Hail Caesar! Roman Nasal Defence 300 Points Game 6

Roman Nasal Defence - 300 points Romans VS Britons 

The battles rage on!  All across Briton the various tribes are rising up in revolt and attacking Roman villas and settlements left and right!  The Romans respond by sending in their legions to do battle with these barbarian hordes!  There has been much Chaos since the defeat of Hummus and the recent Roman Civil war! 

Somewhere in the depths of uncharted territory a Roman force, hearing news of a large barbarian threat, enters some remote area of the wilderness and happen to stumble across a small Briton settlement.   Legate Clept Maniak and his second hand man Herm Afroditus order an attack on the village as it seems rather empty - but no sooner than they near it the very warlike inhabitants of the hamlet return!

Chief Soopah Anorexix and his son Diabetix return in full force and bear down all the weight of their tribe upon the Roman legionnaires!  A battle in Briton is about to occur!

In this game Graham came over to my place and brought all his models. I installed new lights, a new gaming table, and a had an excellent space to game in.  We also invited Grant over, who has had a lot of wargaming experience and it was a great pleasure to have a third player with us.  It was Grant and Graham vs myself.  I controlled the Celts this go round and I wanted to place with some hit and run tactics with Briton cavalry and chariots just to see how effective they are.

You may also be wondering why this battle is called "Roman Nasal Defense."  Well, whilst I was typing up this battle report, I quite by accident, discovered something. We didn't even notice this thing during the game.. and it humors me greatly to see it clearly after viewing the pictures I took of the battle. 

Anyways! 

My army consisted of:

Division 1 

 - 2 units of light chariots

 - 2 units of Light cavalry

 - 2 units of slinger skirmishers

 - 1 unit of Fantatics

 - 1 Warband

Division 2

 - 4 warbands

The Romans consisted of:

-No upgraded General
Division 1
 - 4 units of Legionnaires
 - 1 Heavy Aux Cavalry
 - 1 unit of bow skirmishers
Division 2
 - 3 units of Legionnaires
 - 1 Medium Auxiliary Unit
 - 1 unit of bow skirmishers 

In this game the Briton's set up second and began first!  

Nice and Bright - the Briton's line up on this fairly straightforward map. 

The battle lines are drawn - Time to battle.  

The Roman line was not as spread out, and was fairly compact! 

TURN 1

The Briton's advance on the right flank.  Cavalry posted on the farthest point on the right made its way through woods and broke into open order while the rest of the troops shuffled forth. The second light cavalry unit moved on to the field.  Time to drive out these wetched womans! 

The second division failed their orders and stayed put! 

The Romans had no issues with orders and they advanced forwards with both divisions.  Well, being drilled they never have any issues with moving at least once! 

TURN 2

Both of the Briton divisions received their orders and marched forth - the left flank made for the hills and the right moved on up.  The cavalry in the back broke into open order while the light cavalry on the farthest right point of the army sallied forward and entered their hometown! 

The Roman army stayed put - simply because Grant rolled a blunder and his archer skirmisher unit drifted off to the right the commander lost all other chances to give orders. Graham decided to postpone moving to stay with the rest of the army.  

TURN 3

All of the Britons continued to advance in the General's division, but the second division made up of just warbands failed their first order.  The Light Chariots break into open order. 

I foolishly commanded my skirmishers that were blocking Fanatic line of sight to move out of the way, and thus my Fanatics orders were based on Frenzied Charge... they almost made it to the Roman lines!   

The Light cavalry in the village were able to swarm through the farmlands and ride up alongside the exposed flanks of the Legions where they threw their javelins at the enemy. All three attacks hit and did damage, as well as caused the Romans to give ground. 

With the Fanatics closing in on them the Romans naturally charged them first along with all their supports. The left flank auxiliary re-positioned themselves to give the legionnaires that had just been barreled by javelins some support.  There was shooting back and forth this turn as skirmisher and skirmisher tried to plug each other with ballistics.  Some Celtic light cavalry took some flak from the Roman archers. 

Here the Fanatics and all the Romans clashed - the Fanatics did some damage, but as you can see in the photo here with the casualty markers behind it, the Romans won the battle and did a lot more damage to the early-released fanatics..

Guess what? The Fanatics lost - and rolled a three for their break test!  They all died - poorly!!!! Nobody will ever remember their exploits in battle, for there was not a single one worth of note!  We will remember how badly they were slaughtered, however. 

Turn 4

The Briton Warbands approach the Roman Right (one of the warbands gets caught up in the woods), while on the left, the Celtic Cavalry move out of Roman pilum range and threaten the flanks of the skirmishers. 

