory, look to the Romans to protect them from their enemies and were eventually assimilated into the Empire as military auxiliaries. In this, the next installment in the Commands and Colors system are also included the slave uprisings under the leadership of the slave Spartacus. This module consists of some 330 blocks consisting of red and green blocks of various sizes. These blocks, red for the Roman Units and green for the Barbarian Units, represent the Barbarian armies of Gaul, the Germanic tribes, and the slave uprisings against Rome. Included in the scenarios are battles from Caesar’s Conquest of Gaul and his Conquest of Britain. The list of 23 scenarios covers battles from 225 BC until 51 AD.
The Unit mix includes a new unit, that being the Barbarian Light Chariot. This unit is a strictly shock unit, there is no range ability. Its Close Combat abilities are augmented by rolling a additional die when the unit is at full strength. If the 
Chariot unit eliminates an enemy unit, it has a Momentum Advance ability where it can advance into the vacated hex and can make another Close Combat attack. The Chariot when attacked can always make an evasion move. Another addition is Marsh terrain. When a unit moves into a Marsh hex, it immediately stops moving and rolls a single die, if the unit symbol is rolled, a block is removed. Its battle restriction is that an attacking unit is limited to a maximum of two battle dice for Close Combat and a single for Ranged Combat out of the Marsh.
The rest of the units in this expansion consist of Light Infantry; Shock, Bow and Slingers; Medium Shock Infantry; Light and Medium cavalry; and Chariots for the Barbarians. The Romans consist of Light units, Bow, Sling and Shock; Medium and Heavy Infantry and Elephants.
New special rules include Caesar’s Tenth Legion, which is given the addition of Range Combat; it is equipped with the pilum, as well as the normal Close Combat of normal Heavy Infantry. An additional Special Rule after the time of the Aquae Sextae scenario (102BC) is that Roman Medium Infantry could also use Range Combat in its turn. The Spartacus Rule, when the player plays the Spartacus card, he can roll additional dice during a combat turn. Slave units on a hill may roll burning logs 
down on the attacking Romans, using the Rolling Fire Rule. The last of the new special rules involves Julius Caesar his presence on the field any unit he is attached to gets to roll an additional die during Close Combat.
Another item included in the box is a complete geomorphic playing board. The reverse side of the board is also a geomorphic board that will be combined with a second board that is included in Expansion No3 to create a double sized board to fight Epic battles.
This Expansion requires the owner to posses a copy of Command and Colors Ancients as this entity does not include a complete set of set of the Rules, or a set of the dice required for Combat, nor a deck of command cards, all required to play the game.
Important scenarios include a two-scenario recreation of Rome’s worst defeat at the hands of the Germanic tribes, the ambush in the Teutoburger Wald and the destruction of three of Rome’s Legions. There are some seven scenarios covering the slave uprising initiated by Spartacus during the period of 73 to 71 BC.
This incarnation of the Command and Colors Ancients series extends the system from Carthage, through the Eastern Kingdoms and now into the realm of the barbarian tribes at the Western limits of the Roman Empire. I cannot wait to see where this system goes from here, kudos to the designers for a great game.
