Roman Civil War - After Action Report

A slight change of period this time, but only a shift of a a hundred years or thereabouts.  Not Imperial Romans this time but Ian's collection of Caesarian Romans.  Ian has been working on these for a good few months and it was great to see the end result of all his hard work.

I laid out the desert cloth which I purchased the best part of 8 years ago (and had never used!) to provide a suitably arid landscape for the scenario for a clash between Caesar and Pompey using the Hail Caesar ruleset.

This was to be a small-scale meeting engagement between 2 x brigaded formations apiece.  Ian took on the role of Caesar and I took on the role of Pompey,  We utilised some of my Numidian warband, Greek Peltasts and Gallic Cavalry as allied contingents.

I managed to work out how to label up the maps with text boxes.  Units were organised and placed as above.

This view should correlate with the map.  The central area was quite open and I thought that having the wood to my right this would provide a suitable anchor point for my army to position itself.

We threw for commanders leadership ratings and Ian did well with a 9 for Caesar and an 8 for Mark Antony as subordinate commander,  I threw a 7 for Pompey (Magnus? Magma more like!) and an equally poor throw for his subordinate commander Labienus.  This was going to turn my order giving and movement into a real struggle!

Ian also won the dice to go first.  The first turn saw his legion moving one turn forward (due to being drilled as they actually failed their order), and his Numidians making a double move (please excuse the lack of spears in the Mumidian's hands - I hadn't got to arming them up before the game!)

Pompey failed his orders, but the drilled Legionaries moved forward one move as the rules permit.

Caesar and Antony failed to get their units to carry out orders in the following turn.  Pompey deployed slingers to the right of my line and into the woods to protect the right flank.

For the following turn, Ian's managed to get Caesar and Antony giving positive orders.  He extended his lines out on both flanks, directing the Numidian warband to face my slingers in the wood and his Gallic Cavalry to threaten my left flank at the opposite end of the board.  I adjusted my ranks and deployed into a more linear formation, with the aim of getting all of my units to have flank support.

The fourth turn was quite dramatic.  After all the initial manouvering and redressing of ranks, Ian launched a determined assault on either flank and got very high dice throws allowing the attacks to go hurtling in.

On my left the Gallic Cavalry hit my left-hand allied Peltast unit whilst at the same time the front was hit by legionary troops.  On my right the Numidians charged straight into my slingers.  The slingers attempted to evade but alas the Numidians achieved a triple move and wiped the slingers out as they caught up with them.

The Numidans broke out of the wood and behind Pompey's army.  How I wished I had enough for a reserve!

The melee on my left flank went even worse, The Peltasts were sent running away disordered by the double attack by Gallic cavalry and Legion, while my next unit of Labienus Legion was broken by one of Antony's Legions.

This suddenly meant that Labienus's Brigade was broken.  As he had attached himself to his Legion unit he was wounded and captured...perhaps Caesar would be merciful....?

It was clear at this point that Pompey was going to have to withdraw if he could.  Perhaps to Egypt...it's nice at this time of year too!

I have to say despite the dramatic ending after just four turns, this was a superb game which we both enjoyed.  I really am going to have to paint up some extra legionary troops to deploy with Ian's collection. Mainly because I could really do with a reserve for when it all goes wrong like this battle! I am painting some but in 10mm currently - clearly I need to be painting them in both scales.

All in all a great evening which even left time for a quick game of Star Wars X-Wing for the first time in over a year!