Hail Caesar Battle - Romans Vs Romano-British

I took along my camera to Deeside last Thursday with half a thought of doing an ancients battle report – the games are so rare that merely getting a picture of one is an event in itself!  In the end, however, there wasn’t a huge amount of movement, and a post with plenty of excitingly painted toy soldiers, and a paragraph explaining why, will suffice.  Aidan commanded his Romano-Brits, while I split my Romans between myself and Michael.

My Wwwwomans (led by Biggus Dickus surely) had discovered their two Romano-Brits (time travelling and very confused) enemies were planning to meet on the road to Amarillo to combine their forces.  This obviously would not do and the legionaries and their allsorted foreign assistance were mustered.  The battlefield began to fill with nicely painted miniatures in lovely marching columns, which were spoiled once they spotted each other and began to hurl insults. 

The legionaries, commanded by your truly, stepped off the road, deployed in a wonderfully red formation, dressed the ranks to perfection, and then ruined it all by charging the heavily armoured Romano-British horse.  The horse realised Christmas had come early, while the Roman CO went off to bang his head against the nearest wall, and a snap of the fingers later and the legionaries were mostly gone; the horse carving through them and coming out in the Roman rear (oo-er).  This undid Michael’s good work with the Romans auxiliaries, who had put some of the Romano-British infantry to flight.  Surrender was graceful and without name calling for the most part.  Romano-British victory.

The Battlefield - The Romano-Brits arrived from the top left (cavalry mostly) and the bottom (infantry), the Romans on the right road.

The Romano-British, having grown in size since their last outing - Aidan has been busy painting!

The Legionaries arrive!  Pity they didn't fight as they looked - disciplined, organised, tough.

King Arthur I think, or at least one of his friends.  Nice shield - painted on, not a transfer!

The Romano-Brits wonder if the Romans are feeling generous today.

The Romans are not, and deploy.

Michaels Auxiliaries and scorpions await the enemy just exiting the village.

Romano- Brits. Goats. Pregnant vampires. This village has everything!

The Romans realise their CO is an inbred useless waste of tactical space.

Part of the expansion of the Romano-British army; Gripping Beast un-armoured generic dark age warriors.  There were more with slings elsewhere on the battlefield and they looked the part.

The Battle of the Olives - Hail Caesar Battle Report

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, in an age which history has kindly forgotten, mixed up, and become generally confused about, the Romans, with their Celtic allies, launched a raid into that powerhouse of industry; Greece.  Having filled their carts full of that most precious of cargoes; olives, they set off back towards the border for a date with wine and pasta.  The ancient Greeks were not so keen to see their olives made with so freely, and dispatched a force of historically inaccurate hoplites and peltast to block the road while further re-enforcements made their way to the scene, drawn by the smell of the Celts choice of (or lack of) bath materials.

And so the scene is set, my Romans, their column led by Luke’s celtic warbands, heading home in a march formation along a dirt track thinking about olives and lovely boys called Mario when a force of hoplites and Greek skirmishers leap out from behind some blades of grass.  Commanded by Chris ‘Damn your whinging sir and Charge!’ Fazey, they are aiming to hold up the column long enough for the remains of the Greek army (Red presiding) to hit the flanks and wipe out jonny foreigner.  Victory goes to the Romans if any of their 3 supply units (2 carts and a donkey train of 2) get off the board at the roads end, or the Greeks are beaten off.  The Greeks win if everyone else dies first.  Simple.

Technical’s; the board was 10ft long by 5ft wide, the Romans and celts in 4 divisions moved down the road towards Chris’ 1 division at the roads fork, while Red’s troops came on at a predetermined time and place known only to Red and Chris – the more advantageous the place, the longer they had to wait for the troops to arrive!

The Battle

Its was the Celts that started it, their lack of understanding of the concept of ‘march column’ meant they were already in their default attack setting of ‘angry rabble’, which then barrelled down the road towards the Greek blocking force.  The bulk of the legionaries were in the following division which, led by the Roman general, swung to the right off the road to support the Celts movement.  The second Roman infantry division, a mix of legionaries, auxiliaries and slingers, followed the Celts down the road guarding the baggage, while the Roman horse division brought up the rear.

