Hi,

After painting up part of the sample I ordered earlier, I've decided 6mm is the thing for me. I'm now looking at the Romans and their many possible enemies. My questions are about the two different rulesets that can be found in that section:

- As I'm a complete newbie, which is easier to get started with, SPQR or Hail Caesar?

- Considering that at least some of my games will be solo, which is best, SPQR or Hail Caesar?

- Should I decide to start off with the SPQR Boxed Set, will I need to re-base when switching to Hail Caesar?

Any advice is welcome!

Cheers,

Huub, the Dutch guy from Belgium

Hi Huub,

             I don't have any experience with SPQR, or Hail Caesar, but have you considered To the Strongest? For a newbie, who will be doing some solo gaming I would think this could do what you want and is available as a cheap pdf.

To the Strongest provides the fastest, most intuitive set I've played in more than 40 years of gaming. Being a grid game, it is very flexible with base sizes and would probably not compromise you when playing other rules too   

Cheers,

            Peter. 

Thanks Peter, I'll take a look at those rules too.

Edit: I see what you mean.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj6B10bciVQ

Very interesting indeed!

Hello Huub,

As I'm a complete newbie, which is easier to get started with, SPQR or Hail Caesar?

I have played Polemos SPQR many times but not Hail Caesar - I have however played Black Powder, which is a very similar system.  Although certainly doable, I think they are both reasonably complex for a total beginner. 

- Considering that at least some of my games will be solo, which is best, SPQR or Hail Caesar?

Both systems are reasonably good solo, although I think SPQR is definitely superior in this regard.  SPQR uses the Polemos "tempo points" i.e. activity points system.  This limits activity in useful ways at the beginning of each side's turn.  I have written a guide to playing Polemos solo on my blog here, plus a review of Polemos: SPQR here.  Hail Caesar does it by command tests IIRC - roll under the leadership score to keep on moving.  This makes the games unpredictable, but perhaps not as obviously easy to do solo - they were really designed to make large multi-player games doable in a single night.

- Should I decide to start off with the SPQR Boxed Set, will I need to re-base when switching to Hail Caesar?

No.  See here for a game of Hail Caesar played with Polemos-standard basing.

One thing, if you are a complete beginner, you might consider giving one of these games a try first, they are all easier than Polemos: SPQR and Hail Caesar:

Neil Thomas' Ancient & Medieval Wargames

DBA 3.0, or the starter version of the same (full DBA is a notoriously tricky read but the game itself is pretty simple; if quite dense English is off-putting however, avoid it to begin with if you are figuring it out by yourself)

Practical Wargaming by Charlie Wessencraft - an oldie but goodie and can be easily played with Polemos basing

Ok, great, thnx Whirl. I'll check those out too.