March 2025 – Hail Caesar Game Rome v Carthage

Late last year we played a couple of games of Hail Caesar to get back into the period.

In this game Goldie and I were Romans v Alan and Rob’s Carthaginians.

Below are Romans. Goldie on the right and me on the left.

The Enemy are below with Rob on the left and Alan on the right.

These look gorgeous!

Centre of line with Elephants, Warbands and heavy infantry with skirmishers out front.

Waiting them my staunch legionnaires! We deployed the units 2 deep…..which we need to reconsider as the Auxilia Infantry can get easily beaten up!.

Battle starts with the war of the skirmishers…..ours had longer ranges!

One elephant lost its skirmish cover so it started taking wounds.

Crunch! Warbands and Elephants go in. The Warbands get 9 attacks when charging and in their first combat reroll all misses to hit. Coupled with Elephants, the Romans needs to make above average saves!

And they did! Holding on.

Couple of rounds in and one unit of legionnaires has popped……but the Warbands and Elephants are being worn down rapidly.

The Romans have the centre!

Shame about their flank though. I had auxilia infantry and cavalry on this flank…..the heavy infantry and mercenary hoplites made short work of them.

End of game and Alan has won this flank…. center still contested but call this an Alan win.

On the other half of the battle where I took some photos, none of which are good enough to share…Goldies legionnaire outfought Rob’s foot…however Rob’s cavalry were very slow to get moving but by games end were getting into combat and there were a lot of them! So give this a marginal Roman win.

Well that was fun….rusty on rules but they are getting clearer. This was the second game in a couple of weeks and will be playing a few more this year. More armies are being painted so a few Macedonian themed armies will be making appearance, and Goldie has both Republican and Middle Imperial Roman armies to paint!

Until next time.. Terry out.

May 2023 Game, Hail Caesar – Rome v Gauls.

Now Reg and I had another bash at Hail Caesar with my Romans taking on a Gaul force of Reg’s. We played 250 points which is about limit Reg can field of his Gauls at the moment.

Set up below.

My Romans were in 2 basically equal Divisons…each with 2 legionnaire’s, 1 Auxilia and 1 medium cavalry with the right command having an additional light infantry unit of archers.

Reg had 2 commands…. the left with 2 Warbands and 2 skirimshing slinger units while the other command had 2 units of light chariots, a medium cavalry unit and a unit of light infantry archers.

My brave boys facing the crazy Gauls!

Regs warbands.(not in correct formation..next time!)

The Warband has to charge if enemy within 3 moves…so in they went.

Very nice paint job on these guys.

And this is what a Warband does to Auxilia infantry..they no longer exist. My legionnaires managed to hang in there. A warband is truly scary in the first charge of the game…gets 9 attacks….rerolls 3 misses…..saves on a 4….and has the supporting slingers adding 2 attacks. NASTY.

I had positioned my cavalry to charge when the Auxilia had died……they did so….here they are….sadly they lost and retired.

The cavalry from the other command is moving around the rear to attack the warband. The Gaul cavalry will next turn charge legionnaires and pop.

The ongoing battle between warband and legionnaires. When they charged I had locked shields to reduce casualties….in a ongoing combat I have the advantage. A waste to have a full legionnaire unit in rear…will change that for next game!

Success! The fresh cavalry unit had charged the battle weary warband who popped. The other warband is losing and retiring…with the legionnaires following up each time.

On the other flank Reg had charged his light chariots into my auxilia. The chariots have the advantage and the Auxila and supporting archers are giving ground(this is 3rd or 4th round of combat)

Surviving warband is giving ground.

End game…..Reg has lost a warband and a cavalry unit..2nd warband is doomed…next turn I would have moved cavalry up in support and turned fresh legionnaire unit to take on chariots.

So we called that the game and had lunch. I was lucky with some poor dice roles by Reg with his warbands….they are brutal in opening round of combat!! Next month we will try again while rules fresh in heads. Will boost armies to 350 points.

Til next time…Terry out.