Table Top Simulator - Hail Caesar! Solo Game Athens VS Sparta Session 1

 Hello everyone!

Covid-19 has been a real drag all year long and I've not been out wargaming that much at all. In 2020 I've played one session of Fire Ball Forward and another game of Bolt Action! . . .two whole games! It is safe to say I truly miss wargaming.

One method to get around the lack of gaming is to use Table Top Simulator, which I've known about for awhile but never got to downloading it. Most people who I know have played Warhammer 40K with it, and a few more tried Bolt Action. So I decided to download it to play one of these two games with some friends online. But after downloading it and checking the Mod Section of the game I found that in 2016 somebody uploaded a board / miniatures for the "With your shield, Or on It" scenario found in the Hail Caesar! rulebook on page 122.  I loaded it up and found some 2D designed hoplties, helots, slingers, javelinmen, archers, generals and light cavalry all set up and ready to follow the scenario. Even the board was set up proper, with some additional hills to boot.  

I reorganized thee units into frontages I am familiar with (160 mm fronts), and made all the units 2 ranks. I could have left them bigger, but I am used to playing with units in two ranks.  There was also large skirmish units of 12 men, so I split them into 6 men units to make more. In the end I reorganized the scenario and drew up new battle lines. 

TTS (Tabletop Simulator) is great as it gives you dice, models, measuring tools, and the ability to change sizes, clone things, copy and paste everything on the board - there were casualty markers, shaken / disordered, you name it! All the tools were there so I figured i might as well try a game myself to see how it might be to play the game. Thanks to whoever took the time to upload the file images (I know many people on TTS prefer 3d models of their figures, but 2d is good enough for me!)

It's been a long time since I filmed a walkthrough video and even longer since I played out a full game, so I was a little rusty on gameplay. Luckily when you're solo gaming you can take all the time you need to readdress forgotten rules and it fairly quickly all came back to me. 

I split up everything and set up a battle line on either side... blue dice side Athens and Red Dice Side Sparta. 

The Athenian General's division. I gave him Leadership 8. He has two units of Black Sea Archer Skirmishers under his command along with three units of Athenian Citizen Hoplites. He also commands a unit of Elite Athenian hoplites and a large unit of Light Boetian Cavalry off on a hill in the back. 

The second division consisted of Thebans. Three units of Theban hoplites (one is in the bushes) and two skirmishing units of Slingers. The commander of this division was also Leadership 8. 

The Length of the Athenian / Theban line. 

Facing the Thebans and nestled in some woods across the field stood the Corinthians, allies of Sparta. They matched the hoplite numbers against the Thebans across from them, but they brought twice as many Slinger skirmishers. The Corinthian leadership was also 8. 

On top of a hill sat the Spartan army. Two units of deadly Spartan hoplites on the left and middle of the hill and a unit of Lacedaemonian Hoplites on the right (the Spartans are the best troops on the field). Screening their front are two units of Helot (Javelin armed skirmishers). This was the Spartan General division and I also gave him a Leadership of 8. Everyone with Leadership 8 to keep it simple. 

Another shot of the Battle Line!  Time to roll some dice!


Both sides drawn up - There was good model rep for every model. Every model had its own model to represent it and name, so it was easy to figure out who was what on the field. Set up took longer than what I'd probably have taken in the real world on an actual table, since I am new with TTS. I'd like to point out I basically am learning how TTS works as I play this game! 


BEGIN!

I rolled some dice - one red, one blue. The highest roller gets to "Choose" who goes first. Sparta won so I said "Self - if you were playing someone who wasn't yourself in this situation, what would you do?"  Since Sparta and Corinth seem to be in good natural defense (a hill and a wooded area) I figured that I'd let the Athenians go first, and so, I did!

Turn 1 - Athenian Command Phase 

I ordered the entire battle line to move up towards the edge of the road in a great divisional order. Unfortunately the first roll went sour. The General used his re-roll!

And the second roll also came out too high! The whole battle line just sorta sat around, not quite sure what their General was trying to articulate to them...

Turn 1 - Theban Command Phase 

Let's say that this is something every Hail Caesar! player does experience. The entire first turn goes out the window because both the General and Second in Command don't seem to do encourage their men enough to get into advancing... The rolls also came out too high and without a re-roll the order to move the entire division forward did not proceed! 


Turn 1 - Shooting Phase

Here I am measuring how far the the closest enemy units are from the black sea archers. They're too far off! 18 Inches are the requirement to hit with bows, so no shots were fired. Likewise, the slings on the Theban size require 12 inches at long range to hit, and were out of range.. so a whole lot of nothing happened the first turn!


Turn 1 - Spartan Command

I liked the position of the Spartan General - so on his command part of the turn I decided to let all the hoplites stay put. Let those democracy loving weaklings come to us! But I was able to give a divisional order to the helots who marched ahead of the lines. The idea was to try and get some pot shots on the archers and break them up as they'd only pepper and harass the hoplites on the hill. (It's what I'd do in all scenarios). 


Turn 1 - Corinthian Command Phase 

Meanwhile, the Corinthians had the same idea. The woods offered protection so they sent forth their skirmishers a bit ahead of the line successfully. 

Turn 1 - Sparta / Corinth shooting

On a real life gaming board I could estimate and say if a unit was in range or not of missile fire. On a computerized version I have no idea. I am glad this measuring tool exists - There was no shooting as the enemy units were all 12 inches out of range, and Javelins for the Spartan Helots only fly 6 inches!




