Classical Hail Caesar Bash

I've been working away quite a bit and have not had much gaming opportunity the last few months. I did play in the rather spiffing 'Games of the Gods' WAB event at Halifax with my Late Republican Romans but only took a couple of pictures so have not done a blog update.

So for my first battle report in about a month, yesterday evening at Maunsfield Gaming Quinon, James, Daz, Adie and myself set down to a good old game of Hail Caesar, Quint would bring his Greeks, James his Macedonians and myself my extensive Punic Wars collection of Republican Romans, Carthaginians and Gauls.

Myself and Adie would command the Romans:

General CV8
2 x Hastati (Cl 6, Su 6, Sh 3/0, Lg -, Mo 5+ St 6, Drilled, Pilum)

2 x Principes (Cl 7, Su 7, Sh 3/0, Lg -, Mo 4+ St 6, Drilled, Pilum)

2 x Triarii (Cl 7, Su 7, Sh 3/0, Lg -, Mo 4+ St 6, Drilled, Stubborn, Long Spears)
2 x Velites (Cl 3, Su 2, Sh 2, Lg -, Mo- St 4)

1 x Lg Italians (Cl 8, Su 8, Sh 3/0, Lg -, Mo 5+ St 8)

1 x Slingers (Cl 3, Su 2, Sh 2, Lg 2, Mo- St 4)

General CV8

2 Equites (Cl 8, Su 5, Sh 3/0, Lg -, Mo 6+, St 6, Eager)

General CV8

2 x Hastati (Cl 6, Su 6, Sh 3/0, Lg -, Mo 5+ St 6, Drilled, Pilum)

2 x Principes (Cl 7, Su 7, Sh 3/0, Lg -, Mo 4+ St 6, Drilled, Pilum)

2 x Triarii (Cl 7, Su 7, Sh 3/0, Lg -, Mo 4+ St 6, Drilled, Stubborn, Long Spears)

2 x Velites (Cl 3, Su 2, Sh 2, Lg -, Mo- St 4)

General CV8

3 x Gauls (Cl 9, Su 7, Sh 3, Lg -, Mo5+, St 8, Wild Fighters)

1 x Slingers (Cl 3, Su 2, Sh 2, Lg 2, Mo- St 4)

The Roman battle-line

Adie would command the first two and myself the second two. The Carthaginain alliance comprised three commands, Quinton had the center

Daz, Quint and James - feel free to add your own captions

General CV8

1 x Spartan (Cl 7, Su 7, Sh 3/0, Lg -, Mo 4+ St 6, Drilled, Stubborn, Long Spears, Phalanx)

4 x Hoplites (Cl 6, Su 6, Sh 3/0, Lg -, Mo 5+ St 6, Long Spears, Phalanx)

3 x Numidians (Cl 5, Su 3, Sh 2, Lg -, Mo 6+, St 4, Feigned Flight, Phalanx)

1 x Javelins (Cl 3, Su 2, Sh 2, Lg -, Mo- St 4)

1 x Elephant  (Cl 4, Su 4, Sh 3, Lg -, Mo4+ St 6, Elephant)

Daz had the right

General CV8

1 x Gallic Cavalry (Cl 8, Su 5, Sh 3, Lg -, Mo 5+, St 6)

2 x Gauls (Cl 9, Su 7, Sh 3, Lg -, Mo5+, St 8, Wild Fighters)

1 x Scutarii (Cl 9, Su 7, Sh 3, Lg -, Mo5+, St 8, Pilum)

1 x Slingers (Cl 3, Su 2, Sh 2, Lg 2, Mo- St 4)

1 x Javelins (Cl 3, Su 2, Sh 2, Lg -, Mo- St 4)

My Gauls under the command of Daz

James had the left

General CV8

1 x Hypaspists (Cl 7, Su 7, Sh 3/0, Lg -, Mo 4+ St 6, Drilled, Stubborn, Long Spears, Phalanx)

4 x Phalangites (Cl 6, Su 6, Sh 3/0, Lg -, Mo 5+ St 6, Pike, Phalanx)

The Carthaginan Alliance, Macedonians in the foreground

1 x Companions (Cl 9, Su 6, Sh 3/0, Lg -, Mo 4+, St 6, Kontos)

Our small units were about 9 infantry or 5 cavalry, the mediums were 12 to 18 infantry or 6 to 10 cavalry and the large units were bigger, typically about 24 to 30 infantry.

The Carthaginian alliance won the roll off to move first, the Gauls advanced on their left and the Numidians ranged out in front. The foot in the center and left were rather sluggish. The first couple of turns only saw the Velites exchanging desultry skirmishing fire with the Numidians.

Numidians range out in front

The two armies approach

Bored with the skirmishing I moved my Velites out of the way and ordered a charge, my Legion crashed into the Hoplites in the center.

Vive L' Republique - sorry wrong time-frame

Things did not go well, in the left hand combat I won, but not by enough to overhaul the Phalanx advantage. On the right things did not go so well. I lost the combat by one and took my Break Test....

A bloody three!!!

So the Hastati were removed and the supporting Principes heading to the rear. In the next round my remaining Hastati fought well but were also forced to retire.

The Gauls were rushing up to support the flank of my Legion, but Daz was quick to counter-attack with his own troops, the Scutarii smashed into the flank of one of my warbands who fought well and only lost the combat by two pints, time to roll that break test gain. A bloody two this time!!! Take off another unit.

On our right Adie skillfully pushed back the elephant with his Italian Spearmen and then threw his two units of Equites at the Companions. Now we had hobbled the Equites rather by changing them from a 5+ save to a 6+ save to make them very brittle. Adie threw his dice and managed to get two unsaved hits on the Companions. James was a great big Jessie, rather than rolling the dice himself he called over Daz who is reknowned for his luck - nine attacks hitting on a three - eight hits - Adie only makes two saves and the Equites are trounced and broken, the Companions follow up into the supporting unit and obliterate them too. That's us Romans a division down.

Not to be downhearted, we launch the remains of my Legion and Adies Legion into the Carthaginains and Macedonians.

The Romans commit in the center

The unsupported Principes fight against the supported Spartans and win Combat by three! Indeed, the Spartans go thundering back, unfortunately in a re-run of our earlier fights, the Principes to their right lose combat by one and we throw another double one, that unit is destroyed too.

That is three combats in a row where we lose by one and don't throw higher than a three!

In order to protect the flank of the attack in the centre, my Gauls attack the Scutarii and beat them up but they hold.

Gauls against Scutarii

Well that is pretty much it, with the Principes in the centre broken that is a second broken division, our army is now shattered.

To hear the crowing from one player on the Carthaginian side you would thought they were Alexander of Macedon incarnate rather than a great big Jessie who is scared to roll his own dice :-)

The battle lines engage

The Romans, Numidians, Italians, Gauls, Spanish and Elephants are mine, the Hoplites are Quintons and the Macedonians are James