Guns of August, in Williamsburg, VA. My game had no guns, but those of you who know me know how tedious I find the pops of powder compared to the ring of iron on bronze. This year, I would run a Trojan War scenario. In this scenario, as in the Iliad, Patroclus has donned the armor of the sulking Achilles, and been killed by Hector. Now the Greeks and Trojans scramble to recover the body of Patroclus and Achilles' armor. I used the Hail Caesar rules... sorta. 

The main difference here was that there were no Commander figures. Normally in HC, commanders aren't units and can't be targeted (they can add dice to other units in combat). In this scenario, each chariot (5 to a side) would combine the abilities of a commander (in command of 1 unit of infantry and 1 small unit of light infantry peltasts or skirmishers) and a unit of light chariot.

Another thing that was odd about this game was that there were no battle lines. Instead, at the game's start there were mini-conflicts all across the terrain: a Greek division facing a Trojan division in the NE, another in the NW, another in the SE, and in the SW, with Hector in the center and an unoccupied Greek band not far off. Hector was the closest to the marker for Patroclus' corpse, which would serve as the flag in this game of "capture the flag". You can see the H-shapes all across the starting board, each of which is one of these mini-conflicts.

 A Mycenean standoff!

Here at the end we see a Greek chariot trying desperately to contact or at least shoot at the rear of Hector's chariot just before he makes it off the table. The attempt was not successful and the Trojans brought the body back inside the walls of Troy. Achilles is going to be pissed! 

This was the best HC game I have run, even with the funny rules. I had both HC newbies and HC veterans at the table and all said they enjoyed it. I realize now that I gave nothing to the Greeks to offset the advantageous position of the Trojans (Hector started right on top of the body) so I probably should have granted the Greeks the first move. I may run the scenario again.