Caesar's Gallic Wars: The Battle of the Arar (Hail Caesar)

I was pleasantly surprised how Hail Caesar rules played out in the my last Ancients game 'The attack on Mona'. It has been sat on my bookshelves for at least 10 years and had only ever played it briefly using 15mm figures. I decided that a closer look was needed to determine if this was going to be my go-to ruleset for my Ancient games.

I turned to the Hail Caesar supplement 'Caesar's Gallic Wars' as a source of scenarios and for which I pretty much had the required figures, although the Early Imperial Romans will have to stand in for the Late Republican Marian Romans.

The scenario I have selected is the first involving the Romans against the Gauls. It is June 58BC and Caesar moves against the Helvetii after appeals for help arrived from the Aedui tribe whose farms were being raided. 

When the two armies approached, Caesar discovered that the majority of the Helvetii had already crossed the Arar River and only the Tigurini tribe was on his side of the river. Caesar decided to move against them at once.

The Tigurini were surprised and have two objectives in this battle. 1. To defeat the Romans who they outnumber and 2. To get as many supply wagons as they can across the river.

A slight adjustment to the order of battle was made to enable my existing collection to be used. 3 Helvetti light infantry units were replaced by 2 warbands. 3 wagons were used rather than the 4 in the scenario.

The scenario gave the table size as 8' x 4' for 28mm figures. I have reduced this to 3'9" x 2'3" for 6mm. All units are standard size (2 bases per unit). Distances are reduced from inches to centimeters. 

Victory conditions: If only a maximum of wagon safely crosses the river = a Roman victory. 2 wagons = a draw. All 3 wagons = Helvetii victory. Each wagon rolls for activation each turn. 8 or less they are allowed one move.

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On the Workbench: AWI

A new project! I have Assassin's Creed III to blame for this. Playing the game reawakened my previous interest in this period which had ceased when I disposed of my 10mm collection. 

This originates back to my school days when I found a book in the school library covering the battles of Lexington and Concord. It fired my imagination which I attempted to recreate on the tabletop with Airfix WW1 Americans standing in for the militia and Napoleonic Highlanders representing the redcoat juggernaut.

The inevitable happened and a batch of 6mm figures was acquired from Baccus with the intention of playing through Lexington and Concord once again. You will find a previous game on the blog using those 10mm figures. The original orders of battle for that game are being used but doubling up on the figures. 

In between reorganising the Napoleonic French infantry into standard 36 figure battalions I have commenced painting the AWI forces involved.

The grenadier battalion drawn from various regiments. It can be broken down to 2 or 3 units for the battle.

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Britannia Campaign: Turn 8 - 9th Legion Invasion of Mona

 Turning now to what could be the final action of the campaign, the Roman invasion of Mona (Anglesey).

The 9th Legion have crossed the Menai Strait and landed on Mona. The scenario book gives the option of a beach landing but as I will be trying out another set of rules I have decided to keep this more simple. The Romans have just landed when the warbands turn up with one command still on the beach.

For this game I will be using 'Hail Caesar' rules. The original, not the 2nd edition. It's hard to believe now but it is over 10 years since I trialled them using 15mm figures. They did not grab me at the time and they have languished on my bookshelves ever since. 

Using this campaign as a testbed for various rules and given that they were designed for Hail Caesar it seemed silly to not at least give them a try. 

Few changes are needed for conversion to 6mm. I will be using cms instead of inches. The unit sizes are as follows: Small = 1 base, Standard = 2 bases, Large = 4 bases. Each base has a 40mm width.

The orders of battle are a combination of those contained within the book, my own and what I have available.

Board size is 5'3" x 3'9".

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Busaco 27th September 1810: Turns 17 - Conclusion

 

The situation at the end of turn 16.

JUNOT'S ASSAULT

Turn 17

Junot's Corps begins to climb the ridge and several charges were made. 

