Battle of Mons Graupius - 28mm Report

[Eric the Shed]

Evening All

Over the last couple of weeks we have been trying to recreate the Roman Invasion of Caledonia which culminated in the Battle of Mons Graupius (AD83 or AD84). The blog reports our attempts, the full orders of battle and a lot of pictures...about 1500 figures on the table

more here...
https://shedwars.blogspot.com/2024/02/battle-of-mons-graupius-28mm-ancient.html









Hope this is of interest

[Basementboy]

It most certainly is of interest! Very inspiring, thanks for sharing!

[Inkpaduta]

Really nice. I liked it.

[Eric the Shed]

Thanks chaps...

[Ran The Cid]

Epic battle!  Every time I see a report like this, I stay motivated to keep growing my armies.

How many people do you have playing?  4 hours of play time is a pretty fast run for such a large battle.

The independent commanders is an interesting idea.  Sort of clashes with the division structure, but looks like a good way to keep units moving forward after a failed command roll.

[WorkShy]

Very impressive. It really does make a difference when you can field a 1000+ minis when trying to get that epic big battle feel. Plus 4 hours is really not that long at all for a game. We're getting toward those sorts of numbers (perhaps 1300 or so minis) using WAB rules and it feels so much better than with 500 or so. We like WAB but mainly for it's supplements such as Age of Arthur, Shieldwall etc, rather than the rule system per se. Do you have a view on relative turn times in Hail Ceasar vs. WAB for battles of this size?

[Eric the Shed]

Epic battle!  Every time I see a report like this, I stay motivated to keep growing my armies.

How many people do you have playing?  4 hours of play time is a pretty fast run for such a large battle.

The independent commanders is an interesting idea.  Sort of clashes with the division structure, but looks like a good way to keep units moving forward after a failed command roll.

Thank you - Five of us were playing - 2 Romans/3 Celts - we played the bulk of the game in 3 hours - 4 would have been sufficient

[Eric the Shed]

Do you have a view on relative turn times in Hail Ceasar vs. WAB for battles of this size?

Thank you - never played WAB but turn times for Hail Caesar can be really fast - things only grind down when you have lots of combats to be resolved. With multiple players we tend to have several melees going on simultaneously

[Ran The Cid]

Do you have a view on relative turn times in Hail Caesar vs. WAB for battles of this size?

Having played both game systems, the time commitment has more to do with set up and clean up than turns.  HC is a unit based game - my units live on their trays.  Set up consists of taking 16-20 units + 4 or 5 commanders out of a box and putting them on the table.  Clean up is the same in reverse.  WAB is a single figure based game.  Even if your set up is like HC, with prepared units on movement trays, clean up is a mess with a hundred(s) individual figures that need to be sorted and returned to their unit trays (or individually packed away). 

Turns in a HC can some times be very fast.  HC uses a command roll to move units.  Its not uncommon in the early game for a third of the army to sit due to failed rolls.  Movement is also less structured in HC - just move the unit from A to B without needing to measure wheels to the millimeter.  Not that HC is without its complications.  A lot of time can be spent on figuring out proximity and what is a legal move while keeping the front of a unit pointed at the enemy.

[trev]

That's impressive!    You need to play Romans on this scale to see the successive lines working properly.

[WorkShy]

Having played both game systems, the time commitment has more to do with set up and clean up than turns.  HC is a unit based game - my units live on their trays.  Set up consists of taking 16-20 units + 4 or 5 commanders out of a box and putting them on the table.  Clean up is the same in reverse.  WAB is a single figure based game.  Even if your set up is like HC, with prepared units on movement trays, clean up is a mess with a hundred(s) individual figures that need to be sorted and returned to their unit trays (or individually packed away). 

Turns in a HC can some times be very fast.  HC uses a command roll to move units.  Its not uncommon in the early game for a third of the army to sit due to failed rolls.  Movement is also less structured in HC - just move the unit from A to B without needing to measure wheels to the millimeter.  Not that HC is without its complications.  A lot of time can be spent on figuring out proximity and what is a legal move while keeping the front of a unit pointed at the enemy.

Thanks for that. Always like to hear what people thing of rulesets such as Hail Caesar or Swordpoint since WAB is still somewhat our default for migration period or early medieval. No interest in DBA/DBM/ADLG really and have high hopes for Midgard but it seems to be always around the corner.

[Atheling]

Fabulous stuff Erik! 

[bluewillow]

Superb stuff Eric,

Nothing like a big figure count Wargame

[nikkobourges]

Hello,
Awesome battle !!
Nikkobourges

[Waffles_vs_Tacos]

Just amazing, epic looking game! I have said it before, but your games look like the sort of matches most of us will only ever get to play at conventions, I imagine it's a lot of work but a dream come true to be able to play games like that at home!