Winser's Wargaming Page: Hail Caesar Battle Report: Republican Romans vs. Celts

I was fortunate to be able to ring in the new year with three of my former students, all seniors in college now. This time around, they wanted to do an ancients game, so I pulled out my 28mm Victrix collection of Republican Ropman and Celts. Thre were four divisions on each side. The Romans did not know about a Celtic fifth division hidden in some woods on the other side of a river on their right flank. The Celts didn't know about a fifth Roman legion in reserve. Here is a look at the figures on the table before the game began.

It had been awhile since we had played these rules, but the mechanics came back to us quickly. We all loved the fast pace of the game and how quirky the command sequence was. On turn one, the Romans won the initiative, but due to high command rolls for two of the divisions, only two Roman legions set out to attack what they thought were the outnumbered Celts. The Celts were only able to respond with two divisions of their own. However, one of them was their division of naked fanatics that quickly moved to seize the high ground in the middle of the table. This would prove to be a critical component of the game. In this photo, the Roman right can be seen advancing. In the top center, the naked fanatics have gotten to the high ground.

In the next turn the Romans drew first blood when a group of Velites charged a group of Celtic skirmishers. The Celts failed their break test and were removed from play. On the other flank, the Italian legion's velites harrassed the Celtic warbands in front of it, inflicting a couple of casualties. Turn three saw the Roman's center right legion advance its hastatii into contact with a group of fanatic warriors. It did not go well with the Romans. The Celtic group's ability to reroll misses in the first round of combat proved telling time after time as the Celtic commander's rolls were truly blessed by the gods. On the other flank, the Italian legion saw some success, but then the Celtic general's bodyguard, supported by a warband counter attacked and pierced the enemy line. A large warband followed suit and drove hard into the Roman legion before it, also achieving significant success before losses finally mounted to the point it was shaken. In this shot, the large Celtic warband can be seen at its high water mark, taking on four Roman units.

In this picture, the Italian legion can be seen trying to get into the Celtic flank.

On turn five the momentum shifted dramatically as the Celtic general sprung his trap. Three groups of ferocious cavalry stormed across the ford but came up just short of making contact with the Roman infantry.

In the center, the Romans challenged the fanatics for control of the high ground. It did not go well with them. The naked warriors were unstopable.

In turn six it would all come down to who would win the initiative. It was the Romans! The general eagerly rolled two dice to try to turn his surprised legionaires to face the attack on their flank. The result was a six and a four. Not only did he fail, but the whole legion was paralyzed. The Celtic cavalry charged home on their initiative and drove off two units of Romans and then continued on intot the flank of two more. The dire sitution on the Roman right is pictured here. One legion has been completely destroyed by the hordes of naked warriors, another has been crippled by the flank charge of the Celtic cavalry.

Things weren't going much better on the Roman left. Although the Celtic infantry divsion here was pretty much spent, it took two Roman legions to use most of their strength to do it. A fresh Celtic cavalry division is now ready to finish the job. The mass of red in the upper right corner is the mass of Roman casualties.

We had to end the game here. The reserve Roman legion had just come on, but was too litte too late to stem the tide. The Celts had three unscathed divisions to confront them. The Celts had vanquished the mighty legions of Rome. Overall, we had a great time. The action was nonstop. We all liked the uncertainty of the command phase. The guys also remarked that the ability to follow up hand to hand combat victories helped move the game along quickly. It sure had the feel of large groups of soldiers slamming into one another. It was also seen that supporting your front line with reserves was very important. This division on the Celtic right rolled high all game and hardly moved. This proved to be a blessing as it drew the legion opposite them forward more quickly and right into the jaws of the devestating flank attack.