Bring Out Your Dead!

Last time was Romans.  This time it's Ancient Britons.  Something a little unusual and something I have never really bothered with....dead figures (or those in the process of having received something sharp and pointy!).

Hail Caesar does require lots of markers and as anyone who has played them knows, you need to keep track of the ongoing casualties taken, and of those taken in the current turn for the hand to hand combat results.

I use the left hand dial for the on-going tally and the right hand dial for the current game turn casualties.  The bases idea I borrowed from a photo of Rick Priestley's figures on the Warlord Games website.  The bases are from Forgeworld and were intended to show altitude and speed for some space-shippy game.  Thankfully the ones I purchased are used for real down in the muck stuff!

With Hail Caesar the on-going casualties (left dial on my figs) would stop at 6 when the unit becomes shaken. After that casualties per turn are moved only on the right dial, before being shared with supporting units and 'removed' from the original owning unit's marker (if it survives another round as a shaken unit).  Sounded a bit strange before I played it, but it demonstrates the greater combat input (and risks associated!) by supporting units as the unit in actual combat starts to crumble under pressure.  Being up close to the fighting will have an effect on supports, which I think is a nice touch, and dare I say it (contentious wargaming term alert!) realistic.

Most of my Ancient British casualty figures are from Old Glory, I think it's from the Gaul range.  The Old Glory Gauls are fabulous figures full of character and I just love them.  My regular opponent Ian bought their Imperial Romans on the strength of the Gauls. Unfortunately, we both felt that there was a great difference in quality, so the Romans went to the next Bring and Buy, and I stuck with Wargames Foundry for my Romans.

A couple more pics of the Old Glory figures.  The chap on the pic above has clearly caught a day-spoiling Pilum.

I'm not quite sure what inflicted the wound on this chap.  Possibly a sling stone from Roman Allies (or a really big horse-fly has hit him at full pelt, just like you get when you cycle in the summer and they really hurt!).

Anyway I hope these are to your liking.  I've got lots of Ancient Britain warband on the painting bench right now as I hope to get a game in next weekend, and the Romans currently outnumber the Britons!  We will see if I finish them in time.  I'll move onto other periods soon but I just want to paint as many of these as I can while the enthusiasm has hold of me.  I've got a playable AWI Continental Army painted up but I'm being too slow getting the redcoats done.  Of course when the 'Pike and Shotte' rules come out (a system based on Hail Caesar and Black Powder)  I shall no doubt be painting English Civil War at a huge rate!