Lion Rampant AAR #1

A friend and I had a great time playing our first game of Lion Rampant. I used my recently completed Free Company against my friend's French led by his magnificently painted Bretonnian knights.

French retinue:

1x Mounted Men-at-Arms

1x Foot Serjeants, Expert

1x Foot Serjeants

1x Archers

1x Crossbowmen

Free Company:

1x Mounted Men-at-Arms

1x Foot Men-at-Arms

2x Foot Serjeants

2x Archers

On a 6x4 table we set up for the Bloodbath scenario to give the rules a shake-down and got to it. Here follows dodgy photos taken with my phone...

After several turns of movement sprinkled liberally with activation failures on both sides, the Free Company had advanced into the village. French foot serjeants had moved towards the forest on their right while a push on their left was led by archers and crossbowmen.  

A missile exchange broke out and after suffering a few casualties the Free Company archers on that flank had enough for the day and fled the field. The foot serjeants that had been moving forward to support them decided against advancing into the face of two missile units and began to fall back. French  archers now began to flank the Free Company's left. On the right, the opposing sides closed in on each other.

Sir Hortangue led his picked men over a wall and rushed towards the French crossbowmen. Unfortunately, despite expensive armour, good shooting brought them down in heaps. At the last, brave Sir Hortangue still spitting defiance, fell to ignoble weaponry.

The Free Company took the fall of their lord in good strides except for the hired on mounted men-at-arms. With no one now to pay them, their leader shouted "Follow me!" and promptly rode away to greener pastures.

On the right a bloody fight began under the trees. Despite friendly archery shooting into the enemy's flanks, the mercenary foot serjeants were eventually overcome.

After much malingering in a turnip patch, the French lords decided the time was ripe to sweep away the dregs of the field. They rushed towards the village where they intended to bravely ride down some foot serjeants.

Assuming schiltron formation in the face of this glorious effort, the foot serjeants held firm against not one, but two charges from the knights. They proved Buliwyf's words true: "Luck, often enough, will save a man if his courage holds" and routed the knights back to their ladies at court.

At the loss of their French betters, the archers that had been steadily flanking on the left as well as the crossbowmen who had been busily looting Sir Hortangue's corpse, ran back the way they had come! There still remained French foot serjeants closing on the right but a hail of arrows at point blank range soon saw them off, as well.

The game ended here when we had less than five units left on the table and rolled a 6. True to the scenario's title, the encounter was a bloody one. I lost by one Glory point. Courage tests, with their ever increasing penalties due to figure losses, ensured that units are not long for this world. For our first game, at 28 points a side, we finished in a couple of hours. We'll definitely be giving these rules another go. Good times.