Himeras River (211 BC)

We played the battle at Himeras River (from Carthage's failed attempt to begin an offensive in Sicily during the second Punic War) at Guardian Games the Hail Caesar rules. Because I was playing but also hosting I was pretty busy and forget to take a lot of photos, but I did manage a few.

The scenario had four units of Numidian horse at the extreme edge of the Carthagenian right flank – these units were reluctant to join the fight due to the poor treatment their beloved commander Muttines had received. Each unit had two disorder markers placed by it at the start of the game and at the start of the Carthagenian turn (me), I could try to rally one of the markers off each of the units. Without those four units, my infantry was outnumbered by the Romans (Tom), so the Carthagenian strategy weighed on holding out until the Numidians could be convinced to join the fight and the Romans obviously wanted to try and do as much damage as possible early on.

I did well with dice and removed all markers from the Numidians in the first two turns (so they could move normally starting on the third), and I thought I was appropriately cautious with my infantry. However the Romans surged forward quickly against the medium infantry on the Carthagenian left, which, after several rounds of melee, began to break and the Romans started to prepare to turn that flank.

Meanwhile, the Numidians dispatched the Roman cavalry and flanked (and broke)Triari and who were already engaged against elephants and Iberian infantry. With a victory condition of six enemy units destroyed, the "score" had gone from 4-0 in favor of Romans to 4-3 very quickly. However at this point two units of Carthagenian heavy infantry retreated off table to end the game with a Roman victory.

This was my second Hail Caesar game in two weeks, and I spent way less time looking up rules than before. I don't think any special rules were forgotten (especially morale modifying ones for the Romans) and I did a better job identifying how engagements lined up. The only error was not giving the +1 to hit modifier to the side which won the previous round of melee (which should be called a "impetus" bonus for clarity, instead of "winning side"), for which I need to acquire or make some sort of marker to indicate that a unit still in melee won the previous round.

I am really enjoying playing and running Hail Caesar. I like how it captures a sense of the linear slugfest of ancient warfare.

I especially like how tactically engaging it becomes as the game progresses, despite the tabletops lacking terrain differences and the opposing armies mostly being heavy infantry-based with largely ineffective skirmish/ranged attacks and small cavalry wings.

I like how light infantry or skirmishers in open order can melt back through friendly heavy infantry for protection (and then start offering up support dice).

I like how when you get to about the third round of the same melee between Roman infantry and their opponents, the Romans suddenly gain an upper hand and dump 10-15 casualties on you.

I like how Numidians, with no help of any wonky special rules, can effectively start to turn a battle by attacking in the flanks.

I like that my 20mm armies, which kicked around in boxes largely unused for six years, are finally being used – up next is to paint more Greeks which will feature as Syracusans in the Sicilian Wars between Carthage and Syracuse.

(Above: the typical "key moment" gift from the Romans)

Agrigentum (262 BC)

I painted some new 20mm ancient figures (Carthagenian African heavy infantry and some Greek hoplite mercenaries, a few extra elephants) and rebased even more (although I haven't flocked any of the new bases yet), wrote up some alterations to the rules, and we gave Hail Caesar another try using the battle of Agrigentum as the scenario. 

(Above: About one move in, Carthagenians at bottom)

Agrigentum was a Carthagenian defeat in southern Sicily at the hands of the Roman Republic during the First Punic War in 262 BC. The Carthagenian leader, Hanno, deployed his mercenaries in the front, his elephants in a second line behind the first, and his African troops in the third. The Romans deployed in their customary manipular legion manner. The historical outcome was that the mercenaries did well at first but then broke, and as they fell back caused the elephant line to panic. The third line also managed to hold against the Romans as well before breaking as well. As you will see, the game result did not differ much…

(Above: Roman maniples - heavy infantry deployed as small units)

Since I am very unsatisfied with my 20mm command figures, I decided to just ditch the entire part of the Hail Caesar rules that deal with individually based commanders. I also wanted to incorporate my card-draw mechanics for activation-rerolls from my last Lion Rampant game into this game. The adaptation was that if you draw a number card, you divide by three an round down to determine your number of rerolls for failed activations. This leans the result towards 1 reroll, which is how many you get in the rules as written for your army general. The face cards correspond to other actions the commanders could take under the rules as written (Follow Me!, Rally, and Commander Joins Combat) – I'll put the full details at the end. Ace is a wild card can either be 3 rerolls or played as any of the other face cards. Face cards can be saved for later, but must be played prior to any activation rolls.

