DBA and Hail Caesar - AAR April 19 2018

This week, the club had its weekly gaming night at World's Best Comics.  There were a couple of Ancients games being played. 

First was a DBA game between Dave and Stephen.  (details to follow)

Second was a Hail Caesar game between Stephen and Chuck (playing Gauls) and Dave and James (playing Marian Romans).

Gauls taunting their Roman foes

The Hail Caesar game had 400 point armies on both sides. 

Hot action!  Gallic Infantry, ferocious charge against Roman line!

The Marian Roman army list consisted of:
3x units of Legionaires
3x units of Veteran Legionaires (Caesar's 10th?)
3x units of "Spanish" style light Legionaires
2x units of Germanic medium cavalry
1x unit of Numidian light cavalry
2x units of Roman skirmishers (small units, with javelin)
3x division commanders (1 was commander in chief)

The Gallic army list consisted of:
1x unit of Gaesatae (naked fanatics)
1x unit of General's bodyguard (cool, professional soldiers)
7x units of Warband (large units, with javelin and sword)
2x units of medium cavalry
1x unit of light cavalry
2x units of skirmishers (small units, with sling)
3x division commanders (1 was commander in chief)

Gaesatae (from behind) Ready to throw themselves on the Romans!

The game progressed pretty well, with three divisions on each side (roughly four units per division, not counting the skirmishers).  The Roman's (albeit in a pretty good position) finally lost the battle when the second of their divisions breaking. 

Gaul line meets Roman line (Gallic division commander riding in a chariot)

 Some interesting effects of the game system's command and control system - the Gallic cavalry, on the right flank, did not want to activate the first two turns of the game, which almost left the right flank of the army open to a unit of German cavalry, supported by the mounted Numidians.

Gauls approaching the Roman testudo formations!

The Roman legionaire units all began the game in testudo formation, and that combined with their training, meant they could execute a move every turn, regardless of their command and control dice results.

Gallic second line advances (ignore the Persian styling on the C-in-C chariot)

The game was a learning one for most of us, and we got a few things wrong as we work through the rules, but we planned to try it again in a few weeks, the basic rules being pretty enjoyable, and offering up some interesting tactical solutions (like unit support in combat, interesting flank move possibilities, and lots of great army lists and unit types).

Maybe this'll happen next time, Romans