Turn 2!

I figured out how to copy / paste / clone objects and re-size them - so I jumbo sized a single dice to use as my Turn Marker and set it on the Athenian side!  Turn 2 starts now!

Turn 2 - Athens Command

I decided to give the skirmishers separate orders from the rest of the army, so I ordered them forward to stick along the edge of the bush line before the road - it was a successful roll and they moved 6 inches forward. 

The second unit to give orders to was the Light Cavalry on the hill in their open order formation...  Break through the bushes and Charge the helots!  I rolled a 6, meaning they could accomplish this in two moves! 

It wasn't quite enough to make it! But they'd follow through the orders regardless. I'd rather have them up in their face and ready to attack some helots with javelins.

The response of the helots was to Evade! And so they did with one move. There was no charge successful this go round!

The last command was to march up the battle line and sto stick behind the Archers which was also a successful move! 

Turn 2 - Theban Command

I don't think these were the Sacred Band of Thebes present on the battle field - because with a roll of 9 the Thebans still had no idea what their commander was trying to get them to do...

Turn 2 - Athenian Shooting

With the helots evading, the initial plan to use javelins on them failed. They actually were able to evade out of javelin shot range and the other helot unit likewise was not within range. So the Cavalry would just have to wait before doing anything.

The archers however with both in range of the helot skirmishers closest to them!

The total results of two units of archers shooting with Long Range 2 for both units - The skirmishers were within 12 inches, so there was no -1 penalty to hit for long range, however, the helots were in open order, so it was still -1, requiring 5's and 6's to hit. I rolled a 5 and a 6.

Helot's don't have any Morale Save (unless they're in cover) and so they automatically took two casualties (the premade chips were great for this). Secondly, because the Athenian Black Sea archers rolled a 6 in the shooting, a break test was required. 

They rolled a 9 and on the break test chart for Skirmishers, that means they retreat in good order!

And away they went! Basically the helot forward advance did little and they ended up back to where they basically started. 

The Thebans hadn't moved - so they were still out of range... This thus ended the second turn for the Blue Side!

Spartan Turn 2 - Command 

Start of the Spartan turn. Big Red Dice over to their side.  The hill was still looking pretty good, so it was up to helots again. 

I used Initiative to move forward one unit of skirmishers, while the second were not close enough to use their initiative so I gave them the order to approach the cavalry within javelin throwing range.

And with the order roll, a blunder occurred! 

The second roll wasn't not a winner either but at least it stopped a blunder!

Second Turn - Corinth Command
 

The hoplites would stay put, but the slingers had to move forward to be the first volley in some stones against the Theban skirmishers.

Too bad a 9 wont do it for the commander. The whole line stayed put and nothing happened for the rest of the turn on this side of the field. 

Turn 2 - Spartan Shooting

The Spartan helot unit was within range of the boetian cavalrymen. They needed a 5 and 6 to hit, since the cavalry were in open order. One 6 was rolled, which meant a hit and a required break test.

The roll to save the casualty was not successful and the cavalry took a single wound.

As for the break test, they rolled very poorly and were going to have to retreat while being disordered.

They would move back towards the foot of their hill, and start their next turn disordered! 

Again, nothing else was in range of the Corinth Skirmishers so there was no shooting to be had on that side of the field.

Start of turn 3 -End of Session 1 

A top shot of the field of battle now as it progressed to turn 3. I need to put a disordered mark on the Cavalry, as I forgot to.

The great thing in TTS is that unlike gaming at a club you don't have to finish the whole sessions - you just save your game - and come back later. So that's what I'll do for the next part of this blog.

You'll notice that in TTS on either side of the board there seems to be what looks like tablets - that is essentially what they are. You can browse the internet inside the game. They're mini windows to help you look up rules or browse pages in game. There's many little features in TTS that really make it worht checking out.

Another thing I think is interesting is that there is really no commands or programs built into the tabletop version i was using here. Everything you control is basically just like the tabletop. You can move pieces freely any time, get more dice, make terrain, change the board.. you could do this anytime, middle of game, after, before. You can save the game if you haven't finished in one sitting, which makes me realize I could essentially do a mass table and have the largest Hail Caesar! battle I could. I could also just rearrange all the pieces and put on a game of lion rampant or clash of spears if I wanted. Any game that uses basic dice to play will work! I’m sure there’s d20 and the other Dice in the system as I’ve seen people play dungeons and dragons on it too. 

 There's the potential also to upload and find battle "miniatures". Most I've seen are actually 3d and some are even animated. For this mod though the uploader basically put in 2D models, which more remind me of those paper cut out soldiers some people use, which are fine for the first game. But maybe I can find some romans or gauls in 3d versions for a future game.

The downsides I think are the tediousness of all the controls. You can do almost anything you’d do in a real game and then some! You have to really get used to the controls to get games going fast I think plus if you don’t have a PDF or rules online you’ll also have to explain everything to those playing who don’t know the rules (unless you’re both well versed in them!) 

It is not easy these days to play video games at a regular, set time with the work I currently do, and when I do have free time its usually 3-4 am when everyone's asleep anyways. I call my current sleeping patterns the Covid Times (they're all graveyard hours). Regardless, it is still even fun to just run through a solo game of Hail Caesar! and this was a good way to keep the rules fresh in my mind even though I haven't played for a long while. Look forward to playing the next session!