Saturday, December 4, 2021

Hail Caesar Gaming - EIR vs. Celt (Britons) - My Blogger Is Working Again!

Phew! What a relief, it seems my issue with uploading images has resolved itself. Anyway, without further drama, here's a report of the Hail Caesar game yesterday.

Thanks to a couple of my buddies, got in a long-awaited EIR vs. Celts Hail Caesar game. In fact, this is first Hail Caesar game I've played (actually umpired) in many years. It was a great game going for 9 full turns, and played with figures never gamed before - painted during the lockdown period. Here's a staged shot of the layout prior to the start of the actual game. Note the roundhouses and Druid objective marker, both recently added, on the far right of the picture.

As those of you who play both Hail Caesar and Black Powder, you know they are very similar in overall mechanics, but there are some interesting differences. For one, support units in hand to hand have their own attack dice in Hail Caesar. In Black Powder, support units values are added during the combat resolution portion. Shooting is also not as important as in Black Powder, and the emphasis is on combat. Anyway, on to the images of the actual game - as usual, I failed to capture all of the action during the heat of battle.
Initial moves by the three Roman divisions. The two divisions on either flank consist of two units of legionaries, one unit of auxiliaries, two small units of archers and a unit of medium cavalry. The center division, led by the army general, consists of one unit of Praetorian legionaries and two units of Praetorian medium cavalry.
Initial moves of the Celts. The army consists of two divisions of infantry and two divisions of horse. The infantry divisions each have three warbands (one of which is made up of nobles clad in mail cuirasses - better saves) and two units of slingers. The horse divisions each have two units of British chariots and a unit of medium cavalry.
Celt slingers charging Roman Auxiliary archers - the archers causing casualties from closing fire - the unarmored slingers having no saves. The slingers had already caused a casualty to the archers in an earlier round of shooting
Roman left at the bottom of the picture; Celtic horses in the background roaming the battlefield for opportunities.
Legionaries and Auxiliaries charging into a warband of nobles - a unit of Auxiliary archers having broken after losing combat with the Celt slingers.
Celt warbands advancing on the Roman battle line, while Celt cavalry and chariots maneuver on the flanks.
The Roman center with the army general joining a unit of Praetorian foot - supported by a unit of Praetorian cavalry to their rear, about to charge into small unit of unarmored slingers. This should have been a cake walk for the Romans. However, due to accurate and deadly closing fire from the slingers - one of the hits being a 6, the Romans had to take a Break Test. This was failed with a score of 2, and the with the casualty, they had to break!
The Roman battle line showing the loss of the Praetorian foot in the center.
A Celt warband being attacked by Roman cavalry to their front, and a unit of legionaries to their right flank. The division commanders of both sides joining in the fight. In the distance, Praetorian cavalry charge into another Celt warband - avenging the loss of their infantry brethren.
The Roman left victorious after destroying the Celt warband.
Praetorian cavalry counter charging Celt horse - the latter supported by two units of chariots, and their division commander (with war hound) joining the fight.
Another division of Celt horse looking to join in the action - somewhere.
Two units of Celt chariots - one attacking a unit of legionaries and the other a unit of auxiliaries. Celt horse supporting the unit fighting the auxiliaries.
Celt chariots supported by cavalry vs. Roman infantry.

At the end of turn 9, the Celt forces had lost enough of their army to declare it a Roman victory - a very close victory at that. Also, one of the minor victory conditions wasn't achieved by the Romans. This was for them to recapture their lost eagle and standards held by the Druid priest within their village on the far end of the table. The Romans actually never made it past the mid-way point of the table, but they had won the game by attrition. 

All in all a very satisfying game. It was great to re-familiarize myself with the rules after so many years. One of my buddies (who played the Romans) and I enjoyed it so much that we're playing a Macedonian/Successor game next week. Looking forward to this game and posting another report as well. Until next time, thank you all so much for visiting the blog and leaving such nice comments. I realized how much this blog is a part of my life after not being able to update it properly (with images) for less than 24 hours! Happy Holidays!

28 comments:

  1. Everything seems to be working fine I can see your images. Great "reading" post by you Dean! and with top notch photos of painted minis - awesome!

