Milton Hundred Wargames Club

Having played DBA since being formed a couple of years ago, we thought it was time Milton Hundred Wargames Club tried something new for our growing collections of Ancients. Some members had played DBM (or is it DBMM or even DBMMM by now?) but found the constant changing frustrating. Others had played Warhammer Ancients, in this instance the individual characters seemed to work for Dark Ages but became a bit silly for the Classic period (and just too many dice). There have been a number of new "glossy" rules sets recently. Having played the odd game of Black Powder we plumped for Hail Caesar.

So what do you get? A nice hard back book with lots of colourful pictures (do these inspire or demoralise - "I can never paint that good"?). The rules look long which often means complicated but on first reading the rules came over as fairly simple and the lengthy wording provided an almost idiot's guide to understanding the intent. There is a thorough index and equally important the quick reference sheet, by the end of our second game (see below) we were able to virtually play off this and only referring back to the main book for the odd clarification or special rule. The rules give an example of (all?) troop types so it is easy to work out an army assuming some basic knowledge of the period being played. The variety of troop types resemble the old WRG 6th Edition with the risk of "super heavy light medium cavalry" but again common sense combined with historical knowledge should prevail. Another throw back to WRG 5th (or maybe 4th) Edition is the special weapons - I can't wait to get some Kontos armed cavalry into play, although my phalanx Hoplites were undone by Persian Immortals. Armies are generally broken into commands or divisions of units which is great for multi player games. Divisions can be any size number of units but we played with 3-4, bigger divisions will be more difficult to break so assuming the figures are available its a compromise between size of armies and time available to play. Units sizes vary but a fairly typical 12 cav / 24 inf seemed ok in our games.

The rules feature motivation dice rolls to get troops moving, up to 3 turns in a row with the correct dice. A nice touch is stating that turns order before dicing, thus your opponent can enjoy your frustration when the dice Gods frown upon you! There are a set of combat factors for ranged weapons (with a penalty for long range) and combat (with a higher value for the initial contact). The process is loosely that of Warhammer with 4,5 & 6 to hit and then the opponents saving roll depending upon armour etc of up to 4,5 & 6 (modifiers apply to both). The big difference from Warhammer is dice - on average starting 3 per unit for shooting and average of 6 for combat (again modifiers apply). Morale (or Break) tests follow. Units will generally take 6 hits - figures are not removed but some form of annotation is required (the rules suggest discarded shield from the spares box but any marker will do), thereafter moral becomes very poor with retreat and break a likely result. We have now played 2 games of a couple of hours each, during which my Hoplite Greeks suffered defeat at the hands of Early Achaemenid Persians, more through their own overzealous commander than anything exciting from the Persians (but then I may be biased). Some players were new to Ancients but soon got the hang of play and seemed to enjoy themselves even if their division was short lived (note - an early lost division did not stop the Persians going on to win overall).

These rules are really about having a good game and aimed at the "gentleman wargamer" as the non competition players have become known. It even mentions in the text moving scenery a little bit so figures can line up - could you imagine this with Armatti ("played that don't like it")?