The Celts leading the column as the Roman 1st division files off the road.

Chris' Greek roadblock waiting for them.

The table in general around turn 2-3.

 Red decided to get his troops in early, and brought his first division of two units (taxis!) of hoplites and some slingers on beside the village to face the Romans 1^st infantry division just as it deployed into line.  The 1^st Cohort (a large unit) charged in on the nearest hoplite taxi (all the hoplites once more being large units), supported by two more cohorts of legionaries, while the hoplites had the other hoplite unit in their division as support.  Red rolling appallingly, and for the first time in RGMB ancient history the hoplites broke and fled in the first round, with their support joining them!  Given the lack of Greeks this would have made for a very one sided and boring game, so we allowed the Greeks an extra (identical) division, which promptly reappeared in the next turn in the same location and hurled itself into its previous conquers, pushing back the 1^st Cohort, and wiping out one of the other cohorts as the hoplites pressed their advantage.

Messy - Celts vs Greeks on the road, and the first Greek division to fight the Romans on the left.

A meeting of minds which the celt warband eventually loses.

Roman escorting precision.

The Roman 1st division in trouble and crushed against the woods.

On the road in the centre the Celts (also big warbands/rabbles) came face to face with the hoplites blocking their passage.  They wiped out the Greeks supporting peltasts, but came to grief against the Greek heavies themselves.  Chris’ hoplites pushed back and wiped out the central rabble, before coming up against the lead baggage cart which I had foolishly allowed to get far ahead of its Roman escort.  Fulfilling character obligations I blamed Luke for allowing the Greeks to break through to the valuable olives!  The Celts other two war bands turned, intending to charge the rear of the hoplites, but decided that it was either unsporting, or too suggestive and stopped short of the act.  The hoplites had no such qualms, and dispatched the baggage cart with ease, although one unfortunate Greek did catch an ox’s hoof in an unfortunate place.  

The Greek hoplites are through, but the celts turn on them.

In the fields the Romans came under the cosh; the hoplites pressing their advantage and, crushing the 1^st cohort against an inconveniently placed wood, then wiped out the 3^rd and last legionary cohort in that division, destroying the Roman generals command.  They continued on, making for the road and the two baggage units there.  The Roman second division reacted by swinging off the road and deploying in front of them, a formation which the hoplites ploughed into in an attack column formation, one supporting the other.  This time the Roman legionaries, having been rolled back a move in the first charge, stood firm second time round supported by legionaries, auxiliaries and slingers, plus some more awful dice rolling from Red.  The last turned into a theme, which saw the Hoplites perform their disappearing trick for the second time in the game to cheers from the Romans, which turned even louder when the Celts finally got stuck in on the road and Chris’ command vanished under a wave of random hair doo’s.

The last Greek hope was a final division which appeared on the Roman right flank, only to have to contend with the Roman cavalry division, which had finally worked out there was some fighting going on at the head of the column and had hotfooted it up there.  With the demise of the Greek centre however, and the solid line of legionaries, auxiliaries and cavalry facing this last division the Greeks called it a day, and conceded the field to the enemy.  Victory to the Romans and Celts!

Reds greeks come within touching distance of the road and the baggage, but no further.

The last Greek division - too late to help.

Analysis:

Not a terrible scenario, with perhaps the Greek re-enforcements arriving a tad too late at the end, and the Greeks playing to their enemies strength by spreading out against a more numerous Romans and Celtic army rather than blockading the road and daring them to push through.  Given the difference in sizes of the armies I tried to create a scenario which the Greeks could use to their strengths.

The Romans scored an early impressive victory which caused us to resurrect a Greek division rather than ruin the game, while the celts stood up for longer in combat that Luke had expected them to after the initial clash.  Chris almost got some revenge in with some slinger fire at the baggage, which I’d left exposed again, but they were fortunately chased away by the Celts!  

Ancients Battle Report - Romans Vs. Greeks

With one week to go before a probable English Civil War campaign we took the chance to field a couple of ancients armies and the Hail Caesar rules set.  Due to some fairly shocking traffic conditions both the Romans and the Greeks arrived late, however fortunately Roman-for-a-day Michael had already set up a battlefield so we were able to get going quite quickly.  Mindful of the disappointment of the legionaries doing not much last week I split them between the commands, with Michael taking the bulk (3 cohorts) along with some cavalry, artillery and the bulk of the slingers on the left-centre.  I took the right, and fielded a mixture of auxiliary and legionary cohorts.  

