Vae Victis!

This isn't something you see everyday.

This past Saturday - yesterday- the Hamilton Road Games Group saw too games. A WWII armour game hosted by Wayne with Kevin and Bear playing. I didn't get to see much because I was involved with the other game - Imperial Romans vs. Germans using Warlord Games' Hail Caesar! rules. The bunch of us - Ralph, Andy, Mark, Matt, Brian, and I - were play testing a scenario for play at the next gaming convention in the area. It is based on the battle of Teutoburgerwald or the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD (9 CE, if you so prefer.) The Roman general, Publius Quinctilius Varus lost his life along with 3 legiones and their accompanying auxilia (6 infantry cohorts and 3 cavalry alae) as well as civilians and slaves. The Roman losses totaled between 15,000 and 20,000. The German leader, Arminus, had been a Roman auxiliary officer and held Roman citizenship. His forces numbered between 20,000 and 32,000 by best guess. The Romans were caught in march order... on a forest road... under the protection of a soon-to-be-seen-as-treacherous ally... headed for the site of a fake rebellion cooked up by Arminius... with Varus - noted for his cruelty and possible bone-headedness - in command. This is NOT a good combination.

Ralph set up the table according to Warlord's campaign guide on the German campaigns. The Roman units were set up randomly along a road running down the centre of the table. The three commands were mixed and the generals were not placed on the table until turn #2. The Germans were in three commands (9 infantry warbands, one archer warband, one cavalry warband, and two handfuls of skirmishers) were set up to either side of the road, again randomly. Matt, Brian, and I commanded the Germans with me as Arminius (a.k.a. "Hermann the German") Ralph was Varus, and Mark and Andy served as his subordinate generals. The Germans get a free move as they come screaming out of the forest which ended 8-12 inches on either side of the road. The Roman commands were mixed up, but the troops were in battle order. The mixing of the "brigades" made command issues problematic for the Romans. Their victory conditions required them to get as much of the army as possible off of the board via the road they were marching on. Each unit escaping gave so many points and each warband destroyed netted a number of points as well. The Germans were to take out Roman units with special attention to a single wagon. There were supposed to be civilians but no body had the figures. Speaking of figures, Andy supplied all the Romans while Ralph supplied the Germans, but more were needed, so my Gauls became Germans for a day as well as supplying Gaul cavalry for the Romans.

The view from my seat. One of my warbands and one of Matt's attack the Roman column.

My archers. The Roman unit in front of them is "Distressed."
According to the scenario, Roman units are reduced in size when they hit their "stamina"
level for the first time.

the view from Brian's side. His skirmishers had tried to attack the wagon, but
it ran away from them. My German cavalry - Andy's figures - prepare to make mischief.

The wagon early on in the game - moving quickly up the road. The playing card was the
marker for random deployment.

As the German warbands whooped in to the attack, those attacks were on the flank of the Roman units. This put them at a disadvantage although not too much since their +1 for Pilum negated the -1 for fighting to the flank. As the battle wore on (All three turns!), the legionaries turned to face the warbands and actually flanked some. The Germans were considered "wild fighters" which means they can re-roll up to three misses in the first round of combat... HOWEVER the scenario limited that to the first turn of the game only. The scenario also carried the proviso that Roman units driven into the forest were destroyed. This also held for German units... who had just entered the board from the forest. More on that later.

Andy's Scorpion stands against Matt's warband

Ralph's legionaries actually charged my German cavalry. Unable to counter charge,
they were caught flat-footed and were driven back into the forest, where they melted away.

A little earlier in the game.
My cavalry was too wide to actually fit into the gap but they tried to charge the
wagon, which hit the "warp speed" button and jetted away.

Matt's warbands chase the tail end of the Roman column.

Mark's Gallic cavalry unit turned to face the Germans, but eventually discovered
that "discretion is the better part of valour" and headed off the table.

A Celtic warband under Brian's command. I've so enjoyed painting these crazies.
Note the white-cloaked druid in the front rank left of photo centre.
Yes, he's carrying a severed head.
(Figures by Old Glory, Foundry, Wargames Factory,and Gripping Beast)

My Gallic fanatics - the Gaesatae - serving as Germans under Matt's command.
All naked and tattooed and everything.

