"They Died with their Sandals On" ... A HAIL CAESAR Post-Wargame Precis

 

This weekend saw out 2020 Anno Domini with a bang - or rather, a clash. Back in the 'Lucky Country' Grant and I managed to crack out two and a half games of Hail Caesar in 24 hours ... as it should be. I'm not going to go into great detail but the following was our scenarios and a few of the hard lessons learnt.

 
The table was 1200mm (six feet) by 2100mm (near nine and a half feet) which was the extent of my home made desert mat (subject of a previous post). It was notionally set in an arid region of Iberia (ignore the houses please) with two abandoned farmsteads on high ground. We set the building as only capable of housing small units, the crops provided concealment and obscured line of sight but no cover. The clusters of olives two deep were deemed light woods (groves) which only open order units could pass and the ploughed ground was hard going (-6 inches to movement whenever a unit was in it). There were two small rises (hillocks) which didn't end up featuring particularly and the darker mass to the left foreground was a thorn bush: a massive thicket impassable to all.

A view from the other end - the higher ground is more apparent.

The contest was between the adherents to Caesar (Romans with Gallic cavalry and Greek slingers) and the followers of Pompey (Romans with Celtiberiens). I dreamt up the nightmare scenario that the defenders deployed first anywhere on the table and then the attackers diced for a table edge. The idea was the attackers followed an obscuring storm front, unseen by the defenders.

Randomly determined, I was with Caesar and in defence. I elected to scatter my two divisions to cover key defensive features to cover all approaches ... BIG mistake. I effectively split my force which in the end proved incapable of supporting one another. It also didn't help that we randomly generated our leadership and whilst Grant rolled some legendary commanders (three tens!) I got some utter clowns. The dice Gods were sending me a sign.

The beautifully arrayed battle line in the foreground are Grant's Cesarians. Well, I had plenty of time to make up for my set up with the idea that the front division would give ground and the rear division wold advance to meet them. Well, it was an idea at least. Just a quick note that I don't normally field units which haven't been completely finished. I am re-basing my Celts and have yet to texture my Roman bases. If I waited; however, it would not be until next year until I gamed them ... Mars forbid!

Ceasar's forces moved up smartly as I failed command rolls - nothing new there really. FYI, we like to flip a coin (a replica Roman coin as is happens) at the end of each turn to break up the I-Go-U-Go predictability. I think across about 12-15 turns I seized initiative about three times - so the coin Gods were sending me another sign. 

I felt my right flank to be secure with a Scorpion on the high ground protected by a Cohort to its right and the thorn-bush thicket to it's front. The gap between the thorns and the first olive grove was adequately plugged by another cohort - or at least it might have been adequate if there were any supports to be found for the impending melee. Another rookie mistake. They soon collapsed under a stampede of Celtiberians and my Scorpio and the Cohort on the high ground were forced to retire when their division was soon broken.

Grant's Pompeian 'scum' made quick work of taking the first farmstead, sweeping aside a poorly co-ordinated defensive line and pushed hard onwards.
 
The enemy kept coming on fierce-like and I couldn't co-ordinate my division whose Tribune had a Command Rating of 7 (my best by far!) - I kept rolling badly, failing constantly. Whilst my line dithered in forming up, the Pompeian Celtiberians on Grant's left flank stormed ahead to flank my right and came at me through the ploughed ground and crops.

I managed to spin my right Cohort about and see off a flanking Celtiburnian warband but it was the only glimmer of hope in a worsening drama. Grant's centre and right united to force their front and engaged my staggered and unsupported line piecemeal.

We use home-made counters to monitor casualties, including 'Shaken' and 'Disorder' status. As you might see from this final shot most of the defenders are on their last legs at either Stamina or damn near it. I didn't last another turn and I'm ashamed to admit that the survivors surrendered to take up arms with Pompey Magnus. Hail Pompey!

So, lessons learnt: keep our lines ordered so they can support each other in hand-to-hand combat. Do not (if you have a choice) divide your forces without first knowing the dispositions of the enemy. Lastly, don't fight for commanders who are cretins - I mean, I didn't even roll decent personal combat attributed for them either! They were useless.

The second game was over so quickly we didn't even take photos of it. In short, I defended again (this time with Pompey's alliance in a united formation but a little too close to one tale edge. Guess which one Grant diced to come in on? He got to deploy 12" in from the nearest table edge within 12" of much of my force. He won the initiative and smashed into my flanks with mutually supported cohorts before I could turn - It was a disaster which lasted but three turns. Tragic.
 


Our third and final game was more traditional. Over an altered landscape, we approached from opposite ends in a typical head-to-head. This time our leadership scores were more evenly matched and as it turned out initiative results were more balanced. I even rolled better.
 
Neither of us had played Hail Caesar more than twice before the weekend and that was over a year ago. As I'm sure you can all appreciate, we were picking up the rules better each time and getting more familiar with applying each units special rules attributes. In this game I had the Pompeians once more and we basically slashed at one another over a large hill which dominated the centre of the field with a large farmstead to one side.

We both learnt the important lesson of taking some time to think about what you are going to do before you leap in. You need to consider what units can and should use initiative moves before considering the benefits of divisional orders over individual orders. Matters like attaching Commanders to individual units to aid their combat rolls might come at the cost of their ability to issue orders to other units.   We were both impressed by how all problems had an answer in the rules - Hail Caesar must have been thoroughly play-tested.

This game we were both fighting with better combinations of command and support and in stark contrast to the previous two games. My skirmishers in particularl were pestering Ceasar's cohorts intolerably with some particularly effective fire. By Juno, I even brought down reasonably consistent artillery support from my Scorpio and Onager much to Grant's chagrin.

We certainly noticed how long the turns were taking due to the number of combats. 'Follow-on' events and the occasional 'sweeping attacks' prolonged each player's round within each turn and more than once we confused ourselves if it was time to determine initiative for the new turn or not. By games end neither side dominated the hill and each was giving as good as he was getting and we had to call it a draw as our gaming time had run out. After all, Grant had a three hour drive ahead of him.

We both had an enormous amount of fun and are firm aficionados of Hail Caesar. As Black Powder gamers we had to keep ourselves from applying Black Powder rule mechanics into the game as they are clearly from the same tree but with subtle and important differences.

That is my lot and likely final posting for 2020. I'm off to South Australia for Christmas and won't be home at my work table until after Boxing Day. Merry Christmas everyone. I realize that for my British and US followers in particular your festive season likely couldn't look much bleaker. Please keep safe'n'sound and may your friends and families otherwise prosper and fill your stockings with miniature wargames treats. See you all in a better new year.


Comments

  1. Well if I think it’s great to see your toys on the table... you must be delighted...
    And I certainly agree with you on Hail Caesar and the risk of accidentally mixing up the rules...

    Have a great Xmas break...

    All the best. Aly

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