Initial setup, ghostly greeks on the left, red romans on the right.

The Battle:

The opening exchanges proved inconclusive, I advanced, Michael didn’t.  The hedgerows were clearly to blame, with the legionaries on the left unable to pass them.  Red quickly decided that Michaels troops were clearly going nowhere fast and abandoned them in favour of an all-out attack on my division in the hope of wiping them out.  I managed a coup however, cutting off the lead hoplite taxi and wiping it out by pinning it from the front with legionary cohorts and charging in from behind with cavalry while the rest of the greek column was reeling in disorder.

The heavy Greek attack on the Roman right commences, but theres trouble waiting in the form of the auxiliary cavalry.

The lead hoplite taxi is cut off and destroyed.

They didn’t stand still for long, and were soon back on the attack, driving the legionaries back across the hedgerows in disorder and revenging the hoplites by destroying the Roman auxiliary cavalry.  In the centre Michael had managed to catch up with the manoeuvring Greeks, with his cavalry damaging a unit of peltasts before an improbable break test (not the only one Red would pass on a double 6!) and some hoplites saved them and drove the horses from the field.  A cohort of legionaries finished the job on the peltasts, before the hoplites finished them off.  However the hoplites had advanced far enough for a counterattack by the rest of Michaels command, with another cohort of legionaries, supported by one of my auxiliary infantry cohorts, pinning them from the front before the 1^st Cohort made good use of a follow me order to slam into their flank.  Under this pressure the hoplites collapsed.  As if in sympathy the hoplites taxi facing the remains of my legionaries on the Roman right also fell apart, and with time up, and 7 turns played, the Romans were the clear victors.

Michaels legionaries finally make it beyond the hedge, and the hoplites seize the opportunity to make them pay for such nerve.

However they have bitten off more than they can chew, and with the 1st cohort in their flank they succumb to the roman counter attack.

Analysis:

The Greeks decided early on to make a bold play to crush my division, assuming that Michael would be unable to get going.  However,  my success in cutting out and destroying a taxi, then stalling the rest meant the legionaries were able to catch up to the action and the hoplites were caught from the flanks, suffering their first (?) defeat.  As a side note I had intended to play a scenario, and had the beginnings of one in mind, however with the traffic putting us behind we just set up and played, and it worked out an entertaining game anyway.  Once more the greek hoplite taxi's were counted as large, and this evened it out and made them a formidable power to be feared!

Ancients Battle - Romans Vs. Greeks

With the Greeks numbers seemingly depleted by the reduction of their hoplites from eight 16 man units to four 32 man units - to match the width of their opponents, and to give the proper depth of the phalanx formation they 8 men wide by 4 deep – the Romans appeared to have an advantage in numbers of units and fighting power, even with (my) suggestion that the Hoplite Taxis be considered as ‘large’.

The Plan:

The Greeks split into two halves, with Red and Chris Fazey each taking two Taxis, a peltast light infantry unit, and a few light skirmishing units.  Opposing them I took command of the legionaries – 8 cohorts, the light artillery and some slingers – while Rob controlled the auxiliaries and the general.  Our plan, knowing the power of the Hoplites when attacked from the front, was to suck them into the legionary line, which would hold them while the auxiliaries flanked them and then caused them to collapse. 

The Battle:

The auxiliaries did well, eventually driving a Hoplite taxi from the table, as well as a peltast unit and a unit of skirmishers for the loss of a slinger unit and a squadron of cavalry.  However, the legionaries (my lot) forgot what it was they were supposed to be doing, and spent rather a long time standing in the middle of the battlefield looking pretty.  It got silly so the Greeks came and attacked them.  Chris Fazey, having firstly outflanked the legionary formation with his skirmishers, then drove in their line with his hoplites, wiping out the first cohort, then moving on to driving a second from the field (by literally pushing it off our own board edge.  His peltasts got in on the act with firstly their fearsome (?) combat ability seeing them survive a legionary cohort charge, then their javelins broke the cohort in return. 

