Hail Caesar at Area 52

Jim's Republican Romans v. Steve's Seleucids

MarkW set up an interesting battlefield for a Hail Caesar demo battle.  The river, hills, camps & palm groves all counted as defenders uphill plus cavalry and long spear armed infantry disorganised, plus -3" move penalty.  Deployment was simultaneous (from sketch maps), defeat conditions:
1. Lose more than half divisions.
2. Lose your camp.
3. Seleucids lose their phalanx division.
4. Romans lose both legionary divisions.

The pics are all taken behind the Roman right.

The Romans deployed allied spearmen on the right of the river, peltasts as camp guards, 2 legionary divisions in the centre, cavalry on the far left.  The Seeucids deployed their Galacians (horse and foot) on their right, phalanx in the centre with elephants behind, cavalry on their left. 

Both sides advanced on their left and held back on their right. 

On the far side the Legion advanced quickly and smashed thru the Galacian foot.  The Roman cavalry took a while to get going, but eventually overcame the Galacian cavalry.

On the near side the Seleucid cavalry charged the allied spearmen.  The spearmen put up a stiff fight but were eventually defeated.

In the centre the two sides squared off on opposite sides of the river.

The Roman left redeployed to the right and both legionary divisions charged across the river.  The Romans generally pushed the enemy back.  They took the camp but the defenders bought enough time for a counterattack to be organised.  (You have to hold the camp until the end of the enemy's next turn).    A counterattack by elephants and peltasts drove the now shaken Romans back thru  the camp.

Meanwhile on the other side of the field, the Seleucid cavalry had reorganised and were attacking the Roman camp.  The Roman camp guard fought valiantly, but they were overwhelmed.  The Roamn camp fell with no hope of immediate relief to give the Seleucids victory.

The exercise was certainly a success.  There was a bit of interest shown by the passing A52 customers,   Mark set up terrain quite different to what we are used to which made for an interesting challenge for both sides, and it was fun to play in an new envoironment - we must do it again.