Early Successors

View of the table

Garry's cavalry on the right flank

Elephants, skirmishers and pike in the centre

Garry's left flank

My right flank

My centre with pike

My left flank with Companions

Veteran Agryaspides (Silver Shields) in the centre

On Sunday morning there was a car boot sale for the Canberra Games Society (CGS) at the Bridge Club in Deakin organised by Ian. Afterwards Garry, Craig and I had a 300 point, two divisions a side Early Successors game of Hail Caesar with agreed additional points/units of two elephants and elephant guards on both sides. A Successor game without elephants just doesn't seem right! Bern and Ian watched the game and provided invaluable support in the form of rule interpretation, tactical advice and general sledging...

The second hand car boot sale was a success with some real bargains to be had, and very tempting 28mm Foundry Late Romans and Musketeer Miniatures Arabs on offer. I bought some 40mm by 40mm bases, a LBM Dark Ages banner, the Morituri Te Salutant gladiator rules for $5, 40 painted BTD Oscans/Samnites and Velites for $70 and a can of anti shine varnish!

The table size was limited by the desert gaming mat I'd brought along, usually we play on a 9' by 5' table tennis table. This was a big disadvantage for Garry as he'd chosen more skirmishers and light cavaly in his army but there was little room for maneouvre and I outnumbered his pike units by two to one! The Companions in wedges proved to be decisive in the game. I'd upgraded both my units to heavy cavalry from medium cavalry which meant under the wedge rules pp.106-107 they were saving on +3 from all round.

This combined with at least two extremely lucky saving throws of  five casualties meant they were probably a bit over top. Restricting them to medium cavalry only stats might be a solution to this but then luck could easily have gone the other way. By the end of the game Garry's cavalry division was broken and one of his three pike units had also been broken. Thanks to Ian for organising the car boot sale and to Garry and Craig for a fun game. It was good to have our first Hail Caesar Successor stoush.

The Companions charge

The surviving wedge is driven back

The Companions charge the pike in the flank but receive some attention themselves

View from the centre

The pike finally close

Another view of the centre

The Companions and Chalkaspides (Bronze Shields) break the opposing pike

The elephants and their guards keep fighting