Hail Caesar!

[Katharon]

Anyone tried it? I'm debating whether or not to get into the game. The rules seem interesting, if a bit jumbled at times.

[Alue's Child]

I've played several games of Hail Caesar and it is really fun. The rules are easy to pick up, the game structure is fairly straight forward, and while there are some advanced rules that can get fiddly, you can play with the basic rules for a bit to get the gist of the gaming system.

A few qualifiers: It is not a tournament-based rules set, in my opinion. The Orders system is too open ended to play without a good friendship or disinterested third party to judge vague orders. With some tweaking, it could be used, but not straight out pf the box.
It would be great for a campaign using a map, with multiple engagements over a period of weeks or months of gaming if you can convince some others to play too.
The numbers of soldiers on the field, even from a two or three division army, will be big. I have 240 Macedonian Phalangites that are being processed through my painting table, along with a large section of Dark Eldar and the trim work on my Grey Knights and about a third of my Dwarf army. And some various LOTR models. And I still need to get skirmishers and cavalry and a few elephants if I want to make my Phyrrus of Epirus army become reality.

Anyway, the TL;DR is good system, more for beer an fun gaming than super competitive.

[Mars Ultor]

@ Alue's Child:
wish your Pyrrhic army could battle my Republican Romans! Sounds like they're about evenly matched - I have six files of velites/hastati/principes/triarii and finishing my cav. Has taken 3 years, more or less to paint. Try contacting me if you get to the Atlanta area. My rules system has been Clash of Empires, but I'm open to HC.
[email protected]

[Alue's Child]

That's awesome! It will be a while before my Epirotes are ready to take the field, but I would be interested in a game at some point. My in-laws are in the Northern Arc of Suburban Atlanta, so I'm down that way a few times a year. I'm only on the first unit of pikes, and with interference from a one year old, a three year old, and grad school I'm painting kinda sluggishly.

Who did you get your Romans from? I got a unit of Hastati from Gripping Beast, as my ultimate goal is to build both sides of Heraclea and subject my friends to wargaming till they have fun, whether they like it or not.

[Mars Ultor]

Alue's Child: I'm not far from the northern arc (the perimeter, as we say), in an area called Decatur. Funny, my goal is the same thing - building both sides of the Pyrrhic wars! I just got Aventine's Pyrrhus model for Christmas, but am just completing my last two cav units for the Romans. The Pyrrhic army is still a ways away. I know what you mean about going slowly!

Heraclea is a classic! Did you happen to see the issue of Ancient Warfare that focused on Pyrrhus? Heraclea was the featured battle.

But anyway, half of my army is mostly Renegade (the Roman half) and the other half are models from Aventine (the Romanized allies). There's no appreciable difference - they all function the same. But Aventine makes good "Romanized" Italians.

I hope you're able to come down some time. A few friends of mine have been trying to get the ancients scene going again down here after a lapse. So be sure and give me an email before you come down sometime.

Oh, it just occurred to me, what scale is your army? Mine are 28's more or less.

[Alue's Child]

Holy crap, I did not know there was an Ancient Warfare magazine. I now have something I can use to replace my expiring White Dwarf subscription. The best thing about Warhammer is that it is a gateway drug into real wargaming.

I use 28mm scale as well. My phalangites are from Warlord Games (40 plastic pikemen (http://us-store.warlordgames.com/collections/macedonians/products/macedonians-phalangites)for $32) and I just ordered Pyrrhus and some Greek heavy cavalry from Aventine yesterday. I plan on getting my elephants from there as well, and will give their Romans a look (in about half a decade) when I'm ready to paint up Republican Rome.

My in-laws are up near Chamblee, so it is not too far (in Atlanta terms) from Decatur. The next time I can get into Atlanta and can make some time, I'll drop you a line.

[Mars Ultor]

Yeah, Ancient Warfare is published somewhere in the Netherlands but is available at most Barnes & Nobles. You can go to their website at www.karwansaraypublishers.com and order the Pyrrhus backissue or get it digital for about the WD cost - well worth it considering the info. They have a write-up on the Roman Republican army as best they know it at the time of Pyrrhus (things are slightly different from Punic Wars and Polybius' time, but not too much - no velites, principes probably using spears, yadayada...). They also do a Medieval Warfare magazine - last theme was Alfred the Great vs. the Great Heathen Host. Still going through that one.

I know what you mean about the rank and file phalangites from Warlord. I keep going back and forth between those and the aventines. Probably will mix them or may depend on what money I have at the time. But that Greek heavy cav from Aventine can't be beat - can't wait to get my hands on them myself!

Well, drop me an email when you're down here or just anytime. Mostly we've played WAB or CoE (same thing, really) but several people also have the HC book and have been talking about it too. And meanwhile, keep going on your Epirotes - painting 240 phalangites is a tall order but just imagine how very cool they're going to look! Very intimidating to a Roman with a little gladius!

Vale! Andy

[Dave Mcturk]

Anyone tried it? I'm debating whether or not to get into the game. The rules seem interesting, if a bit jumbled at times.

used to play dbm but not for at least ten years, so is Hail Caesar playable with existing 'elements' or would in i need to rebase ?

anyone playing 'new' dbm which is v3.3 i think ? or the other similar system 'field / fields of glory' ?

not looking to get back into competition / conventions; just want an excuse to get my 15mm ancients out of the dust !

[Alue's Child]

The units are based on a flexible width, like an 80-100 mm width for infantry standard unit, so if your men are based in the ballpark of that area, I think it'd work. Especially if you were just going to be playing with friends/acquaintances you could fudge the unit size as long as you did it consistently across the board.