And.. another two games of Hail Caesar!
Hello everyone. Here's a second blog post, right after my one about the Xyston Trireme I am putting together. You can read that blog post here. Tim S and I met up again and did more non-point battles in our Punic war settings with Hail Caesar.I've decided to take fewer photos of these games, and put more details in the battle reports that I end up filming. I think this will help save time, and then I can also just focus on a few good shots of the games. That and I'd like to do some other stuff on my blog, not just battle reports!
Speaking of other stuff, I have a Kickstarter in the works that I mentioned in an earlier post on this blog and have been sharing around the internet. Recently I've been painting up some farm animals from Warlord (Pegasus Miniatures), as well as some celtic farm folks. They are almost done and just need some final work on the bases.
Moo. Oink oink. My friend Graham had a laugh when he noticed that the piglet has his head in a place that it should not be.
Here's a full unit of Farm critters and celtic farmers. 24 models in this 160mm frontage unit.
Clash 2 Sustained 1, Short Range 1, Long range 0... etc, etc.. they have the following special rules:
Levy, Mixed weapons, sub unit, Dumb, Animals.. and .. Bacon.
Anyways, those when they are done will be put on a diorama type display, to match this stuff!
These are the models I have in the works and this is how they may look when all is said and done. Still a WIP, and the Wattle fencing is not present. These are painted and fully assembled. Yes. Painted. With the Kickstarter I want to offer fully painted, finished and battle ready Celtic Farmsteads from the Iron age. I think that will be quite exciting!
Stay tuned for more news on that! Should be live a little later this October!!!
Alright, Tim and I had two standard games with no scenarios. Classic rules where once over 50% of a division is broken, the division routes. And when over 50% of the armies' divisions are broken, the game is done!
Game 1
Our forces lined up. I brought my new river to the game today. It curves and bends and looks real nice, but it curves a tad bit too much! Going to need another set of pieces to make it across the board!
I brought Celtic Light Cavalry, Three units of Hastati and one Velite unit in one division. The other division was my Syracusan allies, made of a small unit of Greek Hoplites, an elephant, and Numidian medium infantry...
Tim had two sets of Veteran heavies this time, two cavalry units, slingers, javelinmen, lots of medium troops.. yeah, he had a lot!
Tim had a lot of Numidian cavalry this go and they roared off ahead of the forces. They do look mighty impressive!
By the second turn we were already closing in on each other. Tim's Line had some difficulty giving commands, and was breaking up. My lines were holding positions well.
I move my Celtic Cavalry off into some fields to threaten flanks.
I really like these ruins that the store has.. would like some for my own collection.
Tim sent in his Numidians and even had one of them charge the right unit on my flank.. My medium troops chopped them up and they died. The rest of Tim's light cavalry realized a head on charge against Hoplites and an Elephant may not be wise and stuck with shooting for the rest of the game.
Tim had a handful of forces on one side of the river apart from the main army and they were starting to take wounds from Celtic Cavalry harassment and Velites.
The lines are moving forward, Tim's Slingers step into action as he manages to force his heavy troops forwards.. they were struggling with orders. Too many units in one single large division.
You cannot tell here, but in this photo Tim's river side unit was able to chase off my Celtic Light Cavalry and some of his light troops exchange javelins with my velites. I turn a unit of Hastati towards this left flank threat to deal with these light nuisances.
I sent everything forward. Hoplites and Elephants, charge those pesky Numidian horsemen. We almost caught them!! But as you can see, my forces advancing in such a way were now moving up alongside Tim's left flank.
I get my Hastati back into their lines and let the Velites and Light cavalry deal with the Carthaginians that had crossed the river. Tim re-positioned his forces before we got stuck in proximity to face the Greco-Numidia division that was threatening his flank.
Tim had one unit of medium's chase my Light Cavalry all across the board. The Velites and Numidian skirmishers clashed, had a draw in the fight, and then continued to throw things at each other for the rest of the game.
I order my Elephant and small unit of Hoplites to Slam right into the Veteran Carthaginian warriors. Numidian's on my side follow in to support.
Tim also drives his forces forward, slamming into my Hastati.
But damn, my young soldiers fought like hell, and they absolutely ruined the Carthaginian assault! A few moments later I had only suffered a total of five wounds among three small units. Tim lost an Elephant, Libyan Spearmen, a unit of Medium Infantry, and a small unit of light infantry! His commander was also wounded if I recall correctly.
