Club night; more Warring States action

Following on from our last Warring States game John and I had another game of Hail Caesar using our Warring States armies at the White Hart.

Last time it was our first try so we used identical forces, this time we both picked a 300 point force from the Hail Caesar Army Lists Volume 1 - Biblical & Classical book Qin list.

My list was:

• General - CV8

• Sub Commander - CV8
• standard unit of Chariots
• standard unit of Medium Cavalry
• small unit of Hu Horse Archers
• small unit of Hu Horse Archers

• Sub Commander - CV8
• standard unit of Heavy Infantry spears
• standard unit of Heavy Infantry spears
• standard unit of Light Infantry crossbows
• standard unit of Light Infantry bows
• small unit of Skirmishers with javelins

• Sub Commander - CV8
• standard unit of Heavy Infantry spears
• standard unit of Heavy Infantry spears
• small unit of Light Infantry bows
• small unit of Light Infantry bows

Johns list was similar

• General - CV9

• Sub Commander - CV8
• standard unit of Chariots
• standard unit of Medium Cavalry
• small unit of Hu Horse Archers
• small unit of Hu Horse Archers

• Sub Commander - CV8
• standard unit of Heavy Infantry spears
• standard unit of Heavy Infantry spears
• standard unit of Light Infantry bows
• small unit of Fanatic swordsmen 

• Sub Commander - CV8
• standard unit of Heavy Infantry spears
• standard unit of Heavy Infantry spears
• standard unit of Light Infantry bows
• small unit of Fanatic swordsmen

My deployment from left to right was Hu, Hu, Bows, Crossbows, Spearmen, Spearmen, Spearmen, Spearmen, Skirmishers, Bows, Bows, Chariots, Cavalry

My deployment

John was deployed pretty much opposite me.

Johns cavalry and chariots were off on his left out of shot

We rolled off and I took the first turn. My two Hu horse archers rushed to engage Johns right flank and my small units of bowmen on my right advanced to engage his cavalry and chariots. Everything else elected to stand after my large infantry division in the center failed their order.

My Hu engage Johns left flank

John responded by charging at the Hu to clear them out of the way and his horse archers on the left flank moved to flank my bowmen. His large block of infantry in the center also advanced on the exposed bowmen. After some nifty shooting, both my small bow blocs were disordered and on two casualties each.

My advance guard of bow are soon under pressure

My infantry, cavalry and chariots moved up to support the exposed bowmen in the center and John responded with the first charge of the day, his two units of central spearmen were ordered to charge mine.

In a reversal of last months misfortune, the chargers lost the combat badly and failed their break test. First unit to my guys.

First charge and first blood of the day

John again charged the Hu with his left flank infantry and they retired off table. In my turn, the Hu returned to harass Johns left flank and I was able to get a charge in on the spearmen that had been supporting the broken unit. Alas, the odds are stacked in my favour but my dice are poor and I end up retreating from the combat.

My turn to charge

More super shooting by my small bow units, followed by some terrible dice on Johns part and he is removing his Crossbowmen.

I'm doing better now than in the entire last game, John is two units down and he did not lose a single one last time.

John charges a block of spearmen supported by his fanatic swordsmen into one of my small units of archers, this time there is no dice anomaly and I'm soon removing a unit along with the Sub-Commander who had been rallying them.

I'm not having it all my way, first blood to John

The game went on well from here, I advanced on Johns left flank, but he pushed me back to almost my table edge. In the center I broke Johns Infantry division and on the right destroyed both his chariots and medium cavalry. My center infantry was also broken.


By the end of the game we both had one infantry division and our cavalry divisions in play, but I still had my chariots and medium cavalry on the table so I think with a few more turns I could have mopped him up. Probably a winning draw to my faction.

A great game again.


More action from the game.

Hu harrasing Johns right flank

Johns left flank is pushed back

Despite being harrased by the Hu John pushes forwards on his left

My small bow units are under pressure

Sun Tzu works on his magnum opus while the battle rages around

My center advances on Johns left

Fighting in the center

The cavalry finally get engaged

Johns left flank pushes me back to my table edge