Jim's Carthaginians defending
v. Mike's Gauls.
To adapt the FOW Cauldron mission to Hail Caesar we just substituted a camp for the objectives (and used an 8x6 table). The camp rules were: Defenders +1 defence. Attackers no charge bonus. All troops fight as if in open order (but don't count as skirmishing in break tests even if they are skirmishers). Long spears & cavalry disordered.
The Carthos deployed 2 spear divisions on the table with their elephant division and mixed cavalry/infantry division in delayed reserve. The spearmen formed up around the camp with their supporting bowmen in the camp.
The Gauls put their infantry on the table at the start (4 standard warbands and 2 fanatics plus skirmishers) and their chariots and cavalry in reserve. Both Gallic divisions deployed in the same quarter (on the Gaul's side of the table) under the random deployment rule. Naturally they tried to charge forward imediately. The fanatics did, but the others just watched. The fanatics must have overdone the mead, the one on the right pushed their opponents back at first, but then ran out of puff and broke. The other unit also failed to break through & fell back shaken (but rallied before the divisional break test).
The Gallic cavalry & chariots arrived fairly promptly and were brought on centre and right. The Cartho reserves arrived a bit later, but also in good time. The cavalry & numidians were nicely placed on the Gaul's flank, but threw awful command dice and did not take advantage - the fanatics fell back to cover the flank. The elephants were brought on on the left to counter the chariots.
The second wave of warbands finished off the RH spear division which broke with all heavy units shaken. They then attacked the camp while the cavalry pinned down most of the other spearmen. A furious melee ebbed & flowed thru the camp for several turns. The bowmen gave a good account of themselves - they withdrew shaken, but so did their opponents and they bought time for the spearmen to take over the defence. A renewed assault was beaten back by the spearmen as the Cartho cavalry finally came up.
The cavalry charged Gauls who had been beaten back out of village in flank in flank and also caharged the weakened fanatics. Both the Gallic infantry divisions now broke.
The Gauls still had 2 of their 4 divisions unbroken, but their chance of taking the camp had passed. Their chariots were neutralised by the elephants in an interesting but indecisive side show on the far flank. Their cavalry had been weakened by their pinning attacks on the spearmen and was clearly no match for the remaining Carthaginians. The Gauls conceeded.
It was, as always it seems with Hail Caesar, an exciting and interesting battle. The FOW mission converted nicely. The Gauls had their chances early but couldn't nail them. They got another chance when the Cartho cavalry got timid, but the camp guard held them off again.
The chariot/elephant face off, though a sideshow, was fascinating. Love these rules.
No comments:
Post a Comment