On Friday we played a couple of medieval skirmish games using Mr. Jaye Wiley’s, ‘A Fistful of Lead’ core rules, which – despite their Old West origins and name - are adaptable to all periods and settings.
Each game took a couple of hours.
In this game, you command a faction of 5 – 8 figures or models, depending on the combination of troop types you go for.
The knightly leaders use a D12, are super-resilient and you can dose them up with all sorts of specialist traits which give them an assortment of bonuses and advantages which (allegedly) makes them much more effective, and also much harder to kill.
Then at the other end of the scale you have grunts who can only take one wound, have just the one trait, and roll lowly D8 in combat and shooting. And then there are various other professional and standard troop types in between (They use a D10 as standard).
A deal out of playing cards at the start of each turn determines which figure activates when. The players get dealt as many cards as they have figures, and can decide which card to use to activate which figure.
Some of the cards bestow particular advantages, like the ability to remove a wound, add a modifier in combat or shooting, or re-roll a dice. So which card you decide to play on which figure to activate him requires careful consideration. Not just because the card you assign decides who activates and in what order (starting with aces high), but also to make sure the figure concerned is able to make best use of any additional ability bestowed by that particular card you choose to activate him with.
Sounds complicated right? Actually it’s pretty simple in practice once you get the hang of it. But you do need to keep your wits about you to make the most of the cards dealt to you in each hand.
Anyway, on with the games…
Battle the FirstJames (Oshiro Models) was playing Sir Royce Cookie (blue and red livery, fresh from the LPL)
Nick (Malamute) was playing Sir Ronald de Barker (light blue and white)
I (Captain Blood) was playing Sir Renaud de Brassey (cream and black with ze snazzy zig zags… )
Each player provided their own retinue, natch.
A tad unfortunate that all three knights have names starting with R – Royce, Ronald and Renaud, so this could get confusing. Sorry about that, but try to keep up
First, a general view of the table
And viewed from the other direction
A bird’s eye view…
In the
top right corner, Sir Ronald de Barker and his contingent enter with a wagonload of war booty…
The objective: Sir Ronald must take the road to the village, turn left at the T-junction, and then head south over the bridge, towards the safety of his own demense…
In the
top left corner lurks Sir Royce Cookie - he wants that wagon.
From the
bottom right corner - very much on the wrong side of the river - comes Sir Renaud de Brassey. He wants that wagon too.
Sir Ronald enters with his wagon and his retinue…
Sir Royce and his men await at the far end of the road. Who will reach the village first?
Uh-oh. It looks like they’re going to get there at the same time… Could be messy.
Reverse angle, from Sir Ronald’s direction…
Meanwhile, Sir Renaud de Brassey takes his retinue on a loooooong march.
To take the long way round via the bridge? Or take the shortcut via the ford over the river? ...decisions, decisions.
Sir Renaud sends his crack archer, Aylward, scampering through the woods towards the ford to start peppering the passing wagon party with arrows…
Meanwhile Sir Royce and Sir Ronald square up for combat…
But Sir Royce’s serjeant charges into Sir Ronald first, his axe waving madly…
While the rival knights are setting to, Sir Renaud senses his opportunity and sending the rest of his men around by the bridge, he makes a dash for the ford…
Having thrown Sir Royce’s sergeant back, Sir Ronald now spurs his charger forward and the mounted knights clash… Various men-at-arms promptly join in the fray…
Various men-at-arms promptly go down wounded, shocked, etc.
Meanwhile, Sir Renaud crosses the ford, ignores the wagon (now hastily defended by a gang of Sir Ronald’s lowly men-at-arms) and trots his mount around the village with an eye to joining the fun…
…leaving his trusty manservant, Aylward, to rain down arrows on the misbegotten defenders of the wagon…
In a seminal moment (which I missed with the camera, ooops) Sir Ronald is slain by Sir Royce.
But unbowed, Sir Ronald’s valiant serjeant now charges in with his mace, determined to avenge his master, and kill that annoying idiot with the trumpet.
This heroic fellow manages to bring down Sir Royce – whose steed bolts, leaving him wounded and stunned on the ground. At which point, the gallant Sir Renaud de Brassey charges into the fray, hoping to kill or drive all before him…
The lowly grunts of the Barker household promptly abandon the wagon, and charge off to help their gallant serjeant - leaving the bowmen to engage in a (largely ineffectual) archery duel across the ford…
Meanwhile the rest of Sir Renaud’s retinue, including the three rascally Bobs (the local butcher, baker, and blacksmith), finally make it all the way to the bridge and dash across towards the village.
