Carthaginian Spearmen WIP 2

I can't really take credit for these. Those shield transfers by LBMS really make these figures look sharp.

Holy cats has it been a busy month! My wife and I decided to put our house on the market and buy a new one right now (RIGHT NOW!) to take advantage of a favorable real estate market. That's been a major time sink, but I managed to squeeze in a few painting sessions, enough to get these Carthaginians nearly finished. I still need to do some proper basing, but it was nice to at least hit a milestone with these.

Awesome Hoth Explosions

I was puttering around the internets and came across this gigantic "Battle of Hoth" diorama. Pretty neat, but the thing that really caught my eye were the realistic explosions.

Those are awesome! I'd love to be able to create something similar for wargaming barrage markers. Creator "Zipidi Dooda" helpfully uploaded a tutorial for creating them to YouTube:

Spoiler Alert: At the end of the video Zipidi warns against leaving the integral lighting element lit for more than a few minutes lest the entire explosion catch fire. That's a little TOO realistic. Still, I bet a scaled down version using cooler LED lighting effects might work.

Showdown of the plastic Romans. Round 1!

Warlord has finally released their plastic Caesarian Romans, a set of figures I've been dying to get my hands on for months. I've been using Wargames Factory's similar offering for a few years, and while I agree the sculpting on them is a bit odd, I think once painted and ranked up they are more than acceptable. I'm planning on investing in a large number of late Republic era legionnaires, so I want to make sure I choose a manufacturer that look good and don't dent my wallet too badly. My first thoughts on deciding which to pick up after the jump.


The first thing I noticed about Warlord's set was the apparent odd weapon mix. They are offering two boxed sets: one for Romans armed with gladius, and one with Romans armed with pila. While on the surface this seems a strange choice, it actually matches up with the Wargames Factory weapon assortment. Warlord's boxes are 24 figures each, while WGF boxes are 48 figures. If you pick up the same number of figures from each manufacturer, the number of pila and sword armed figures should be the same.

A horde of Wargames Factory Romans

Plastic's big advantage over metal has been cost. The initial manufacturing costs for plastic are much higher than metal, but the result are mass produced figures that typically wind up cheaper for the buyer. I'm always on the look out for deals and managed to snag two boxes of Wargames Factory Romans at half price when they were initially released. I don't think I'll be so lucky in the future, but both WGF and Warlord are offering discounts for larger orders. How do they stack up?

Comparing Discount Deals on Plastic Caesarian Romans

I'm in the U.S, so I'll be using 'murican pricing and shipping costs. A single box of WGF Romans of 48 figures runs $19.99. Two get the same number of figure from Warlord you'll need two boxes at $29.99 each for a whopping  $59.98!

Ok, no need to panic. Warlord has just released their unit deals. Surely the discount will drop the Warlord pricing to something competitive with Wargames Factory. Wargames Factory offers a 10% discount when you purchase 3 boxes of figures:

144 Wargames Factory Romans = $66.79 (53.97 with 10% discount + 12.82 shipping)

Warlord is offering a free box of figures when you buy five boxes. Hooray! That turns out to be...

144 Warlord Games Romans = $145 (buy 5, get 1 free + free shipping on orders over $75)

That's.. .wow. That's quite a price difference. No doubt the quality on the Warlord figures is better, but to date I've only seen test shots of greens on the Warlord site. Perhaps a full view of the sprue will tempt me to their more expensive option. I suppose it could be worse. Buying the same number of figures from Foundry would run over $300. Rather than compare Warlord to other plastic ranges maybe I should be comparing them to metal competitors?

Hail Caesar Skirmish #8: Our Favorite Game Yet

It's been a crazy busy week for me, but I did manage to get in another small skirmish of Hail Caesar the other day. We don't yet have enough figures painted up to match the army sizes suggested in the rules, but this was our first game where we had enough figures for it to really feel like an ancient set piece battle. After action report and thoughts after the jump.

I was visiting my usual opponent Mike for a day of gaming and capped it off with a Hail Caesar battle. We switched sides from our usual commands, with me taking the Romans while Mike took the Celts.

