Hail Caesar meets FOW

FOW Breakthrough Mission modified for Hail Caesar

Jim & Mike's Carthaginians & Gauls v. SteveJ's Romans.  8x6' table.

We used the FOW Breakthrough Mission as the basis for tonight's Hail Caesar scenario.  Instead of 2 objectives in the defender's rear we placed their camp as the Roman objective.  Either side could win by normal army morale test.  The Romans could also win by taking the camp.  The Carthos could also win if there were no Romans in the quarter of the table with the camp after turn 6.

The Carthos deployed first in the 2 quarters of the table either side of the camp.  The Romans deployed second in the table quarter opposite the camp, at least 18" away from any enemy, except 1 division was put on flank march - to arrive in the corner near the objective on or after turn 3.  The Romans to throw 1 dice on turn 3, 2 on turn 4, etc until a 5 is thrown to allow the fanlking division to move onto the table edge ready for orders that turn.  Pic 1 showing the initial deployment is taken from the Roman side.  The rest of the pics are taken from the Cartho side.

The Carthos advanced their elephants on their left, their spearmen in the centre and the gauls on their right.  Their Numidian infantry moved to protect the camp while the cavalry moved into a central position as a reserve.

The Romans have 2 legions on the table with 1 auxilary division on their right & another on flank march.

The Gauls were the first division to break, but not before inflicting a bit of damage and giving the reserve cavalry time to get in position to take

over the Cartho right.

The spearmen drove the Roman front line back off the crest of the ridge, but didn't break through before their front line ran out of steam.  The spearmen's front line was pulled back and the second line sent forward.

On the Cartho left the elephants got the better of the Roman flanking division (2 heavy cav and a auxilia infantry) and eventually defeated it. 

The Roman flanking force took its time arriving, but when it did, it immediately attacked the Numidians each side of the camp.   The 3 Numidian infantry units clearly had their work cut out against 2 auxilia infantry & a heavy cavalry and the battle became a desperate race.  Would the Roman main line crack before the camp was over-run ?

The Cartho cavalry pinned down one legion while the spearmen renewed their attack on the other.  The elephants were too far away to help.

The legion on the hill broke leaving the other legion with an exposed flank.  The spearmen wheeled to attack it but didn't quite reach it, but the cavalry charged a flank and broke through into another unit's flank.  The legion was 1 unit break off failing morale and with that, the army would fail morale. The Romans lost the grossly unequal combat but threw just enough pips to hold on.

Then in the next Roman turn the Numidians lost two combats - to the cavalry and to an auxilia.  They failed both morale tests and the division was broken.  

At this stage we assumed that as the defenders were broken the camp was taken and the Romans had won. 

Not until afterwards was it remembered by the Carthaginians that the remains of a broken division is not taken off the table, so logically, the camp should have been deemed to be still in Cartho hands as the last unit of the division was still in it.  That unit would have had to leave the field and thus abandon the camp in their next turn, and the Romans would certainly take it in their turn following.  But there would have been another chance for the Carthos to break one more unit of the legion to break the Roman army and win that way.  The Carthaginian players at least think this would have been a better way of doing it. 

Our experiment with converting an FOW mission into a Hail Caesar scenario was certainly a success - it was a rattling good game.  The principle of having other ways of winning or losing, as well just killing more enemy, is one of the things that makes FOW such a good game - the players have so much more to think about.  And having several standard missions provides variety without the hard work involved in making up different balanced scenarios every week.  We're keen to try some more FOW missions Hail Caesar style.