Battle of Bannockburn 1314

Last weekend I visited the Herts Volunteers for a refight of the Battle of Bannockburn using the second edition of the Hail Caesar rules.

 I took command of the Scottish left wing and despite a string of particularly poor dice rolls managed to hold off the advancing English.  Unfortunately our attack in the centre were equally unlucky at key moments and so history was overturned!

 Here are a few photos from the game:

 

Battle of Brunanburh, 937

On Saturday I ventured up to the Herts Volunteers for a Hail Caesar game of the Battle of Brunanburh.  There was an impressive range of 28mm Dark Ages figures arrayed on the table of which I made a small contribution (along with some suitable buildings).

I took command of two units of Anglo-Saxons on the left wing facing off against a horde of Strathclyde Welsh, Scots and Irish.  I was feeling pretty outnumbered and the wily Scot's horse moved around to threaten my flank which didn't help make my position feel any more secure.

In the end the Welsh were terribly reluctant to get into the fight but the Scot's were up for it and I ended up with a desperate fight outnumbered 2:1.  Fortunately a blunder by the Irish commander to my right meant his troops withdrew and freed up the Saxons next to me to come to my rescue.  I managed to hold on despite being pushed back to the table edge and having lost my stronger unit.  But the Viking assault across on our right wing collapsed and the battle was won there by Athelstan.  A most historic result.

Here are a couple of photos I took on the day:

Looking up the table - Saxons to the right

And from the other end

The wily Scots horse moving around my flank

Battle is joined!

Battle of Edington 878

A few weeks ago I popped up to the Herts Volunteers for a Dark Ages game.

This was a large affair based on the Battle of Edington between Alfred the Great leading the army of Wessex against Guthrum leading the Great Heathen army.

The rules used were Hail Caesar with a few minor mods from the relevant supplement.

My command was on the far right of the Danish line which, unfortunately, doesn’t appear in the first photo below (doh!).

The Battle of Winingamere 971AD

A little while ago I managed to catch up with some friends from my old club for a Dark Ages game using Hail Caesar.

The game was a representation of the Battle of Winingamere (possibly Newport in Essex) in 971AD which was an assault on an Anglo-Saxon burh by the Danes.

As part of the Anglo-Saxon contingent I was given command of the forces defending the burh whilst the others were send out to delay the Danes whilst the livestock outside the walls was gathered in.

Our plan revolved around forming a shield wall anchored on some woods, holding the Danes and then falling back inside the burh. Unfortunately one of our leaders had other ideas - he was rather too keen on enhancing his personal reputation and achieving glory!  So one half of the shield wall held as planned whilst the other charged on into the advancing Danes and engaged them in a rather piecemeal manner.  Rather predictably these units were engaged, out flanked and destroyed leaving our original plan in tatters.

With the troops outside the walls either dead or fighting for their lives, it was left to me to defend the burh.  But with waves of Danes lapping around the whole burh the outcome was a bit of a foregone conclusion.

Here are a couple of (unfortunately rather poor quality) photos from the game:

The Marshes of Mount Liang

Lenin came over for the New Year and we managed to get a few games in before the old year was out. The first was our first play of Hail Caesar using Lenin's latest acquisition - some Sun Chinese.

The outlaws of Liangshan (Lenin) thought they are safely protected by the treacherous marshes that surrounded their mountain hideout; however Governor Kao Chiu (me) had discovered a secret route through the marshes and decided to take the traitors by surprise!

There were, in fact, two paths each passing through the jungle, across a ford into the marshes to another river crossing - on one case another ford and in the other a bridge.  I decided to split my forces, half the infantry and my light troops down the first path and my remaining infantry and cavalry down the second.

The infantry force managed to cross the first ford without incident and advanced into the marshes; however, my second group found their ford to be defended.  With the crossing being relatively wide and shallow, I formed up my cavalry and charged across, spray flying, into the traitor's skirmishers.

The skirmishers fired their bows and formed up before I smashed into them.  But they were no match for my cavalry who charged them down and captured their leader.

Having cleared the way my second force began to advance.  It was clear that both the next ford and the bridge were both defended and by more than just some skirmishers!  With Lenin forming up his cavalry to enable them to cross the bridge, I decided to hold my cavalry back ready to charge him.  He spotted the danger and held his cavalry before they crossed the bridge.  I advanced my supporting infantry and we began to exchange crossbow fire across the river.

At the other ford I had my infantry form up but they came under a hail of crossbow bolts from the temple ruins on the other side.  My light troops were taking casualties but I managed to concentrate enough fire to eliminate one of the enemy units.

Seeing the danger at the ford, Lenin reformed his cavalry and moved them across to it.  Then he readied them and charged across the ford into one of my infantry units.

I wasn't as easy meat as his skirmishers had been and his charge faltered.  He regrouped and charged again but to no avail.  With my crossbow fire taking its toll his units began to fail and the day was ours!

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Hail Caesar is, as we expected much like Black Powder in a number of respects (for good or ill depending on your perspective); however, it is different in a number of areas and this made the rules a little slower to pick up than we had expected.  As with Black Powder the rules are intended for big, relatively quick games and, as such, certain choices have been made.  I felt the rules didn't have enough flavour to them - but that's an entirely personal perspective and I'm generally biased against rules which try to cover the whole "ancients period" - but I can see them being a useful set to have where you don't have a more period specific set.