Hail Hannibal this time

Following on from last weeks game of Hail Caesar set in the Punic Wars, on Tuesday Richard and I had another bash, this week increasing the forces from 450pts to 600pts.

I basically added more Gauls in a new division while Richard spent most of his extras on additional cavalry. The 600pt armies were basically wall-to-wall on a 6ft frontage.

My Numidians on the left flank were again stars of the show, they softened up every Roman cavalry unit and at the end of the game had them all shaken for no loss of their own.

In the centre it was nip and tuck, the Gauls charged in, and as expected had a 50:50 success rate, smashing the Hastatus aside in one spot while recoiling off shaken in another.

As you can see though it all looked rather impressive.

As seen here Richard was having some terrible luck with his rolls, one Roman unit that locked shields took six unsaved hits, but it certainly did not all go my way.

Eventually the Gauls were falling back, one Division shattered and another teetering on the edge so it was time to commit the African Veterans and Spanish. These caused great destruction against the Alae that had been softened up by the Gauls.

However, the demise of the Gauls had left the Carthaginian army on the brink and when we wrapped up after three hours of fun we declared a winning draw to the Romans.

Great fun again and Richard is a real gent.

Hail Scipio

Last Tuesday saw Richard and myself having another bash at Hail Caesar, this time using our Punic Wars collections. I picked a Carthaginian force with a command of Libyan Spears, a command of Gallic Warbands, a command of Spaniards and a command of Numidians. Richard had three Alae of Romans supported by a command of Gallic and Numidian horse.

I deployed with the Gauls and Spanish in front of the Libyans and with the Numidians thrown out to the right. The Romans had the three Alae in the centre and the supporting cavalry on his left.

The Carthaginians started proceedings but were unable to motivate the troops in the centre, but were more successful on the left here the Numidians were soon harassing the Roman cavalry

After their tardy start the Carthaginian foot were closing in on the Romans and there was soon an almighty clash as the Gallic and Spanish warriors charged home.

As can be expected against Romans the honours were about even, the Spanish especially fared badly, but that was more of a consequence of me treating them as a Morale Save of 6 rather than a 5+!

The Carthaginians now committed the African spearmen and  the combat ground on with neither side getting the upper hand although we  had lost a division a piece by this time.

With shaken units all over the place both armies were rapidly approaching their break point. Despite being nip and tuck all along the line it was the Romans who collapsed first for a very narrow Carthaginian victory.

Here are some more images from the game. All figures from the collections of Richard and myself.

Another "To The Strongest Punic" Wars game

Martin and I dug out our Punic Wars collections yesterday evening and gave Quinton and Ady a demo of the system. Myself and Quinton took the Carthaginains while Ady and Martin had the Romans.

The Romans deployed heavy on their right with two Alae and all their cavalry holding that side while an allied contingent of Italians with many light troops covered their entire left flank. We deployed the Africans in the centre with the Gauls to their right and the Numidians to their left.

I pretty much let Quint run the show on our side and it was probably for the best as he is a lucky booger!

The Numidians spent all game drawing out the Roman horse and even when our supply of javelins were exhausted continued to keep them out of the game. On our right the Gallic horse made a wide sweep while the Gallic warbands admirably held their place in the line, two of the Warbands spent most of the game 'double disordered' but Adys Legionaries were unable to capitalise on them before their flank was crushed by the Gallic cavalry.

In the centre the African infantry continued a stead grind against the Romans. It looked like the game was up when their flank was turned, but the Roman general commanding the flank attacked 'double aced' his first turn and then was unable to cause sufficient damage on his subsequent attacks before the Roman army was broken and all was lost.

Punic Wars using To The Strongest

On Tuesday evening, Greg, Ben and myself had another game of To The Strongest! Martin had kindly lent us his Romans so we had a good sized game of about 160 points per side.

