HAIL POMPEY!: A Hail Caesar Round-Robin

 

Not quite the Ides of March but on the 2nd I broke a long standing drought when it came to ancients wargaming with three sharply contested battles between the forces of Pompey Magnus and Caesar.

Both sides were evenly matched with about the equivalent of a half-legion apiece - four cohorts, two units of skirmishers, a cavalry element and two pieces or artillery each divided into two battles (divisions).

Between myself, Consul Grant and Consul Dave, we all fought both sides and each other across a valley. For some reason, each battle was decided over the hill on Pompey's edge of the table. Above you can see the 'before-shot' as two of Pompey's cohorts (this time under my command) await the Caesarian assault on the high-ground. The following shot shows the result.

If you think my defence is looking a trifle perilous by this stage, you'd be spot-on. As it happens I actually prevailed in this game but as you might imagine, these two cohorts didn't make the triumph.

As you can see, we use counters which I made from MDF as our preferred way to track casualties, unit status (Shaken and Disorder) and special actions such as when units 'close-ranks' in close combat or if we need to remember who charged. We have also identified a need to create a two-sided counter with 'win/draw' so we can remember the result of the last hand-to-hand combat results for sustained melees.

We dispensed with the broken division rule for these games and whilst all games had a clear result at the end, no one got walked over. I have to observe those Romans can take and dish out a lot of punishment but in one game it was the Gallic cavalry which rolled up the Caesarian army pretty much from one flank and dealt with three units before they in turn met their fate.

One of Pompey's cohorts was in fact what we decided was a Celtiberian warband (large) which also caused much mischief when handled properly. Anyway, it was a long day of first rate fun. What great hobby this truly is.