Some may question why we choose to publish the Second Edition rules for Epic Ancients… basically your feedback and personal experience has guided us to this decision. I am a very lucky game author to have a great bunch of guys in the Orlando area that keep me on my toes and are willing to play all the various version of the Commands & Colors game system. Rounding up enough for an Epic Ancients battle is usually not a problem, most prefer to play a larger scale scenario. However, getting 8 experienced Commands & Colors: Ancients players together for others, often is difficult. Many times a convention setting is the best venue, but at a convention there are usually all levels of experience, the complete novice who has never played before, to players that have logged many games.

To that end, with the Second Edition rules and new Epic Ancients Command card deck, we attempt to make Epic Ancients accessible to a larger number of players. Our Epic battles do seem to play faster with the second edition rules and new Epic Command deck, meaning more player involvement and less down time. The playing of Command cards is more intuitive and the directed action on all Epic Command cards is straightforward. This has also helped our novice players to grasp the game play quicker, yet have still provided our experienced players a very challenging competition, even when choosing to play Epic Ancients one-on-one ?

In regards to the battle dice - having enough dice for each and every player around the battlefield, IMO helps make a game run smoother.

In regards to the mounted map boards - having 2 mounted map boards in this expansion, I thought would be nice, especially if a player missed the prior expansions with a mounted map. In a recent discussion with Tony, however, I believe GMT is considering taking the map boards out of this expansion in order to lower the price. Watch for additional details.

Richard Borg