I should add here for those not familiar with the rules, each average brigade commander can order up to 2 battalion charges (an exceptional commander 3, poor 1). It is possible to add further charges on battalion initiative. They must roll a 5 or 6 on a D6 dice.

Volleys of musketry opened up across the entire ridge. The allies took the decision not to wait to see the "whites of their eyes" but blaze away intending to inflict the maximum damage on the slow moving columns.

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Busaco 27th September 1810: Turns 9 - 16

JUNOT'S ASSAULT

Turn 9

Massena decides it is now time to commit Junot's Corps to the assault. As much of the allied army remains out of view on the reverse slope, a dice roll determined where Junot commits his assault. The result was the northern end of the ridge to the right of Ney. All orders are passed successfully and the Corps begins its move.

Turn 10

As Junot's Corps closes the gap they begin to come under fire from 2 allied batteries on the ridge.

Turn 11

Junot's mass of skirmishers begin to engage with their opposite numbers with neither side coming out on top. 

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Busaco 27th September 1810: Turns 1 - 8

NEY'S ASSAULT

 Turn 1

Ney's advance begins with Marchand's Division ascending 'The Spur' and Loison's heading towards Sula. A swarm of Voltigeurs engage primarily the rifles of the 60th and 95th regiments along with Cacadores deployed as skirmishers. Both sides take early losses but an early stroke of luck lands with the British when a double '6' is rolled upon Lawson's 6pdr foot battery (far lower right) engaging in counter-battery fire with a newly deployed French foot battery (just below the advancing columns).

The French lose one of its 4 guns and will have to withdraw.

Mermet's Division is in a supporting role as the entire corps advances towards the ridge. At the bottom of the photo, Junot's Corps is held in reserve.

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Busaco 27th September 1810 - Introduction

The next game in my Peninsular War project is Busaco. Napoleon ordered Massena to drive the British from Portugal and during his move south he met Wellington positioned on the 9 mile long ridge at Busaco. It was Wellington's aim to delay the French advance long enough for the defensive Lines of Torres Vedras to be completed to the north of Lisbon.

My game represents the area where the main action occurred. That is the central and northern end of the ridge.

Table Size: 6'9" x 4'6"
Figures: Baccus 6mm
Rules: General de Brigade

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On The Workbench: Italian & German WW2 Ships

 Refurbishment of 1/3000 scale ships painted eons ago continues. All here are Navwar.

Andria Doria

Fiume (Zara class cruiser)

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Defending the Malay Barrier: End of Turn 4, 1st - 14th February, 1942.

 

A summary of movements and actions at the end of turn 4.

The final possible actions at the end of the turn are the possibility of air attacks on crippled and disabled ships.

3 attacks are launched. WAF and EAF Land Based Air and a Carrier based attack from Ryojo.

Only the WAF are successful in locating their target, and not a particularly impressive one at that! The crippled Dutch destroyer Kortenaer escorted by another destroyer, Van Nes, are attacked by bombers. Aircraft availability proved to be poor with only 8 x Nell and 3 x Betty bombers available for the strike using medium bombs on a high level bombing run.

4 x bombers targeted the lead vessel, Van Nes, with 7 on the Kortenaer.

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Defending the Malay Barrier: Turn 4, 1st - 14th February, 1942. EastGroup intercepts Jintsu Convoy

Turning now to the final surface v surface action on turn 4, the US EastGroup reinforced by two New Zealand light cruisers successfully intercepts a very small Japanese invasion convoy heading for Banjermasin in Borneo. 

EastGroup had come through an air attack unscathed and now had a chance to interrupt Japanese invasion plans.

EastGroup consisted of 1 x heavy cruiser, 2 x light cruisers and 8 destroyers. The Jintsu convoy had 1 x elderly light cruiser and 4 destroyers escorting 1 x troop ship.

The Japanese convoy under the command of a veteran Admiral Tanaka on the flagship Jintsu.

EastGroup under the command of Admiral Glassford on the Boise.

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