Commands & Colors: Ancients is Coming to the PC

The core Commands and Colors system developed by Richard Borg has been the basis for a number of games by a number of different companies that have adopted some version of the dice and command card mechanic. These include Commands & Colors: Ancients and Napoleonics, Memoir 44, Battle Cry, BattleLore, and Battles of Westeros. Only a couple of these, like Memoir 44 and Command & Colors: The Great War, now have computer versions available outside of playing the electronic “board” version via Vassal. So I was very happy to see the following announcement relayed via Rolling Boxcars:

We are pleased to announce that we have entered into an agreement with HexWar Games Ltd., of Elgin, Scotland, to develop digital versions of Command & Colors: Ancients and Command & Colors: Napoleonics. HexWar Games Ltd. is a 12-man games studio with a long history of converting board games to digital games. Their most recent releases have been The Great War, from PSC Games, and 1775 from Academy Games. Their recent The Great War release uses the Command & Colors game engine by Richard Borg.

Because this is quite a major project for HexWar, they have also partnered with Lordz Games Studio of Belgium, for them to develop a world class user interface and superb game graphics. Lordz Games Studios recent success include Panzer Corps and Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon.

Development for the digital Commands & Colors Ancients has already been underway for some months. According to our last word from our friends at Hexwar, they plan to release the base game of Command & Colors: Ancients for the summer 2017, and the base game for Command & Colors: Napoleonics for the end of 2017. All the additional expansions, for both games, will be released as add-on packs over the next couple of years.

The initial target platform will be for PC and Mac, and then for iPad, a couple of months after the PC release. The intention is to eventually release for Android and possibly for iPhone. Other features in development are cross-platform multiplayer and a scenario builder.

We look forward to giving you all regular updates on this project. We anticipate that we will have some early game graphics to show you as part or our February monthly update.