 Shots are fired at the skirmishers but the Celts do not do much!  The Light Cavalry smack dead in the middle of the Celtic army are able to cause one unit of Legionnaires to become disordered and give ground. 

The Roman line moves itself into a defensive formation! They fill in the gaps left by the Legionnaires that were driven back by javelins. On the Roman left, the legionnaires move into javelin throwing distance and throw some sticks at the Light Cavalry while their auxiliary friends form a column. Perhaps to move in closer to the light cavalry quicker if needed? 

The highlight of this turn is as follows:   One of the Warbands on the Celtic left gets shot at by some bowmen... AND WELL... 

As you can see in the top of the above photo - The measly two casualties inflicted must have really scared the Celts. The archers scored a 6 on their ranged roll, causing a break test - and then the celts rolled snake eyes.  Yeah.. they left real fast! 

TURN 5  

One unit of celtic skirmishers makes way for the chariots, while the others try to charge the archer skirmishing group. The archers merely close shots and drive the skirmishers away - but now there was room for the chariots to either start charging or chucking spears! The General's only warband moved in closer. 

The celtic commander had issues giving orders, though he did manage to order one of his units to turn and face the Roman archers. 

Ranged for the Celts was decent. They inflicted wounds all over, causing the Group of Roman Skirmishers in front of the chariots to become shaken - while the Light cavalry on the far right managed to push back a unit of Legionnaires 

Joy. The General remembered the Warbands also throw javelins, and they were able to destroy the pesky Roman archers. 

Some of the photos screwed up - but the Romans basically did the same tactics - Throw and shoot stuff.  Some wounds were scored all around.  The Celtic Light Cavalry in the middle were driven back by Roman ranged attacks! Oh - and the Auxiliary returned to standard formation! I guess they decided their were too many enemies close by to march right into them while being lined up in a column! 

TURN 6

On this turn, Diabetix messed up his order - A fine blunder ! 

And it resulted in an uncontrolled advance! Three moves upward slammed one of the Warbands into the Skirmishers.  Shots were fired in response, but only one wound was caused.

The General wasn't so lucky - he failed his orders and the line basically remained the same.  The chariots did not charge on initiative and the single Warband also stayed back. 

Melee time! Well , as you can see with the dice above, the Britons that Blunder Charged into the Skirmishers... scored 9 hits from their Massive clash... and the poor archers having no armor save, were outright obliterated. They were at least able to cause one casualty before being butchered off the face of the earth! 

And of course, the winners of the fight (and Barbarians being Barbarians) meant that it was time to sweep into the enemy regardless of what the odds are!!!  CHARGE!!! 

As you can see the Warband did quite well on its own! It ended up fighting a Roman Legionnaire unit that had two supports.. and it ended up being a draw!  Both sides took break tests - the Romans and all its supports were forced to give ground including the Heavy Cavalry that had to make way for one of the support units - the shock of the single units charge obviously being too much for the Wee Womans to handle!  The Celts stood their ground, dazed at what they had just accomplished, but way too shaken to pursue. 

Just another view of the carnage. 

The Romans turn. What were they going to do? 

Charge the Chariots! The Chariots decide to take the attack and are forced to close battle lines. 

 Division commander Herm Afroditus decides to stay put. The initial Warband that had attacked seemed tired out and he gave his legions a chance to recover from the Celtics vicious assault. 

Here the two Roman Commanders discuss their plans as the Roman Auxiliary unit  on the right is able to charge the Light Cavalry. The Light Cavalry evade off the photo and towards the south end of the village.  Please note the beautiful village decor if you haven't already. 

Then came the fighting... 

The Romans were able to beat the Chariots and both units gave ground - The Romans ended the combat by hanging back-for they could not catch up to the chariots. 

You will also notice in the above photo that the Roman's that had been pushed back by the single mad-blunder-charging Warband were able to throw their pila at the Celts from a distance and managed to destroy them.  And so, the best Unit Diabetix and I took command of in this game was wiped out. 

Here's the field at the end of turn 6. The roman Battle Line is now full of gaps, but the Briton cavalry have been thrown in disarray as well. 

TURN 7 

On Turn 7 the Celts did not do too much damage. Both Warbands on the left drew in closer, with one of the General's light Cavalry units in open order coming between them.  The chariots drove back into javelin throwing range while the far right Celtic Warband moved into a flanking position.   The General's orders were failed when trying to order the off photo Light Cavalry unit. 

Some shots were fired by all ranged weaponry, but this was a bad turn for the Celts - most shots missed entirely.   

