Hail Caesar - Republican Rome!

Hello, everyone.

So since recently playing Hail Caesar for the first time and seeing how exciting it really is, I've really gone crazy with army planning over the past few days.  I have sort of dropped out of the other projects for now (though my Viking models are still being assembled - they're almost done) and have decided to roll with a Camillian Roman / Republican Roman army.

  When you look at the army list you'll notice that Hail Caesar allows you to field all the units in the Manipular system.  And in by doing so they've allowed players to represent this by making use of small units of medium to heavy infantry to represent the three Roman troop types - Hastati, Triarii, and Principe.   This works out great since in our games our frontages are 160mm meaning I just need to half that to 80 MM, so four models with two ranks make my units.  And points wise, this is also wonderful because these small units cost a few points less than most of the medium warbands in a lot of the Roman enemy armies (I'll most likely be playing against Celts, representing the Gauls that tried to invade Rome).

So, building a Republican Roman army using the Hail Caesar supplement book's rules is quite economical compared to say making other armies I wanted to play.  I was going to make a Greek City State army based in the Hellenistic world, but Phalanx would require four ranks deep to make proper units.    I have all the models required (arguably the hoplites I field may have been phased out in this phase of time)  but painting them up as fast as I wish would not be possible.

Anyways, my army plan is to build two divisions based out of these units. I'll be aiming for 300 points.  The units will be two battle lines deep and I will make them three lines deep if I have left over models (standard sized small units are 8-12 models following the rule book).

4 small units of Hastati (Two units of Agema Hastati, Two Victrix)
4 small units of Principes (Two Agema Principes, Two Victrix)
2 small units of Triarii (One Agema, One Victrix converted from a mix of chain mail bodies and Samnite heads/bodies)
2-3 skirmisher units (or light infantry) Velites  / levels (Victrix box sets)
1 standard unit of Italian allies (Samnite Victrix models)
1 Commander (Optio Maximus Gluteus from the Caesarian supplement book)

Here's the start of this project!  So far it is running smoothly and faster than the Viking project (probably because the last game motivated me so!).

Agema Hastati Unit #1  and Warlord Games Optio Maximus Gluteus

Agema sizes in height are matched well with the rest of the Romans. They're all about the same height, but they're not as broad as victrix or even Warlord game models. They're a bit more scrawny looking, but if they stick to their own units it should work out great!  My only complaint is that there's too many fellows that look like they're throwing their Pila, so you have to consider spacing more than you do with the Victrix models.  The Victrix guys are all standing on guard, while the Agema have multiple poses.  I guess that is a pro and a con at the same time! 

You can see me measuring out units in the back with Victrix  Republican Romans in Chainmail.

My Hastati will look as lightly armored as possible to set them apart from their more heavily armored Principes and Triarii brothers.
 

I will also be making my Imperial Romans compatible with Standard units.. that is, basing them in a way so that if I do want to in the future use Standard sized units (which you can also do instead of the small unit methods) I just need to line them up and they work out! 

Finally - Here's a dying Gaul.  Was going to originally make Briton's to match my Early Imperial Romans in my opponents army, but I found the cheaper option was to gather up the Republican Romans that I already own and then I don't have to spend so much money.

Guess he'll make a good casualty marker!  A mix of various Wargames factory model bits.

Will keep this up to date as soon