The game turned out to be a costly Roman victory. They destroyed my division, killing half and chasing the rest into the forest where they vaporized. Matt held his own and was on the verge of wiping out two legionary cohorts. Brian was just about to have his division run off when we called the game. He got flanked a few times by Roman units pushed off the road by my warbands. Mark and Ralph's Romans were able to get to the end of the road and plan on a summer in Italia. Andy's dice did not cooperate (SOP for Andy's dice, sad to say) and some of his units were left to their own devices. 

From Andy's viewpoint. The Roman column is caught in a not-to-tight vice.

Arial view from the Blimpus Bonanum, Varus and his body guard of archers are ALMOST off
the table. My warbands, including a rather ineffectual body of German archers have their backs to the camera.
Brian's are facing the camera. The prized wagon has caught up to the Gaul cavalry.

Matt's view point

Brian seems to have a cohort mouse-trapped.
The blue-cloaked Praetorians soon made a flank attack on the far right warband.

My thoughts on the game:

• The scenario is flawed. We all agreed that it was probably rushed into print.
• I felt (and I still feel) that the Roman troops should be in road column at the beginning of the game. It would be a huge confusion factor for them. The addition of a light infantry auxila unit (or two) could screen some of the column and hold up the screamin' Germans for a turn.
• The Germans might do better if they were allowed to use their "wild fighter" special rule at the beginning of any combat. Not, of course, in the second round of combat.
• The big rule book permits a unit to break into open order to enter bad terrain. Why couldn't the Germans fall back into the woods, regroup for a turn, come out of the woods (on turn #2 of this sequence) and reform into close order in turn #3? It'd take a while and it might not be practical, but it'd keep the Romans honest... and sweating. Of course, that rule would apply to the Romans as well. Having said that we might remember that the Germans own the woods and the Romans might not get time to regroup before they suffer from what ever is in the Teutoburgerwald. (Who knows? Ents maybe?)
• The reallocation of Roman commands to each player on the second turn makes the first turn most confusing and reflects the problems of being ambushed. With no command present or quite distant, there is a much larger chance of failing command. I don't know what I prefer  in this case. What would best reflect the incredible confusion and command issues of being ambushed on a forest road by people you thought were your allies? (Arminius had been an auxilia officer and knew the Roman's organization, tactics, and temperament quite well.)
• The edge of the forest should be exactly defined with a chalk line or a piece of yarn or something visible.
• Should the gap the road is set in be wider or tighter? Scenario says the distance between forest edges should be 18"/45cm±. Ralph suggested 24"/60cm±. Infantry only moves 6"/15cm. Of course that makes the distance from forest edge to road only 9"-12"/22-30cm. With a free move by the Germans allowed by the scenario, they could still mess up the Romans seriously. I suppose play test will tell.

The game was a bit hard to figure out at times. Our general unfamiliarity with the rules didn't help. (Most of the Warlord rules use similar mechanics with period appropriate specifics. It's the specifics that mess us up.)

I'll play this again. My Gauls love to be taken out of the box!

Arminius in all his Gallic finery. I realize he should be a German,
but as a former Roman auxilia officer, maybe he wore Roman kit.

Some of Andy's legionaries.

A screamin' Celtic warband. Lots of unmatching plaid.

The Praetorians or at least veteran legionaries

Ralph has a great selection of fruit trees.
This one impressed me most.

Some Christmas events and gifts

December was a busy month for me. Advent and the Christmas season can be over-whelming in a number of ways. We also had some really cold weather with the associated travel issues. In any event, I survived and here I am, wanting to blog again.

I took some mediocre photos of some of the things I've been painting and I thought I'd share them. (This is the blog equivalent of dumping my virtual trash basket into your living room. Still, you'd do it to me.)

