Stats:
No. of players: 2
Amount of time to play: 90-120 min
Age requirements: 12+
Set-up time: 10-15 minutes

The Spanish Army is the first expansion for Commands and Colors Napoleonics. It obviously adds the Spanish army as well as new terrain, a couple new French units and 18 new scenarios.

The Spanish Army Expansion Overview:

This review is going to assume you know the basics of the Command and Color games. If you are not familiar with the rules in the Command and Colors line you can read my overview of them here. For more information on the base game of the Napoleonics series, read my overview and rules here.

This expansion introduces the Spanish Army. They match up pretty well against the French units, but have a few key differences. First their infantry units are penalized when moving and shooting on the same turn. They also retreat two hexes for each flag result thy must resolve.

The Spanish Army also starts some scenarios with up to two Guerilla action tokens. When a Guerilla token is played the French player rolls a die. If the result is a saber the Guerilla action fails. Any other result cancels their card and ends their turn. This lets the Spanish player take two turns in a row. The Spanish player may gain additional tokens by only taking one card when playing a Scout Command Card.

The French army gains to new units, the Light Lancer Calvary and the Light Guard Calvary.

There are new terrain tiles are added in this expansion. One, the Walled City, acts the exact same as the Town tiles in the base game. The others, 4-sided and 2-sided Redoubts, work the same as the redoubts in the base game, but they affect a different number of hexes.

Quick Review of The Spanish Army Expansion:

The Spanish Army adds a lot of replay value to Commands and Colors Napoleonics. If you have played through the initial scenarios, this expansion adds 18 new ones.

The components are in line with the rest from the series and the rules are well-written with plenty of examples. The best new component is a new player aid with stats for every unit in the game. It makes it easy to find special abilities and other important unit information.

I like the interaction of the Guerilla actions and the Spanish infantry units. The units are less powerful when moving and firing. And the Guerilla action lets you move units on one turn then use a Guerilla action to fire without moving before the French can react.

On thing to know about the Spanish Army is that is can be a bit swingy. The penalties when firing after moving combined with their extra retreat hex, can result in big losses for Spain. This can be managed but it is helpful to know about before you play.

If you enjoyed Commands and Colors Napoleonics, the Spanish Army makes a nice addition to the series.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 4 out of 6
Luck 4 out of 6
Player Interaction 6 out of 6
Replay Value 5 out of 6
Complexity 4 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 5 out of 6