"Hail Caesar" Romans vs Britons, Our First Game.

Well, what a game myself and Andy (Loki) had last night.

Our first foray into "Hail Caesar".

It started with pretty much the blind leading the blind.

Although we are now familiar with the "Black Powder" game mechanics, "HC" proved to have quite a few subtle differences.

The game had us pondering through the rule book on many occasions. More often to check that what we were doing was right than to check if it was wrong.

We did find the book very useful as a guide and also as a learning tool.

The game was very much a learning curve for us both, with My Romans against the Britons.

The Romans proved to be a tough nut to crack as Andy found out, although rolling a Four, a Three and a double one on three consecutive break tests did not help the already struggling Britons.

I think we both experienced the strengths and weaknesses of our armies last night and the next meeting may prove to be much more of a challenge for both of us.

A few pics of the game.

The Britons Battle Line was slow moving into position

The troops were slow to move at first, many failed command rolls and an early Blunder from Andy, meant units struggled to get into position.

The Romans struggle to advance and prepare for the Britons

Romans advance at last with the aid of the CinC 

The Roman CinC directs the defence as the Romans get into position

On come the Howling Britons as Boudicca spurs them on.

 At Last all was set for a mighty clash as the Britons launched assaults all down the line against the waiting Legionaries.

The Roman Battle Line in position awaits the assault

Andy's Britons, poised ready to attack

The First of many Melee's that didn't go well for Andy.

The First melee was close fought but the "Closed Ranks" of the Legionary's proved to be a tough nut to crack.
The Roman supports causing most of the damage to the Britons who had to give ground.

This large Melee was even worse for Andy

Andy's cavalry arm launched a full charge against the Roman right.

To my surprise and thanks to some poor dice rolling from Mr Saunders, the damn line held.

The Roman Cavalry saw off a unit of chariots as the rest of the cavalry were broken by the Roman infantry.

Andy did win a round on melee with the fanatics that charged in again on the Roman left.

The Roman unit gave ground but retreated back into a friendly unit, Broke and ran.

Andy's victorious fanatics swept into the Roman second line.

The Warband next to the fanatics didn't do as well.

Supported from behind by a large Warband, they lost the melee as the Romans with rear support managed to make nine saves and inflicting only three hits on the Warband of which Andy saved only one.

A Break test at minus two required and Andy rolled a four.

The Warband ran, forcing a test on the large supporting Warband.

Then came the Double one, ouch, as the Large Warband broke along with it.

The Victorious Romans then swept forward onto the flank of Andy's last remaining warband.

They also lost the melee and broke with a dice roll of five at minus three.

The Fanatics did not fair any better as the Roman line held again and the fanatics, not shaken failed their morale tests and also broke with a dice roll of six at minus two again.

That was it, game over.

The only British elements left on the field was a small unit of Bowmen and a small unit of slinger's that never got involved.

The Romans lost one unit of Legionary's.

This wasn't so much a great Roman victory, more a bad British defeat, thanks to some very poor break test rolling by Andy.

We both agreed what a great first game of HC we had.

All the figures are 1/72 plastics, by Airfix, Revell, Hat, Strelets and Zvezda. 

The Metals are from "Newline Designs" 1/72 Range.

We were playing with the Two/Thirds playsheet and it was just right for my 6x5 table.