We ran into a company in the UK called Bad Squddo Games, which specializes in "realistic" female miniature figurines, marketed by a number of manufacturers. Chain mail bikinis and skin-tight cat suits are not to be found there. Both my wife, Beth and my daughter, Katie - both gamers - thought some of those would be great. My son, Rob also got some female Vikings, some of whom bear a great resemblance to the female characters in the TV show "Vikings." They're on his painting table now.

First, a gift for my wife, one half of Star Trek: TNG's Duras Sisters, Lursa and B'Etor.

And the other half.

And a body guard with a bat'leth. Much more classic than the disruptors carried by the other figures.

These were fun figures to paint and turned out pretty well. Beth made suggestions
as to the painting schemes. The figures even depicted the famous (or infamous)
"Klingon Kleavage."

Katie's figures were WWII female Soviet snipers. The standing set of snipers was
not completed in time for the photo session. There's a shooter and a spotter in each set,
both in camouflage cape and pilotka forage cap.

The Mosin-Nagant scoped rifle really does look rather nice.
The figures are smaller than male figures but are not overly petite.

I also -selfishly- painted some figures for myself.

One of my Christmas presents was a box of Gripping Beast Plastic Late Roman figures.
I opted to paint them as legionaries, but a white tunic paint job would be right for Auxila.
They are quite nice and glue together very nicely.

The legionary spearman of  Legion palatinae Pannoniciani seniores.
(Pray pardon me if my Latin is off.)

A bucinator of the same unit.

Lastly, a centurio or officer of that legion.
I hope to make a Saga warband  of these because I've heard that rules are coming out for that.

WWII Polish cavalry bugler by Warlord Miniatures.
Their use in the Polish campaign as mounted infantry is a minor fascination for me.

Then some older figures I've gotten around to painting.

A werewolf.
I don't know where I got him, which manufacturer made him, or what I'm going to do with him,
but I've painted him and he looks seriously troubled.

A regiment of the Union Iron Brigade of the West for the ACW.
15mm Old Glory figures.
I haven't decided what unit they are yet. I've got to check what I've already painted.
However, the garage is REALLY cold right now.

The regimental command stand.

Regiment Royal Pologne for my small French SYW contingent.
Essex miniatures obtained at a bring-and-buy...
... where bargains go to die.

Finally, my son, Rob and his dog, Atlas.
They live up in London, but were here for Christmas weekend.
A serious case of "puppy love."

Morituri te salutant!

 "We who are about to die salute you!"

Yeah, that sounds about right. Anyway...

This past Saturday, the Hamilton Road Games Group played Warlord Games Hail Caesar! rule for "ancient" period wargames. We've played this game's sibling games, Black Powder and Pike & Shotte, and I've played (and still enjoy) GW's Warmaster, a game I feel is the "master matrix" for the others. They're all from the gaming mind of Rick Priestly, and I for one commend him for them. The games vary widely but have similar mechanics of play and so are familiar in style. We'd been wanting to play Hail Caesar! for a while, but had to wait until Ralph got his schedule cleared to play on a Saturday. He and Andy provided all the troops - Romans everywhere! This allowed similar armies to face each other without having to allow for the variations that would come from pike-armed units, horse archers, or wild barbarian armies. We saw legionaries, auxilia armed with spears or with bows, skirmishers with bows or slings, auxilia cavalry, Numidian cavalry, and Germanic horsemen, as well as period artillery, dromidarii, and elephants. The table was huge and it accommodated 10 players. IT WAS GLORIOUS!

Looking North with Steven, Martin, your humble blogger, and Ralph ("Ralphus Magnus")

Looking South as Andreus Germanicus Photographus does his stuff.

Some Romans on the one side. Since it was a Roman Civil War scenario (oh, there were so few of those!), I can't say which side was evil... or good. 

I ended up commanding the far, far right flank of Ralph's side with two units of spear-armed auxilia, one of auxilia bowmen, a handful of skirmishers with slings, some auxilia cavalry, and a Numidian light cavalry unit. When Bear arrived, I turned the cavalry over to him. Martin was too my left with Legionary infantry. Ralph was next with more Legionaries and some auxilia. Mark was next with infantry and cavalry. Duane held the far left with cavalry, camels, and an elephant. I was facing Steven with his legionaries, auxilia cavalry, and German light horse. Mark's friend, Dave was to Steven's right with a mixed force. Andy, Chase, and Kevin were the next, and their troops mirrored our side's with the exception of the dromidarii. Those nasty camels never moved for the entire game!

