Hail Caesar first game Romans vs Britons

Hail Caesar: First Game  Romans vs Britons

It has been awhile since Kati and I have posted on the blog and I can blame Hail Caesar.  We first decided that we wanted to dive into ancients almost 8 months ago and have slowly been assembling, researching, and painting our new armies.  I went with the classic early Imperial Romans and Kati wanted to do Celtic Britain with both of us eyeing up the Boudicca rebellion of 60AD as a great idea for convention play.

Warlord Games Hail Ceasar has been around awhile so I don't feel the need to go to in depth in the rules except to say that they are what I have been looking for in Black Powder.  A while back I heard someone on a forum call them "Black Powder v2" and while I do not completely agree with this statement I do think they have improved in some areas and made melee more interesting (which is important for the period).

Reducing the base movement to 6" is huge, I honestly prefer to do it in all my BP games when I can because nothing is crazier than how armies sometimes shoot across the table before anyone can react. Another other big change is in the melee support system.  Nothing annoyed me more than watching someone stack units around a combat so that it adds up and helps win the combat.  Now, I am not saying it is a bad system, I just enjoy the idea that now supporting units are adding (their short range attack) to the melee itself.

The break test is much more detailed and I think adds a lot to the game and my least favorite rule in the game has been cornered...the disorder rule.

Let me start by saying the disorder rule is an important rule in BP and should be there,  My biggest problem with is is how often it occurs.  The rule is that whenever a unit rolls a 6 when shooting the unit taking the fire becomes disordered and basically can't move for a turn among other things.  This happens so often that attacking/advancing is BP is annoying hard.  And to top it off even if you make all your moral saves you still get stuck being disordered.  In HC disorder is still there and is built into the break test system right where I like it!

Anyway, enough of me ranting about disorder lets get into the game.

We played on an open table as we are really at this point just testing rules and getting mechanics down.  This is probably the third time we have had the troops on the table but the first time we played a game in full.

We used the point system in the armies book and play with about 350pts each in 3 divisions.

Kati's Britons had; two divisions made up of 3 warbands, a unit of chariots, and a unit of slingers and the third division was 1 unit of medium cavalry and 3 units of light cavalry.

Opposing here were my Romans with a division of  2 units of medium cavalry, 2 auxiliaries, and a scorpion.  The center division was 4 units of legionaries with one being veterans (the praetorian guard) and the final division, which was opposite Kati's cavalry, consisted of 2 legions and 2 auxiliary units. 

The game started off with the Briton's right division moving up the field quickly while the rest of the army hung back and watched.  

My center moved up slowly.

The British light chariots took to loose order to harass my cav.

The warbands got within inches of my men..but fell short.

The chariots evaded my cav. but I was able to get a flank attack on a warband with the other unit.

The center is about to become a slugging match.  

The first melee was a lot more pitiful than I had hoped for.

My auxiliaries broke immediately.

. 

In the center, another terrible bit of luck saw my veterans collapse in the first round of combat as well....things were not going my way.

My right flank did repel the cavalry so I at least had that going for me.

Nice view of the battle at this point. 

My cav charged and then broke attacking a warband...COME ON GUYS!

In the center, the legions went to work pushing back the warbands.

Total collapse of my left.  

Followed by the collapse of the Briton's center.

The battle at this point.

The battle now became a race aginst time for both of us.  I was winning on the right and cornering her cavalry and Kati's right flank was backing the remains of my center into a corner.  We both knew what had to happen.

I chased off one unit of light horse and Kati's Chariots started to harass my center.

My men closing in on the cavalry.

Kati attacked with the Chariots and pushed back a legion.

As luck would have it the legion broke in the same melee turn as the cavalry.  We both lost at the same time and called the game a draw.

This was a great game we had a blast and were really happy that it came down to the wire.  So far Hail Caesar is winning us over with its fast and furious style.

The Men who would be Kings: Passing By

The Men who would be Kings: Passing By

I invited my friend Aaron over the other day to try our first game(excluding my solo game) of "The Men Who Would Be Kings" Kati decided to be the Ref and recorded for the game.  Aaron and I rolled off to see who would be Brits/Zulus and I was awarded the Zulus.  we used the point system in the book and took the basic "suggested" list for the Zulu War.

The British force consisted of:

3 Regular Infantry units (12 men)

1 unit of Irregular Cavalry (8 men)

1 unit of Unenthusiastic Tribal infantry, NNC (16 men)

Just a side note this is the first game I have played that treats the NNC the same as Zulu units and while I think it may be an accurate representation its hard to get used to them not having a range advantage. If I remember correctly though only one in ten men had a rifle so I think it's fine.

The Zulu force consisted of:

3 unmarried units (16men)

3 married units (16 men)

The differences between the two are that the unmarried units have a better attack a 4+ compared to a 5+ and the married units are veterans and have a +1 discipline compared to a 0,  Not a huge difference but enough to make them feel and play a little different.

We made up this movement trays for games of Black powder and while made for 20 guys I couldn't resist being lazy and using them.

Visually the unmarried units have either black shields or a mixed of shields and all the married units have brown shields.

I forgot to take my traditional battlefield layout picture so the initial deployment will have to due. the Scenario is pretty straight forward you both start touching the board edge catty-corner from each other and points are rewarded for getting off the table on the opposite side and for killing enemy units.  

As you can see I started my men in a pretty basic formation. 

Aaron started his fanned out a bit. 

First turn went to the British, the cavalry and one unit of regs were the only ones to make their leadership roll.

After failing my first at the double roll I decided to start taking advantage of the tribal units free action which is a regular move.  I knew I would need to leave some men behind as a block unit so moved two units north.

Turn two saw the Brits moving steadily up the field.

The Zulu doing the same.

Turn three would be more of the same.   Aaron would form up his southern most unit into close order and I hid one unit of men in the Rocks near the camp. 

turn 4 saw the action really start. The Brtish formed up and prepared for an assault in the center.  The southern most unit peppered my married unit killing 3 guys but didn't get the pin on them. So I did what I had to do! 

I followed the first assault with another from out of the trees and was able to wipe out the center unit of regulars. The cost was high as I was left with 2 units bloodied from the melee.

on the next turn, I made my intentions pretty clear...

The regulars used the skirmish action to back up and score a pin on one of my units.

Aaron was also able to hit my first wave with a sharp volley while he moved his cavalry up the field. 

My center began to crumble. 

I try for a charge and come just short....not good.

The cavalry engaged one of my "defense" units and it doesn't go well for the Zulu.  Cavalry have a huge advantage in melee with infantry.  

The Zulu are starting to weaver at this point but continue to fight on.

Cavalry engages a second unit which is starting to wear them down.  

I lose another unit to a rally test but follow it up with an assault. 

The assault leaves my last unit in the are crippled.

The cavalry making their exit.  

The final melee of the game sees my last unit wiped in a melee with the NNC as the rest of the British march off the table.  The final score is 16 to 1 British coming out way on top. 

Final thoughts, while the Brits won there was a point where it looked like anyone's game.  We felt that it played great and "felt" right for the period.  The first few turns went fast and the whole game was over in an hour and a half.  At this point, TMWWBK seems like a winner what it lacks in some depth it more than makes up for in its fast and rewarding style.  

My first time using the tribal infantry was quite the learning experience and I am excited to start some "listing" for future games as I found that the unmarried 4+ attack trumped the married 1+ discipline but I am sure that is personal preference.