A battle in Gaul

Last saturday we played a most engaging battle of Hail Caesar at our club, pitching the romans against the hordes of celts.

The romans, commanded by my friend Muller, had plenty the following disposition:

General: Julius Caesar

1º Division - Left Flank:

3 Legionary Cohorts

1 Auxiliary Cohort

1 battery of scorpios

1 Medium Onager

1 small unit of auxiliary archers

2º Division - Centre:

2 Legionary Cohots

2 Auxiliary Cohorts

1 battery of scorpios

1 Medium Onager

1 small unit of asian archers

3º Division - Right Flank:

3 Legionary Cohorts

1 battery of scorpios

1 Medium Ballista

1 Heavy Onager

1 small unit of baeleric slingers

4º Division - Reserve cavalry

2 Units of auxilary cavalry

1 unit of Praetorian cavalry

1 unit of Numidian cavalry

The gauls, commanded by me, had 3 divisions of 4 warbands + skirmishers, each, and another division of 3 warbands only (but this time belgae) + skirmishers.

I also had a full division of cavalry in reserve, with 4 strong units of horsemen.

The celt deployment

Battle-hardened legionaries form their lines to face the advancing barbarian warbands.

The barbarians started off commanding their cavalry onto the battlefield, entering at the army's left flank, in order to strike at the roman right, which the gallic general deemed the most fragile.

Good command guaranteed a most decisive advance by the celt horses, which forced the roman general to dispatch his own cavalry to intercept the enemy horsemen.

The first cavalry clash saw the gauls at advantage - a unit of auxiliaries fled, and the rest of the roman horses fell back in disarray.

The gallic cavalry, despite the heavy losses sustained in the clash, took the oportunity to strike at the legionary cohorts, which were also under pressure by a full division of warbands advancing towards them, under heavy roman artillery fire.

The roman artillery spread terror among the barbarian ranks. A direct hit from a heavy onager sent the commander of a belgae warband flying to all directions, which caused his fellow tribal men to panic and flee the battlefield early on, many of them wounded by splinters of bone of their pulverized commander.

The roman crew cheer loudly, at the sight of the fleeing barbarians, but their exultation is short-lived. The celtic cavalry strike at the flank of the cohorts to the right of the artillery, and cut one of them to pieces. The other cohort holds its ground, and the enemy cavaly falls back to regroup.

The roman cavalry quickly reforms and pushes forward to a second strike at the barbarian horses, this time smashing them and breaking the division. A single unit of celtic horses survive the clash.

At the roman left flank, the barbarians begin a push, covered by their screens of skirmishers, who punish the roman lines with unrelenting waves of stones. The roman artillery responds, creating gaps in the celtic formations, but failing to halt their advance.

Back in the celtic left flank, most of their horses are put to flight, but the commander manages to rally the single remaining unit of his horses around him, and with a soulful speach reignite their spirits and move them to a final charge, a heroic and suicide renewal of their attack on the second roman cohort, while the roman cavalry is in disarray.

Simultaneously, the centre divisions of the celtic army are sent forward, and quickly surround and destroy an unsupported cohort that had advanced too far. The roman legionaries are cut down in a bloodbath, few surviviors running for their lives.

The roman left flank is also under pressure, but the roman commander keeps giving ground, refusing an all-out engagement, given the overwhelming numerical superiority of the enemy on that area of the battlefield.

The heroic charge of the surviving, though exausted, celtic horses strike against the shielded front of the second legionary cohort, but their impetus is overpowering, causing the legionaries to panic and break.

Having lost all 3 cohorts in that division, the roman right flank is destroyed. Luckly they've still got their cavalry to help stabilize it. They are quickly redirected to surround and destroy the rest of the celtic cavalry.

In the middle of the field, another cohort is destroyed by the advancing warbands. This success put the barbarians into a frenzy, and they attempt to sweep advance the roman lines to their front.

However, the roman lines ahead are very well formed, closely deployed to offer mutual support. They close ranks to withstand the first clash of the barbarian charge. Failing to break the enemy, as they did before, the gauls lose momentum, one of their warbands is destroyed, the others fall back, giving the romans some well-needed breathing space.

At the roman right front, the heroic celtic horsemen are completely surrounded and cut down to the last man. 

The roman cavalry is by now spent, but they still find some energy left to slaughter the enemy skirmishers nearby, preventing them from harassing the roman artillery.

In the centre, its time for the romans to counter-attack. 2 cohorts are sent to chase the barbarians as they fall back to reform, after their failed charge.

The roman left flank continues to give ground little by little, having lost a legionary cohort, and with an auxiliary one in bad shape.

The roman centre counter-attack proves utterly effective, and completely smashes the barbarian centre. With a second enemy divison destroyed, the romans revert their initial setback and take the upper hand in the battle.

The celts try to reform their left flank. Having destroyed the enemy cohorts there, they're are still under threat by the enemy cavalry and artillery. They try to march to the middle of the field to help the fight against the strong roman centre, but find themselves pinned by artillery fire to the left (and the threat of a cavalry advance), and skirmish fire to the right.

However, the roman general is well aware his cavalry is currently in no shape to renew their efforts, and orders his commanders to rally their horsers and hold lines, instead.

With morale failing, the celt commanders find it ever more difficult to move their warriors around. Meanwhile, the enemy artillery keeps pounding at their ranks, killing scores of their men and spreading terror. Another warband is put to flight, which triggers an army-wide retreat. The day is lost for the gauls.

The romans observe the retreating barbarians.

