Hail Caesar! Battles with streams.
Hello everyone. I have not posted up a blog for sometime, so I've missed out on a few reports and photo updates. This is because I have been quite busy with painting and working on my next project which is going to launch on Kick Starter very soon! It involves buildings from the Iron Age, so if you play with Ancient Britannia forces or Gauls it may be of interest to you.. but more on that in the near future!
Game 1)
Tim and I met and played a standard game, no points, with a river he has. It wasn't a big river, so we considered it a Linear Obstacle for game play, with one fordable point.
And I note, after writing this, that my use of capital letters and some of my grammar is completely messed up. Sorry if I randomly give upper case letters to places that should not have them throughout my blog! Sometimes I think I should just do this blog in Chinese since I think my second language is taking over my mother tongue..
Game 1)
Tim and I met and played a standard game, no points, with a river he has. It wasn't a big river, so we considered it a Linear Obstacle for game play, with one fordable point.
And I note, after writing this, that my use of capital letters and some of my grammar is completely messed up. Sorry if I randomly give upper case letters to places that should not have them throughout my blog! Sometimes I think I should just do this blog in Chinese since I think my second language is taking over my mother tongue..
Set up
Half of my forces. In one "mercenary" division. Two units of Medium Infantry Numidians with spears and javelins, one small unit of Hoplites from Syracuse, and an Elephant, lead by a Greek Mercenary Captain.
Any my other division force was mostly Roman - Republican Romans - Three Units of Tough Fighter Hastati, Velites with Tough Fighter, and my newly painted Light Celtic Cavalry unit.
Tim had all his forces in one division. Numidian infantry with javelin and spears, Libyan Spearmen with some light infantry in support behind them, an elephant, Carthage Veterans with more light infantry.. and Native carthage medium troops, armed like the medium numidians, along with some Numidian light cavalry.
The single, fordable piece on our stream.
Tim went first - he had just added his own Elephant.. and it was eager! It moved forth as the rest of the army failed their orders!
The Greek Captain moves his forces up towards the river.
The Romans advance a little, while my Celtic Cavalry take the hill.
On Tim's Second turn the eager elephant leaves the rest of the army behind and makes it to the ford.. the rest of the forces slowly advance in comparison, and his cavalry and Libyan skirmishers fail to get any orders and remain at the starting position!
The Roman advance. Velites break into open order while two hastati units make their orders well on a fail roll since they are Drilled.
This dice roll is not the roll for the order. There was a whole lot of fail on the Greek Captain's side.
About half of Tim's forces adhere to commands, but his left half past the trees simply failed to listen.
The Greek and friends division rolls into action and turns towards foes across the river...
And a successful charge gets one Hastati and Velites unit in on the Elephant. The back hastati unit was support at best.
The combined forces of Velites and Hastati defeat the Elephant in good order. A tad bit too eager, nay?
Tim get's his Elite on both units with a good roll - my velites were screening the Hastati unit so he opted to use proximity on the unit on the right. Regardless, he had to fight both units since they were adjacent.
The rest of his troops made it to the river edge, though!
All those forces Tim had in the back simply did not have ears...up until now! They were pretty useless for most of the battle!
His medium Carthage troops take the edge of the stream..
And then there was fighting!
On the Roman Turn, the Greek alliance tried to charge the foes, and move about the River, but they did not quite connect. The Hastati unit formed up and rear charged the light unit that was supporting Tim's Elites.
The Celtic horsemen and the unit of Hastati move into position to throw things at the native Carthage troops cross the river...
A whole mass of Numidian Javelin throwing sends Tim's own Numidians back!
Battlemode! The Velites tear apart Tim's light infantry from behind the lines
Next comes the Sweeping Advance into the Elites rear!
And as a result...
The Hastati with their Velites smash attack from the back wipe out the Elite forces! The Velites turn to face the Libyan spearmen.
Tim charges the Elephant across the river on his turn.
Some well thrown Numidian javelin's penetrate the Hoplite's ranks. No damage was done but a roll of 6 forced the Hoplties to give ground, disordered.
Throwing on the other side of the field caused a single stamina point of damage to a hastati unit.
I missed a few photos, but what happened was that the Libyans and Elephants fought each other, it was a win for the Elephant, but the Heavy Libyan troops held. In my next turn, on the shooting, my numidian infantry managed to throw some nicely aimed javelins and completely broke Tim's unit of Numidians! Next my Hastati flank charged the Light support units behind the Libyans..
They managed to chase off the support, but did not destroy them.
Fighting went on again against the Elephant and now lone unit of Libyan spearmen, but neither side got the upper hand. My turn was done , and as you can see here, I had been rallying the shaken Hastati unit and the Hoplite's disorder wore off. I had also moved one unit of Hastati towards the right side of my flanks to take on the oncoming skirmish force sand other Carthaginians.
As seen here!
On Tim's turn, the fighting continued. My Velites did heavy damage on the armorless light troops and wiped them out.
But Tim's heavy spearmen forced my Elephant to give ground... 
Oh, and I should say the result was a stampede, and my Elephant was destroyed! The hoplites had to do a break test because the Elephant stampeded through them, but they ended up perfectly fine.
