Last Thursday when I was in Stockholm I was invited to participate in a Lion Rampant game with Michael "Dalauppror" at his club.
I had bought the rules and read them but I hadn´t actually played any games with it yet. And what a great opportunity to test out the rules with one of the people that play tested it before its release.
The setting was for some Danish Baltic Crusaders in the year of our lord 1219.
I took what I had painted on mostly single bases and it just happen to turn out that I could muster a 24point host.
The Danes had seen a red and white flag fallen from the skies surly sent by a divine interference (at least that's what they say) and had laid anchor with their ships to search for this holy treasure.
The only problem was that the cursed heathens had seen it first.
- Make land fall. Deus Vult.
The heathens had deployed some bidowers and their commander with his Men-at-arms.
More heathens are waiting in the forest until the Danes make landfall.
The Danes have made landfall and moving inland towards the objective.
My mounted Serjeants takes the led.
The heathens are still waiting as does most of the Danish army to.
The bidowers managed to take one of the Danish Serjeants down but are then caught in close combat.
The rest of the Danish forces moves in.
Finally the horse archers starts to move. I guess they were waiting for the right opportunity.
I charged in on is Men-at-arms, not that I thought I could win but I think atleast I could soften them up so my other units would have it easier.
The Serjeants pull back after some casualties.
His horse archers moved a little to close for my comfort so I ordered one of my Knight units to charge them. Well technically they charged them by them self and I was standing and watching them doing it... The horse archers failed their pull-back and was caught by the Danish lances.
My leader was also forced by the
Wild Charge rule to charge in.
After we both took some casualties my knights pulled back.
My crossbowmen took out the enemy leaders last bodyguard with a hail of bolts.
More heathens close in.
But it was to late. My knights charged again and took out the enemy commander.
Deus Vult, Victory.
I had managed to take out the guards holding the objective.
Game two. The Danes was consolidating their position.
They were about to pick down the flag that somehow had get stuck in the treetop. The Danish forces was just about to enter their boats again, just leaving behind some troops trying to get the flag down and a unit to protect them when the heathens counter-attacked.
We played the same scenario again but switched positions, it was now the Danish turn to defend.
The heathen army close in.
I had chosen to deploy a unit of foot Serjeants in shiltron formation and a knight unit to help them.
The knights left their positions as soon as they felt the smell of the unwashed heathens... That
Wild Charge rule was not that fun when the enemy was taking cover in the forest.
But the heathen warband had the
Wild Charge to, so they was forced to leave their protection of their forest and try to charge my knights.
My other forces are closing in. Again the mounted Serjeants are the first followed by my knights bearing the colours of the house of Hvide.
My knights in red and white had by now taken sever casualties as they were constantly lured into the forest and I was unable to save them. They did some casualties on the enemy but considering the cost of the knights this was not a good tradeof.
My knights charged the heathens that had ventured a little to close to them and gave them a good smacking. My mounted Serjeants did a short work of the heathen wild men that had lured my other knight unit into the forest. Not so tough in open ground against cavalry...
My crossbowmen gave the enemy bidowers some casualties and they fled backwards.
Another unit of wild heathens was to much for my mounted serjeants and the last serjeants pull back but so did the wildmen.
In an attempt to not get caught in bad terrain I challenged the enemy commander, the challenge option can apparently can be used as a sort of lockdown to your unit that then cant be ordered this turn or forced to charge using the
Wild Charge rule.
The challenge ended with no casualties and both commanders retired to their unit.
My crossbowmen closed in and in following turns my knights and his men-at-arms combated each others until enough casualties was inflicted on the heathen army and they decided it was not worth the cost and left me in the position of the battlefield.
My Danes was then able to take down the flag from the treetop and set sail again.
This was my first games of Lion Rampant and I like the rules.
They are quick and simple. They got enough different unit types and with upgrades Im sure you could really build an army to your liking of game play. The streamline unit types are easy to understand and you can easily see what different units are and see how they will behave.
The mounted units in my army was real killers but had Micheal used the terrain more I would have been in real trouble. Im particularly impressed by my mounted Sergeants and are really looking forward too build all kinds of retinues.
A big thanks to Michael for inviting me to his club and if you want to hear the heathens side of the story please visit
http://dalauppror.blogspot.se/2014/11/battle-of-lindanar-1219-lion-rampant-aar.html
