The Hail Caesar Invasion of Britain:- Battle of the Medway Mark II using the new Kings of War rules. Roman Legionnaires as Kingdom of Men, and the Britons as a Herd army.
I’ve built the two armies to be as equal equivalent as possible, with the Main Roman Force crossing the River Medway by means of a pontoon bridge close to the modern day Rochester. The army general Plautius, had ordered his Batavian Auxillary Cavalry upstream to swim the river, and seek out the British Cavalry and Chariots with 2 units of Medium Cavalry and supporting infantry. He had also ordered Vespasian to head downstream to find a fording point and that both Divisions should attack and close the trap on the British infantry that were blocking Plautius’s attack.
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The two Britain forces,
Both armies are weighing in at around 2440, so they have around 60 points to play with for spells or items.
With an addition of a Army Battle Standard, and Bagpipes of Terror (my female Dwarf Piper fitted in nicely with the smaller 28mm Roman miniatures. ) and a Blessing of the Gods on the British unit of Noble Tribal Spears upgrade from Tribal Warriors both sides hit 2500 points each.
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One thing becomes clear almost immidiately. The new rules is a big A4 size nearly 300 page tome, which doesn’t sit out of the way very easily, unlike the old A5. Granted, it is better than 3 books.
“No Battle Plan survives contact with the enemy,” Sun Tzu said. A quote that is used frequently in Jack Reacher books. I tend to prefer "The best laid plans of Mice and Men, " by Robert Burns. A roll of the dice in a game can bring it to life. I just to a pot shot at a horde of Britons from a Roman Scorpion. Hit twice, one wound . …rolled for Nerve, needed a double 6, got a double six. Re roll as inspiring presence of the General next to the unit. Rolled a double 6 again. That sort of thing really messes with a player’s mojo.
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you’re making up for others years of poor rolls. You are the Yin to my Yang 
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hehehe… i have bad days for sure, but statistically, i roll better than average: The power of positivity at work. 2 double sixes however, is good, even from me.
However, despite the demise of Battle Plans, and the cunning of Mice, experience has taught me to always fighting to the bitter end, whether that is coaching rugby or wargaming.
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Imperial Roman Onager, Early Roman Aquilifer and two Scorpion, along with the free miniature Richard the Lionheart are now done
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Red trimmed Roman Legionnaires and Blue trimmed Auxiliary (so far) with flexible base options for either KoW or Hail Caesar rules.
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beautiful and inspiring there Nav. Have you routed the Celts back to their villages yet?
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Many thanks @Gerrcinn and sadly, no, they didn’t.The Roman Invasion of Britain has been somewhat derailed by shoddy workmanship to an outsourced chariot axle maker. The wheels not only fell off their chariots, they spectacularly shattered into a thousand peices,
History was rewritten after the Battle of the Medway, when Plautius failed to put his brilliant plan fully into action. This was mainly due to the Batavians Praefect failing to prevent the British reserves of Cavalry and chariots from reaching the battlefield.
Vespasian did his best on the left flank , but despite this, Togodumnos secured the riverbank and defeated the Roman Veterans there. Thus, denying Plautius’s main force from crossing the river via the pontoon bridge. Eventually, Vespasian had to retreat with unseemly haste and very little dignity.
All is not lost though…
Reinforcements have now arrived and the Romans are ready to make a second attempt.
Needless to say, the British clans still adamantly refused to acknowledge the benefits of a united Europe. Not even a united kingdom for that matter.
The waring tribes that covered this wet and dreary island at the back end of nowhere, are quite willing to heatidly argue about anything at the drop of a hat. They are currently desputing the colour of the sky and will continue to do so until it crashes down on thier heads.
Even the bread and toilet roll shortages haven’t united the warring tribes.
The Roman Legions generally wonder what Caesar saw in this Gods Forsaken land of bogs and wild forests, and would quite happily leave the waring Celts to kill each other.
Nevertheless, orders were orders, and soldiers knew the futility of questioning the logic behind any orders. They only hoped that someone of higher ranks knew what they were doing.
My Roman Legionnaires ( Red trimmed bases, or Purple for Praetorian units,) and their Auxillary units ( with blue trim ).
All on flexible unit base types to cover both Hail Caesar historical rules or Mantic Kings of War rules.
Romans consist of the following, (which i hope are historically correct, but just in case, I apologies in advance)
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HQ choices.
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General on horse : Legatus
General on foot: Centurian
Battle Standard bearer: Aquilifer (The bearer of the Eagle).
Auxiliary Praefect (commander)
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2 Roman Scorpions (Bolt Thrower )
An Onager
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Praetorian Cavalry unit (Troop of 5 but awaiting a further eleven that didn’t arrive with the rest of my order).
Elite Heavy Infantry Regiment of Praetorian Gaurds.
A Regiment of Roman Legionnaires Veterans
4 x Heavy Infantry regiment of Roman Legionnaires, (including one raw recruits.)
1 Imperial Roman Legionnaires in Testudo formation
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Auxilia Units:
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Two War Elephants, with a dozen Numidian Javalin Skirmishers
16 Auxiliary Medium/Heavy Cavalry
3 troop units of 12 Auxiliary Bowmen (one East, the other two are West.)
1 troop unit of 10 Javalin Skirmishers
a regiment of Auxillery Balaeric Slingers
A regiment of Infantry Auxiliary Spearmen
I still have 60 Roman Legionaires, 20 more Veterans, and 20 more Praetorian on foot, plus 20 more Auxillery infantry to glue and paint, and when the rest of my missing Praetorian cavalry arrive, those too.
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I know you’re running them as KoM, but have you looked at the possibility of using them as Basileans? Just throwing it out there to let you mull it over
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I’ll look into that @Gerrcinn thanks. I’m still on the fence about my Romans and KoW army equivelant, I’ve considered KoM, Dwarf or Free Dwarfs (as my Warlord Hail Caesar Romans are scale for 28mm ) , Northern Alliance, and Varungar. To say nothing of the Historical option translated from French) At a glance, the Basileans could fit well also.
Needless to say, it hasn’t helped that all three ( Historical KoW , KOW and Hail Caesar )all have new rules books for me to wrangle with, and any prolonged reading is a disaster with my Parkinson’s Disease, so I’ve put them off since purchaseing, although i did get a quick game of KoW in on the local KoW day in Mayo recently. (Which was the same day i bought the Red Book)
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I started building mine with a view to running the Romans as paladins, the praetorians as the upgraded paladin defenders, and then the auxilia as Men-At-Arms.
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At first glance, the idea certainly has got merits. I can see where you are coming from.
Great plans of mice and men. only now do i realize that i only need 10 models for a KoW regiment. not 12. I’m going to have to find 2x 25x50 bases and break up one of the bases. no biggy.
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As miniatures go, I wouldn’t be fond of these old metal models, but I needed another Cavalry regiment, and these came with the rest at a bargain price.
Given that, and whatever touch up needs to be done when the wash dries, , the bases help to detract from worst flaws.
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