Lion Rampant 2 Game: Vikings vs Normans

 A scenario based on the rulebook scenario 8, “Sausages with Mustard”, modified as ‘Burn the Village’.

4 huts were placed, around a central deployment zone. The Vikings are here to burn the village down, as revenge for the killing of their previous Viking Warlord. The Vikings must burn-down as many of the village huts as possible (as per rules for setting fire to objective in Scenario 7). The attacker would gain 2 VP for each hut destroyed, while the defender would gain 2VP for each hut saved.

The Norman defenders elected to place their unit of Heavy Infantry in the village, with the  remainder of the force deploying in the North Eastern corner zone. The Viking attacker set up in the South Western corner zone.

The Viking attackers were lead by Ragnor (Steve & Rob). Leader Skills of ‘Commanding’, ‘Aggressive’ & ‘ Strongsword’, with a force comprising of;

• Ragnor + 1x Elite Infantry
• 2x Veteran Heavy Infantry
• 1x Light Infantry
• 1x Unit of Archers

The Norman defenders, were lead by William (Dave), with leader skills, ‘Commanding’ & ‘Patient’, with a force comprising of;

• William + 1x Elite Cavalry
• 2x Elite Cavalry
• 1x Heavy Infantry
• 1x Unit of Archers

The Vikings chose to march the bulk of their force straight down the road, to the village, while the archers flanked to their left. The Viking light infantry, being faster, reached the village first, only to encounter the Norman infantry holding the bridge. 

The Viking lights advanced toward the Southernmost hut, intending to set it alight, but the Normans charged them. However the Normans were dismayed to find their Attack Value was only 5, vs the Vikings light infantry Defence of 4! The Normans were thrown back, but the Viking light infantry failed their Courage test and also fell back, straight into the line of fire of the Norman archers! The Normans loosed their arrows and the Viking light infantry was routed.

Back at the bridge, the Norman cavalry, now unmasked by their Heavy Infantry, could see the Viking heavy infantry. Failing their Wild Charge test, the first unit of Norman knights surged forward. Disaster, another draw. The knights were thrown back in disorder.

This left William exposed on the bridge and Ragnor and his elite warriors charged forward. We all forgot the Norman Counter-Charge, but the combat turned out to be another draw (2 all) and Ragnor’s men were thrown back.

Seeing Ragnor winded, William charged his knights at the unit of Viking Heavy Infantry, pushing them back. William then turned his attention on Ragnor, slaying all of Ragnor’s elites, sparing only Ragnor himself.

But William’s knights were now very depleted and exhausted and he was forced to retire across the bridge, sounding his horn, to recall the 3^rd unit of knights, that had galloped (well more waddled!) to the Western ford, to drive off the Viking archers.

This 3^rd unit of knights arrived back at the village just in time. One unit of Viking heavy infantry had fallen upon the Norman foot, slaughtering them. The second unit of Viking heavies had surged across the bridge, looking to burn a 3^rd hut, but the Norman reinforcements arrived in the nick of time!

After a brief struggle, the Norman knights routed the Viking heavies. Realising that victory was slipping from his grasp, Ragnor dashed to meet the surviving Norman knights, mid bridge (after remembering & passing their counter-charge!). Ragnor was ridden down. A hard fought victory to the Normans!  Lion Rampant 2 is no in-depth combat simulation, it is a fun game!!

A Song of Ice and Fire

Following his humbling in the afternoon Dave went into the evening session with a sense of dread. Would his long drive down see him lose 2-0 on Thursday as usual! The evening game witnessed a sight not seen at “Festung Williams”, being a game firmly set in the Fantasy genre. Our long dormant “A Song of Ice and Fire” figures finally returned to the table to contest a game of Lion Rampant II with extracts from Dragon Rampant. Dave teamed up with Tony to field the Northern hordes of Stark and the Free Peoples whilst Simon and Phil led the forces of civilisation and progressive government known as House Lanister and the Targaryens.

The aim of the battle was to retrieve a magical object hidden of lost in one of the casualty pits from a long-forgotten engagement and the resultant battle was pretty much a slugfest of Targaryen vs Free People and Lanister vs Stark. No bad blood here! Suffice to say that Tony’s Free People’s belied their looks of crude furs and crap equipment to pretty much destroy the much vaunted Targaryens including a dragon. On the other flank Dave recovered the object and then had to withstand Lanister attacks which saw his General killed and several units destroyed. However they managed to reach the table-edge with the object which meant “game over”, and a victory for Dave and Tony ... or more correctly for Tony as Dave’s character was dead!

