"Help me with Retinue design for Lion Rampant" Topic

I am going to be running Lion Rampant demo games at Millennium Con in Round Rock, Texas in early November. I am pretty much taking the entire morning and afternoon on Saturday of the convention to run as many games and scenarios as I possibly can to introduce folks to the game.

One of my games is going to be Vikings and Normans and I have the retinues for that scenario well in hand and all painted. However, I am steadily painting up late 13th century figures for the games mainly using the Fireforge plastic sets with a good bit of the Crusdader Late Crusade figures tossed in. I am wanting to have two balanced but distinct forces for these scenarios so I wanted to get some feedback.

The first Retinue of 24 points is set up like so:

1 x Mounted Men at Arms
1 x Foot Men at Arms
2 x Foot Sergeants
1 x Crossbowmen

The second Retinue is currently shaping up this way:

1 x Mounted Sergeants
1 x Foot Men at Arms
1 X Foot Sergeants
1 x Expert Foot Sergeants
1 x Crossbowmen

Do you feel these are too similar or will they both present some interesting tactical possibilities? I feel the first retinue is a class balanced force while the second may be a more aggressive force with the expert sergeants.

An options for the second retinue based upon the figures I currently have is this configuration:

2 x Mounted Sergeants
1 x Foot Sergeants
1 x Expert Foot Sergeants
1 x Crossbowmen
1 x Bidowers

This is a more shooty force with a bit more maneuverability but will require finesse to win with.

Thoughts?

Throw in some peasants and do the Albigensian crusade, sending the crusaders against the cathars

Bluewillow that sounds like a wonderful idea. Sadly I do not have enough peasants as of yet and a real tight painting deadline before the convention. I am planing down the road to acquire LOTS of peasants for a scenario along the lines of what you are suggesting.

I could only suggest making the second retinue more aggressive by switching the Foot Sergeants with Fierce Foot and switching the Crossbowmen with Archers. The latter would give people a good idea of how there are similar troop types but which operate differently in the game.

There is a dedicated forum which you may find useful.

duxrampant.yuku.com

Good luck with the demo.

Regards,
Matt

Excellent ideas Matt. What would you suggest for the Fierce Foot in terms of style of figures? And yes I am considering getting a few packs of the Crusader Late Crusades Archers to switch out the Crossbowmen.

Another thing I am considering since I posted for the demo games that it could accommodate four players is actually increasing the retinues from the standard 24 to about 28 or maybe 30 points so that each player would have at least three units each to run.