I used the Carthaginians with IIRC the following:

• General (Superior, Mounted, Detached), 4 African Spearmen, 2 Elephants
• General (Heroic), 3 Gallic Warbands, 2 Gallic Skirmishers, 2 Gallic Cavalry
• General (Mounted, Detached), 3 Spanish Scutarii, 1 Spanish Caetarius
• General (Mounted), 2 Numidian Horse, 1 Numidian Skirmishers

Greg and Ben used the Romans:

• General (Mounted, Detached), 2 Hastatii, 2 Principes, 1 Triarius, 2 Velites
• General (Mounted, Detached), 2 Hastatii, 2 Principes, 1 Triarius, 2 Velites
• General (Mounted, Detached), 2 Hastatii, 2 Principes, 1 Triarius, 2 Velites
• General (Mounted, Detached), 3 Equites / Allied Cavalry
• General (Mounted, Detached), 2 Hastatii, 1 Triarius, 2 Italian Skirmishers, 1 Cretan Archers

As the active player I took the first turn and began a steady advance with my troops, only holding back the African Spearmen, as they did not fancy a face full of their own elephants when they bounced off the Romans.

True to previous form, on the first activation of the game the Cretans drew a 1. My elephants soon crashed into the Roman lines and in the see-saw way of things one bounced straight off and was destroyed while the other went straight through and out of the other side!

The lines clashed and it was too and fro all along the front line. The Gallic general fell and his unit was well duffed up, but the odds were swinging towards the Carthaginians. By the end of the game the lines were still pretty static but the Carthaginians had won the 'grind' and the Romans ran out of Victory Medals.

A short report, but hopefully these pictures will make up for that. All the Carthaginians are my own, and most of the Romans are Martins, the remainder, those based like the Carthaginians are mine.

We Cannae take it!

Excuse the poor pun in the title!

On Tuesday evening Martin and I played our first game of To The Strongest for quite some time, the previous one being back in November.

Tim and Steve had also agreed to join in the fun.

I picked a Carthaginian force of:

General: Mounted, Detached, Senior
Veteran African Spearmen, three African Spearmen, Numidian Light Infantry with Javelins

General: Heroic
Three Gallic Warriors each with a Hero, two Gallic Cavalry each with a Hero

General: Mounted
Three Numidian Light Cavalry with Javelins, one Numidian Light Infantry with Javelins

I finished off with a Stratagem

Martin had a force of two Alae each of General, two Velites, Hastatii, two Principes and a Triarii. Another command comprised three Cavalry, one with a Hero, his final command was two Italian Spearmen, two Italian Javelinmen and a unit of Cretan archers.

The Romans won the scouting roll and were the active player, kicking off by pushing their lights forward to break up the Carthaginian lines.

Soon the Carthaginians had closed the gap, driving off the lights and engaging the maniples behind.

On the Carthaginian left, things went badly, the Numidian command being completely shot up by the Italian Javelinmen, although the Cretans seemed to attract an ace each time they were activated.

In the centre the Carthaginians were unable to make any headway against the superb armour of the Romans. Martin lost a single unit on a 6+ save (that is about a 50:50) out of we think about thirty hits inflicted. Whereas the African Spears and Gallic Warbands were soon collapsing. 

We soon burnt through our 11 Victory Medals, Martin had only expended two by the end of the game.

Introducing Tim to Hail Caesar

I managed to give Tim his first go at Hail Caesar yesterday evening. I put together a couple of small (about 320pt) forces based upon the figured I have, I could do with a few more Romans, maybe another box of the Victrix ones would be in order later in the year.

