Is Hail Caesar dying?

[Andre]

why, I’m asking is Hail Caesar dying? when I come to this part of the Warlord forms, there is not a lot going on here, No! pic’s of armies that people are working on, No, battle reports, Not sure why there is a forum for Hail Caesar, Don’t get me wrong. I love the game, but this part of the forums is dead and would like to know why? Not sure if any one will answer, looks like nobody is home.

• This topic was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by Andre.

[Craig]

We are working on improving the community site. There is more planned for Hail Caesar!

[Andre]

Cool! sounds good, can’t wait for it to get done.

 

[Rough Rider]

I’m not sure if Hail Ceasar is dying but I find the new forum to be a bit tricky; I stopped trying to post pics of projects and AAR’s as either the photos wouldn’t show or the post got flagged as spam. When  the old system got binned a lot of people did not return; I saw that with another of my favourite forums. Having said that, the Bolt Action sub-forum is still relatively healthy but it is a much more popular system.

[SteveT]

Based on how few respond here, my suspicion is it might have fallen out of fashion. Bolt Action gets responses in moments sometimes.

[invisible officer]

The rules are just one side, the problem for the Forum  are the miniatures. The Warlord ancients are good but there are other companies with very good ancients. In old Forum that was no problem. We could show them too.

Last week I had a bigger battle setting on my table.  But  Punic wars – so not Warlord.  And my EIR are metal, pre Warlord era good quality ones.  Just a few Warlord additions.

[Charge The Guns]

I think that the number of forum posts is not, on its own, a reliable view of rule popularity. The Bolt Action forum is very busy, and I think this is due to Bolt Action being seen as more of a ‘whole game system’ by many. You buy the rules, you buy the figures, you buy the paint, etc. (This is great for historical gaming as I think BA is the ‘gateway drug’ for GW fans in to historical.) As IO has pointed out, many Ancients players have a background before Warlord. Also quite a bit of BA forum traffic is about the competitive side of the game, and I think the other historical rules sets don’t lend themselves to that side of gaming. (I’ve never seen a Black Powder tournament advertised.)

I think Warlord are right to have a forum for their rules as I’m sure it helps support people who have queries etc. I wonder if it would be a good idea to have a different set of fora that focused on general “Ancient Gaming”? That could look at general historical discussion, and also pictures of other manufacturer figures etc. However, do we need another general gaming social media outlet?

[SteveT]

Yes, I think it might be partly due to the fact that Warlord don’t rule the ancients’ wargaming world.  Might change as they bring out more figures? I am so late to the party that I would’ve expected more presence here, on what must surely be the main forum for the game?

I think the strength of the openness of the Hail Caesar rules (and Black Powder) might also be its weakness, since the rules are aggravatingly vague or dispersed on occasion . This doesn’t bode well in competitive environments (even friendly ones, where we need to know we are singing from the same hymn sheet). Most of my questions on this forum are an attempt to pin down precise details since I am used to absolute precision of DBx or board games like ASL  And it amazes me how basic some of the questions I have needed to ask are. (Admittedly some were my failings of reading the books carefully enough).

There is also another aspect that is harder to explain. Traditional rules such as DBx, WRG, and all the rest of it, have built in certain expectations of how an ancient battle plays out  (I know that is ridiculous and umbrella), but that is how it is. You can read criticisms of how HC or BA is just a “game” and “not a simulation”—  as if any other rules fair much better (!). How could they, since no rules could possibly simulate thousands of years  of conflict in all manner of places and situations.  I think Mr Priestly has mentioned he designed it more as a game between friends which is fine.  But might that alienate the traditionalists?  But personally, so far, I have found the games we’ve played to well resemble, in general, ancient battle reports.

When it comes to the WW2 stuff there isn’t much competition out there, not at skirmish level anyway, unless you like wildly random card/dice-driven games with comical events effectively hugely influencing battle outcomes (I’m sure you know the one I mean, and I am sure I will upset someone who will be tempted to explain how all games are random and how the fog of war pervades all. Yes, yes, yes…Just how much fog do you want?).

• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by SteveT.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by SteveT.

[Warren Coleman]

I hope not, I love Hail Caesar and am patiently waiting for follow on supplements, especially Punic Wars and Alexnder/GreecoPersian Wars

[mark]

Well before Covid struck, our little group regularly played lots of Hail Caeser,  between us we have lots of Ancient armies and Dark Aged armies , we got together every week , and at least three out of Four weeks was a Hail caeser game.

[Author]

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