Rome versus Dacia

Last Saturday Mike and Troy brought their collection of romans and barbarians to the store for a game of Hail Caesar. As can be seen on the photo's below, we played the River Crossing scenario from the Rome's Dacian Wars supplement. In short the Romans had to force their way across the river which was fordable.

Each side had three commands (of five formed units): two legionary and one cavalry command on the roman side, while the Dacians had three warband commands. Brett commanded the Roman right with a legionary command, and Mike commanded the cavalry on the left flank. The central legionary command was used by both of them as needed. Troy's warband was on the left, Chris's covered the center and mine to the right.



The Battle
As the Romans slowly moved towards the river, most of the leading barbarian units rushed to the bank of the river. The javelin and archery fire from both sides was pretty desultory and really did not have any effect in the early going of the battle.

With the range closed down, the Roman cavalry moved to and engaged several of my warband units. The ensuing initial clash was in favor of the barbarians and I even broke one the cavalry cohorts.

[It should be noted that both sides had units of light infantry archers and all of us used them horribly. My unit got run down on the turn two and Troy lost his on the last turn which ended up ending the game.]



The left and center Dacian warbands had pretty much lined their side of the river before the bulk of the Romans were able to the attack them. So the initial attacks by them failed to dislodge the warbands. But the cavalry, which had been engaged for several turns, were starting to push the barbarians back. Then, with some help from the center, finally broke my command at the end of turn four.



Troy was tempted to push across the river, but held his command on the far bank, so Brett pressed his Romans forward which brought them into range of the barbarian archers ... a few well placed hits was all it took to break the unit, which in turn broke the army ending the game in a Roman victory.



Aftermath
Most of us needlessly lost the archer unit that each command had. This had the effect of breaking our command when just two warbands broke instead of three. I know I should have had the unit in skirmish formation so it could evade if charged and was more likely to retreat when shot at, so in theory moving to safety.

Also the river seemed to have caused a lot of problems during the game, both gaming and rules wise. While it looked great, we really should have spent more time going over what was actually the river and its rules before starting.

I had a really good time playing the game and fortunately for me, already have enough painting projects started, so am not tempted into painting up barbarians! Troy and Mike are looking at running a ThirtyYears War game next using Pike & Shotte, so keep an eye out for that game listing in the future.

Austrian Cuirassier Regiment

I finished the first of two Austrian cuirassier regiments last week. Not one of my better paint jobs but good enough to game with. I skipped some of the smaller details, like lining the cuirass red, but was most disappointed in that the white coats came out "grayer" than previous Austrian units.

 



The figures are from Perry Miniatures and the detail is as good as always.

 

 

 

I think I'll mix up the poses in the next unit by using one of the upraised sword figures on each flank, instead of grouped together on one base.



While I have already started cleaning up the next cuirassier unit (plus some generals) it might be a bit before I get to painting them as I am working on a FOW Vietnam project for the store (I really hate painting black!).

Battle of Waterloo, June 18th 1815

To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the battle of Waterloo, we again ran Ken’s scenario last weekend. It was a pretty good game ... for the Allies, the French side had horrible die rolling at all the wrong times!

I tweaked the scenario for this 2nd run of the game, as we were playing at the store on a smaller table, I had no choice but to crop the battlefield. I also learned some lessons from the first time we ran the scenario in January. I chopped the map down by two feet to fit our max table size, and in addition squeezed the map even more to allow for some room to maneuver on both sides of La Haye Saint. I also changed up the area around Papalotte by putting more forest around it and moving it towards the Hanoverian Line.

For the special scenario rules, I eliminated all the special Divisional Columns rules as they just caused all sorts of headaches and did not add anything to the game play. I also restricted the movement of the two British brigades and the detachment of rifles for a couple of turns (worked well). Streamlined the reinforcements (though most did not come on) and tweaked the victory conditions. I really liked the way the Prussians are Coming rule mechanic worked. It was effectively a timer on the French attack.

The Battle

Right away the game did not bode well for the French, as they failed to move two of their five leading brigades and third brigade decided to march to the right instead of forward!

 

The 5th Militia watches from atop the ridge as the French 2nd division slams into the rest of the Dutch brigade. Sadly for the French, the Dutch held up very well to the assault, and so the 5th was not even needed. That said, this brigade suffered the brunt of the French attack and broke just before the French army retired from the field of battle.

 

A 4 gun section of a Dutch horse battery survived the fire from the French grand battery. It proceeded to fire ball and shell into the approaching battalions from GdB Aulard 2nd Brigade of 2nd Division.

 

The first attack on La Haye Saint has already failed from the south, but a lone unsupported French battalion vainly attempts to drive out the Germans from the 2nd KGL light battalion from the West.

 

GdB Bourgeois would send a battalion from the 28th Regiment to drive out the company of 95th Riflemen holding the sandpit, while the other three battalions of his brigade attacks (unsuccessfully) La Haye Saint from the East.

 

 

GdB Nogues four battalion of 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, finally get moving toward the enemy, as they try and support the battalions from GdB Pegot brigade of 4th division who are already engaging the Nassau regiments.

 

The Nassau battalions from 2nd Regiment hold off the attack for most of the day, but eventually the French numbers tell and they break. But not before a couple of Hanoverain battalions move onto the ridge and two of the regiments of Hussars from MG Vivian’s 6th Cavalry Brigade charge the French battalions forcing them into squares.

The fire from Ross’s heavy 9lb battery were instrumental in driving off the battalions of GdD Donzelot’s 2nd Division.

 

Bailey, who commanded the British right, double checks his victory conditions, “hold ridgeline … check.” It was a Stunning Victory for the allies as the French were not able to capture either objective during the game.

 

Aftermath

Even with the changes, the French were once again handily defeated. We did not even get a chance to see what the cavalry reserves for both sides could do, as the French never really got close to Objective A (ridgeline). But honestly both French commanders (Steve and Mark) had some of the worst die rolling by a side I have seen, even when Mark rolled above average I would hot dice him! So I am reluctance to change anything until we have another go and see if the dice were the main issue.

Though it could be a while before we do another game, we were talking about shifting our focus to 1813 and doing up some scenarios from the Battle of Leipzig.