Some Questions before jumping in

[doerchele]

With Amazon selling HC for $30, I'm thinking of giving the rules a try. I have a few questions that I hope someone here can help me with.

How are armies generated? For example, if I wanted to game the siege of Dumbarton, how would I generate an army for the Britons of Strathclyde? Is the army generation system generic?

What would be the average game time for an average sized army? In other words, will the wife be calling at 1:00 am and then you have to convince her that, no your not drunk, but playing with toy soldiers.

Does the game, as it stands, work with 10mm or will it need some basic conversion? I just have an itch to try 10mm. (Read: collectoritis is acting up again)

Is it fun and fast paced? The reason that I got into WAB was that a certain 15mm ruleset was mindnumbingly boring to my usual opponents.

Does gameplay feel right for Dark Age armies? At the moment, I only wargame the Dark Ages and am looking for a game that reflects combat in that era to some degree.

Thanks to anyone in advance who tries to tackle any or all of these questions.

Chris

[A Lot of Gaul]

Hi Chris,

I will take a stab ( ) at your questions below.

How are armies generated? For example, if I wanted to game the siege of Dumbarton, how would I generate an army for the Britons of Strathclyde? Is the army generation system generic?

There is no "army generation system" per se. Instead, you simply build your forces to suit your chosen scenario, based on your research and the number of figures you have available. For 28mm figures, a "standard" unit in HC will generally have a frontage of 160-200mm, and this can be scaled down for smaller figures if desired. Normally you would want four or more units per "division," and an army would comprise one or more such "divisions."

What would be the average game time for an average sized army? In other words, will the wife be calling at 1:00 am and then you have to convince her that, no your not drunk, but playing with toy soldiers.

The rules are designed so that large 28mm battles (16 or more units per side) with multiple players can be easily completed in an evening. If you are playing with one player per side, you can easily scale down the number of units to suit. Since you determine the size and scope of the battle, you can make it as large or small as you wish.

Does the game, as it stands, work with 10mm or will it need some basic conversion? I just have an itch to try 10mm. (Read: collectoritis is acting up again)

The game is easily adaptable, and includes an appendix with ideas on how to adjust for smaller figures. In practice, the key is the frontage of a "standard" unit. For example, I play Hail Caesar with 15mm figures on 40mm-wide bases. My chosen "standard" unit frontage is three bases, or 120mm, in width. For movement and shooting distances I normally substitute centimetres for inches, but that is purely a personal choice. Many players just use the distances as given, which definitely makes the game move faster!

Is it fun and fast paced? The reason that I got into WAB was that a certain 15mm ruleset was mindnumbingly boring to my usual opponents.

If that "certain 15mm ruleset" is the one I am thinking of, then I played it for about a year when it was first released. While acknowledging that different kinds of games appeal to different kinds of gamers, IMHO Hail Caesar is much faster and much more fun to play. Hail Caesar was developed from Warmaster Ancients, and while HC is a bit more complex than WA, it also retains many of the fun features from the earlier game, and plays nearly as fast.

Does gameplay feel right for Dark Age armies? At the moment, I only wargame the Dark Ages and am looking for a game that reflects combat in that era to some degree.

That isn't my period, so I can't offer any experience there. However, members of the Hail Caesar fan group in Yahoo who do play Dark Ages seem to like it quite a lot. The rulebook includes seven complete scenarios, and one of them is the Battle of Brunanburgh 937 AD. Here is a recent player battle report for that scenario: http://satrapminiatures.blogspot.com/2011/05/battle-of-brunanburgh-hail-caesar-game.html

Hope this helps!

Cheers,
Scott

[Guy]

Damn... Scott that's a pretty comprehensive overview... I fear I have nothing to add but 'What Scott said!'

Guy

[doerchele]

Thank you for the speedy and thorough reply. Do you work in sales?
I bought the ruleset off of Amazon, but it won't be arriving until sometime late July or early August. I guess that was the catch. I guess it will give me time to decide on the scale to use.
From what I have been reading online, it seems like an enjoyable ruleset. I don't think it would appeal to new ancient players as lists are a helpful guide. In a way, having no army lists is a godsend, as it lets you use the rules to wargame battles without having to wait for lists to be published. The few historical wargamers that live in my neck of the woods only gather once a month anyway, and gaming is an all day affair. This ruleset might be right for us.
Again, thank you for the answering so concisely.

[A Lot of Gaul]

@ Guy - Thanks much... coming from you, that is high praise indeed!

@ Chris - You are very welcome. You may want to keep an eye on Amazon, as they appear to have offered HC on pre-order without first consulting with the folks at Warlord Games to see if they would be receiving any copies.

You might also be interested in the Hail Caesar fan group in Yahoo: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/HailCaesarRules/

Rick Priestley is a frequent contributor to the group. He has mentioned that a number of supplements for Hail Caesar are currently in the works, the first of which will be roughly 100 army lists in one or (more likely) two books.

Cheers,
Scott

[doerchele]

The list price for HC is 47.50 with a discount to $31.35. It is not the preorder price. Shipping is only $9.98 to South Korea, which is a not bad at all.
It will ship on June 27, so it should arrive in mid-July. So far so good.
I joined the yahoo forum, but I shall lurk until I've got a copy in hand and concrete questions. This year is definitely the year of the rulesets and the wargaming section of my library is steadily expanding. I suspect that it will get bigger by the end of this year.
I'm not sure that I would be that interested in a 100 plus army list book. A scenerio/campaign,famous battles supplement would be more up my alley.
But then again, I have no will when it comes to the shiny new ruleset....