The Roman general (Rob), busy having success with his auxiliaries, turned to find the legionary division was broken and rapidly retreating, leaving him alone, and he sensibly joined the strategic withdrawal – victory to the Greeks!

Initial setup - Ghostly Greeks to the right.

The legionary centre.

The legionary centre being driven in.

The remains of the legionaries abandon the auxiliaries at their finest moment.

Post game analysis:

The sides were fairly even, with the Greeks fielding more skirmishers, but fewer formed up units.  However, their hoplites were large enough to counter-balance the numbers, and the legionaries – the toughest Roman troops – were caught spread out and pushed apart too quickly to reform and support each other.  The Roman plan of outflanking the hoplite line eventually worked, but the Greeks had done the same to the legionaries.

Ancients Battle Report - Romans Vs. Romano-Brits

In the absence of the Greeks (off buffing their shields probably) my Romans turned upon their erstwhile allies the Romano-Brits (or Brits for short).  Their commander; Aidan, or King Arthur as he is now styling himself, devised a decent scenario where the Brits, having raided and pillaged to  their hearts content were now heading home, with the only thing between them and success in this venture being a river (with at least 2 crossing points) and a small contingent of roman cavalry and slingers.  The bulk of the Romans – mostly legionary cohorts – were due to start arriving from turn 2 somewhere off to the Brits flanks having chased them for a bit.  The implications were clear; if the legionaries caught up and a straight fight ensued then it would probably go badly for the Brits, so they needed to force the crossing and get away swiftly!  Being Hail Caesar a blow by blow account isn’t easy, so the summery will have to do.

Battle 1:

The Brit infantry, boosted in numbers by some defecting Roman auxiliary, took the direct route towards the crossings and the cavalry waiting there.  Their own heavier cavalry covered their more exposed right flank, or at least it did until a particularly spectacular blunder saw the order of “charge that cavalry by the river!” replaced by “retreat!”, 2 moves backwards!  This stalled the Brits attack, and a unit of Roman cavalry tried to take advantage by charging into the front of the rebel auxiliary, supported by the slingers.  This was only partly successful, with the arrival of the rest of the Brits infantry driving off the horsemen, but the 2 rebel auxiliary cohorts played no further meaningful part in the battle apart from fleeing under missile fire later.

Main British infantry division.

The Brits horse had no chance to rejoin the attack as the Roman legionary cohorts began arriving on the flanks, and they turned and charged home into a (foolishly) unsupported cohort at the head of the attack.  The legionaries fled and were cut down, leaving another two cohorts to pick up the responsibility of trying to give the Brits heavy horse a bloody nose.  This they succeeded in doing, grinding one unit down until it vanished and pushing back and pursuing the other.

The Brits become boxed in by legionaries to the left, and auxiliary horse by the river.

In the centre the 1^st cohort of legionaries (large in size) faced off against the largest British unit as the British became boxed in by Roman troops.  Both had supporting troops, and in the end the Romans training and heavy status told, with the Brits trying to retreat and being destroyed due to the skirmishing slingers that had worked their way around behind them.  A brief hurrah for the Brits followed as their remaining heavy cavalry unit bashed into the flank of the 1^st Cohort, adding to its damaged already received and sending it packing.  The combined efforts of the Roman auxillary horse and a cohort of legionaries was enough to see off this rally, and the last two Brit infantry units surrendered in an untenable position.

The Brits cavalry is finally defeated and the remaining infantry can't see a way out and surrenders.

Battle 2:

With an hour and a half left we decided to go again, with a scenario quickly thought up by me – a Roman Legionary column being attacked from the flanks by the Brits, with the auxiliary troops (horse and foot) arriving later on to try and save the day.  This was very much a one sided affair; the British cavalry striking hard and fast into the centre of the line of Roman infantry, destroying 2 of the 5 cohorts immediately, before turning outwards and charging into the rest.  The rear of the column had managed to form line before the impact, but the 1^st Cohort at the front failed too and was harried from the battlefield, unable to change formation or turn to fight.  The auxiliary arrived just too late to save the day, with all of the legionary cohorts wiped out, and put in a counter attack across the river, only for lady luck to abandon them and they were driven back, abandoning the effort.  

