Border Raid; 10mm Romans take on the Ancient British Tribes using Hail Caesar.

 Set up and planning for today's game was quite simple, I used the 'Border Raid' scenario direct from the main rulebook (p128), making copies of the Roman and Britons brief's for the players. Due to the varying Roman deployments and with most of the British troops not deployed until they are spotted or move I decided it would be best if I was one of the British players. Fate then decided that Ian would play General Bagotrix (we had two commands each). That left Howard and Phil in charge of the Romans. 

This first photo shows the Romans advancing onto the table in search of the British tribesmen.

The British Herdsman spotted the Romans and ran to raise the alarm, only to then fail his command throws for 3 turns in a row resulting him being overrun by the Romans. Happily the sentries were able to spot the rapidly advancing Romans and lit the beacon to raise the tribes. My main command under Catubatrenus entered the table in the top corner on turn 4...

 ...but the village (bottom left) had been set to the torch by Roman General Marcus Spandex (Howard), see the photo below. 

Today really proved to be Howards day as leaving the village his troops surged forward to meet Ian's main command, Bagotrix and his men. I don't think Howard has ever thrown so many 6's as his legions were able to withstand the wild charge of Ian's British warriors and over 3 turns beat them in the melee and wounding first Bagotrix and then the Druid Alibongo who had rushed his fanatics forward to help. Howard gradually ground all of Ian's troops including the fanatics to breakpoint (that was two broken divisions out of 4 but with the villagers already gone that made 3 broken divisions = defeat).  

On the other side of the table Phil had taken quite a few turns to get his cavalry command moving and my Warband were equally reluctant to advance. When his cavalry finally did clash with my chariots we fought each other to a standstill on the large hill whilst my Warbands were still being reluctant to move forward (see bottom right of photo above). 

The Romans had managed to advance, destroy the first village, capture the roaming cattle and then destroy 3 out of 4 of the British commands. My troops then opted to withdraw. Game over with a resounding Roman victory. We are really enjoying our games of Hail Caesar which seem to be becoming our Ancients rules of choice.