Games of Ancients has been on a bit of a back burner for years as lots of Napoleonics/ACW has been played. So I decided to slowly introduce the group to some Ancients play using Warlord Games ‘Hail Caesar’ rules. Now as these were mostly written by the same chaps as ‘Black Powder’ they have a certain familiarity to them that hopefully will make the rule set transition easier.

So for Practice #1 we had 3 players a side with one side using my Early Imperial Romans and the other Alans Carthaginians and PauW’s Iberians. So Russ/Rob/Steve were Romans and Robert/Alan/Terry(me) were the enemy. So I dispensed with artillery, ranged fire and skirmishers for this game to just keep the game mechanics as easy as possible for all of us.

So below we have the Romans on the left and the Africans/Spanish on the right.

Each player had 2 Divisions of troops….each Division was 4 units. Below we can see 4 Warbands…nasty shock units…9 attacks in first round of combat.

On the flank I was on it was a cavalry fight between Romans and Iberians…..units were all medium cavalry with spears…so it came down to good dice rolling and help from supporting units….I failed at this!

Russ used his legionnaires very well and the use of supports really helped him control his sector.

At the left top you can see a warband really pushing the Romans back while a solid Roamn line is holding to the right.

Carthaginian Heavies supported by mediums.

Cavalry preparing to run down the flank.

And a close up of cavalry charging into Legionnaires.

And that was Game 1 where we practiced game play and learning the rules. Plan is next game to add some light troops etc and introduce some more rules, and better understand ones from tonite.

Now, rather than the Whisky of the Week , I have been enjoying a beer with games of late and in the spirit of all things Latin….it is a Peroni.

Til next time, Terry out.