The Roman column.

The column hit from the left by British horse, and with Brits infantry coming in from the right.

Analysis:  

When the numbers are even the Roman heavy infantry have the edge over the Brits medium infantry, however, good use of scenarios can prevent this from happening and make for a much more interesting game.  The first game was a good example of this, with Aidan foiled by his dice rather than the auxiliary, and a frantic bit of fighting ensuing when the Roman legionaries arrived to box in the enemy.  In other thoughts the Brits cavalry are more powerful than the Roman – heavy to my own preference to making my auxiliary horse only medium – which gave them an edge to going one on one with the legionaries, while mine lacked that extra bit of power to hit from the front.  Finally it was an all-painted army game!

Hail Caesar - Romans & Brits Vs. Greek

I made a first appearance at the RGMB on a Tuesday night since a Lord Of The Rings game on June 19^th with an ancients game of Hail Caesar  booked.  It was really good to see a lot of people who I haven’t really since I started working in Manchester, and always good to see people actually pleased to see me.  In my absence the number of card players seems to have grown, and I still have genuinely no idea what is so entertaining about the whole thing – then again they probably wondered what the hell the interest is in the whole Romans Vs. Greeks model combat!  A game of Dystopian wars was on, while two battles of 40k and some warmachine rounded off the tabletop games.  Anyway, onto the battle.

The Setup:

The Romano-Brits (from now to be referred to as the Brits) turned up first and set up a battlefield with a fair amount of trees and rivers, the Romans arrived second after the hard work had been done.   Overlord Chris Fazey was floating around and accepted a position in the roman army and in the absence of the Greeks we started to set up for a quick game.  Deployment had been achieved when the Greeks arrived, and reshuffling commenced while the Greeks spent 30mins setting up.  The Overlord refused to go Greek on the basis that they all had a cold and he didn’t want to catch anything, plus there were some allegations regarding steriotypes, although overall he may just have not wanted to move chairs.  I took command of the Greek right flank, leaving the Overlord in command of a cut-down Roman army allied to the Brits.  Some wrangling about the size of the Greek frontages and the scenario commenced, and was concluded with the agreement that “the first to die loses”.  And we were off.  Slowly.

The Battle:

The Roman strength was massed on their far right, and failed to get into the battle to any effect apart from encouraging the Greeks to aim more towards the Brits with the objective of crippling them before the Romans could arrive on their flank.  The Brits sent one large division of infantry down the centre, following the combined Roman and British cavalry, and a smaller one on the far left.  The Greeks blocked their hoplites facing the Brits, with a weaker force on their left looking across at the Romans.

The main fighting occurred between the Greek central division against the larger Brit infantry division over possession of the hill between the tree groupings.  The Brits having first sent their cavalry in a hopeless attempt to charge through the front of the Hoplites, then made it to the top of the hill first, only for the Hoplites to start making their way up the other side.  The clash at the top saw the Brits defeated despite their numerical superiority due to the Hoplites skill at arms.  In the other clash in the centre the Roman cavalry followed the Brit example of charging the front of the Hoplites, with the same result!  The bulk of the Roman forces floundered across the river, with only a small, successful, clash against the greek light horse to show for their troubles (proving that men with sock; the slingers, could fight better than the rest of the army).  At the point where they had crossed the river the biggest Roman infantry division distinctly heard the order to head off to the right (off the table!) and went in search of the pub.  With the sideshow on the Brits left seesawing between the Hoplites and Brit infantry there and nothing but disaster looming in any more frontal attacks on the Greek forces the Brit CO – King Arthur, still grumbling about Hoplite unit widths – called it a day and the Overlord concurred.

Analysis:

So what did we learn.  Firstly that Hoplites are very difficult to defeat from the front, something which I had learnt last time out, but being on the Greek side it didn’t seem a good idea to share.  Cavalry to the front was a major mistake, sacrificing the units for nothing.  Secondly that we are rusty, and some more practice is needed!  There wasn’t a huge amount of rulebook consultation but there was a fair bit, and we were generally slower in making decisions.  Thirdly that Red’s Hoplites need their unit frontage widening from their 4 by 4 to an 8 by ¾, otherwise there is the high potential for them to gain an advantage.