The Carthagenian first and second lines advanced, with the third line remaining stationary and the Numidian light cavalry also having difficulty. Retrospectively, it would probably have helped if we were using the Hail Caesar criteria for a successful order (roll below the command rating of 8) instead of the Lion Rampant criteria (roll above 8, which is much more difficult)! There wasn't too much time wasted looking at the rules, but this was certainly the first time I fully grasped the prominence of the Initiative Move, wherein if your unit is within 12" of an enemy, you may make one free move without an order, as long as you obey the general Proximity Rule, which says that you must move generally towards or away from the closest enemy unit (this is to prohibit players from making "gamey" moves).

(Above: Elephants skirt around behind Gallic and Greek mercenaries)

As the Carthagenian player, I (probably) played my hand poorly – my Gallic mercenaries attacked the Roman right flank only supported by a unit of elephants and did poorly – both being routed. The other elephant unit routed the Roman cavalry, supported by Gallic cavalry. The Numidian cavalry finally engaged on the other flank but both units ran of table while evading the Roman cavalry.

(Above: Numidians on the attack!)

With the Carthagenian third line of heavy infantry moving against the Roman right, the Roman left realized that it was only faced by two units of medium Iberian infantry, so it charged the Iberians and sent them running.

(Above: Iberian medium infantry! Forgetting to use their ranged attacks!)

The Greek hoplite mercenaries having also turned tail, the Carthagenian heavy infantry put together a nice final assault, supported by the remaining elephant and Gallic cavalry, to which the Romans responded playing two "Commander-Joins-the-Fray" (add 3 attack dice) cards and then pouring FIFTEEN CASUALTIES onto one of the Carthagenians for the final victory point (probably enough to shatter at least one supporting unit as well as the engaged unit).

(Above: the final Roman assault)

Somewhere in the mix, the Carthagenian commander Hanno was slain in battle. The final tally was one broken Roman unit (the cavalry) and seven, probably eight, Carthagenians. Just like history!

Hail Caesar Rule Modifications:

1. CHAIN OF COMMAND.

Do not use figures for commanders. Use tags to identify divisions within an army. Assign each division a command value (7+ or 8+ for example) as you would with a commander figure. 6" maximum grouping required for division-wide orders (in which case all units being given the group order must be within 6" of all other units being given the same order) still applies. Ignore all other command distance modifiers – everyone forgets about them anyways.

2. REROLLS & GENERAL'S ACTIONS

At the beginning of your turn, before issuing any orders, draw a card. If the card is a number-value, divide that number by three, rounded down: this is the number of failed orders your army may reroll in that turn (a number between 1 and 3). If an face-card is drawn, keep the card and keep drawing until you get a number card. If an Ace is drawn, the player may treat this as 3 rerolls, or may treat it as a "wild" face card (a King, Queen or Jack) and play it accordingly. A joker is a face card, but movement actions whatsoever.

Face cards are played as follows and allow the rules that would usually apply to a commander model to still be used. Only one unit per division may benefit from a King, Queen or Jack card per turn.

King: (General joins combat) A division commander enters the fray – add 3 attack dice to a melee of your choosing (must be played when your attacking unit becomes engaged, but before the next order is diced upon). Leave this card by this unit until the start of your next turn – if the unit is attacked the +3 dice will still be included. If this unit is broken or shattered as a result of a melee, or is shaken or suffers casualties from ranged attacks while the card is in play, consult "Risk to Commanders" on page 82. You may play a King and Jack on the same unit in the same turn.

Queen: (General's Rally action) Play this card on a unit that has suffered two or more casualties. Remove one casualty. Leave this card by this unit until the start of your next turn. If this unit is broken or shattered as a result of a melee, or is shaken or suffers casualties from ranged attacks while the card is in play, consult "Risk to Commanders" on page 82. If you play a Queen then that must be the only action that unit takes that turn. You may not play a King or a Jack on that unit or any other unit in that division in the same turn that you played a Queen.

Jack: (General's Follow Me action) Play this card on a single unit – this unit may take up to three moves automatically. Leave this card by this unit until the start of your next turn. If this unit is broken or shattered as a result of a melee, or is shaken or suffers casualties from ranged attacks while the card is in play, consult "Risk to Commanders" on page 82. You may play a King and Jack on the same unit in the same turn.

3. SUPPORTS

Units within 1" (or a finger's width) of each other may support each other in melee. The intent of this rule is to maintain small gaps between friendly units so as to be easier to discern where one unit starts and another ends.