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| Command and Colors Medieval Crusades |
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| Original CCM board game and rules |
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| Nicaea 1097 scenario |
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| Seljuks win easily 5-2 Victory Banners |
Yesterday I received my long awaited copy of the new GMT Games board game Command and Colors Medieval Crusades. This is the first expansion on the original 2019 Command and Colors Medieval game and you need a lot of the components, including the board, cards, terrain hexes, blocks and tokens from the original game to play it. After putting on all the stickers on the wooden blocks and reading the rules and scenarios yesterday, I decided to play Nicaea 1097, the first scenario in the booklet out in the shed this morning. This scenario sees the Seljuk Turks under Kilij Arslan 1 attempting to disrupt the Crusaders' siege of Nicaea outside the South Gate in 1097. Both sides have six command cards and four inspired actions tokens.
There are a number of new troop types and special rules, so there is quite a bit to absorb and get used too, including combined arms tactics such as the Light Cavalry Swarm attacks. In my solo game the Seljuks won fairly easily 5-2 Victory Banners, making good use of the Darken the Sky card. There are twenty scenarios in total (three of various stages at Dorylaeum and four of Hattin) so many hours of fun gaming with the early Crusades up to 1187. I like to play these games with figures where possible so I'm keen to paint more figures for my Crusader, Seljuk, Fatimid and Ayyubid armies.
We've been away on holidays for a couple of weeks down on Kangaroo Island in South Australia. We did a popular five day, 66km bushwalk, the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail, on the western part of the island in the Flinders Chase National Park. Below are some photos of our walk.
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| Female koala trying to get away from a male koala |
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| Starting out Day One |
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| A goanna |
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| The Cascades Rocky River |
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| Footbridge Snake Lagoon |
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| Walking to the coast Day Two |
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| Rocky River reaches the sea |
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| Maupertuis Beach at low tide |
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| Amazing vegetation on the limestone outcrops |
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| Coastal garden |
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| Fly collection |
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| A few showers blow through on Day Three |
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| Remarkable Rocks |
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| Cape Younghusband |
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| Fur seals play in the rock pools |
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| Hanson Bay Day Four |
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| Plush Camp Kitchen |
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| Wild Coast |
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| Boat crossing on Hanson River |
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| Melaleuca Gibbosa |
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| Track on tree stumps |
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| Rest stop |
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| Bottlebrush |
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| Finish of the walk |