After a series of planning and fast maneuvering - you can see in the above photos that the Romans decided to dig themselves in and form the oddest battle line I have ever encountered.  A wall of angry armored Italians formed a defensive "Nose" shape .. it was quite the battle line.  See how from the top of the photo where the ROman right is? And how if you follow the line, it curves into the bottom of a nose, and then forms the upper lip on the Left? Yeah. A Nose.

See the angle? Compare this above picture with the Roman defensive line in turn 7.. and you get what I mean!!! 

There was no fighting remaining - and the Roman short ranged attacks did just as poorly as the Celtic ones.  

Turn 8  

This giant nose that formed on the soils of Britannia was an utter abomination!  The Celtic Chieftan Soopah Anorexix ordered his only remaining warband to charge the nasal entry point of this damned nose.  

The rest of the army closed in on the bridge of this nose, and threw things at it - but they did not break the cartilage that made up the backbone of this Roman schnoz.  The Generals other Light Cavalry ride back on the scene, out of their village. 

Italian Nose Hairs are strong, and like a foreign dust particle, germ, or disease, the Romans easily repelled these Celtic Boogers and destroyed them very quickly!  

The Celts weep, as their friends could not break into the Roman Nostrils. 

The Romans decide that the nose has caused much chaos among the ranks of Celts, and decide to break it! Ouch! 

There it is. The Breaking of the Nose.  Not sure what it became now, though I see those auxiliary have thrown themselves into column once again.  

 The Roman Line did not engage, and threw their ranged weaponry at a unit of chariots, causing them to give ground.  You'll also see that one group of Celtic skirmishers and Light Cavalry broke off the table from the same sort of attack.  Heavy loses and backsets for the Britons ! That nasal discharge was way too much for them. 

TURN 9

 The celts decide that they've had enough of their prancing about the battle field and throwing sticks and stones at the Roman Legionnaires.  Diabetix and Anorexix have their remaining able forces charge the Roman battle lines.

The chariot remained disordered from the previous turns attack, while the other Light Cavalry unit sneaks in to try to get some more attacks on the Romans near their village.

The celts on the far left fight the Roman right - and are dealt some serious wounds!  They manage to keep in line, though.

The other warband from the same division didn't fare as well and the Romans pushed them back!

And the chariots engaged became shaken but were also able to hold.  The Celts last attempt at carving through the Roman line had failed.  

Roman turn.. what will become of the Briton's in this region? 

There was not much moving - and fighting simply ensued.  The Warband in the middle along with the Romans tied their combat, and both units were shaken up. The Romans gave ground, but the Celts remained stubbornly.   This engagement ended with both sides shaking in their boots, staring at each other. 

But alas!  The Roman's made mince meat out of the other Warband and Chariot unit, and both were destroyed. 

And that was that!  With Diabetix' division losing over 2/3 of their forces, and Anorexix having very few forces left, the Celts decided to get out of there. 

The Celtic Chieftan and his second in command ride off , away from their village in shame as it is plundered and burnt to the ground by the Roman invaders.  The two Chieftans swear to one day return and avenge their fallen comrades and families that were butchered in their homelands.

So! That was a really fun game. After playing 375-400 point games, it sure seems that a hundred point difference makes games run by oh so much smoother.  The game was quick and over faster than I had anticipated it would be. 

In this game I wanted to see how well Evade and open order units that are not penalized by distance penalties fair - which were the Light Cavalry. Damn, they are fast and cover so much ground, even on one order! But the downside definitely is that they're light - They would not be able to do much against most heavy foes.  I think the hit and run tactics I was going for here do not work well against enemies that also have short ranged attacks, like the Romans with their pilum.  However, I see this tactic being quite useful against soldiers that do not have any ranged attacks - like Hoplites.  You'd have to carve through all that armor, but at least they'd have difficulty catching your horses.  

It's interesting that the Light Chariots can also take open order, but still require distance from the General to be considered.  Perhaps if I had hung back a little more with my Celts and been less aggressive , the chariots and light cavalry may have done more damage.  The simple javelin throws and stones flung from the slingers did cause the odd break test where the Roman's had to retreat.  But I think overall, Barbarian Warbands are still probably best if utilized with mostly Warbands smashing into the foe and hoping that initial Clash crushes the enemy.  

It was good to play against two people once again. This is why I like to play Hail Caesar - It is perfectly playable with 2+ players.  Grant and Graham did well in defeating the Celts. I think in the end I only ended up destroying their skirmishers... not sure if the photo shows it, but I do think at least one Legionnaire unit broke due to missile fire , or something of the like. I cannot remember.. Regardless, it was a crushing defeat for me!

I've lost 5/6 of all our games, haha. But that doesn't matter to me - I love Hail Caeasr! And will keep building up my Republican Romans and play my own army soon one day!