"What is the "Right" size for a Hail Caesar Division?" Topic

Good Morning,

When designing a force for Hail Caesar, what do you all find works best, in terms of number of units for a Division?

I know the minimum is 4 units, but if find that usually results in fairly brittle divisions that often can't stay in the fight very long, and does not offer much kn the way of "depth".

In the experiance of the folks here, what has worked best, and how many units is too many units in a division?

Thank you for the advice!

Good question!

I think you've answered it yourself – you want divisions of 5,6, 7 or more units. And why not?

I wonder at how many divisions per army you're considering? If 4 or more, that's a lot of figures! But if you've got them?

I suspect you're wanting battles with 2-3 divisions a side, which can be a pretty quick game. Bigger divisions mean a longer game.

Personally, I tend to go with 4 units (apart from Skirmishers) per division & 3-4 divisions on each side. In terms of the time it takes to play to a conclusion this suits me. And this is roughly the number of units I have for each army I possess.

A 3 division a side with 4 units per division Late Antiquity game( Romans versus Hunnic-Gothic hordes):
theminiaturespage.com

‌"TMP link

NB table size & figure size will also impact on your decision. It's nice to have room to manoeuvre.

The only issue with four division units is that the division doesn't break until it only has one unit left, which at least to me is a bit unrealistic and kind of gaming the system. I would recommend divisions of at least 5 units so that when you lost that third one the division is below half strength and then it must withdraw.

@ aegis. I agree but I can usually live with it.
The positive is that HC is a fast & decisive game – no more: you're halfway through a battle after several hours & your pals have to leave.

You could have objective games – seize & hold set objectives to win. Or timed games – finish @ X o'clock & add up points of destroyed units.

Or take a leaf from GW's book. When you lose that 3rd division in a four division a side game, roll a D10 for remaining game turns. I find this is a great mechanism if *both* armies are near to collapse & allows the "broken" army a margin of time to reverse the result.

For the Punic Wars I am thinking about doing polybian legions for divisions for the romans with 2x Velites LI, 2x Hastati, 2x Principii and 2x Triarii for an 8 unit division. Not sure if it's too big.

I haven't seen Polybian Romans on a table yet, so I have no idea.

Eight units seems a lot- cumbersome in terms of command.

But *is* it 8 units? You don't count skirmish units & the Velites would surely be 2, small skirmish units?
And the Triarii woulld also be small units? Combine them into one, standard unit? So a five unit division, then?

I usually do Velites as standard size LI, since a legion had 1200 of them, so there were as many Velites as Hastati. Maybe I am doing it wrong.

We use 6 or 7 units per division excluding skirmish units

Concerning Hannibal's losses marching to Italy:

link

This paper is a little outdate as it does not include Livy's claim of the Romans having 80,000 men in 222 BC. In the war against the Transalpine Gauls, that ended in the Gauls being defeated at Acerrae in 222 BC by the consuls Marcus Claudius Marcellus and Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Clavus, Livy (Periochae 20) says that "the authors say that the Roman people had 80,000 soldiers of their own and the Latin and Italian allies."