[Flash Bang Zap the Dayglo Mage]

They are made of a very hard metal Jeffers, so I can appreciate the risk of injury if doing conversions! Shame they never produced (as far as I know) any German Marines.

[Flash Bang Zap the Dayglo Mage]

Hi Shandy

Well I have to base this on my experience of BP, but they can still shoot (not so useful in HC) or you can order them back through the lines to a rear position where (I think) they can still support.  The latter may not be so practical in HC as I believe interpenetration of troops is less free and easy than in BP.  But otherwise, yes, they’re probably just going to get in the way until they’re finished off!

Sorry not to be able to give more concrete advice, but my experience with HC is the same as yours so far, albeit with some familiarity with this rules ‘family’.

Cheers

Paul

[Flash Bang Zap the Dayglo Mage]

Hi Shandy

I also played my first game of Hail Caesar over the holidays.  We had a great game and I’m looking forward to trying it out again.  I have played quite a bit of Black Powder, on which HC is based, and at first couldn’t find what I expected to find, which was the ‘Rally Order’.  This is because it is in the chapter about commanders rather than the chapter about orders as in the BP book.  Anyway, essentially you can issue an order to a unit which has suffered casualties in order to remove one (you can never remove the last one).  If HC works the same as BP (can’t remember as I write), your commander then has to join the unit concerned.  This can be used to remove a unit’s shaken status and get it back in the fray, but I often find in BP that by the time you need to start issuing rally orders your commander is busy doing other things anyway!

Cheers

Paul

[Flash Bang Zap the Dayglo Mage]

That looks great.  Reminds me of the old Airfix 1:32 and OO/HO strongpoint.

[Flash Bang Zap the Dayglo Mage]

Yes, I’ve been playing War and Conquest since it came out and all of my gaming group have switched over to it from WAB.  However given that it calls for figure removal and Henry is intending to use the smaller scales, it might not be for him.  More generally though, I feel it improves over WAB in a number of ways.  Combat is simpler and follows a more logical order of roll to hit, roll to save, roll to wound.  Combat effectiveness of personalities is toned down from WAB and they are often better giving you command benefits than being placed in a unit.  They add a number of additional ‘strikes’ for the unit in melee, but as per the unit’s own stats, so if they are part of a unit, it had better be an elite one rather than a unit of levy (as it should be)!  Finally, the turn system is IGO UGO, but with the possibility of changing order each round, so there is the possibility of an IGO UGO; UGO IGO sequence (this can be modified with expendable command points known as Strategy Intervention Points).  This makes the development of the battle far less predictable and really adds an element of excitement to the pre-turn phase.

One can nit-pick about various aspects: our group is frustrated by the fact that phalangites seem consistently outclassed by hoplites;  I have also heard others complain about the missile effectiveness of large units of skirmishers, but overall I think W&C gives a really good game and we are pleased to have made the change fromWAB, which we’d played for ten years or so.

Cheers

Paul

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