Hail Caesar Dark Age-any suggestions?

[ulverston]

Hi Chaps,

its a great time to be a wargamer with all the plastic figures available especially for myself as I love Gripping Beasts Late Romans (Santa brought me some more) with the option of more Saxons and Vikings on the way.
I have been looking at various rulesets and dont want a mass of cards or sinking £50 into a couple of books and special dice so the front runner is Hail Caesar. This does not come without its own problems though... the army lists are a bit sparse and wondered what you Chaps use or would recommend?

As I play solo I could add a few characters into the game as I won't be complaining... my normal units will be 12 figures based singly on sabot bases. 6 for cavalry 8 for small etc.

I will actually try and post a pic of my progress over the festivities when I get some time to put out a table. Please do let me know what you would do to the basic rules to "darken" them up a bit.

Thanks in advance your thoughts will be most valuable.

[Eric the Shed]

We went down the route for Hail Caesar for Dark Ages - we fought all the battles of 1066 a couple of years back. Hail Caesar works really well for the period ! My battle reports give a flavour of the games we have played.

Fulford
http://shedwars.blogspot.com/2019/03/1066-battle-of-fulford-in-28mm.html

Stamford Bridge
http://shedwars.blogspot.com/2019/02/1066-battle-of-stamford-bridge-wargame.html

Hastings
http://shedwars.blogspot.com/2019/03/1066-battle-of-hastings-28mm-wargame.html

Keep us posted

[Atheling]

We used to use Warhammer Ancient Battles which unsurprisingly has a heroic element to the game which suits the 'Dark Ages' well. Where it fails is in keeping a line of battle in some semblance of order without units routing here there and everywhere. It was usually wings, centres or the whole battle line that routed and not units here and there.

In my humble opinion Hail Caesar failed quite miserably on the points outlined above.

Dux Bellorum, puplished by Osprey, has exactly the right feel for 'Dark Age'/Early Medieval battles. They sprang out of Dan Merser's twenty odd quest for a set of rules that suit the 'period'. You can play with the basic base  sizes or up the number of miniatures in each unit and use larger bases so it is very flexible.

I was about to start really getting into the nitty gritty of Swordpoint but Covid put pay to that. The rules do put a heavy emphasis on the battle line so an elite unit will still find it hard to make headway and smash through, a problem that many rules fail to address.

An extra word on Warhammer Ancient Battles if I may? The Shieldwall supplement is great if used properly and not maxed out to win at all costs, The El Cid supplement is much more balanced and it is hard to put together a killer army (a very good thing) but certainly the most balanced and fun lists to play. I have had extensive experience of all the Warhammer Ancient Battles supplements and if played in the right spirit they are really great fun.

Here's a couple of pics of various games played over the years (mainly though not exclusively using Warhammer Ancient Battles, to hopefully whet your appetite.

Solachon from Claymore 2008:

Fulford Gate



Happy dice rolling when you have made your decision

[ulverston]

Thanks for the replies Guys-I am thoroughly stunned with the work that has gone into those games. Eric I will be reading your reports, taking notes and if you dont mind lifting a lot of ideas from your blog-I have followed it for a long time but completely missed this.

Atheling... those photos! What a game! I loved Warhammer Ancients and was really put out when it was discontinued. It seemed such a strange decision when the game was so popular-if only I had kept the books.

Thanks again Chaps this is superb and has really kick started my solo gaming which was starting to lack something. Much appreciated and plenty to have a go at.

[Atheling]

Thanks for the replies Guys-I am thoroughly stunned with the work that has gone into those games. Eric I will be reading your reports, taking notes and if you dont mind lifting a lot of ideas from your blog-I have followed it for a long time but completely missed this.

Atheling... those photos! What a game! I loved Warhammer Ancients and was really put out when it was discontinued. It seemed such a strange decision when the game was so popular-if only I had kept the books.

Thanks again Chaps this is superb and has really kick started my solo gaming which was starting to lack something. Much appreciated and plenty to have a go at.

No worries. A pleasure to help.

There are a few blogs out there that might be of interest with articles specific to the Dark Ages, looking at different rules. Q google search would be one way but here's a few tasters with various rules systems in mind:

http://darkageswab.blogspot.com/

http://craigswargamingblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/dux-bellorum-dark-ages-gaming.html

http://chuckgame.blogspot.com/2017/02/medieval-periods-early-dark-ages.html

http://jjwargames.blogspot.com/2016/09/jjs-dark-ages-saxon-warband.html

[ulverston]

Atheling, thanks for those links, it seems choosing the right ruleset is a common theme for this period. There is plenty to look at here so my next two days at work will be err productive! I think I will base singly and use sabot bases and add a few characters into the Hail Caesar set which I have been studying a little more.

You have to love blogs, there are so many out there I can't keep up but some of them really are gems.... the dark age maps will be printed out for sure.

Thanks again for the help.

[Atheling]

Atheling, thanks for those links, it seems choosing the right ruleset is a common theme for this period. There is plenty to look at here so my next two days at work will be err productive! I think I will base singly and use sabot bases and add a few characters into the Hail Caesar set which I have been studying a little more.

You have to love blogs, there are so many out there I can't keep up but some of them really are gems.... the dark age maps will be printed out for sure.

Thanks again for the help.

No probs. Please don't hesitate to ask for anything if you need it