Simon

3-Way Wars of the Roses Skirmish, Using Lion Rampant 2

We wanted a nice quick, simple 3-way game, so I dusted off the Lion Rampant 2 rules. Having sufficient Wars of the Roses figures to create three 24 point forces, this was the selected period. The aim of the game was to search the village, to locate the missing documentation which would prove the legitimacy / illegitimacy of the current king. Once a unit contacted a building, a ‘Move’ action would search the building and reveal whether the documentation was there. Three buildings to search, with one set of documentation. The forces were;

Force A – Dave (Entering middle of North table edge),

• Elite Cavalry (Knights) - 6 points
• 2x Veteran Heavy Infantry (Billmen) – 12 pts
• Veteran Archer – 6 points

Force B – Steve (Entering South East Corner), 

• Elite Infantry (Foot Knights) - 6 points
• Heavy Cavalry (Hoblier) - 4 points
• Veteran Heavy Infantry (Billmen) – 6 pts
• Veteran Archer – 6 points
• Skirmishers (Crossbowmen) – 2 points

Force C – Mal (Entering South West corner), 

• Elite Infantry (Foot Knights) - 6 points
• Veteran Heavy Infantry (Billmen) – 6 pts
• Heavy Infantry (Spearmen) – 4 points
• Veteran Archer – 6 points
• Skirmishers (Handgunners) – 2 points

Dave had first choice of force, with Mal second & Steve last. Selection of entry point was then in reverse order.

Dave opened with a nice orderly march down from the North. Mal’s forces marched up from the South West, with a little bit more disorder, as his archers were dragging their heels, mumbling something about some tight Northern git not paying them! Steve’s Hobliers made an immediate dash for Dave’s archers, while his lord & attendant knights made a quick dash for the village.

Dave suddenly realised that the Wild Charge characteristic of his knights could quickly result in them single-handedly charging the entirety of Mal’s force, so they re-deployed toward the left flank, thereby heading off Steve’s Hobliers.

Dave’s archers decided to save their arrows and so Steve’s hobliers mounted a frontal charge. Disaster! Some rather crappy dice rolling resulted in Steve’s hobliers being thrown back in a 2-all draw. 

Dave’s knights now thundered into the fray, met by a furious counter charge by Steve’s surviving hobliers. A crashing of horse and lance resulted in another 2-all draw, and Dave’s knights thrown back. However, Dave had his archers ready and they thinned the hobliers ranks down to a stubborn last man.

However, Steve still had a plan! His last Hoblier lured Dave’s knights into another Wild Charge, eliminating the last of Steve’s cavalry, but also placing Dave’s knights in a position where they would unwisely charge Steve’s skirmishers, hiding in the woods! 

Meanwhile, back in the village, Dave’s men and Mal’s men had turn-over two of the houses an found nothing. Steve’s foot knights however had struck gold in the last hut. But no sooner had they unrolled the vital parchments, then Mal’s foot knights lumbered around the corner. Red mist descending, Steve’s knights charged and after a brutal street fight, Steve’s knights were thrown back, leaving the parchments scattered in the street. Worse still, his lord was killed in the clash! 

Dave’s Billmen then attempted to muscle-in to grab the parchments, but after clashing with Mal’s knights, both sides pulled back, glaring at each other, over the pile of documentation.

But by this time, Mal’s spearmen had filtered into the South of the village, and took over the stand-off with Dave’s Billmen. At the same time, Mal’s archers worked around the South of the village and started to shower arrows on Steve miserable survivors.

Into the middle of this, Dave’s two surviving mounted knights careered about, charging stuff at random. But, just as they stopped to look for new targets, a hail of arrows from Mal’s Longbowmen cut short the life of Dave’s last knight & force commander!

Dave’s Billmen could not take this insult and charged the spearmen, only to be thrown back, ‘battered’ for their troubles!

At this point, Mal’s spearmen snatched up the vital parchments and marched Westward, while his lord made rude gestures to the survivors of Steve’s and Dave’s forces! A classic case of ‘slow & steady wins the race’!  

Time maybe to introduce some Leader Skills and maybe even try to merge Dragon Rampant, to give the old Song of Ice & Fire miniatures some table time?!