And that's it for the photos of this game... The Hastati forces on the far Right side of the field managed to charge in on his lone Carthage native troops, and destroyed them.... That was over 50% of Tim's forces, and his division was broken, and thus his army broken. A victory for the Republican Romans!
Game 2)
We were fighting and warring against each other, and while that was happening, another historical wargamer who recently joined up in our Hail Caesar! group, Gus came about to pick up some models from another. Gus had some time so I invited him to take control of the Greek Mercenary division.
We decided to go with Gus' suggestion about making a scenario game. Here's the map we set up.
We were fighting and warring against each other, and while that was happening, another historical wargamer who recently joined up in our Hail Caesar! group, Gus came about to pick up some models from another. Gus had some time so I invited him to take control of the Greek Mercenary division.
We decided to go with Gus' suggestion about making a scenario game. Here's the map we set up.
A river with a watch tower. In the photo above, Gus is pointing at a spot on the board - this is where a cache of supplies was sitting. The objective - the Greek and Mercenary forces from Syracuse and Numidia are guarding the Roman supplies, and the whole Carthaginian army is inbound to take it. The Roman's , who are deployed on the opposite corner of the Greek/Mercenary division have to roll on a d6 in order to see if they appear or not to help the Greek and Mercenaries defend the cache. On a roll of 1 on the first turn, the Roman's would appear. If they failed, the roll result on turn two would require a 1 or 2 for the Roman forces to roll to appear , then on turn three 1, 2, and 3.. and so on up until turn 6 when they'd automatically just show up!
Another shot of the field before the game began. An impressive field for what was at hand, I think.
Set up
Carthage's forces. Our forces were the same except this time Tim combined two light numidian units to make up one medium unit of infantry.
The deployment with the Romans off on the corner.
Tim went first and his first order had some impressive movements.
Well - The romans appeared as I rolled a 1 on the first turn! Good thing for the out numbered Syracuse forces.
The Roman forces split apart, a unit of Hastati and velites head towards their allies near the tower. The Celts and other two roman units head towards the ford in the river.
Gus moves forth his forces. You can see the supply cache here.
End of the first turn. All forces are mobile!
The Carthaginians advance in their next turn. Only one lone unit in the back fails their order, but Tim presses his soldiers forward.
On the Rome / Allied turn the Hastati units take the ford while the Celtic Cavalry sneak in to rain some Javelins down on the enemy Numidian Cavalry.
Gus moves his forces further.
The Celtic Horsemen are able to get a wound down on the Numidians but do not phase them.
Tim's forces advance again. You can see in the previous round that my Velites and Hastati heading towards the tower did not move too far...
The Numidian Cavalry throw their javelins back at the celtic horsemen and they're driven back towards the hill!
The Roman / Allied turn results in only one unit of Hastati moving due to failed orders! Thanks to drilled rule they move, but the rest of the Roman division stays put!
Gus has his Elephant lurking round the woods as the rest of his forces shift about.
The forces of Carthage edge ever closer on the supply cache!
But it seems the rest of the Carthaginian army fails their orders.
The Roman turn! Good orders get good results, and the Velites and Hastati make it to the corner of the tower!
Seeing the bigger threat, the Roman general orders one unit of Hastati over towards the tower and leaves the single unit of Hastati to hold the ford.
Tim plans an all out Elephant charge into the flank of Carthaginians as my Celtic Cavalry fail their orders and stay sitting on the hill.
The allied elephant charges but ends up just an inch off! An unsuccessful charge!
Here the heavy Libyan troops charge the small unit of Syracuse Hoplites. Numidians on both sides support the Long Spear infantry.
The Veteran Carthaginian spear men make their way in closer..
The Carthage Elephant is ordered to head towards the Numidian allied Elephant... Forest Elephant Fight ? 
All the other forces under TIm's command arrive alongside the Elephant, save the Numidian Cavalry. They did not follow orders well in these two games we had!
but before we got on to that, the Numidian cavalry were able to score a hit on the Roman Hastati and forced them to retreat disordered.
The fight! The Carthaginians had charged but the Long spears of the Hoplites removed any charge bonus. Gus had his General Join in the fray.
But the Hoplites were simply overwhelmed and they broke and lost! The Hoplite commander was also wounded, and would not join another fight for the rest of his career, though he could still order his men around! Looks like the Cache is being threatened here! Where are the Romans?
The Libyan spearmen with their Numidian support swept into the Numidians that had been supporting the Hoplites...
Stop staring and get into the fight!
As the romans gawk on, the Libyan's crush a second unit! We decided that the Numidian medium troops nearby where enough to deter the game from being lost...
So as their victorious move, the Libyan spear men and their support re-positioned themselves
The Roman turn finally came, and the Commander realigns his Hastati. He breaks his Velites into open order in hopes of getting a bit of skirmishing down on the Nearby Elite Carthage forces.
Gus has his Elephant return from round the forest to put pressure on the recently victorious Carthaginian forces.
I think the Syracuse commander here, despite his injuries, just wants to get out in front of the Cache and taunt the Carthaginians...