In other notes I didn’t manage to notice whether my Romans looked more impressive with their newly repainted red shields.  I also think the battlefield had a bit too much scenery, and give the size of the forces could have been a bit bigger.  Finally a scenario is a preference to the stand and fight game, obviously requiring a bit more pre-planning.  Given I’m now jobless again I might get time for some of that.  Poor pictures I'm afraid, better luck next time.

The first turn or so, Greeks on the right in the white.

The cavalry on their ill-fated charge.

The Romans.

The main clash of the evening.

Hail Caesar: Romans Vs. Greeks

The Gweeks took on the Wwwomans at the RGMB for the first time.  I revelled in my fully painted Roman army, although I soon started to wonder about ways of making them appear brighter on the table top – buts that’s for another time.  Red had expanded his Greeks substantially, and he commanded two of the three divisions, with Michael the third.  With nobody handy to help me push models around I commanded all three of my divisions.

We devised a simply scenario where the divisions arrived randomly, and then adapted/messed about with it to make it balance during the opening phases of the game.  Reds enthusiasm for a river saw the Greeks starting from one side, and the Romans from the more open other side.  The Romans were quick in arriving, with Tribune Maximus Gittus and his legionaries taking up a right side, and Tribune Farquaad and his larger Legionary force to their left.  With the Greeks massing on the other side of the river I took advantage of some excellent command rolls to race the legionaries forward with the intention of blocking the two bridges and denying the enemy their superior numbers in an open field.

This plan went well until Tribune Gittus and his Legionaries got it all wrong; their attempt at blocking the right hand bridge resulting in first the fourth cohort, then the fifth cohort, and finally a unit of slingers all fleeing in the same turn from the same Hoplite taxi!  With this major loss, and the Greeks flooding across the river,  things looked bad for the Romans.  I threw the large 1^st Cohort in against the left bridge, supported by the 2^nd and 3^rd cohorts of legionaries, and drove off a Hoplite taxi, but took severe casualties  in doing so. 

My general raced the auxiliary division forward, hoping to stem the tide of Greeks on the right, but the action only cost me an auxiliary cavalry squadron in return for a second Hoplite taxi.  The auxiliaries took heavy casualties, and were forced back, while on my left Tribune Farquaads Legionaries were being pushed back by an ever increasing number of Greeks.  The final straw was the eventual arrival of the last third (!) of the Greeks army, as Michael finally passed a command roll!  At this point, and with time upon us, I conceded the field.

The Romans - A Hail Caesar Project - Part 11 - Fighting!

After what feels like months of painting (well, a few months on and off, and interspersed with the odd Royalist regiment) the Romans finally took to the field of battle in a Hail Caesar game – and damn good they looked too!  Their opponents were Reds Greeks – Hoplites a-plenty, not a very historically accurate matchup, but good visually – who were slightly fewer in number so I opted to just use what was fully painted.  Given our inexperience with both the rules and our forces we chose to fight out a pitched battle encounter, setting up in an authentic looking way and rolling off for first turn, the winner would be the first army to break its opponent.

Red’s Greeks seemed more numerous than last time I saw them, but on that occasion I don’t think he used the full might.  This time he had four units (regiments?) of Hoplites to call upon, heavy infantry standard in size and each in a phalanx formation and numbering around 16-20 models.  They had light troops in their droves to support them, with five units in total, some ranked up light infantry, other smaller skirmishing units.  They were all lead by a single nameless Greek who fought in the front rank of the leading phalanx, and meant the Greek army was a single division, 9 units strong.

My Romans were able to field two divisions; the first was lead by the newly named Tribune Julius Farqaard (the army general), and consisted of my heavies; 4 cohorts of legionaries, plus an artillery battery of scorpion bolt throwers and a small slinger section.  The other division was commanded by an unnamed tribune, leading the bulk of the auxiliaries – two cohorts of medium infantry, one squadron of cavalry, two sections of slingers and a small artillery battery.

Deployment:

Red opted for his Hoplites to lead in the centre, with light infantry on their wings.  I had my legionary cohorts facing them, with the auxiliary division out to the legionaries left.

