Hello,
we played the third part of our campaign yesterday, using the excellent Lion Rampant rules yet again.
Thias time around we choose the mission 'Convoy', reasoning that my danes, having routed most of the brandenburgers over the Stepenitz river, needed to get fresh supplies forward to the siege-camp at the Rathenow castle. This was of course entrusted to the resourceful and sly Niels Bugge of Hald, who had so far excelled himself in plundering and burning the Brandenburg countryside and forced the crossing of the Stepenitz river.
Opposing me would yet again be my mate Rasmus, who by now has his own fully painted retinue. which he would field for the first time against the danish horde.
We deployed by the book, however due to the rather limited space, the convoy would appear one cart at a time on a succesful activation of the unit in control.
Rasmus boasted that he would slay my leader, while I made a terrible boast that none of my units would rout (we can all imagine how that went down...).
Up front I'd like to apologise for the terrible pictures on this report. During the holidays we had the luxury of daylight. This is ill aforded now that we're both back to work and relegated to playing in the evenings. We hope to remedy this tomorrow.
Anyways, on to the action!
In the late afternoon, on the road to Rathenow, all is well and people have weathered the danish invasion well:
A danish convoy is making its way down the road, its goal the ongoing siege at Rathenow. The first wagon is guarded by a troop of foot serjeants:
To their right, in the grassy field they are supported by a unit of knechts, led by the convoys over-all commander, Herr Niels Bugge of Hald:
On it's left wing is a small force of friisian mercenaries, skirmishing through the farmstead:
However, trouble is quickly brewing, as a scouting force of loyalist Brandenburgers appears. They quickly take up ambush positions. To the right is a unit of mounted sejeants, led by the brandenburger commander Graf Wilhelm, accompanied by a unit of foot serjeants armed with polearms:
On the left wing, a small unit of foot MAA's, accompanied by the illustrious mercenary, Luigi della Mirandola and his band of crossbowmen:
And at the far end of the road, a unit of pike militia drew up a battle line, preventing any units from leaving the table unopposed:
The danes are quick to get their second wagon onto the table, led by a group of archers. But then the acitvations start to mess up the danish advance. Obviously someone has been taking their duties of guarding the schnapps and beer a bit too lightly...:
The ambushers however, are making good speed, the foot serjeants moving directly towards the small farmhouse, while the mounted serjeants are taking the scenic route around the forest to the crossroads:
The danes are still buggered down on the road, now forming a large roadblock, preventing the last of the wagons to enter the table:
All is not lost though, and as soon as Herr Bugge spots the germans advancing towards him on foot, he spurs his knechts towards them at a canter:
The friisians spots the brandenburgers on their left and lets loose a volley, killing a single MAA:
Unperturbed by the loss, the germans rush foward on both flanks, looking to bottle up the danes:
The italian mercenaries hang back, not really engaging in the fight just yet:
Failing their activation, the danish knechts hang back, steadying themselves for the charge. The germans are not going to let the oppotunity pass them by, and call for a charge. The danish knechts respond by calling a counter charge, meeting the germans halfway. Slaughter ensues, and the poor germans are thrown back in disarray:
Meanwhile, the brandenburger MAA's crashes into the first unit of the convoy, the danish foot serjeants, the ensuing melee killing off two danes and one german. The danes stand firm though:
The danes quickly form a schiltrum, steadying themselves for another charge by the MAA's and the newly arrived mounted germans by the crossroads. Things are looking grim for the danes, as the first unit is blocking the view of the archers:
The schiltrum weathers both charges with minimum casualties, while making the germans pay heavily in blood for their supply wagon. Over two rounds, the germans charges again and again with their toughest units, only to be thrown back:
Meanwhile on the danish right, the knechts are slaughtering the german foot serjeants, sending them fleeing from the table:
Finally, Graf Wilhelm, aided by his lonely MAA and his remaining mounted serjeants manages to whittle the danes down below half unit strenght, taking away their advantage of the schiltrum:
As the fight up in the front of the convoy progresses, the final wagon of the convoy makes its way onto the table, accompanied by danish MAA's on foot:
The danish foot serjeants finally break under the pressure, and retreat:
Having broken the tip of the danish convoy, Graf Wilhelm returns to the crossroads to challenge Herr Bugge to single combat. It's a crushing victory to the Brandenburger, and Herr Bugge is sent home packing with a sore bum after falling from his horse:
Things were looking up for the germans, as the mercenaries finally made their activation and kill off the rest of the foot serjeants (this actually won Rasmus the game, having completed his boast, denied me my own and killed off a wagon-unit, but we decided to play on for a few turns anyway):
Unfortunatly for the poor italians, this freed up the archers, who let off a cloud of arrows in their direction. Again, slaughter ensued. First four italians bought the farm, and then the remaining german mounted serjeants, including Graf Wilhelm:
A shootout between the italians and the danes resulted in a single casualty to the archers, which promptly made them retreat a few steps, only to make way for the danish foot knechts:
However, before they could get their hands on the poor italians, the remainging danish knechts rounded the crossroads and charged into the italians:
Only Luigi della Mirandola survived. The last glimpse of him was caught by the chronicler, running as fast as his heavy purses would allow him over the open field, while his men were being cut down behind him. Oh well, such is the life of a mercenary:
The end-game saw the remaning danes regrouping and decide that they would need to find another way to Rathenow, as this road was well and fully blocked. The Brandenburgers still had a full unit of pike militia guarding the road up ahead, and even though we could well have marched up my archers and foot knechts and had a go at them, it was all for naught as my chances of winning had died with my leader:
And with that, the third part of our wars in Northern Germany was over. Celebratory trappist beers was had by everyone involved:
April 06, 2012, 03:04:00 PM