Hail Caesar Skirmish #9: Won By the Razor's Edge

With my Carthaginians, Spanish and new leaders painted up it was time to get them on the table and see how they'd do. With Historicon fast approaching and another friend of mine joining us at the convention this year, I wanted to give him an intro to the rules in case we were able to get into a game together. A long time 40K and fantasy player, this would be one of his first exposures to historical wargaming. All the bloody details on a very close game after the jump.

Preparations

I modified a few of the unit cards available from Inevitable Spark
to help explain the game to our newbie. They worked great!

With both Libyan spearmen and Spanish scutarii on the table we used the Carthaginian list rather than the Gallic or Early German from our previous battles. I'm slowly inching towards a pair of opposing Punic forces, but for today's match up Hannibal's warriors would be facing the legions of the Late Roman  Republic. Non-historical, I know.

The Carthaginians were split into two divisions. I took the right, with the Libyan spearmen holding the center, supported by the Spanish scutarii. A band of celt slingers screened them, ready to fall back behind friendly lines once battle was met. A single celt warband lay in reserve behind some trees on our  extreme right.

The left Carthaginian division was being run by our newbie, M.C. His three celt warbands formed our main battle line, with his medium celt cavalry on the left flank in reserve. Our plan was to hit heavy on the left, while defending our right flank.

My usual opponent Mike took the Romans, but with the battle tipped in favor of the Carthaginians due to the addition of several new units he fell into a defensive position. His six legions formed up in testudo, four of them on a pair of hills on his left and right. He held his center with the infamous Cretan archers, who have yet to last more than a turn on the battlefield. His small group of Numidian cavalry held his right flank, facing off against the celt cavalry across the field.

The Battle Begins

The Carthaginians began by moving cautiously forward. The most efficient manner of doing this would have been for the army commander to give an order to both divisions, but we refrained from doing so to  allow M.C a chance to get some experience with issuing orders and rolling command dice. The celts surged forward, but my right flank lagged slightly behind.

Libyans and Spanish fall behind as the celts on the left flank surge forward.

Most frustratingly, the celt cavalry misunderstood their commands (no doubt hailing from some distant tribe who had trouble understanding Hannibal's orders) and failed to move for three turns.

"You think we're supposed to go with them?" "Naw, little fella said "Move yer ass", but we ride horse, not donkey."

The celt slingers exchanged missile fire with the opposing Cretan archers, but found the Roman testudo formation impervious to their attacks (the Romans normally receive a 4+ armor save on a d6. While in testudo they receive an additional +2 bonus to morale saves vs. missile fire, meaning they shrugged off any hits as long as they didn't roll a 1!)

  Noticing my slingers inflict a -1 penalty to morale saves at close range (less than 6"), I decided to be a bit more aggressive. Our battle lines were approaching (the celts were now just outside of javelin range on our left. I moved the slingers up into short range to threaten the Romans, despite their cowardly turtle formation. Finally striking a blow to one of the Roman units, and having suffered a number of poor rolls in missile fire, our Roman opponent was beginning to look a bit worried. So confident were we that M.C. and I agreed to redeploy the warband from my reserve to bolster his charge on our left. Mike, realizing we'd be hammering his right flank, decided he'd need to strike now to avoid the Carthaginians picking him apart at our leisure.

Slingers move up to deliver short range bullets to those stubborn Roman noggins.

One more shove and those Numidians
would be off the table.

The Roman Panic

Finally our celt cavalry finished sacrificing their goat, and seeing good omens in its entrails, decided to join the battle. They raced along the riverbank having rolled a triple move. In response, the Numidian cavalry countercharged. The horses met in a bloody clash, the Numidians thrown back to the rear edge of the battlefield with the celts following to maintain contact.

The celt warbands struck, but the Romans pulled out a crafty rule we hadn't used yet. Those Romans defending the hilltop used "Close Ranks" to gain a +1 to morale saves at the penalty of -1 to attacks. One Roman unit without a hill to defend countercharged his attackers. The battle lines clashed, with the barbarian hordes rolling 9 dice vs the Roman 7. The goat omens were indeed good for the celts, as very poor dice rolls continued to plague the legions. Though they hung on, the Roman right was severely bloodied, with a unit of cavalry behind their lines ready to finish off the Numidians and preparing to hit the Romans in the rear.

"Hold on fellas! We're almost there!" The celt reserve rushes to support the clashing lines.

