Lion Rampant Sir Cecil vs Bishop "The Bish" Basil of Bamburg.

[Ethelred the Almost Ready]

It was a classic grudge match.  New Zealand against Wales but today the game wasn't rugby.  It was Lion Rampant.
Table, figures, terrain and wine all curtesy of Valleyboy. 

Sir Cecil Simpson of Soissons, was raiding the Pinot Vallety only to run into Bishop Basil of Bamberg and his murderous Templars
Cecil relied on some solid infantry (two heavy infantry, one light infantry, a unit of archers, and crossbows) and a single group of knights.
The Bishop had a mix of elite cavalry, veteran knights, archers, fanatic monks, smelly peasants and archers.

The mission was to drive the enemy from the field and loot the wagons passing through the valley


Cecil's light infantry and a unit of unmounted knights watch a wagon approach.  Fanatical monks  and smelly peasants have already made a rush for the wagon. 



Cecil's forces advance, missile troops to the fore - hopoefully the Templar foot knights will keep advancing into a cross fire.  The Bishop sits on the hill opposite - is he cunning and carefully assessing the battlefield or did he just fail activation???  Giant Welsh mercenary in background and refreshments seen off the the left (mmmm).




The left hand wagon finds high gear and zooms away from monks and peasants.  Cecil's men-at-arms finally activate and decide their inferior armour is no match for the frothing monksand form into wall of spears rather than going for the wagon.  The second wagon also zooms towards the forces of Cecil.  As this wagon started on the Bishop's side of the table it seems inexplicable that his forces didn't make a rush for it.  Or do they know one of the wagons carries a potentially explosive load of Greek fire and naptha?




The Bishop looks like he can finally be bothered moving off the hill while Cecil and his knights decide the best plan is to confuse the enemy by aimlessly moving along the ridge and not really threatening anyone.




A wall of spears is no defence against fanatics.  The men-at-arms take casualties and sod off - bloody cowards.




Peasants considering their chances against knights.  Ahhh, possibly not.




Brave Sir Robin ran away!  Plinked by arrows and crossbow bolts is too much for the veteran Templar foot knights.  An expensive loss for the Bish.




Archers plunder the wagon.  This wagon doesn't explode but there is also no loot.  The archers are sad an suffer -1 to any courage rolls for the next three rounds.  Luckily, all the action is taking place elsewhere.




"Yes, we can take them".  The peasants decide they can fight knights.  The Bish has elite knights bearing down on Cecil's foot knights so after discussiong tactics we both decided the loss of a low cost unit is worth it if they put even one casualty on the foot knights.  Unfortunately the peasants are slaughtered and rout......



All except Peter, who got confused and thought they weren't there for a battle but to topiary the trees.  While his fellow peasants are decimated he is busy shaping the tree to look like his uncle Norbert.



The Bishop used to be indecisive, but now he is not so sure.  Despite having a reroll for activation the elite cavalry decide just prance around in the middle of the valley.
Despite the stalled enemy making a good target, the crossbows loot the other wagon - this one also didn't explode.  Although this event was ultimately good for my side, I was rather upset that there wasn't an explosion.





Cecil charges and routs the monks.  Fanatic warriors caught stationary by knights are not much use. other than letting the cavalry practice their sword strokes.



Elite templars are reduced by combat with foot knights and then lose two to crossbows.



Then another loss to archers.  The Bish only has his archers and the depleted knight unit left.  But the Bishop will not admit defeat and charges the footknights one last time.



A fun game but a harsh introduction to Lion Rampant for Valley Boy.  The two events that handed victory to Cecil were the rout of the Templar infantry (double 1s after 3 casualties) and the destruction of the monks.  Upgrades gave these units a combined value to 13 points (out of 24 for a standard warband).  Having them rout cheaply was a major blow.  Upgrades are useful but are costly. 

[Malamute]

Great stuff, looks like a fun game. 

[OSHIROmodels]

Splendid 

[Elk101]

Lovely looking game.

[fred]

Great looking game, the knights are particularly splendid!

[Bloggard]

wonderful looking set-up / game.

[Axebreaker]

A very cool looking game!

Christopher

[Plynkes]

Yeah!

[MaleGriffin]

Fantastic looking game! I absolutely LOVE the way your bases match the terrain! Well done sir!

[LouieN]

A wonderful read.  Thank you for sharing. 

In my games of Lion rampant I am considering a couple re-rolls per side.  I have found the game can swing heavily on one die roll as you saw.  I wonder if it will balance the luck load.   

[Ethelred the Almost Ready]

A wonderful read.  Thank you for sharing. 

In my games of Lion rampant I am considering a couple re-rolls per side.  I have found the game can swing heavily on one die roll as you saw.  I wonder if it will balance the luck load.   

Rerolls are powerful things.
The Templar cavalry had a rerollthrough their leader being attached and most other units on Kerry's side activating without a problem.  He just happened to fail the reroll.
My commander had a trait giving him a second reroll.  For the decisive part of the game he was stationed near the crossbows.  These are hard to activate but more deadly than archers.  With rerolls they activated every time, routed the Templar infantry and severely damaged to Templar cavalry. 
The game was a little one sided as I had a better understanding of the capabilities of units, Kerry was learning and was very gentlemanly on insisting that his monks (as fanatics) would want to move forward, even if this brought them near my cavalry.