I have previously reviewed Lion
Rampant (Daniel Mersey; Osprey Publishing #8, 2014). Finally I managed to
organise a game or two at Devizes Wargames Club using my Teutonic and Baltic
Pagan forces. My opponent was Ian, who was using the rules for the first time.
The first game was the ‘Bloodbath’ scenario and I commanded
the Teutonic knights. The table was liberally covered with small areas of wood,
marsh and rough ground. Both armies arrived on table in a rather stuttering
manner due to failed activation rolls. My crossbow troops (foot and mounted)
rapidly knocked out the Pagan missile troops (horse archers and bidowers),
trying to fulfil my ‘Boast’ that more enemy would die by the arrow rather than
the sword. One unit of Teutonic knights, supported by the foot spearmen, then
advanced and engaged the enemy foot, who had not reached the areas of cover in
the centre of the table. Control was lost as both sides were forced in to ‘Wild
Charges’. The Pagans came out worst, losing a couple of units, and total
victory appeared to be in the hands of the Teutonics. At this point the
Teutonic foot badly failed a Courage test and routed, whilst the knights were
gradually whittled down and eliminated. Unfortunately this was too little, too
late for the Pagans. They lost their finally foot unit and their commanders
Men-at-Arms were shot to pieces by my crossbowmen. One Pagan Bidower, plus the
General finally retreated off the table and a Teutonic victory was achieved.
We had time for a second game, this time Ian took the
Teutonics. We played the ‘Sausages with Mustard’ scenario, and my Pagans were
defending the central 4 objectives. The Teutonics advanced rapidly across a
broad front, whilst the Pagans advanced their horse archers to support the
forward deployed, defending Pagan foot unit. In this game the Pagan horse
archers saw off the opposing Teutonic mounted crossbows and did seriously
damage the foot crossbows. Ian threw very poor activation dice which prevented
his missile troops from effectively returning fire. The Teutonic spearmen drew
out the defending Pagan foot away from the objectives. The Pagan foot were
subsequently destroyed by a unit of knights, but the Teutonic spearmen had
become Battered and steadfastly refused to rally, and eventually retreated off
table. Ian now had a problem; although he controlled the objectives, his only
units were the wild Teutonic knights! They never stayed long enough to set fire
to the objectives as they constantly charged off after the second wave of
advancing Pagan foot. One unit of knights became involved in a prolonged battle
with some foot on the edge of woods. After a number of turns the Teutonic
knights were ground down and eliminated. This gave the victory to the Pagans;
no objectives burned, and the Pagan ‘Boast’ of destroying the unit of knights
fulfilled.
I think we both enjoyed the games, even though Ian lost, and
the fast pace enabled two games to be completed in less than 2 ½ hours. The
‘Dice Gods’ were not in a good mood, Ian managed to throw appalling dice at critical
times during the afternoon. I sometimes doubt whether the laws of probability
hold true in our games, because frequently one-or-other of us has awful luck.
Lion Rampant works as a set of light-weight, fast, fun rules, ideal for relaxed
club gaming. The commander characters and ‘Boasts’ add good variations to the
scenarios. I still feel that 6 figure missile units (bidowers, horse archers
and mounted crossbows) are a bit overpowered compared to dedicated foot
crossbowmen. The pair of forces we used suffer from a lack of control due to
‘Wild Charges’, and I certainly feel that if they do not Charge they should be
allowed to move under normal activation.
To conclude, Lion Rampant gets a ‘Thumbs Up’ and will see
further outings in the future. The next planned game at Devizes will be
Crusaders versus Saracens using Ian’s figures and introducing a new set of
rules; ‘Swords and Spears’.
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