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    1. Thanks, Phil! Yes, I had issue last night and earlier this morning. After checking again, it resolved itself, it seems. Might've been something with my browser (or something like that - I'm quite clueless to stuff like this). Kindest regards, Dean

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  2. What a relief! Seeing your beautiful game photos is a real pleasure and happy we can finally see them! Any idea what caused the hiccup?

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    1. Thank you very much, Jonathan. I'm far from IT-knowledgeable, but I have Google Chrome as the browser for both my laptop and Galaxy 10 phone. A few days ago, I kept seeing an icon for a Chrome update on my cellphone whenever I opened up my blog (it was in top bar). I tried to update it, but it seemed to time out. Today, the update icon is gone and now am able to load images again. So...maybe, that was the issue - a browser thingee? Again, I'm really talking way over my knowledge about IT things. My laptop seems fine again, but my cellphone still isn't seeing images I have stored on the phone. Anyway, thanks again for your kind words and visit. Dean

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  3. I watched the report with pleasure! The game is wonderful!

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    1. Thank you so much, Sergey! I was pleased to have done this game - revisited a great set of rules (IMO), and with figures that had never been on the table before. Kindest regards, Dean

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  4. Glad thr IT issues are resolved Dean. Wonderful looking game and the Celts almost did it...they must have had David in with those slingers who defeated the Praetorians!

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    1. Thanks so much again, Keith! Yes, crisis over :) To be fair, it really could've gone either way. It was a very closely fought game indeed. Warmest regards, Dean

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  5. Excellent game with beautiful looking armies!
    Great to see that ( and thanks blogger!)

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    1. Thanks as always, Michal! It was a strange feeling not being able to post (w/images) on the blog. Realized how much it's part of my life, hobby-wise, anyway, Kindest regards, Dean

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  6. Nice report by Dean. I am glad that the problems have been solved.

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    1. Thank you so much for the kind words and sentiment, Alexey! Warm regards, Dean

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  7. Great report Dean ! Awesome looking armies Dean !
    Greetings

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    1. Thank you very much, Mario! I made an effort to detail the game more than I usually have done in the past. A recent comment made me realize some folks may want more detail on the posted games. Warmest regards, Dean

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    1. Thanks so much, Mike. As I've commented on your blog - your games are truly impressive and inspiring. Kindest regards, Dean

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  9. What a marvellous game! I look at it with envy only wishing I could have games like that. Congratulations.

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    1. Thank you very much, Javier. I really appreciate your compliment. It was great to not only get the figures in a game for the first time, but that the game played out very nicely too. Warmest regards, Dean

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  10. Great looking game...with splendid chariots Dean!

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    1. Thanks a lot, Phil! Yes, glad to get them onto the table for the first time. And they weren't too bad - good as supports for cavalry attacks - and also on their own. Warmest regards, Dean

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  11. Great looking game Dean hard for the Romans to break through …if only they could have a bit more flank space ?

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    1. Thank you for the nice comment, Matt. As for keeping the Romans hemmed in, I did that deliberately - the table set up has them entering a valley of sorts, with them needing to travel up it to reach the village to recover their eagle and standards. The idea was to have the Roman player move up as aggressively as possible. But due to a couple of failed command rolls this was hinder; although the legionary units were drilled, so could always make one move on a failed order. Kindest regards, Dean

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  12. Great looking game, Dean! By the way - is one celtic base was equal to one warband, or one warband in your game was equal to two bases? And also I wonder, how much units did you placed on both sides?

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    1. Thank you for the kind words and interest, Vladimir. Both sides had about 13 units each. The Celts had two foot divisions and two mounted/chariot divisions. The Celt warbands were formed onto movement trays - 120x80mm and 80x80mm trays. The smaller tray held nobles in heavy armor and were given better Saves. The Celt horse divisions were two units of chariots (2 chariots models made up a unit), and one unit of horse (6 models). Thanks again! Dean

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  13. That's a lovely looking game Dean!

    Christopher

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    1. Thank you so much, Christopher. Appreciate your visit and kind compliment! Warmest regards, Dean

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  14. Great looking game and figures, glad I can see them too, there seems to be a few glitches going around at the moment!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks, Iain! Yes, I was thinking the same thing. Another "IT" thing was I usually only watch YouTube videos - on my smart tv. The last few days had every video start with ads. I can't believe how much I rely on the internet - and I grew up when we still had rotary dial phones, 3 TV stations (going off the air before midnight) and typewriters! :) Kind regards, Dean

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