Desperate, Mike threw his remaining Romans into battle. With the reserve warband still making its way towards the battle on the left flank, the Romans were able to scare the celt slingers back behind the Libyan line and wrap a single unit around the flank of the Spanish.

"Guys, I think this is over," Mike observed. "Can I just concede? These frickin' dice!"

M.C. and I have a long history of losing to Mike across many, many games. "Quit  yer whining," M.C. suggested, "We're going to beat you now."

From the Jaws of Victory...

The Romans had one round left. They attacked wherever they were engaged. They lost a unit in battle with the Libyans, but the Numidian horse held on, and in the great bloodbath on the left flank their luck turned. The celts, having spent their energy in the initial clash were now rolling 6 dice against the Roman 7.  The Romans lost one unit, but eked out a 1 or 2 point margins of victory in the other clashes, forcing break tests for those celt units. The celt gods showed their displeasure, the 2d6 break tests turning up snake eyes. The celt left collapsed, bloodied Roman legions breaking through, rolling the line or charging into the reserve warband.

As the turn passed back the Carthaginians we counted up the broken units. An army is defeated once half of its units (not counting light cavalry or skirmishers) are broken. As it stood, the next army to lose a single unit would be defeated. With the celts on the left destroyed, it fell to the Spanish. They were engaged to their front again a Roman legion supported by the Cretan archers. Another Roman legion were attacking the Spanish flank.

We threw everything we could into the Spanish. The Libyans couldn't flank the Romans, and chasing the Cretan archers would do no good, so they stayed in support, adding their 3 dice to the Spanish. The celt slingers moved up to support the Spanish as well, giving them a grand total of 11 dice. We rolled... garbage. 1s and 2s and 3s. The Romans won the combat by a wide margin, forcing a break test at -5, which resulted in destruction for the Spanish.

Sigh.

What Did We Learn?

• Testudo really is good against missile fire. I think the testudo should require an order to switch formations in order to charge, but the rules are explicit that testudos can do everything a normal Roman unit in battle formation can.
• "Close Ranks" is great for blunting the initial warband charge.
• Libyan spearmen are awesome at defending. I probably should have had them anchor my extreme flank. That 3 dice in support are also impressive. I need some more to get them into deep pike blocks.
• Reserves are essential, not only for plugging gaps or defending flanks, but for applying pressure on weak parts of the enemy line. We haven't had enough units until now to make use of reserves but I expect that to change as I get more figures painted up.
• Coordinating two divisions without using the "army general" to issue total commands is extremely tricky. Our line started to splinter right away as the two divisions rolled different numbers of moves.

I still really dig Hail Caesar, even when I lose. As we get a greater variety and number of figures on the table more interesting tactical options and challenges crop up. Looking forward to our next game!

Warlord Games Celt Leaders

Getting back into the swing of things, I polished off a few barbarian leaders that had been stuck in my lead pile for far too long. The Celtic Chieftains from Warlord Games comes with three fearsome warriors. I used one for a more "germanic" command stand that I painted up last year, but chose to keep these remaining two as definitely Gallic.

The horned chieftain was quick to paint up. His broad cloak took a plaid pattern easily.

I wanted to include a second figure for the bald leader, but needed to create a height difference between the chieftain and his companion for their positioning to look correct.

I used some wood chips to represent bare, exposed stone, and filled in the gaps with bits and pieces of pink insulation foam.

A thick coating of white glue and flock filled in any other gaps, and the addition of a naked buddy and baldy is ready to go.

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.

Hail Caesar Skirmish #7: Back to Basics

Before children, my wife and our friends Rob and Laura would meet regularly to play games. Catan, Ticket To Ride, Roborally, and more hit the table at least once a month. Since we all started infecting our houses with time-eating rug rats, our game nights have become infrequent at best.  The stars aligned the other night though, and we managed to get a game night with all four of us. Surprisingly  the game I was informed we'd be playing was Hail Caesar. Find out how teaching two wargaming newbs the art of ancient warfare went after the jump.
I set up a pretty standard table, a large forest along one edge, a pair of hills mirroring each other on the opposite side, and a few small impassable copses of trees along the midline.

I've found playing Romans the easiest to grasp so I gave each of the newbs a division of three heavy infantry and a single "fun" unit, Cretan archers for Rob, a small unit of Numidian cavalry for Laura. "Hey," she remarked looking at her enemy figures, "your guys don't have pants."

"LOL You did a really good job on his pubic hair.
Let me take a picture of it for your blog."

