"Lion Rampant: Hundred Years War Battle Report" Topic

Lion Rampant Multi-Player Battle Report – Casual Con IV

This past summer our gaming group had the opportunity to try out a large multi-player battle of Lion Rampant using Aaron's beautifully painted Hundred Years War figures. A handful of fantasy figures did manage to sneak onto the table top to fill out the last few units within a couple of the retinues.

This Hundred Years War battle pits an English force against the French and their Scottish allies.

It was a 3-vs-3 game, with each player controlling and activating their own retinue when it was their side's turn. The English side was commanded by Aaron, Josh, Matt while the French and Scottish forces were controlled by Dan and Mark. Since this would be a large game and we had a number of players new to Lion Rampant, we decided to play the straightforward "Bloodbath" scenario.

Prior to the game we rolled on the leadership characteristics chart to determine what trait each of our leaders had. If the random traits were any indication (see below), right out of the gate it looked like the game was shaping up as heroic English leaders vs. their somewhat questionable French opponents. How this would ultimately play out was still to be determined.

English Commander Traits: Strong, Leader, Lion Hearted
French Commander Traits: Sly, Vulnerable, Vulnerable

The two sides deploy for battle. The English form up in the woods on the right and the French with their Scottish allies gather near the farmstead on the left.

The French lines arrayed for battle.

One of the French commanders looks out over his troops and contemplates the struggle about to commence.

The commander exhorts his men to move out towards the enemy.

Crossbowmen and spearmen in the center of the line.

Across the field the English formations ready themselves.

English men at arms strike an intimidating pose.

Bidowers skulk forward through the woods and look for a weak spot in the English lines that they can harass.

The Englishmen move out toward the center of the battlefield

Part 2

While the French also begin to surge forward.

Two units of men-at-arms from the English retinue on the left flank move forward while the accompanying longbowmen work their way through the woods towards a good firing position.

"Forward, men! Follow me!" shouts the commander of the English center while the remainder of his retinue stubbornly refuses to pass their activation rolls.

Meanwhile, the French lines make a much more coordinated and successful advance onto the battlefield.

French foot sergeants push forward up their right flank.

The well coordinated French advance.

Part 3

A short break in the action allows one of the French commanders to quaff a fine ale.

"Quit lollygagging around back there!" The commander of the English center again looks back at his retinue in astonishment as they yet again fail their activations to move forward.

The French left flank successfully stays in formation and moves forward in unison.

Crossbowmen take up position.

Crossing the hedges, the advance toward the enemy continues.

The French left flank commander looks on approvingly.

French bowmen settle into a well defended position on the edge of a field.

A clash of cavalry on the English right flank.

Part 4

English yeomen charge into the French sergeants. The battle is fierce but the English are slowly whittled away.

With bidowers and the now victorious sergeants in support, French cavalry makes a charge into the foot men at arms on the English right flank.

The well coordinated French lines face off against the more piecemeal English lines.

The center of the lines close upon each other and ready themselves for the impending melee.

A loud cheer goes up from the hardy English bowmen after they defy the odds and repulse a French cavalry charge.

Meanwhile, the commander of the French left flank leads his men-at-arms to the well for a quick refreshing drink.

Part 5

The commander of the English center and his men at arms find themselves surrounded by the scrum at the center of the battlefield.

Meanwhile on the right flank another of the English commanders and his remaining men at arms charge up the road towards a unit of spearmen.

However, before they can reach their target a volley from the French crossbowmen scores a lucky hit on the English commander!

"Everything was going so well until I took an arrow to the knee!"

"Bien joué!"

Bowmen support from afar.

Part 6

The deadly swirling melee at the center of the battlefield.

Sensing he may soon be surrounded and with a fresh men-at-arms unit closing in from behind, the English commander issues a challenge to the French leader whose unit lies just before him.

The two commanders lock into a deadly duel, flailing wildly at each other while trying to keep their visors up to see what the heck they're doing.
"If only we weren't wearing these daft helmets…"

Swinging his axe about recklessly, the English commander scores a lucky blow into his French opponent's opened visor…

…sending his opponent to the ground and out of action.

The battle in the center is fierce with both sides sustaining heavy losses. However, with English casualties mounting at an increasing pace the French are ultimately able to claim victory on the field this day.

The commanders line up for a post-battle group shot before heading off to the local pub.

When the time came to begin rolling to see if the game would go for another turn, the casualties had already been mounting for both sides but it was clear that the French were on the better end of the equation. So we decided to call it there as a French victory.

This was definitely a fun game and it was great opportunity to introduce Lion Rampant to three more players in the group. They all caught on to the rules very quickly and had a good time. We're looking forward to more games of Lion Rampant in the future, as well as the soon to be released Dragon Rampant for when we're in a fantasy mood.
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Great looking game!

Inspiring!

very good battle report.

i'm curious how you classified some of the terrain, like the field and such.

did you guys use the activation rule as written or did you modify it at all? when i have done multiplayer games i have done it that when one retinue fails an activation the others my continue, and when all retinues on one side either fail or do all thier activations then the it changes to the other side.

That's how we handled activation as well. If a player failed an activation then his retinue was done but the other retinues on the same side would continue until they'd also either failed an activation or completed all their units.

I believe we treated both the woods and the cultivated fields as rough ground. The stone walls were obstacles.

Nice table and troops. Beautiful wargame.

Isn't LR supposed to be a skirmish game?

Excellent!

Awesome!

I really enjoyed your report. LR looks like the type of fame I've been looking for. I can't wait to see more! Are most of your figures Perry?

Superb!

Excellent pictures and report.

I really enjoyed your report. LR looks like the type of fame I've been looking for. I can't wait to see more! Are most of your figures Perry?

As one of the participants in this game, we have really been having fun with the Lion Rampant rules and are looking forward to picking up Dragon Rampant as soon as it's available at our FLGS.

The figures are Perry and Claymore Castings.

Absolutly marvelous!

How do you play such a large game without having a lot of order failures that bog the game down? It appears that you used units with more figures than the rules call for.

Even though we sometimes had a player that would fail an activation roll early on in his side's turn (3 players per side), things in Lion Rampant move along at a good clip such that no one seemed to have to sit around very long with nothing to do. In our case we didn't find that it bogged the game down.

We used standard size units in all of our retinues (either 6 or 12 models per unit). In some of the pictures it might sometimes look like we had bigger units since we ignored the 3" spacing rule for friendly models from the same retinue. That might make it appear that there are bigger units in some situations where they are situated close to one another.

Beautiful game!!!! I love Lion Rampant and think it will and has revitalized Medieval miniature war games. I noticed the three inch rule was not really being followed but as long as you are aware of that issue and how it may cause you to loose an entire unit if it becomes battered and cannot retreat I think you are fine.

Yes I noticed that you ignored the weird 3" (4"?) spacing rule between friendly units.

We have found this essential to both a good looking game and to avoid constant measuring between friendly units.

We have also found a "mass activation" rule essential in big games.

TomT