Crusader Battle of Ascalon using Hail Caesar

From left, Joel, Allen, Andy, and Brett listen as Steve explains the special rules for the Battle of Ascalon, 1099 A.D.

Steve V has decided that his Spring convention game will use Hail Caesar rules to refight the Battle of Ascalon, 1099 A.D. This Crusader victory is considered the final battle of the First Crusade, and takes place after their capture of Jerusalem. According to reports, the Crusaders caught the Fatimid Egyptian army unprepared, and this is what Steve has simulated with his special rules.

Keith's center of Christian pilgrims, dismounted knights, and crossbowmen advance aggressively towards the Muslim camp

One of the deciding features of a game of Hail Caesar are the morale tests that units must take -- generally when they lose a round of combat. Steve instituted a sliding scale with Fatimid units receiving a substantial negative modifier in early rounds, but getting progressively less words as the battle moves on. Our battle plan was to advance as quickly as possible -- even charging on the first turn of the game, if possible.

Across the battlefield from me, Tim's emir orders his Saracen cavalry forward to try to hold up my advance

We won the Initiative, and chose to go first. Another key feature of Hail Caesar is that players are in control of a commands composed of a number of units (mine had two mounted knight units, one heavy infantry spear and one heavy infantry crossbow). One of my knights could actually reach one of Tim's Bedouin cavalry units, if I rolled well. I immediately set out to even the playing field for the Fatimids by failing on my first command roll -- which ended my turn prematurely. No advance. On the opposite left flank, Mike W followed suit. Hmm, now them's some bad omens!

One of Tim's cavalry units charge into my Crusader spearmen, but their crossbowmen and knightly comrades close up to add support (in Hail Caesar, flank and rear support give bonus combat dice)

Steve's modifiers for the Fatimids also extended to bonuses to the Crusader's command rolls early in the game, and negative modifiers for the Muslims. My opponent Tim failed his rolls, as well, and no advances were made -- we must have all been praying, we decided. Elsewhere, our center Keith was pushing forward quickly, opposed by Allen (who was rolling very well) and Andy. My command eventually got moving and we began to take the battle to the Fatimids. There is a substantial random factor with Hail Caesar with the command die rolls and loads of dice for combat, as well. Surprisingly, my rolling wasn't ALL terrible. I had my usual challenges, but never actually lost a unit while putting a number of Tim's units to flight.

Andy demonstrates how the Fatimids should hammer the Christian lines, while Joel watches on and Allen quaffs some of the beverage forbidden by the Prophet

In fact, we ended up winning the game despite our slow start and despite Keith's center mostly disappearing. It was shored up by the charge of his last remaining knight unit. Not a lot of maneuver, but like most Hail Caesar games, a definite slugfest. If you like historical refights that involve pushing lead and rolling lots of dice, look for Steve's game at Cincycon and Daycon in 2018.

Though it looked like they'd prevail when Keith's center nearly collapsed, the Fatimid Egyptians were doomed to repeat their historical loss to Godfrey de Bouillon's crusaders