And not a moment too soon, since their master, Sir Renaud, is now beset by a gang of Barker oiks…
Sir Renaud briskly disposes of two of them – Chop! Slice! But the third manages to get a lucky spear jab in, and Sir Renaud is unhorsed and falls to the floor wounded and stunned.
We can also see that Sir Royce (yes, still down on the deck after all this time, his head hanging over the pond) is literally made of money…
Sir Renaud tries to stagger to his feet but immediately bleeds out in the attempt.
Sir Royce also tried to regain his feet and similarly promptly bleeds out - atrocious dice-rolling all round for the knightly class… That’s all three knights dead.
But vengeance is lumbering into view in the shape of Sir Renaud’s posse of peasants, the Bobs.
The Bobs fall upon the few surviving Barker and Cookie men-at-arms, who are busy poking their spears at each other in a desultory fashion…
Having swiftly accounted for them, the de Brassey retinue then set about mopping up that valiant Barker serjeant…
Aylward crosses the ford and finally secures the wagon.
Sir Renaud may be dead, but his retinue have taken the prize… Victory for the De Brasseys. Huzzah! But at a high price
Here endeth the first game. Which I won. Just saying...
Battle the SecondWe then reorganised the board to put the village to one side and the woods and hills in the middle.
This time, the wagon and its load was parked with an attendant in the middle of a wood, with all three retinues in a race to seize it…
I didn’t manage to take anywhere near so many pics of this game, mainly since I was desperately trying (and failing) to survive.
By way of a very potted summary however…
Sir Renaud de Brassey sends his peasants and men-at-arms to the bridge, while he and Aylward the archer (once again) head for the ford…
Sir Royce Cookie rides out to meet them, having sent the bulk of his force scampering off to seize the wagon in the woods – which is handily close to where he started from.
Sir Renaud crosses the ford and meets Sir Ronald de Barker - who promptly kills him with no messing.
The lesson of this is that under these rules - despite all the multiple cunning traits and advantages you bestow on your leading characters - the iron law of wargaming pertains: if, for two or three actions in a row, you manage to only roll ones and twos on a D12, whilst your opponent rolls a spectacular sequence of 11s and 12s, you are roundly and immediately f*cked, and there’s not a single thing you can do about it.
As a wise man once said: ‘Roll better dice’.
Flushed with success (and dare we say over-confidence), Sir Ronald de Barker now wheels away into the woods, and charges forth through the trees (dodging the low-hanging branches) to meet the Cookie foemen and try to prevent them seizing the wagon – unfortunately leaving his own retinue a VERY long way behind him, and desperately hoofing it to try to catch up with their lord and master…
Sir Royce meanwhile, ruthlessly chops down Bob the baker and Bob the blacksmith.
Bob the butcher, not quite the fearsome brute he looks, promptly seeks refuge behind Sir Guy de Mordant (a mercenary knight in Sir Renaud’s employ) and Crispin the spearman.
All to no avail alas, as – oh look – Sir Royce Cookie has now killed all five (yes FIVE) of his opponents
I actually don't think I've ever seen James looking so happy before
Again, the combination of high dice and all those extra knightly traits (plus the initiative) makes ridiculously short work of Sir Renaud’s entire retinue… Of which Aylward the archer is now the sole survivor, still skulking around in the edge of the woods…
His bloody sword-work by the bridge completed, Sir Royce now wheels his mount and charges off up the hill to join his men who are having a tough time of it with Sir Ronald de Barker…
The Barker men-at-arms have finally arrived, and a mass melee now ensues, in which Sir Ronald is eventually felled and slain, and almost all the men-at-arms on both sides along with him.
The victorious (and frankly gloating) Sir Royce Cookie, does not live long to enjoy his triumph however.
As he is about to order his mortally wounded serjeant to drive off the wagon, Aylward the archer sneaks up behind him and plants an arrow right through his back!
The fortune of the dice suddenly swings the other way!
Does the arrow hit? YES!
Does he suffer a wound? YES - Aylward finally rolls a 12! That’s an immediate kill!
Can Sir Royce’s armour roll save him? NO! He rolls a 1!
Justice is done
Hardly anyone is left alive, and the game is declared a three-way draw of mutual destruction.
Here endeth the battle reportage. Enjoy
Welcome, Guest. Please 
April 26, 2024, 03:53:55 AM
February 18, 2022, 03:58:47 PM