First Game of Lion Rampant

I recently picked up the Lion Rampant from Osprey.  I recently got a chance to play out a game with a friend. We both enjoyed the game and it found it very well balanced.  The rules were simple but provided a enough flavor and distinction between the units to give a unique feel to the game.

This was a bit of a change for me - a pure historical game with no fantastical elements. We decided to run the Sausage and Mustard scenario wherein one player has to destroy four supply points.  I set these up as a small village in the center of the board.

We used the basic Early English and French retinues from the book with an additional 2 points to each side.  

The English had 2 mounted men at arms units, 2 foot sergeants, and a bowman unit that used the 2 extra points to upgrade to expert.  Their leader rolled a Rash characteristic and so became Lord Flashheart.  We randomly selected which side we were on and I got the English.

The French had two mounted men-at arms, one mounted sergeants, one foot sergeants, and one crossbowmen.  Their extra two points were spent on two units of serfs who were set up in the village.  The French Lord rolled Insipid and got to be called Sir Guy de la Wombat (of MP&THG fame).

The French had a bad series of activation rolls so my English pushed forward to the edge of the village pretty quickly.  Lord Flashheart plunged ahead to circle the village and routed the French mounted sergeants.

We treated most of the village as Cover but the church was both cover and rough.  This gave the serf the chance to actually put up a pretty decent fight, at least initially.

Lord Flashheart's charge continued until Sir Guy spotted him.  This began a series of Wild Charges back and forth that saw Sir Guy killed and his unit of men at arms destroyed (the rest of his retinue barely noticing).  The last unit of French men at arms gained vengeance however, and the rash Lord Flasheart ended his life in a single-man Wild Charge against four french knights. 

Meanwhile, the English foot pushed its way into the village, the bowman routing off the French crossbowmen and foot sergeants.  Despite a stout defense, the French serfs were driven from the church.

The English mounted men at arms destroyed the last of the French men-at-arms and then, with only two knights left, rousted the other serfs from the village.  At this point, the French player conceded that he would be unable to retake the village before my troops could burn it - they had already started one of the buildings on fire.  A very close run thing with the heavy casualties among the knights. Definitely will be playing this again.

Historicon 2014: Spamalot, Conan, and Other Stuff

My son and I attended another Historicon. We had a great time although we ended up not playing in that many games as previous years but we ran two big games that appeared pretty successful to us.

This was the premier of our second annual Musical as Wargame event. Last year was Les Miserables, this year was Spamalot, played on Friday night. Not as much singing this year since Spamalot has dialogue but players were still able to do a re-roll if they belted out a Broadway tune.

We had a great turnout with all of the players acting wonderfully silly. I had originally posted the game for 8 players but we ended up with 14 playing, some walk-up playing smaller roles. We used Howard Whitehouse's new Outlaws of Sherwood as the base rule set but with a number of special rules to reflect the madness. Even with large number of players, it seemed to go pretty smoothly, although if I run this again I may try to streamline the combat rules for Lancelot's attack on Swamp Castle. We also had a fair number of spectators during the evening.

Too much stuff went on to give a blow-by-blow but some of the highlights were the limb-lopping of the Black Knight, Tim the Enchanter incinerating a line of French can-can dancers, and Sir Lancelot making the Red Wedding look like a picnic. However, Sir Lancelot was unable to rescue Prince Herbert from his unhappy wedding when he was attacked from behind by Sir Robin who proved remarkably courageous and actually managed to keep from getting slaughtered by Sir Lancelot. Of course it didn't help that Prince Herbert's attempt to shoot Sir Robin with an arrow ended up hitting Lancelot. King Arthur made an appearance and broke up the fight and put his knights back onto the quest, leaving Herbert weeping.

Brother Maynard and his monks battle a French maid and mime.

No one expected the Spanish Inquisition

The players who got to Castle ARGGG to find the Grail was the rather odd combination of the Lady of the Lake (who is a major character in the play vs the movie), the Knights Who Say Ni (who had worked out some sort of deal with the Lady, I think it was for a Grail-shaped beacon for their garden), and Sir Bedivere the Strangely Flatulent. Despite catapult-flung cows, the French were defeated and Sir Bedivere managed to retrieve the Grail itself. Arthur and the rest of his knights were still dealing with the Killer Rabbit. The ladies of the Castle Anthrax had earlier been driven out by Sir Bedivere's proficiency in "chemical warfare."

Saturday afternoon, we ran "Conan, What is Best in Life?" using the Crom rules from Matakishi's Tea House. They are a great set of rules, simple to pick up in about 5 minutes but with the need to make choices to make it challenging. We had ten players who all remained engaged throughout the game. It was run in three scenes with the ultimate goal of rescuing a princess who was to be sacrificed to summon an Elder Being. In the first scene, Conan and a virtual army of companions had to storm a desert village to rescue Akira the Wizard. In the second, the party had to obtain a magic sword from an ancient tomb. With wizard and sword, they then attacked the temple in scene three, succeeding in rescuing the princess just as the evil Thoth Amon had his knife to her throat that would have completed the evil ritual.

Conan in the Tomb of King Kull

Red Sonja dispatches some Snake men

There were some very fine games. The center piece was the All Quiet on the Martian Front. I didn't get a chance to play in it but a friend did and said it was a great game.

Here's a couple other games:

Spamalot: Final Casting Call

As I mentioned before, I will be running another musical-based wargame at Historicon in just a few days, Spamalot. For those who have never seen the stage show, while there are a lot of routines from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, there are considerable differences. I decided I would combine elements of both. In any event, here's some pictures of what it will look like:

The board

Camelot, Tis a silly place

We're Knights of the Round Table

Arthur, his knights and their valient steeds

Sir Robin and his minstrels

One of the big differences between the stage show and the movie is that the Lady of the Lake is major character. Here she is with her Laker Girls.

Bring out your dead

She turned me into a newt

None shall Pass

Is that a European or an African Swallow

We are the Knights who say...

Swamp Castle

Prince Herbert pining for a rescuer

You stay here and make sure he doesn't leave

The Red Wedding has nothing on this one.

Wicked Zoot and the Ladies of Castle Anthrax

French Reinforcements

There are those who call me "Tim"

The miraculously appearing Army of Camelot

Big, nasty, pointy, fangy teeth

Brother Maynard and the Holy Handgrenade of Antioch: An the counting shall be three.

I didn't vote for you.