"Just call me 'Stampy'! "An elephant from Andy's collection.

My wing commander, Dingelus Gleutius Maximus. He's from my collection.

A unit of Andy's auxilia - Old Glory, I think.

A Corhortes Auxilia from my collection - Gripping Beast Miniatures

My other cohort of auxilia - Black Tree Design

Ralph's mobile artillery - the Sturmgeschutz of its day.

Our side won the toss and we attempted to move forward to meet the enemy. I ended up being the most aggressive of our side, something I'm not noted for. My foot troop pushed forward while the cavalry failed their command and sat still for the first turn. I was not hung out to dry since Martin's troops moved up as well; I was just a bit ahead of him. The usual failures of command went up and down both sides. This time, though, some blunders came up. (If you roll double sixes -"box-cars" - your troops blunder and can really make a mess of things.) Martin's one unit of archers fell back precipitously after blundering. I also heard groans from further down the table, but it was a long way off and I was never sure what was happening. I had my hands full with my own troubles.

Bear faced the Roman cavalry, the Germans, and an elephant, but could only hold them for a while. His Roman cavalry countercharged Steven's but got the short end of the stick and broke. I faced Steven and Dave's legionaries with my auxilia and the legionaries use of the pilum made a big difference.

Martin's legionary cohorts with auxilia archers in the lead.

Steven's cavalry with Stampy the Elephant.

Bear's Romans and Numidians

Kevin's cavalry and elephant face down Duane's horsemen at the other end of the table.

Slingers and a light bolt-thrower, which Martin faced.

These legionaries mousetrapped me and messed up my auxilia cohortes.

With my bow-armed auxilia gone, I was left with two cohortes of spear-armed auxilia who were about to be flanked by Dave's legionaries. My one unit was hit in the flank and fell back. My other unit, the blue-shielded one, turned to face the legionaries which exposed their flank to Steven's legionaries. It was not a good situation for me at all. I was pretty much done in. Martin sent two cohortes of legionary infantry to assist me, but it was too late. Curfew fell and clean-up began. Both sides found their left flanks crumbling, but our centre seemed to be doing well and was advancing toward the enemy.

The legion's infantry hammers my auxilia.

Martin details Cohort I of the army to assist me.

Steven's skirmishing bowmen snipe at my auxilia.

Martin's cohorts take on Dave's legionaries.

Meanwhile, Dave and Andy's troops close the door on another of Martin's infantry units.

I suppose we'd call the game a draw or possibly a wining draw for the side I played on. The one thing I'm sure of is that I was soundly thrashed. I know things didn't go well for others. Kevin had a unit of cavalry leave the table on a blunder, although it returned later. Andy couldn't get his dice to cooperate for love or money, and I hear word not found in the Bible at one point. Another blunder saw Martin's ball cap fly across the room. These things are to be expected.

Hail Caesar! has some subtle differences when compared to the other Warlord games. Units can take more punishment, but break tests come up more often and often at uncomfortable times. (like whenever a 6 is thrown in missile fire.) The command-and-control system can be as frustrating as it is in the other games. I don't mind that too much. Truth to tell, we got a lot further along in this game using Hail Caesar! then we ever could with Warhammer Ancient Battles. I am sold on this game and I'm busily flocking my rebased Gauls... although I realise that I'm probably outnumbered by all these Romans. Still I look forward to fielding my Celts; they will be sooooo colourful!

I've got Romans to rebase as well, but they don't have the anti-Dacian Falx arm pieces these guys do.

A mixed bag of archers - all auxilia, but some Western and some Eastern.

The far-left of our line - which I knew very little about. Mark and Chase were duking it out.

Kevin's cavalry and Elephant. Somehow I don't think he did all that well... through no fault of his own.

Next week, a bout of Muskets & Tomahawks, a French & Indian War game, is scheduled.