The field of battle was fairly clear, one table edge taken up with some rough ground and high grass, with some low hills on the opposite side.

I arrayed the Romans in a single line, with Cretan archers holding one flank and Numidian cavalry on the opposite flank. I held a single unit of Roman legionnaires in reserve. With my line longer than he Celts, and a small hill near my deployment area I was hoping to take a defensive position on the hill, using my archers and cavalry to whittle down the barbarians before taking their inevitable charge.

Romans arrayed for battle facing the enemy Celts

Mike had a similar idea. He deployed his warbands in line, his medium cavalry on the flank facing my archers. On his far flank he arrayed his skirmishers ready to enter the rough ground with the newly painted Spanish holding is far flank. As this was the first time they hit the table, I expected them to crumble as soon as they entered combat suffering the "curse of the newly painted".

The first few years were interesting. My Romans moved onto the hill, and Mike was hesitant to charge their defensive position.

Roman line advances to take the hill

His skirmishers moved into the rough ground and I countered by moving my reserve legionnaires towards my flank.

Archers and slingers skulking in broken ground guarded by Spanish medium infantry

On the opposite end of the battlefield I ordered my archers into action. Having not used the Cretan archers before, I was eager to see them perform better than their earlier performances. I moved them forward a bit, ready to flee, and peppered the opposing Celtic cavalry. Rolling only two dice for their attack proved fairly ineffective.

Cretan archers delivering withering Nerf arrow fire.

The Celtic cavalry responded by charging the archers who attempted to evade. The poor Greeks failed to roll far enough to evade and were run down and destroyed. Oops!

Cretan archers, 0 for 3 in their Hail Caesar battles. 

With Celtic cavalry on my flank I shifted my Nunidians to counter. The Celts fell back and each cavalry unit fell into a series of charges and retreats, attempting to get into position.

"We're supposed to be on the right flank? Ah jeez..."

The Celts finally contacted the Numidians who were shaken in the ensuing melee. I used the Numidians "Feigned Flight" ability to extract them from combat, but the battle was coming to a head.  I'd already lost the Cretan archers, my Numidians were shaken, and my left flank was being disordered by repeated ranged attacks by the barbarian skirmishers.

Numidians failing to evade Celtic cavalry

I ordered my line to charge, sending my reserve legionnaires to counter the Spanish medium infantry. I hoped to weather the barbarians, and use the reserve unit to destroy the Spanish infantry, rout the skirmishers and roll up the line. If my Numidians could keep the enemy cavalry occupied I thought I might have a chance.

Roman line advances...

... and charges the Celt battleline

Even the best laid plans (and this was a pretty desperate plan at best) can't survive the whims of the dice. As our lines came into contact I reaped a bumper crop of 1's, while Mike was blessed with boxcars galore.

The Roman line begins to crack, the left flank pushed back, the center broken and being rolled up.

What would have been a tough battle at a disadvantage quickly became an absolute blood bath. While I managed to push the Spanish infantry back, my main battle line was absolutely torn apart by furious hairy nudists.

General Cowardus Pussicus flees past a disordered legionnaire unit.

Afterthoughts

Mike and I agreed this was the most fun we've had with the rules yet.  I'm sure it doesn't transfer to this battle report, but two thirds of our game time was spent feinting, shifting our lines, and repositioning, preparing to strike, which turned out to be a lot of fun.  From my reading of the ways ancient and medieval battles, a lot of effort was spent bringing armies to battle on advantageous grounds. I had anticipated the initial deployment of our armies would simulate that aspect, but the minor adjustments and redeployment of reserves really felt like that sort of pre-battle planning and preparation.

Roman reserves shifting to reinforce the left flank.

This was also the first battle that felt like it followed a historical ebb and flow, with initial skirmisher harassment, cavalry chasing each other two and fro, and the final grand clash as battle lines met. I should have deployed my archers to the flank laden with rough ground, and used my Numidian cavalry to chase off the barbarian skirmishers as initially planned, but I'm going to lay the blame for my defeat on the endless 1's that doomed my battle plan. Really fun game, and every time I play my opponents suggest new units I need to get painted up. To me, that's a sign of a successful rules set.