Hail Caesar Pyrrhic Wars Game

Co-hosted a Hail Caesar Pyrrhic Wars game last evening at my buddies place (only 10 minutes away). It was a fictional scenario pitting his Antigonid forces against my Epirote army. We didn't use all our forces as a few of the players had to cancel out at the last minute. We ended up having 3 players per side - one of which ran 2 divisions. We have 3 elephants, and 5 pike units per side, with various support units and cavalry.

Above, on the left are my buddies Antigonid army with a unit of my merc hoplites on loan. We plan to re-fight this game at my place on a bigger table with more troops next time. My Epirote force on the right, with Galatian warbands and Samnite light infantry on the left flank division.

Epirote right flank division which I ran, consisting of Greek light cavalry, Galatian medium cavalry, and a unit of Agema with kontos. The Antigonid left flank division with horse archer skirmishers, and 3 units of Agema cavalry with long spears. I made the first activation roll of the game, intending to charge my light cavalry into the opposing cavalry. However, the this first roll ended up with a Blunder roll! The blundering unit ended up in front of my Agema cavalry. 

Pictured above is the Antigonid Agema and Scythed chariot (which made their mandatory proximity charge) into my Greek light cavalry unit. As you may suspect, the light cavalry was soon destroyed by overwhelming numbers. The one positive thing from this engagement was the Scythed chariot is a one-hit-wonder, and removed after this charge, and sparing my remaining units its attack.

My Agema cavalry having defeated the enemy with my kontos counter charge after their follow up from destroying my light cavalry. I chose to remain in place to make a charge in our next turn.

The center division consisting of the pike and elephants - Epirotes on the left, and Antigonids on the right. They had many back and forth clashes throughout the game.

Initial engagement of the pikes and elephants. The Antigonid Rhodian slingers successfully attacked the Epirote elephant, making it retreat soon after.

The other division of pikes and elephants in the distance.

Epirote pike and elephant right center division in combat.

Above, the Epirote left center pike and elephant division with a unit of merc hoplites on their left next to the elephant. A unit of Samnite light infantry from the Epirote left division makes it way around cover on the far left.

Epirote Galatian warbands finally able to charge into Antigonid merc hoplites at the end of the game. Both the Epirote left division and Antigonid right division continually failed to successfully activate units. The Antigonid merc hoplites being drilled were allowed to make free moves after each failure.

Being the last turn of the game, and both players engaged for the first time, we allowed the Galatians to both attack the one unit of merc hoplites. This was later determined to be incorrect, as only one of the Galatian units should've attacked, and the other used as support. Of course, the hoplites were destroyed as Galatian warbands get 9 dice each in the first round of combat, and get to re-roll one missed attack dice in the round being Wild Fighters. Oh well, at least the Galatian player (who normally doesn't like Hail Caesar or Black Powder), left happy.

All in all a nice refresher game for me as I haven't played Hail Caesar in a very long time. My buddy who co-hosted suggested we play this again at my place on a bigger table with more troops. Waiting for a date from him to confirm with the players, but I'll be sure to make a blog post when it happens. Until next time, hope you liked this post, and best wishes to all!

Paymaster Ancient Hawaiian Ali'i

This is the last figure from the sample box I bought at Enfilade. 

Pictured below, flanked by Eureka figures. As you can, he sizes up much more closely with Eureka than the other Paymaster figures

Here he towers over his Paymaster brethren - especially the Noble/Hero figure on the right.

Pretty much done with Hawaiian figures for now. I'm still looking for a couple of outrigger canoes - mainly for a scenario where they can used for a beach assault or an escape to sea. Until next time, thanks for stopping in to check out the blog, and wishing you all the best!

Paymaster Ancient Hawaiian Warriors

Finished these guys today. They have some nice shark teeth lined weapons. 

As you can see they're a lot smaller overall than the Eureka Hawaiians. I suppose on the gaming table, they'll okay, but I would highly recommend Eureka over Paymaster. The only figure that matches up well size-wise with Eureka is the King figure, which I'll be painting up next.

The earlier painted Noble doesn't look too out of scale with these warriors. They would be fine on the table in their own warband, I think. In fact, I'm gifting all of these to my buddy in a rehab facility. Praying for his full recovery, and hopefully these figures might help him along as he's an avid fan of all things Hawaiian. In fact, he has a home on the Big Island where he usually spends the winter.

Thanks for stopping by, and wishing you all the best.

Warlord Games Alexander the Great

With the upcoming Tuesday evening Pyrrhic Wars game, I was finally motivated enough to paint up this figure. I picked it up at the Panzer Depot closing sale several years ago. Although a very nice pose, the details were a bit hard to make out - particularly the armor. This is not surprising as very little of the famous cuirass is visible being a mounted figures, and wearing a cape as well. I did my best, and spruced up the base with a spare shield and helmet to help the overall look.

Also arrayed the forces for the Tuesday evening game below. Besides Macedonians/Successors and Greeks, there is a contingent of Galatian mercenaries. My buddy has 4 pike units, 3 elephants, cavalry, and other troops as well. We'll sort out units for a 6-8 player game - the usual Tuesday night Olympia Wargamers. As mentioned in the earlier post, I've been invited to join this group for over a decade - I only occasionally attend as I usually like to game during the day.

With the Alexander figure out of the way, I'll start on the remaining Paymaster Hawaiians next. Until next time, thanks for checking out the blog, and wishing you all the best!