The Battle: 

Early doors:  Tribune Farquaad won the roll off and marched his legionary cohorts off towards the Hoplites.  The auxiliaries decided the Romans could win the battle without foreign help and refused to move, while Farquaads own slingers turned and blundered off to the right somewhere leaving him a little red in the face.  No such worries for the Greeks, who advanced their Hoplite phalanxes towards the legionaries, and, without stopping to consider if it was a wise idea charged, headlong.

The legionary cohorts took the impact and refused to run , although their artillery was swept away.  However, they were gradually battered backwards towards their own table edge in a series of breaktests and retreats.  Some of the Greeks light infantry assisting on the Hoplites left flank, the rest copied the auxiliaries by just watching from afar.  The auxiliaries seemed quite happy to let the legionaries do all the work, something which it quickly looked like being beyond them!

The Middle Ground: The legionary cohorts fell one by one, despite their skills with their pilum evening the odds often, but at least they provided an education in the mysteries of the proximity rules in Hail Caesar.  The auxiliaries waited for an age, failing every command role while the legionaries suffered, and then, as soon as the first couple of cohorts had been wiped out they sprang into action, both medium infantry cohorts charging into the Hoplites.

At this point the battle had truly become messy.  The Greek light infantry was too far away from their leader to hear his desperate pleas for them to get stuck in and had no effect upon most of the battle.  The Hoplites bore the brunt of most of the fighting, eventually wiping out all four legionary cohorts without loss, but sustained plenty of damage in doing so.  This meant that when the medium auxiliary infantry cohorts finally arrived they were the ones being forced backwards while they tried to recover from shaken results.  The damage was done by two unlikely sources however.  Firstly the auxiliary cavalry squadron, which destroyed the first and second Hoplite units (yes, ‘Follow Me’ was used by Tribune Farquaad – a man now minus a command after the legionaries had gone), then the slingers were finally galvanised into action, and their stones saw off a third, before the auxiliary cohorts got rid of the last of the Hoplites for the loss of a single cohort. 

The End:  The battle was nicely balanced, and with the heavy infantry of the legionaries and Hoplites gone it was down to the light Greeks, and the remaining auxiliaries to slug it out, and it was the auxiliary cavalry squadron which was the clincher.  Another ‘Follow Me’ saw it charge up a hill into the exposed rear of a formed up light infantry unit, destroying it and another skirmishing unit at the same time, taking the Greeks below their half way point and winning the battle (just) for the Romans.

Analysis:

First things first – that fully painted army looked good on that battlefield!  The last time I fielded an army that close to completion was at Vapnartek (FOW, Feb 2010) or my Bretonnians previous to that (circa 2006??).  Onto matters of tactics and battles and the Hoplites and Legionaries were evenly matched, with the Romans having the better of the initial clash, then the Hoplites starting to wear them down.  The Greek heavies proved the stronger in the end, but it weakened them before my auxiliary wing finally decided to join in, while the Greeks own lighter troops were too far away to intervene or help.  An addition of at least one more officer/commander for Reds troops is a must!

As a first outing for the troops we didn’t do too badly in getting the rules right – and nothing came across as too odd.  The proximity rule took a bit of reading, and getting the Hoplites to run away took some more surrounding the concept of breaktests and phalanx formations.  Finally a legionary cohort trapped with its back to a wood took far too long to be worn down so I’ll have to look that up and check we got it right.

The initial deployment, Romans on the left (auxiliaries far left), Greeks on the right with the Hoplites in the centre.

The Hoplite phalanxes.

The Greeks wasted no time in getting stuck in to the Legionary cohorts.

The legionaries are pushed back and fragmented by the Hoplites brutal assault.

Fortunately the auxiliaries finally work out which muscles work their legs and begin their attack.

Counter-attack in full flow, and the Hoplites are now on the back foot, glory beckons for the cavalry, if not for the cohort in front of them.

Overall opinions – an enjoyable game, without any clear winner for most of it.  The Greeks looked like they had it in the bag early on, then the auxiliaries struck and had an extremely good run of luck with saving throws.  The cavalry seemed to be the deciding factor, but perhaps only because each opponent was very worn down and hit in the back/side.  Looking forward to another game soon.