Carthaginians

General (Leadership 9)

Unit	Combat				Morale Save	Stamina	Special
	Clash	Sustained	Short Range	Long Range
Libyan heavy infantry with long spears	7	7	3/0	0	4+	6
Libyan heavy infantry with long spears	7	7	3/0	0	4+	6
Spanish Scutarii medium infantry armed with Pila	6	6	3	0	5+	6
Spanish Scutarii medium infantry armed with Pila	6	6	3	0	5+	6
Spanish Scutarii medium infantry armed with pila	6	6	3	0	5+	6
Spanish Caetrati light infantry armed with javelins	3	3	2	0	-	4
Numidian light cavalry armed with javelins	5	3	2	0	6+	4	Feigned flight
Numidian light cavalry armed with javelins	5	3	2	0	6+	4	Feigned flight
Elephants with javelin armed crew	4	3	1	0	4+	6	Elephant

General (Leadership 8)

Unit	Combat				Morale Save	Stamina	Special
	Clash	Sustained	Short Range	Long Range
Gallic medium infantry warband armed with swords and javelins	9	6	2	0	5+	6	Wild fighters
Gallic medium infantry warband armed with swords and javelins	9	6	2	0	5+	6	Wild fighters
Gallic medium infantry warband armed with swords and javelins	9	6	2	0	5+	6	Wild fighters
Gallic medium cavalry armed with swords and javelins	8	5	3	0	5+	6	Tough fighters
Gallic skirmishers armed with javelins	3	2	2	0	-	4
Gallic skirmishers armed with slings	2	2	2	2	-	4

Republican Romans

General (Leadership 9)

Unit	Combat				Morale Save	Stamina	Special
	Clash	Sustained	Short Range	Long Range
Hastati heavy infantry armed with pila (small unit)	5	5	2	0	4+	4	Drilled
Hastati heavy infantry armed with pila (small unit)	5	5	2	0	4+	4	Drilled
Principes heavy infantry armed with pila (small unit)	5	5	2	0	4+	4	Drilled
Principes heavy infantry armed with pila (small unit)	5	5	2	0	4+	4	Drilled
Triarii heavy infantry armed with long spears (small unit)	5	5	2	0	4+	4	Drilled, Elite, Stubborn
Velites light infantry armed with javelins	3	3	2	0	6+	4	Tough fighters
Velites light infantry armed with javelins	3	3	2	0	6+	4	Tough fighters
Numidian light cavalry armed with javelins	5	3	2	0	6+	4	Feigned flight

General (Leadership 8)

Unit	Combat				Morale Save	Stamina	Special
	Clash	Sustained	Short Range	Long Range
Gallic medium infantry warband armed with swords and javelins	9	6	2	0	5+	6	Wild fighters
Gallic medium infantry warband armed with swords and javelins	9	6	2	0	5+	6	Wild fighters
Gallic medium infantry warband armed with swords and javelins	9	6	2	0	5+	6	Wild fighters
Gallic medium infantry warband armed with swords and javelins	9	6	2	0	5+	6	Wild fighters
Gallic medium cavalry armed with swords and javelins	8	5	3	0	5+	6	Tough fighters
Gallic skirmishers armed with javelins	3	2	2	0	-	4
Gallic skirmishers armed with slings	2	2	2	2	-	4

I gave Tim the choice of forces, he picked the Carthaginians and after a brief overview we set to.

Both forces attempted to advance on each other, but my second roll of the game allowed me to demonstrate the blunder rules and my Gallic contingent retired in the face of the enemy!

Both forces eventually closed on each other, the two contingents of Gauls getting to blows first. The Carthaginains Gauls were surely better paid and more motivated as my chaps got a bruising, although we soon stabilised that flank.

The two solid lines of infantry faced off in the centre and the Romans made the first move, most of the combats were going my way, but being small units the casualties began to tell. Eventually, I had destroyed one of the African Spear units and the Elephant and were pushing the Spanish from the field. Hannibal had even been unhorsed.

Things were going well for my Gauls too, eventually having held the line they counter punched and broke the Gauls in Carthaginian pay.

In the main slog my units were now almost all shaken and the Numidians and Velites defending the flanks had collapsed. With the return of the Spanish to the fray and a timely set of flank and rear charges the Roman centre collapsed and the game was over.

Ouch!

The figures and terrain are all from my collection and were painted by myself. They are mainly Gripping Beast, Warlord Games and Victrix with a few models from other ranges thrown in.