It was true. My wife and I took a pair of barbarian warbands, one unit of which was fighting naked. I took a unit of medium cavalry while my wife took a unit of celt slingers. I set the figures out in a battle line, gave a brief overview of the rules, and let them customize their deployment. This was to be a learning game so there was enough cushion within the Roman forces to let them take some casualties without those losses making the game unwinnable for the Romans.

I tried to give some tactical advice, but I largely let everyone make their own decisions on deployment and objectives.  Laura's Romans on their left were going to take the hill just in front of their starting position and let the Numidian cavalry harrass the barbarian Celts. The Roman right planned on using their archers to screen some infantry as it advanced to take the gap between the large forest and small copse of trees. Two infantry units would be held in reserve.

For the Celts their plan was to take off their clothes, shake their privates, and charge the Romans (the standard Celtic battle plan). The cavalry would be kept in reserve to prevent flanking or to attack a vulnerable Roman unit. How clever.

Cretans are Cretins

The battle began with the warbands advancing, the Celt slingers taking the lead and taking cover at the edge of the wood on the Celtic left. The Romans advanced as well, Laura's two infantry capturing the top of the hill with Rob's Romans milling about timidly on the Roman left.

The Cretan archers took up a position in front of the Roman lines and peppered the Celt slingers with arrows.

On the Celt turn my wife's slingers returned fire and inflicted a single casualty, hitting with a 6. They only needed 5's to hit, so that single 6 was enough to trigger a break test. The Cretans rolled, hoping to roll high, but winding up with a piddly 3 on 2d6. Checking the break test chart indicated the Cretans fled the battle. In both of their appearances on my table the Cretans have suffered the same fate: one casualty before breaking and running. What a bunch of worthless goat farmers!

Incensed, two of Rob's Roman cohorts broke off and advanced on the Celt slingers who were no doubt hooting in derision at the fleeing Greeks.

Celts are Cretins

Seeing the Romans advance, the Celts clashed their swords and spears against their shields, shouted epithets and oaths to their bloddy handed gods and looked to their war chief to give the order to charge. He stood before them, waved his hand at the young singers who were now under threat of Roman assault and addressed his troops.  "Quick! Hide behind those skirmishers!"  A blunder on the command roll saw the Celtic warbands drift left, tangled in the trees and behind the celt slingers.

As initiative passed back to the Romans they seized the opportunity and struck. They charged the slingers who fled backwards through the Celts to their rear, and continued on to crash into the front of the Celt warbands.

Numidian Gnats

On the Roman left, the advance of the Celts facing them had been repeatedly stalled by the Numidian cavalry. Laura grasped pretty quickly their purpose, closing to short range and peppering the Celt with javelins and then fleeing out of range when charged before returning again to do the same thing the following round.

"What's a Numibian?" "Tribes from North Africa. Have you heard of the Berbers?" "Like the rug"
"mmmm..Sort of. They live in like Algeria today. That's all that's left of the Numidians." "Awwuh /sad"

The initial clash on the Roman right was fearsome, the Celts using their Wild Fighters ability to reroll any misses on the first round of attacks, but over the next few turns the Roman's mettle would prove strong, gradually wearing the Celts down.

The Romans committed their reserves, swinging around to attack the already engaged Celtic left on their flank.

With the other Celt warbands on the right forced to pursue the Numidian cavalry or charge the Romans atop their defensive position on the hill (because of the proximity rules), the only hope for the surrounded Celtic left was the barbarian cavalry.

"Sorry guys, can't help. Gotta get these Romans on the hill. TTYL!"

Charge!

Pro Tip: Don't let this happen. This is pretty much the Blue Screen of Death for your cunning plan.

The Celts found themselves under an absolute crush of Romans (that's the plural for Romans right? Flock of birds, herd of cattle, crush of Romans?). Surrounded and outnumbered two to one, the leading warband was annihilated and the other thrown back disordered. The Romans consolidated their forces using the free move after victory, but having already conducted a combat on their turn were only able to reengage the Celts.

Seeing an opportunity, the Celt cavalry sounded their horns, rolled three moves on their order dice and charged home into the Roman flank.

Legionnaires aren't quite as panicky as Greek archers though, and the Romans held on through the cavalry attack. On subsequent turns the Romans managed to finish off the shaken Celt warband before surrounding and throwing back the barbarian cavalry.

A few mopping up moves by the Romans saw the slingers decimated and cavalry fleeing off their rear table edge. With one division broken, and the other having failed to do much of anything, the Celt generals conceded the game to Rome.

We finished off the night with a proper curry and then it was off to try out a game of Pandemic, but that's a  review for another day.