Warlord Games Shieldwall

[ulverston]

Hi,
I have been trying to decide if I should tackle my plastic mountain of Dark Age figures mostly as a result of watching 7th Son on Youtube. His tinkering with the Hail Caesar ruleset is very interesting as I wrongly thought that they were rather bland. Looking on the Warlord website I see there is an expansion "Shieldwall", is this book worth the expense or is it better to wing it? I havent yet found a review that is full of praise for this book.
I have the dilema of single bases or multi base to solve... I think this is pretty common!
Also just to ease my mind did Warhammer historical ever produce a dark age supplement, as I recall those books were pretty amazing.
Thanks for your thoughts on this

[DivisMal]

I have no idea who 7th Son is and what he does with the Warlord Games rules. I have all three 1st editons (Black Powder, Hail Caesar & Pike & Shotte). While there are some interesting things, I always felt the rules were unfinished and had a lot of rough edges…apart from insane model counts. So either a lot of reqork or just very nice eye candy!

Anyway, to answer your questions: there was the great Shieldwall from Warhammer Historical dealing with Viking raids on the British Isles, then there was a supplemental volume on Migration Period (Fall of the West iirc) and one on Arthur (don’t remember the name right now).

[SJWi]

Ulverston, Warhammer Historical released "Age of Arthur" and "Shieldwall". The former was Romano-British vs Saxons c5-6th centuries AD, the latter Viking-Norman era. As regards basing I now base individually but use sabots. Yes you have to spend some money on MdF bases but (a) I think they look nice but more importantly (b) it gives me a lot more flexibility as regards using the figures. I have many ancient/medieval armies and store my infantry on their sabots but the cavalry "loose" as their rectangular bases fit neatly in the box.  Thus I can you the cavalry sabots for several armies     

[Atheling]

Hi,

IMHO the Warlord Games supplement is really quite derivative of the book, As Told in the Great Hall: The Wargamer's Guide to Dark Age Britain, Martin Hackett. The similarities are uncanny for much of the Warlord supplement. That of itself is not a reason to avoid buying a copy of Warlord, Shieldwall but it would be remiss of me not to mention the similarities. The Hackett book is superior for scenario ideas if not for his rules (which are a bit all over the place).

I can't comment of how well the Warlord, Shieldwall plays as I haven't used it in anger. I have played a few games but that was more Successor era stuff and not really pertinent to your question. The members of my local club don't use the ruleset ergo having not played it for over a decade. I have heard a lot of good things about Hail Caesar so I'm not knocking the ruleset- it is by all appearances a very adaptable ruleset.

As SJWi has rightly pointed out, the Warhammer Ancient Battles Supplement, Shieldwall is a much better set of lists and also very adaptable, but with much more flavour than the Sheildwall supplement by Warlord. Assuming you are quite familiar with Hail Caesaryou could use the lists from the WAB Shieldwall supplement and apply them to Hail Caesar.

BTW, for the Sub /Roman/Arthurian era James Morris' Age of Arthur supplement can't be beaten for inspiring and extremely well balanced lists.

I my utterings prove to be of some help to you.

[fred]

I’ve played a lot of Hail Caesar (mainly with 10mm fantasy armies) it gives a good game - the command system is key and you either like it or you don’t.

As to unit sizes and figure counts - what matters is the unit foot print, the number of figures isn’t important. I think we played with 120mm x 40mm units.

[TWD]

Hi,

IMHO the Warlord Games supplement is really quite derivative of the book, As Told in the Great Hall: The Wargamer's Guide to Dark Age Britain, Martin Hackett.

Is it? Hahahaha. Oh dear.
That book is best avoided IMO.

[Atheling]

Is it? Hahahaha. Oh dear.
That book is best avoided IMO.

Why so Tom? It's got some pretty good scenario ideas. The rules are pants as i pointed out above.

[TWD]

There's a review on my blog from several years ago.
I hated it
Terrible history, bobbins rules, awful writing and weak scenarios.

Oh and picture of a C17 white horse on the cover of a book about the Dark Ages.

I mean apart from that...

[Atheling]

There's a review on my blog from several years ago.
I hated it
Terrible history, bobbins rules, awful writing and weak scenarios.

Oh and picture of a C17 white horse on the cover of a book about the Dark Ages.

I mean apart from that...

I quite liked the scenario ideas. It got me interested in Hereford and Shrewsbury in the 11th Century, which to be fair, I would not have considered for a game without reading the book.

[TWD]

In fairness his interpretations of history are on stronger ground towards the end of the period, so the two you describe may be better.

But we're derailing the thread here, so I'll let it go at that.

[Atheling]

In fairness his interpretations of history are on stronger ground towards the end of the period, so the two you describe may be better.

But we're derailing the thread here, so I'll let it go at that.

True... I'll bow out

[ulverston]

Thank you all for the information this will prove to be very helpful. Its a relief that Warhammer historical did cover the dark ages-I used to love those books! I think I will try the bring and buy stalls etc at the next show I go to to try and source Shieldwall. 
Sabot basing is very probably the best way to go and certainly makes the figures far more useable. As for reading I have only a few books on this period so nearly anything should prove useful.
Given that I now have a week off work I may wrestle with technology and put a few progress pics up as I go.
Once again thank you all for your assistance.

[TWD]

On a more positive note regarding books about the period Peter Marren's Battles of the Dark Ages is very good https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/245692.Battles_of_the_Dark_Ages

[Atheling]

On a .ore positive note regarding books about the period Peter Marren's Bates of the Dark Ages is very good https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/245692.Battles_of_the_Dark_Ages

Agreed. The Marren book is excellent and covers quite a lot of ground.

[Codsticker]

I have the supplement as well as the army list book. IMHO if you have a good understanding of both the period and how Hail Caesar works then you probably don't need the book; you can build appropriate unit/warband/whatever profiles, scenario guidelines, commanders, etc. yourself. If you haven't played much HC then go ahead and get the supplement. Better still, play a half dozen games of HC and then get the supplement if you still feel HC meets your needs.