The romans win a hard fought battle, balanced to the end. It's however unclear to what extent they would be able to exploit the enemy retreat, given that their own cavalry was pretty spent at this point, but this marks another step in Caesar's efforts to conquer Gaul.

Another battle of Hail Caesar

We recently played our first full-scale battle of Hail Caesar at our gaming club, fielding my armies of romans and celts. In total, about 450 points per side.


The deployment:

I got to command the barbarians, I started off sending my entire cavalry to a face off against their roman counterparts.

Half of my horses stood to face the roman cavalry, and the other half wheeled to charge at 2 cohorts of auxilia nearby, which then reformed into square, but suffered heavy casualties nontheless.

In the middle of the field, the romans advanced, supported by their intimidating artillery, and my warbands endured quite a punishment from those well-drilled legionary cohorts.

After several clashes, the roman cavalry finally mamanged to put most of my horses to flight, and the single remaining unit I had (which was harassing their auxiliary infantry squares) was completely surrounded.

Meanwhile, my warbands were also having a hard time holding their ground against the roman onslaught. The enemy pushed forward like an unrelenting tide of steel, breaking several of my warbands and spreading fear and disorder on my ranks.

The remains of the gallic cavalry, surrounded and cut down to the last man!

My gauls fought bravely, but poor command rolls kept me from getting advantageous charges, so instead my formations got assaulted over and over again, and my divisions began to fall apart.

When the celt left flank, collapsed, with their cavalry completely destroyed, the day was won for the romans. The sight of thousands of roman horses moving to flank the gaul centre was enough to put all remaining warbands to flight in despair. Many were cut down by the pursuing roman horses, ending the battle in an utter desaster for the gauls.

First foray into Hail Caesar

We recently played our first game of Hail Caesar at our club. It's been a long ride to come to the point where I have enough units ready to play even a small game such as this. Even though I already have a considerable roman army, which can be appreciated here, my gauls are still few, so I devised a scenario to compensate that a bit.

The scenario consisted of a small roman force (3 legionary cohorts and 1 of auxiliaries) returning to their base after foraging around. Their base is a fortified gallic town, currently occupied by the romans.

The rebel gauls took advantage of this occasion to plot an ambush against the invaders. They deploy in 2 divisions, hiding among the dense woods near the town, and prepare to fall upon the enemy and surround them while they march back to the safety of their ranks.

Barbarians ready to initiate the attack against the roman columns

The romans march home, unsuspecting of the danger around and about.

The gauls have about 50% more points in play then the foraging roman party. The roman objective is to resist the attack, until a relieving force arrives. But such force must first be requested, and therefore our custom scenario involves a messenger being dispatched to alert the city garrison and bring reinforcements to save the besieged cohorts.

This messenger can only be dispatched once the gauls first attack the romans, whether by charge or missile attack, for this is the moment their presence will be noticed. From that moment on, the messenger will move 24cm - a commander's normal move - at the beggining of each roman turn. The relief forces start marching out of the city the turn after the messenger arrives there. 

Note: All measurements in Hail Caesar are in inches, but because I play with 1/72 scale, I treat them as centimeters, just as I already do in Black Powder. A simple adaptation that proves effective enough, without the need to overcomplicate things by using half ranges, 2/3 of ranges, or the like.

The gauls win if they break the roman division (that is, break 3 of the 4 cohorts) before the reinforcements arrive.

Roman garrison in the gallic town

The gauls make their presence known with a salvo of arrows from skirmishers deployed on top of a hill along the road the romans are marching on. The roman commander quickly realises he's being ambushed, and dispatches a couple of his aides to alert the rest of the legion in the town.

The roman cohorts at the front get attacked by arrows and stones, from slingers, and reform into testudo to better protect their ranks. The other 2 cohorts, at the back, reform into line, and prepare to hold their ground against the advancing hordes of barbarians, now pouring out of the woods everywhere.

At the walls of the town, the roman Commander gazes upon the fields of corn, not yet ripe to feed the mouths of so many conquering legionaries. There, he discerns a pair of messengers on the road, rapidly making their way to the gates. He senses something must be wrong...

Meanwhile, the gallic warbands fall on the roman shield wall as a unrelenting wave of fury and  violence. The testudos reform into line, and close ranks to resist the onslaught of frenzied barbarians.

The rear of their formations is simultaneuosly attacked by the second gallic division, and now the roman position seems utterly desperate.

The clash is so violent that the roman cohorts are quickly demoralized, and fall in disarray, becoming easy prey to the barbarian hosts. 1 cohort is quickly lost, then another, and another, until there is a single unit of legionaries still left, completely surrounded by the bloodthirsty mob. They surrender, in shame, to face who knows what atrocities at the hands of their captors.

Even though it was quite a fun game, the aides dispatched to seek help from the town garrison were only about to reach the walls when the roman divison fell, and it would have been at least another 4 or 5 turns until the relief forces could reach their countrymen, so it became clear this scenario needs some tweaking to get more balanced. 

Perhaps I should use equally matched forces for the ambushers and the roman foraging divison, since the mere mere position of the gallic divisions, surrounding the enemy, is enough to give them an advantage, and force the romans to a defensive instance and to depend on reinforcements to survive.

Also, the site of the ambush should be closer to the town, so that both messengers and town garrison could cross the distance in fewer turns.

This quick little game was also quite useful to help us grasp the main differences between Hail Caesar and Black Powder, which we already play frequently and have a pretty good understanding of. I'm now going to focus on getting more units done for my gauls, so that we can play bigger games, with cavalry and artillery involved - the romans would certainly welcome some long range killing against these hordes of feverish barbarians!