One of the games laid on at the club yesterday was a 15mm Hail Caesar encounter with Early Imperial Romans up against Early Period Germans. Mr Steve Huntsman was our Gamemiester for the day, still on the wrong end of jet lag, but managed to lead us through the Hail Caesar rules, as most of us were playing our first game, including me.
We diced to see who would set up first, which the Germans won, and so the Romans in three divisions were invited to set up first. Following this the Germans deployed in two divisions of about 8 and 10 units each.
Thus as Romans, two d6 were rolled against the standard command rating of 8, with 9 or more being a fail, 7 or 8 giving one move, 6 two and 5 or less three moves. A move being movement or formation change. If units of a division are in a chain from their commander, within six inches of each other they can make divisional moves. To reflect the discipline of the Legionaries, they are assumed to be able to move once in a turn automatically if they fail a command test.
All the cavalry formed the Roman right division facing the larger of the two German left division |
This, right from the start, became the defining moment of our game as the German left struggled to move to assist their comrades on the right all the while having their heals snapped at by marauding Roman allied cavalry.
The Roman left division with a couple of Legionary and Auxiliary units supported by archers |
The Germans were using their "wild fighters" attributes, re-rolling up to three failed hand to hand attacks in their charges together with their higher clash value of 9 dice rolled versus 7 for the Legionaries. It return the Romans were lobbing in their pila with each charge reducing the German save attempts from hits achieved in the hand to hand combat phase. The net result producing a grinding down of the opposing units as each side attempted to break the other before supporting units could intervene. All good fun and very nerve racking at times.
The Roman allied cavalry quickly overcame their German adversaries and moved in behind the barbarian infantry |
One highlight for the Germans was the sight of the Roman Cavalry Commander getting carried away and leading his men into the charge taking a wound for his trouble but managing to win the melee. Good stuff and exemplifying the spirit our game was played in.
The Roman centre and left divisions moved quickly to assault the German right division before their comrades could come to their support |
Too little too late as the German left division (moving over the hill) attempts to intervene the Roman cavalry (back table) moves in as the German right division is forced to retreat |
Many thanks to Steve, Ian, Ollie, Jason and Tom for a very enjoyable afternoon battling in the forests of Germania, "On my command unleash hell".
For my thoughts on Hail Caesar rules check out JJ's Blog
Sounds like a terrific fight, great looking armies!
ReplyDeleteThanks Phil, it was a really fun game and I can see why Hail Caesar has got the following it has
Delete