Lion Rampant - First Game

[tim in saskatoon]

I've been trying to focus on Ancient subjects lately but was distracted by the arrival of Lion Rampant. Over the last week or so I quickly dusted off and touched up some older figures and painted up a few new ones so we could have a go at it.



The Forces available. You can find more pictures of my units on my blog:

http://saskminigamer.blogspot.ca/2014/10/lion-rampant-retinues.html

Then on the weekend I set up a quick game for the kids to play...



Set up and ready to go!



The mounted Serjeants (armed with crossbows) charge ahead, everyone else just shambles their way toward the field of battle.



The Serjeants are the first to suffer casualties - but they're steady folk and easily pass their courage tests.



First Clash - Serjeants vs Serjeants...

For a complete report of the action and loads more pictures check out the post on my blog:

http://saskminigamer.blogspot.ca/2014/10/lion-rampant-first-game.html

[Helen]

Lovely work Tim.

All the best,

Helen

[maxxon]

Hi,

 What are your feelings about the game? I bought and read it and I have a positive feeling about it. It just has a wee bit too many figures to move individually, do you feel it would work with unit bases? Is it important to be able to change the formation?

[guitarheroandy]

We had our first game last night. Moving individual models at 24pts wasn't an issue, to be honest. It was useful to have the figures based individually, although trays would work, I guess.

[maxxon]

Moving individual models at 24pts wasn't an issue, to be honest.

24 points = six units of 12 foot = 72 individually mounted figures. Ok, less with some other configurations, but you will be hard pressed to come up with a legal force of under 30 models.

It is an issue for me. I hate fiddling about a gazillion figures, even though in this game you could theoretically get away with just measuring one (it does open avenues for rubber band ranges etc. but not by huge amount).

[guitarheroandy]

Ok, so my force was 18 mounted and 24 foot, so not 72 models! Also, measuring is very fluid. We tended to measure from the key model in each unit and group the unit in a broadly similar formation around him. It worked well enough. The trouble with movement trays is differentiating when spearmen form schiltron - you'd need a marker, I suppose...

[maxxon]

It worked well enough. The trouble with movement trays is differentiating when spearmen form schiltron - you'd need a marker, I suppose...

I was planning to use zombie trays for most units. And it's arguable without the trays too, if one wants to argue such things.

This is not a criticism against Lion Rampant specifically -- I find pretty much all "mass skirmish" suffer from the same problems.

- The mere act of physically moving tens of individual things every turn is a chore for no real gain (IMHO). Selecting a unit, deciding where to move, measuring and moving the first guy is fun. Moving everyone else in the same unit to follow up is not.
- If every figure is diligently measured, it's double the chore.
- If not, you will soon see players stretching the interpretation to its limit.
- It slows down play by allowing, ahem, certain type of players to micromanage their formations.

But that's just my personal preference.

It just seems odd to me that Lion, having streamlined many other typically fiddly aspects (always measure closest-to-closest, everyone fights etc.) still clings to individual movement.

[Gibby]

We used trays. It's no problem at all. Once it was required we moved them off the trays.

[Mad Doc Morris]

Thanks for the AAR, saskatoon-tim. I do share some of your concerns on the randomised activation and already pondering minor house ruling there. E.g. lowering the rolls for activation or an incremental bonus each turn for units not yet activated. If you come up with something yourself, please share it.

I don't see the point, though, in arguing about basing convention. The rules for movement are pretty loose anyway, and neither facing nor formation do matter, so there's nothing to exploit. If the rules were expressing a need for multi-based figures everyone would grumble "Well, well, that's not how you do skirmishes!". Lion Rampant is distinctly 'old school' in that and many other regards. But even if you take everything "as written", I may quote the following passage (p. 6):

If your collection includes multiple models on a communal base, you can still play Lion Rampant without much difficulty: just be prepared to ignore the direction the models are actually facing and think of them as a blob of troops with no flanks or rear. You’ll also need to mark casualties as they occur (small dice are a discreet way of doing so).

So, relax.

[Ray Earle]

It's not that big an issue, just use what you have.

I've plumped for multi bases in groups of six figures, but my cavalry are individually based. It's not a problem at all. 

[Emir of Askaristan]

Thanks for the report. I bought the Kindle version of the rules and intend to give it a go for bigger skirmishes once my opponents have caught up in terms of figures. I plan to use skirmish trays to move figs about.

Until everyone has enough figs I will be using Legends of Feudal times for small skirmishes.

[Dalauppror]

Very nice AAR!

I play-tested the rules with my Multibased Kalmar union minis and just counte the hits and removed a base when appropriate, no problem at all. In the game Dan specificly wanted pictures of singel based minis as it is a "Skirmish" game so my Baltic Crusade forces was made that way and during the later games we removed the movement trays for Dan´s pictures, but only one of them made it to the final book.

[tim in saskatoon]

What are your feelings about the game? I bought and read it and I have a positive feeling about it. It just has a wee bit too many figures to move individually, do you feel it would work with unit bases? Is it important to be able to change the formation?

I like the game.

I don't see any reason why multi-figure bases or movement tray wouldn't work. Honestly, we didn't find it all that arduous moving the troops - though the troops didn't really do all that much moving on any give turn...

[janner]

I like them quite a lot and we use movement trays as and when it helps, but aren't bound by them.

I do need to ask Dan about the reasoning behind the three inch ruling at some point. It seems incongruous for a skirmish game. I'm sure different distances were considered during play testing and wondered what was the consequence of going for a single inch instead.

[Captain_Hook]

Very nice AAR. I just purchased the rules, but I haven't had a chance to really look through them. So far everyone who has posted an AAR, seems to like the flow of the rules. Activation seems a bit odd, when you have a unit that doesn't activate in 7 turns. Thanks again for posting.