Spent the day with the Fightin Kentuckian (Mathew) playing Hail Caesar with two of his ancient armies. I took command of the Tribes of Judea the Israelites and he took the Philistines. The Ark of the Covenant brought blessed to my dice and for half the game it looked like an Israelite victory was guaranteed. Unfortunately a false rumor spread through the army that the Ark had been taken and the men started to loose faith. A battered Philistine army took advantage of the confusion to regain some initiative. In the end it turned into a bloody scrum that went slightly in favor of the Philistines. A fun and very close game with one of the best hosts/opponents you could ask for.
Mathew's perspective:
I fielded 5 divisions of Philistines which consisted of 1 Division of elite Philistine swordsmen (painted red), bows, and skirmishers, 3 divisions of Philistine warbands, bows and skirmishers, and a final division of a Philistine baggage train (the pain train of mobile bunkers) made up of oxen and carts.
The Israelites field 4 Divisions of infantry composed of 1 division of Joshua with the Ark of the covenant, Elite Israelite infantry, and skirmishers, 3 divisions of Judean spearmen, Gadites, Zebulites, and skirmishers.
All generals on the table would have a leadership of 8, except for Joshua (9).
The game started out the with the Philistines moving on the first turn. The Philistine orders would break down and the mighty Ancestor of Goliath and the elite Philistine Swordsmen would sprint down the right flank, while a flurry of failed and low-rolling orders would stall the left flank and force the center to a crawl.
The Israelites would let loose volley after volley of Bows, slings, and javelins as the Philistines advanced. The marksman “Benjaminite” slingers would do a significant portion of the heavy lifting, dealing out Philistine casualties in droves with their slings, and then holding their own against Philistine regulars in close combat.
The Philistine right flank with the Giant and Elite Philistine swordsmen would shatter on the Judean Spear points. The Israelites skirmisher volleys had taken there toll that by the time the Philistines closed in, they would be easily destroyed by the Israelite spearmen and Danite sword and buckler men.
On the opposite flank, the Philistine infantry would continue to get bogged down by failing orders or only moving one move each turn. The Israelites would capitalize on the Philistine hesitation, and would send their flank skirmishers to fire volleys into the Philistine advance in the center. The combination of volleys would be devastating for one of the center divisions, and shortly upon entering hand to hand combat, that Philistine division would break as well.
Everything seemed to be going well for the Israelites, and the Philistine army seemed to be in its death-rattle after the combination of Israelite skirmisher volleys and melee combat. However, a turn of fate would happens when one of the Israelite center divisions would roll a “blunder” and run 2 moves toward the rear. To add insult to injury, the following turn, the same division would fail their order and remain facing the rear and out of the fight.
The Philistines would be able to capitalize on the blunder by charging and breaking the remaining Israelite division in the center and far right flank. The following turns, the remaining Israelite and Philistine divisions would be come engaged in desperate hand to hand combat on the flanks and in the center. Both armies would maul the with vicious tenacity. As a result the renaming Israelite and Philistine units would become shaken or shattered. (Yes, almost all units).
The broken divisions would take a few more jabs at each other, but with each having zero combat power the game would end in a very bloody draw.
Excellent game! Really felt like it was on the knife edge in the final turns. Always enjoy Haik Caesar with Rob! Great game.
Here are some photos that both Mathew and I took and they should be relatively in order.
First the army of Philistine:
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