Alan Snider  - May 13, 2008 2:23 pm (#22758 Total: 23182)  
Stalag 17 Wargames re-launch!! http://www.stalag17wargames.com 	 

Victory Point Games' "Caesar XL"

GAMENIGHT: May 10/2008, Kirtus Y and I sat down to our first game of
Caesar XL. I took the Caesarean forces, while Kirtus directed the forces
of Pompey. Initial forces at start, give Pompey a decent presence in
Nova Carthago, Athens, and Utica. Pompey also starts the game with
control of Rome. Caesar sits in Rubicon and then has a monster force in
Massilia. 

The sequence of play is as follows: !. Forum/Victory phase 2. Draw Card
3. Purchase phase. 4. Tax phase 5. March phase 6 Combat 7. Turn Marker
phase 

There are 2 ways to win the game, either with a political victory or a
military victory. A political victory entails being in possession of
Forum cards which total +7 to either faction (optimates or populares).
To claim military victory, the enemy supreme leader must be dead, you
must have possession of Rome, and have 25 points worth of cities under
your control. 

The Caesarean player gets to go first, so I immediately went after
Massilia and Caesar headed straight to Rome. I did not fare very well in
the battle at Massilia and was repelled with heavy losses on both sides.
Caesar managed to take Rome with the aid of a triple line tactics card
which increased both the leader and legions ability to hit. 

This was followed by a counterattack by the Pompean forces at Massilia
which also resulted in a stalemate in that area. Kirtus played a card
which allowed him to recruit allies in 5 circle cities and they were
placed in Thracia, Pontus, Armenia, Hierosolyma, and Alexandria. Things
started to look really bleak for Caesar. 

The second turn was rather critical for Caesarian fortunes, as they
fanned out heavily to be able to generate as much gold as possible in
taxation in the most favourable areas immedietely adjacent. Care was
given to send forces forward (at this point, the nearest Pompean forces
eastward were in Athens and Thracia) with an eye on situating forces in
Dyrrachium which was now the bottleneck in which the forces from the
east musy move through). 

A second battle for Massilia ensued and Caesars' forces had a bit more
luck this time and cleared out the Pompean troops there. The lone
outpost for Pompean interests now lay in Utica. 

The Pompeans drew a "Barbarian Invasion" card to start their turn, and
this hampered their ability to raise troops more than the Caesarian
player. It seemed the gods were shining on Caesar as he tried to recover
from the initial battles of the ongoing war. The Pompean forces began to
consolidate from their initial attempts to raise taxes with the new
allied units, with eyes on a sparsely defended Rome. 

Scipio arrived on turn 3 to help the defence of the path to Rome. Both
Caesar and Scipio were placed/ moved to Brindisium for this purpose.
troops were also moved away from Massilia to Carbalis (?) in order to
threaten Utica and give the Caesarian player the most flexability
depending on what the Pompean player chose to do. 

The Pompean player kept with his programme of consolidating and raising
taxes, moving an imposing force to Pharsalus. 

Caesars forces continued on to Utica on turn 4, and heavily reinforcing
Brindisium with Scipio and Caesar remaining there. A single legion was
pushed forward to Dyrracium to stall the enemy forces for a turn as
needed. 

Pompey decided after looking at the abundant legions behind Scipio and
Caesar ready for the counterattck, that they would tax hard and try to
get all there forces on the map as soon as possible. This was realistic,
as their tax collection far exceeded that of the Caesarian forces. 

Turns 5-7 highlights included a raid of Utica, and followup eliminating
of Pompean forces there; essentially making this an east- west affair.
Caesar always positioning a decent force at Massena, to show a possible
move to Crete, so this tended to cause Pompey to keep forces in both
Athens and Alexandria to cover that possibility. Those 'circle' cities
are of vital importance as they are most often tied to the better forum
cards (+3 for a faction) and a huge purchase phase expenditure. 

On turn 6, a risky move by Caesar was undertaken, Scipio was sent
forward with adequate troops to Dyrrachium, while Caesar returned to
Rome. The thought here was that Scipio (and a nice tactical card) could
fare well at stopping the Pompean forces positioned at Pharsalus, and
Caesar had been saving some money for a 32 gold piece expenditure to get
a large amount of support politically (forum card). Unfortunately,
Kirtus drew the "Ides of March " card, which called for the
assassination of the supreme leader when in Rome or Alexadria. That
quickly and suddenly, Caesar was pushing up daises!! 

The expected attack at Dyrracium happened immediately... Scipio fared
remarkably well, sending forces twice their number on to their maker
with the help of the aforementioned tactic card. This gained them some
valuable experience and a important flip to veteran status was afforded
to one legion. This only made them more imposing. 

Turns 8-10 also broiught a lot of chaos, as 2 more barbarian invasions
occured, limiting any ability to rebuild, The "call to action" card was
also devastating, as taxes were lost until the next battles occured.
This produced a stall for both sides, and they further smashed
themselves up to satisfy the bloodthirsty citizens in order to get the
monetary backing they needed to continue the struggle. 

Caesar began to send forces through northern Africa to threaten
Alexandria, as well as to force the Pompean player to defend one of his
most importanty money producing cities. This worked pretty well, and a
series of battles occured in Leptis Magna/Thapsus, with a very bloody
but eventual Caesarean victory. This left the path to Alexandia open, so
Pompey was forced to siphon more legions from the main front to cover
it. 

By turn 11, it looked improbable that there could be a political victory
for either side. It was to be a headlong thrust for military triumph by
both sides. Caesar still held Rome, but was just below the required 25
points of cities and Pompey was still alive. Pompey was also just short
of cities (but had the potential to easily make it happen), BUT Caesar
was already dead. It looked that with the capture of Rome, Pompey could
win. 

Pompey began his march on Rome and barely made it there with enough
troops to make a realistic capture an option. Once again, Scipio, with
the aid of a timely tactic card, and startling dierolls managed to hold
Rome; denying victory to Pompey. The end result of this is that the
Roman world collapses in chaos,and Kirtus and I are blamed by history
for the end of Western civilization.