COMMANDS & COLORS: ANCIENTS VS XIANGQI

Commands & Colors: Ancients is a board wargame designed by Richard Borg, Pat Kurivial, and Roy Grider, and published by GMT Games in 2006. It is based on Borg's Commands & Colors system using some elements similar to his other games such as Commands & Colours: Napoleonics, The Great War, Memoir '44 and Battle Cry designed to simulate the "fog of war" and uncertainty encountered on real battlefields. Commands & Colors: Ancients focuses on the historic period of 3000 BC - 400 AD. The core game includes several hundred wood blocks in two colors for the Roman/Syracusan armies and Carthaginian army. Sheets of stickers representing different unit types must be affixed to the blocks prior to initial play. 16 small wooden blocks representing "victory banners" and 7 larger plastic dice must also have stickers applied. Extra stickers are included for use as replacements. The game also contains a full-color rule book, color scenario book, and two color two-page double-sided "cheat sheets" for players to reference during play for dice results and unit statistics. The board is folded card stock laid flat for play. Hexagonal terrain pieces are laid on the board when called for by a scenario. A deck of command cards is included. Units are arranged on the board according to maps and scenario descriptions in the scenario book. Players are dealt a number of command cards equal to their "command value" for the chosen scenario. Often players have different command values and therefore different numbers of cards. Players take turns playing their cards to "order" units, generally allowing the ordered units to move and conduct combat. Cards often refer to a section of the battlefield, either left, center, or right, or some combination of these. There are also many special cards that allow very specific actions. Play continues until one player earns the requisite number of victory banners for the scenario. Victory banners are earned each time a player completely eliminates an enemy unit or leader.

See statistics

Xiangqi (Chinese: 象棋; pinyin: xiàngqí; Wade–Giles: Hsiang ch'i; English: /ˈʃɑːŋtʃi/), also called Chinese chess or Elephant chess, is a strategy board game for two players. It is one of the most popular board games in China, and is in the same family as Western chess, chaturanga, shogi, Indian chess and janggi. Besides China and areas with significant ethnic Chinese communities, xiangqi is also a popular pastime in Vietnam, where it is known as cờ tướng. The game represents a battle between two armies, with the object of capturing the enemy's general (king). Distinctive features of xiangqi include the cannon (pao), which must jump to capture; a rule prohibiting the generals from facing each other directly; areas on the board called the river and palace, which restrict the movement of some pieces (but enhance that of others); and placement of the pieces on the intersections of the board lines, rather than within the squares. Xiangqi is played on a board nine lines wide and ten lines long. As in the game Go (圍碁; or Wei ch'i 圍棋), the pieces are placed on the intersections, which are known as points. The vertical lines are known as files (Chinese: 路; pinyin: lù; "road"), and the horizontal lines are known as ranks (Chinese: 線/綫; pinyin: xiàn; "line"). Centred at the first to third and eighth to tenth ranks of the board are two zones, each three points by three points, demarcated by two diagonal lines connecting opposite corners and intersecting at the centre point. Each of these areas is known as 宮 About this soundgōng, a castle. Dividing the two opposing sides, between the fifth and sixth ranks, is 河 hé, the "river". The river is often marked with the phrases 楚河 About this soundchǔ hé, meaning "River of the Chu ", and 漢界 About this soundhàn jiè, meaning "Border of the Han", a reference to the Chu–Han War. Although the river (or Hanchu boundary) provides a visual division between the two sides, only two pieces are affected by its presence: soldiers have an enhanced move after crossing the river, and elephants cannot cross it. The starting points of the soldiers and cannons are usually, but not always, marked with small crosses.

See statistics