Friday, March 15, 2013

Hail Caesar Fantasy

We finally had a chance to get Lead Addict's lovely 15mm Demonworld troops on the table. Newly based and flocked, ready for battle. Using Hail Caesar, with the lists from the Hail Sauron Yahoo Group (which are too Warhammer-centric for me, but can fix), fight between Orcs and Elves began.
There were 3 players a side. The Elves went for bigger divisions with fewer commanders. This would make it tough to "Break" a division, but the tactical abilities would be limited.
We orcs went with smaller divisions but 5 commands. This would help later in the battle.
Trolls make sure the troops in front stay in the fight

Giants, too.
The Elves won initiative, but being the fey gentlemen they are, elected to let us brutes go first. There was spirited advance all along the front (good die rolling, no failures).
Then the elves moved. They got all but their flying elements moving.
The forces prepare to clash

The elven right flank

The gods decide the elves fate
By turn 3 we were getting close. A boulder from my rock lobbing troll, sent an elf spear unit scurrying away. Meanwhile on the orc left flank, wolf riders and flying horses and centaurs were mixing it up. A certain hill exchanged hands many times.
When it was time to come to grips, a group cowardly elves decided to use the woods as shelter, and  pick at the brave orcs from afar. A bloodthirsty charge drove them deeper into the woods and ran a few off. But this left that division close to breaking.
In the center, a group of minotaurs was run off without a fight, a the flanks were turning into a meat grinder. Having started late (stupid kids and their sports), we didn't get much farther. It looked like the elves might get the upper hand, but you know how things go in war, they could have just as easily lost. Time for re-match.
Moments before the treants destroy my spearmen
As far as I'm concerned, we've found our much longed for fantasy mass battle rules. HC is scalable, so we' just halved all the distances. Worked great. Next time, we throw in magic and get reference cards for the troops. I'd also like some proper hi markers. The figs are so nice, I don't like mucking up the table with dice.
A good evening, and K-State and Mizzou both won!

16 comments:

  1. Glad the rules worked out well, always great to see properly painted armies on nice terrain. Well done LA!

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  2. Now, to get my stunties on the field.

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  3. It was fun, and a real treat to see them all finally finished and on the field.

    Much painting to do on the Orcs and the Wood Elves(pictured above) will get a full army in support from their Snooty Brethren High Elven Lords.

    But as for the rules. I think I'm good. What a feeling. Now its just tweaking troops.

    Thanks for Hosting Jaye. Full pics of the Orc and Wood Elf Armies on the Lead Addict blog.

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  4. Good to hear on the batrep that the rules worked out. Will give them a gander definitely.

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  5. It appears the Yahoo Group had to remove all the files that even remotely sounded "GW". If nothing else, one could easily find historic troops types and use the stats for fantasy.

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  6. BTW, all the lists are still on the group, I've just re-organised the file folders... have a browse, you should still find what you are after... I am just hoping the original list authors for the group, will come back and use a pdf editor or some such, just to tweak the units names etc , to less GW WFB sounding names, but still be recognizable for what they are!
    Thanks again for your patronage.

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  7. Baron- awesome stuff. By the way...

    Congratulations, you have just been chosen as a recipient of the Liebster award
    http://www.skullandcrown.blogspot.com/2013/03/ive-done-been-liebstered.html

    Cheers,
    Thomas Foss

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  8. Baron,

    Nice report and glad to see that Hail Caesar Fantasy is being played! I think they are a great addition to HC and hopefully will encourage others to play 15mm mass fantasy battle.

    I have a very large collection of 15mm fantasy, you can see some here on my blog

    http://warrenswargamerantings.blogspot.com

    AS Scott said the rule amendments are still there as are the army lists. I have begun to 'tweek' the lists to fit my own collection, the DW Giant Fighting Spiders and Dwarf constructs are 'stats' work in progress, they need to be strong but how strong?

    Look forward to seeing more

    Thanks

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  9. "...a group cowardly elves decided to use the woods as shelter..." Should I even guess who?

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  10. It was actually Mathews this time. No kidding.

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  11. I know it's hard to believe but Greg charged straight up the middle.
    Scott, good to hear you're behind Hail Sauron. If we ever get around to it, we'll post the lists we come up with for the Demonworld stuff to the Yahoo group.

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  12. With 2 units of Heavy Cav, two units of Heavy Infantry, A unit of Elite Guard Swordsmen, and a Unit of Elite Guard Bowmen, I would have charged up the middle too.

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  13. Hey, I can occasionally play defense. Just staying in character with the "Wood Elves"...

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  14. Looks like fun. Wish I could of made it.

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