With this new My Favorite Wargame Cards Series, I hope to take a look at a specific card from the various wargames that I have played and share how it is used in the game. I am not a strategist and frankly I am not that good at games but I do understand how things should work and be used in games. With that being said, here is the next entry in this series.

Card #3: Spiculum from Time of Crisis: The Age of Iron and Rust Expansion from GMT Games

I really love Time of Crisis from GMT Games. This is a very light, introductory wargame that is just plain fun to play. I have been playing it a ton on the Rally the Troops! online platform and really enjoy it no matter what the outcome of those games are. One card that I always an hunting in that game is Spiculum, which has a 4 value Military Card that really gives a nice edge to any player in a battle with a preemptive strike before the battle can even begin, either evening the odds a bit or totally devastating the defenders. This card was added to the game in The Age of Iron and Rust Expansion and it one of those cards that I just can’t imagine playing the game without.

The spiculum is a late Roman spear that replaced the pilum as the infantryman’s main throwing javelin around 250 AD. Scholars suppose that it could have resulted from the gradual combination of the pilum and two German spears, the angon and the bebra. As more and more Germans joined the Roman army, their culture and traditions became a driving force for change. The spiculum was better than the old pilum when used as a thrusting spear, but still maintained some of the former weapon’s penetrative power when thrown. It’s very cool that the designers added this card to the game as a direct homage to the historic setting of the game. It also makes sense how it is used in the game as a preemptive ranged strike on your enemies.

This new Military card is a nice addition to the game as it gives you a real advantage in your military actions if you are the attacker. The card costs 4 political points to purchase and is a very key advantage to any pretend emperor who is focused on gaining the throne through force of arms. Because of its high cost though you most likely won’t be able to afford it until at least rounds 3 or 4 as you will be trying to place your governors in new provinces and increasing their support level so that you generate more political points to be used to improve your deck through card buys.

The card is very easy to use as it provides 4 Military influence points that can be used to add new Legions to your forces (red points equal to the number of Legions in your army after you add a Legion) or train weakened Legions (1 red point), move your Legions into position to attack your enemies (1 red point per region you move into) and to initiate battle (1 point). But in addition to the influence points created, you can play the event at the start of a battle.

In the above picture, the green player plays Spiculum to move an army from Galatia, which is two provinces to the east (2 red points) to end in Thracia and to initiate a battle (1 red point) with the red player’s Legions located in the provincial capital. This will leave 1 red point that could be used to move another army one province, create an army if they have an available general in their Available Leaders Box or train a Legion by flipping it from it’s reduced side to it’s full strength side, even to the army participating in this very battle after it is finished. And the event is going to be used after battle is initiated but before the dice are rolled. I told you it was a great advantage. Powerful!

In the picture above you can see that the defender (red player) has a Militia and 2 full strength Legions defending the capital while the attacker (green player) has 3 full strength Legions. The green player has the advantage but this is a bit of a risky attack as his edge is only very slight. But, before dice for the battle are rolled, the green player uses their Spiculum event and preemptively throws their javelins by rolling 2d6 and inflicting hits on 3+. As you can see, the rolls are good with a 5 and 4 which will inflict two hits to the defenders. The defender decides to eliminate the lone Militia (as it can only take one hit and hits only on a 5+) and begrudgingly absorbs the final hit by flipping one of his full strength Legions to its reduced side which weakens it considerably as his to hit number falls from a 3+ to a woeful 5+. One other thing of note. I didn’t mention the “exploding 6’s” in this game’s combat system because I didn’t roll any but if you roll a 6 on any combat, you get an additional bonus dice to roll that can inflict another hit. And guess what? If you roll another 6 with the bonus dice, you will hit and earn an additional bonus dice. Talk about choice! Now will come the battle which has now flipped in the favor of the attacking green player.

Cards like Spiculum are very important in Time of Crisis as they can be used to powerful effect to change the chances of an action being successful. Rolling a D6 and looking for a 3+ is a hell of a lot better than just a 5+. There are many cards like this including those that will make taking over political control of a province by kicking out the sitting governor and replacing them with yours.

If you are interested, I wrote a full review for Time of Crisis and you can read that at the following link: https://theplayersaid.com/2017/09/04/the-most-recent-fruits-of-wargame-hybridization-a-review-of-time-of-crisis-the-roman-empire-in-turmoil-235-284-ad-from-gmt-games/

We also posted a full review video and you can watch that at the following link:

In the next entry in this series, we will take a look at Tribesmen from Fire in the Lake: Insurgency in Vietnam from GMT Games.

-Grant