Charlie Company - Vietnam Game

Got to play in an 11 player Vietnam game using Charlie Company for rules. I played a US platoon, and part of an overall mission to rescue a captured high-ranking US officer. I managed to get a lot of suppression early on by double-timing into the woods. I had to leave after turn 4 to pick up our vehicle at the shop - discovered yesterday that it need its struts replaced. Anyway, here are a few pictures from the game.

I played in this game with a varied scenario about 13 years ago, which was run by Mark Waddington. He's added a few things since then with his 3D printer. Most of the pictures only show US forces, as most of the Vietnamese hadn't been spotted yet.

The last time I played this game was at the now closed Game Matrix store. This is a new venue, Blue Sky Hobbies, and actually only about 10 minutes from my place. I really need to join in the weekly Wednesday crew for various gaming. I might host my Hawaiian Tribal game there soon.

By the time I left, the US forces still hadn't located the captured officer. We had used off board artillery to neglible effect. The Vietnames, on the other hand, used their mortars to inflict quite some damage on the US troops. Anyway, the few hours that I did play were very enjoyable, and the rules aren't too bad to pick up after a few turns.

Speaking of games, my buddy James invited me over to his place for an Hail Caesar Pyrrhic Wars playtest. This is with his weekly Tuesday evening crew. I'm actually invited to particpate in both groups, but tend to flake out attending. Pictured below are the figures I'm taking next Tuesday - minus Hypaspists and Galation cav units I forgot to pull out of the cabinet.

Looks like I'm back into the gaming swing of things - Enfilade must've been a sort of shot in the arm. Thanks for stopping in, and wishing you all the best!

Paymaster Ancient Hawaiians

These are the figures I bought at Enfilade yesterday. They went together without much difficulty. I used a little bit of Tamiya epoxy putty (similar to Green Stuff, but much cheaper) and super glue to attach the arms, bodies, and heads.

As you can see from the picture below, the king sizes well with Eureka. However, the warriors are slighter overall than the more muscular Eureka figures. Also, the gourd helmets should be a little bigger and rounder; then again, it matches the slighter sculpts, I suppose. 

The most disappointing figure is the one I had wanted most by seeing it on the website. The noble with a separate base with a two-pronged spear. It is way too small! It looks like 20mm or so. I couldn't really tell the size discrepancy yesterday because of the figure being in multiple parts. I suppose he could be a menehune.

I also clipped the slot tabs to fit onto 25mm fender washers; using the remaing bit of the slot tab to fit into the washers' center hole. Again, using epoxy putty and super glue to secure the figure to the washer. 

Well, I did want to give Paymaster a try. The multi-part assembly didn't bother me as much as the size difference. Anyway, these are my next painting project. Until next time, thanks for stopping by, and wishing you all the best.

ADDENDUM:

I went ahead and painted up the lil' noble. Interestingly, he actually measures around 28mm tall - but still looks way smaller than the rest of the Paymaster figures, let alone the beefier Eureka Hawaiians. Hope to get him to my buddy recovering in a care facility.

Enfilade 2026 - Final Post

I failed to take any pictures from Saturday night's games as I was too tired to attend the period. I ended up falling asleep in my room and got up, and went down when most of the games were already closed down. I did make it for our annual Northwest Historical Miniature Gaming Society (NHMGS) meeting on Sunday morning. Having preregistered for it, I also played in Kevin Smyth's (A Gamer's Tale blog) Cuban Rebelliion game using The Men Who Would Be Kings. He also modified the rules for the Spanish to have torches and attempt to burn down sugar cane fields and huts. I ran four units of Cuban irregular cavalry. I spread them out along two edges of the table, and was moving around activating them during our turn. The Spanish ended up burning down enough of the cane fields to make a successful retreat off the table. Altough, at the end of the 8 turn game, I still had a half unit of my cavalry blocking the table edge of the retreat road. The Spanish would've easily finished me off in the next turn, as they were pretty much still at full strength. Not to mention we had older firearms with limited ammunition against their modern rifles with longer ranges and unlimited ammunition.

Cubans are in white clothing, while the Spanish are in light blue.

Although there were many great deals at the Bring and Buy, as well as with the many vendors, including a Warlord Games rep with tons of stuff, I ended up only buying a sample box of Paymaster Ancient Hawaiians.

Others had warn me about the multi-part metal figures, but wanted to give them a try anyway. Besides the one Noble who has its own base, the rest are sculpted for slotted bases. Marc Mann, the own and designer for the figures, said they're supposed to match up with Eureka Hawaiians. I'll post comparisons once they're put together and painted.

Pictured above is a portion of the Warlord Games vendor area. Outside of the photo on the left were many Bolt Action sets, and out of the picture on the right were Pike & Shotte, Black Powder, Hail Caeser and other game sets. I think they came up from the San Francisco area. This was the first time they attended Enfilade, and think they'll be back next year. I should also mention there was a Bolt Action tournament going on in another area upstairs from the main room. I failed to take pictures there too.

Next are photos from various other games in the the last period on Sunday.

So ended another nice Enfilade convention. All in all, it was great to see old friends, meet new ones, and also a bit sad to hear the passing of a few friends and acquintances since last year. I guess I'm one of the regulars now, having attended my first Enfilade in 2006 - 20 years except for the year we were shut in. I think Enfilade first started in the 1990's, and a lot of folks have come and gone since them. Anyway, looking forward to next year and plan to start on those Paymaster figures. Thanks for stopping in, and wishing you all the best!