Although not seen here, the Celtic Cavalry return to pepper the Numidian cavalry, scoring a hit from javelin fire. The Hastati unit here recover from disorder this turn.
Tim's turn comes along, and he orders each of his numidians in the above unit to turn on the spot and face the Elephant threat.
Tim lines up his forces into proximity of the Hastati units, as Libyan skirmishers seep through the lines. They are able to force the Velites back with some rolls of 6 and the light infantry retreat!
Arriving on the scene! Here comes The Carthaginian Elephant!
On the Roman/Allied turn, I have my no longer disordered Hastati charge the Numidian Cavalry.. with a really good result! The Numidians evade, fo course, but then my Light cavalry also charge the Numidians who are unable to evade a second time... fighting ensues and the Numidains are forced to give ground. The Celtic warriors on horseback pursue!
I move my Velites in closer towards the enemy Elephant, ready to take it on, Zama style, if needed. I hold my Hastati back, knowing that Charging Long spears would not garner me any bonus, and instead resolve to throw pilum at short range instead. Not a very effective tactic!
On Tim's turn the Numidians strike back and end up Disordering the Celtic Cavalry, as well as raising their stamina value to their threshold.
And in charge all the Carthage Veterans with their allies! Always a bloody fight between these two classic foes!
Tim's Elephant charges the Allied Numidains.
These Carthage general yells bad things at the unit that's near the fighting cavalrymen.. they were really bad at following orders for the past two games, but he did manage to get them closer to the tower away from this point. His general then was able to move and join in on the big fight.
But Tim was also able to charge the Allied Elephant with his Carthage Numidians.. causing some wounds on both soides.
The fighting was intense.. but neither side caused many casualties and the first big clash between the Veteran Carthage Warriors and Hastati resulted in a draw! Both the Roman General and Carthage General joined this fight!
You can see the Allied Elephant under Gus command sulking behind yon trees there.. he lost and gave ground, but did not stampede!
Tim's Elephant did give ground, but Gus, wanting to preserve his forces, did not pursue. Let the Velites deal some damage to this pachyderm!
The Roman turn.. the Velites use initiative to charge the Elephant, which turns to face, but Gus also charges with his Numidian forces.
I have my other unit of Hastati act on initiative and steer away from the Celtic Cavalry and Numidians, running towards the big clash by the tower to assist in anyway possible. Surprisingly, my Celtic Cavalry are able to win despite being disordered and shaken, and end up causing the Numidian Cavalry to also enter the Shaken status!
The Elephant is made quick work of as the combined forces of Medium infantry and Velites take it down.
Gus has his Numidians sweep into the unit supporting the Carthaginian Veterans flank while my Velites chase off some Libyan skirmishers. Fighting goes on once again, and you can see all the casualty markers here adding up real quick...
Agema and Victrix Hastati fight side by side...
But their valiant efforts are all for nothing. The Veterans break them , even without the help of their numidian supports. My Commander escapes without a scratch!
The veterans turn to face towards the Numidians that had just flanked their brothers.. they had failed to break the supporting unit...
And the Elephant and crew fought on, but the numidian infantry proved too much for them. The Elephant was forced to flee off the table edge, and since it was shaken, quit the field.. Gus forces were thus broken as his forces fell under 50%!
Final shot, of the unsuccessful flanking charge... I think the disorder caused by the sweeping advance Gus decided to do saved the Carthage Numidians.
And thus, with a good portion of the Roman Forces being destroyed and being too far away from the Supply Cache, and the majority of Gus' forces scattered or destroyed, we deemed the Carthaginian forces successful in their raid on these farmlands! They made off with the supply cache and there was much rejoicing on their side of the field!
And that was the result of our two games! One Roman Victory and One Carthage Victory!
It was awesome that we played with a Scenario and could include a third player. When not using points to calculate the values of armies fighting strength scenarios like this add much more depth to the game. Scenarios in Hail Caesar! are entirely player created so there is a host of possibilities that opponents can decide and play upon.
It was also very fortunate that I rolled a 1 on the very first turn! I think Carthage may have creamed the defending force in much faster order had the Romans not appeared right on the get go.
Some things I've noticed in the games with Tim as we keep expanding our armies:
1) Tim has tons of Numidian's as Carthage mercenary troops. Expect to see an all Numidian force out of his stuff sometime soon! Many Elephants!
2) Two Roman Units fighting one Veteran Carthage Unit, or against Libyan-Phonecian spearmen seems very common, and this match up seems very appropriate as either side has good chances at fighting each other. I think it makes for very classical battles in that era.
3) I think both our sides are interested in getting some slightly longer ranged units on the go. All our ranged combat has been within 6 inches, which is probably the most histrionically accurate representation of skirmishers at this time, but it would be nice to see the tactical advantages of slingers and archers in this era. I am expecting Tim to show up with some Numidian Slingers, though I may be limited on my ranged units since the Republican Roman list is very limited to javelin based skirmishers... do expect to see some Cretan archers appear in our games without points, however :)
That's it for now! Hope you enjoyed the read and viewing the photos on this blog!
Until next time....
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