Near these strange, gothic , wrong ear ruins, Tim's forces were holding up much better against the Elpehants and hoplites. The fighting on both side was often a draw thanks to Phalanx.
In the end, the Elephant and Hoplites were able to break Tim's veterans as well as the support, and by that time Tim had lost over 50% of his the units in his division, which was 50% of his army, meaning they all broke and ran!
Quite the stunning Roman Victory and a devastating loss for Carthage. The Hastati dealt tremendous damage in that one engagement and absolutely crippled any chance Carthage had in the first game.
Game 2
Using the same forces, we rearranged our forces and terrain on the table and had a second game.
A similar looking Roman line.
I did not get a good shot of Tim's starting position, but all of his Numidian Cavalry were piled up on his right flank. He sent them forth by the Roman tower. I sent my Velites into open order and into rough terrain and my Celtic cavalry forth as well to counter their advance.
Meanwhile my Greek and Numidian allies were not having a good day. The Elephant and Hoplites were ordered to take the hill, but their medium infantry buddies didn't want to listen to orders, splitting up the forces considerably.
The rest of Tim's forces creeping along.
My cavalry and Velites engage with javelin throwing contests with the Numidians, and are successful in their first bout. They send the horsemen back around the tower.
The elephant and hoplites take the hill, and the numidians start to listen to orders.
The Numidians return, and much javelin throwing happens.
Tim's skirmishers move up alongside the hill and start pelting my elephant and hoplites with darts and stones.
With the rest of the Roman division, it ended up meeting the Carthaginian forces... But a lot of weird positioning happened, and I missed a lot of the photos. Tim basically found a way to charge just one unit at a certain angle, wiped it out, got really hurt, I flanked him with another Hastati unit.. One of my units chased off the Elephant, caused it to stampede and die.. then turned around to flank people..but...
Tim's forces of Numidian cavalry ended up wiping out all the Celtic Cavalry and came in to support his Libyans.. and the Roman Division, despite putting up an excellent fight and stampeding an Elephant away, could not resist this time. With the cavalry and two hastati units gone, over 50% of this division was gone and I had no choice but to have them retreat! On the bright side, most of Tim's heavy and medium fighting men that had just wiped out the Roman's were Shaken and too far off to take proper orders , so they basically sat the rest of the fight out. The cavalry however, continued to take orders since there was no distance penalty to cover.
As for the fellows on the hill.. The numidian infantry under my control were able to come in and chase away the enemy skirmishers .. sort of. They couldn't fit on the hill so are assembled strangely there, but they are in battle formation.
Instead of facing off against the foe, I elected to keep the hill, throwing my elephants puny short range 1 javelin at the Nearby Veterans.. I wanted Tim to charge up, but instead he stayed back, and started to surround my forces with the cavalry and other light infantry that had defeated my Roman division.
Seeing that every Numidian, his horse, and his mother, was now about to encircle my forces and javelin toss us to death, I decided to have my Hoplites charge down the hill into the Veterans.. it did not end well for the hoplites. And the Greek commander died..I replcaed him with a velite model, to represent the subordinate replacement.
In the end, my other two numidian infantry units charged whatever they could, but were readily defeated. The elephant was the last unit of four, meaning over 50% of my forces were gone, and thus my entire army broken and lost. The second battle was a victory for Carthage.
Whew! So two games that day, and two different results. Carthage lost significantly in the first game, and then my forces were out flanked and surrounded for the most part on the second. The point values we have been using are not in any way equal or fair, so it just goes to show you that you really dont need points to play Hail Caesar at all. A good, luckily clash like the fight I had in the photo below can turn the whole tide of the battle for you. Of course, it is not all about luck. I had Tim sandwiched in where I wanted him around those ruins, and that is what I think ended winning it majorly for me.
In the second game, Tim made use of the Roman tower and good orders got his cavalry in a great position that helped him defeat my anti-cavalry tactics and get in to support the Heavies fighting my Hastati. This won it for him, since my second division, despite having an elephant, is truly the weaker of the two, and they were easily surrounded, quartered, and cut down!
We're taking a break from gaming next week, as it is my birthday, so I am not sure when I'll post another battle report. I will be working on my YouTube channel walkthrough for Hail Caesar! of course. If you are interested in checking that out please look up Steepled Hat Studios on YouTube, to see all these models here as well as other battle reports and work I am up to!
Thanks all for reading! Cheers!
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