Fall-In 2018 AAR - The Dying of the Light Lion Rampant Game

I had an abbreviated attendance at Fall In this year, but did have a chance to run a Fall of the Roman Empire game using a slightly modified version of the Lion Rampant Rules.

The game was set in, of course, the Roman province of Ruritania, somewhere between the Battle of Adrianople and the 410 AD Sack of Rome by the Visigoths.  

Just a word about the conditions at the site of the convention, the Lancaster Host Resort (sic), which has been undergoing a seemingly perpetual refurbishment.   The main room usually used for gaming, the Distelfink ballroom, had been cut in half with the back end lit only by a string of work lights slung precariously from some nails and plugged into the overstuffed extension cord pictured above.  I joked that it was lucky I was running a Dark Ages game since the lighting was so appropriate - I think torches would have given better lighting.  Despite these challenges, my eight players were very engaged and seemed to have a good time and the game went by fairly smoothly with plenty of dramatic actions.

I had forces representing two factions of Goths, a group of Gepids, Huns, and Slavs.   The Goths and Gepids, above, began on the northern bank of the River Ister and had to find a way across.

The Huns, pictured above, and Slavs had crossed the river elsewhere and could charge into the heart of the Roman province.

The Slavs led by their incredibly distinguished warlord.  This was a figure of myself that I got from Minuteman Miniatures.

There were three Roman players: the limitanei given the thankless task of defending the riverine border from the barbarian hordes; the comitatenses "field army" that was ensconced in the provincial capital of Strelsona; and the army of a pretender to the Imperial throne who invaded the province on his way to the imperial capital at Ravenna.  The pretender and the field army commander were opponents to each other and went after each other, often to the exclusion of defending the province.

There were also a tribe of mercurial Sarmatian foederati, the Ruritanii from whom the province had received its name.  There mercurial nature was shown by a die roll at the beginning of each turn to determine which player controlled them for that turn. There were also "random encounters" on the board that could help or hinder the players once one of their units touched them.

I used the Lion Rampant rules for the game.  Given the large size of the table, I doubled the movement rates of units and increased missile ranges by 50%.  This seemed to give the game a good dynamic.  I also did not have a failed unit activation roll end a players turn, they just would not use that unit that turn.   I based the army lists, in part, on the excellent Crepusculum Imperii lists found of the I Live with Cats blog.

Victory was determined by the number of coins each player had at the end of the game.  Each player received a few coins at the start of the game.  The barbarian players then received a certain number of coins for pillaging various locations on the table.  The Romans received coins for locations that remained unpillaged at the end of the game.  The barbarians also received coins for eliminating other players' units or leaders, including those of other barbarian players.  The Roman pretender and Roman field army commander received substantial coin rewards for eliminating each other's commander.

The final result was that most of the province was devastated with only the city, on villa, and an imperial granary remained intact.  The field army commander had been killed by the pretender forces, gruesomely skewered by a lucky ballista shot, giving the pretender control of the remaining field army forces. 

The game was marked by the incredible stand of the limitanei troops.  Despite being outnumbered with fairly mediocre troops, they held off the three German tribes for most of the game, inflicting heavy losses on the barbarians.  

Here's the last stand of the limitanei, encouraged by the ancient equivalent of a USO tour.  At one point, the limitanei commander was the only figure left holding the bridge and successfully destroyed unit of Goth attackers single-handed. Horatius at the Bridge indeed.

In the end, all that was left of the valiant border troops was the commander himself and a half-strength light cavalry unit.  With the barbarians having moved on the loot the province, he sent his light cavalry across the river into the barbaricum, capturing the baggage trains of the two Goth players!

By the end of the game, the Gepids attacked the city and actually managed to get on top of the walls.  However, Roman heavy infantry drove them off and the Roman cataphracts counter attacked, saving the city.  However, this was not enough to give the Romans victory. The Slav player who concentrated on avoiding unnecessary fights and pillaging soft-targets ended up quietly amassing the most coins.

I may be running this game again, with some tweaks, at Cold Wars in March.

Here's some pictures of some of the games at the convention that caught my eye.

Commando raid on German sub base

Boxer rebellion

Mad Maximilian 1934

Sand Pebbles game

World War I

The Dying of the Light: Late Roman Wargaming with Lion Rampant

I'll be running a game at the HMGS Fall In convention next month in Lancaster, PA.  This will be The Dying of the Light, a Fall of Rome scenario set in my fictional Roman province of Ruritania sometime in the 4th century.  It will pit four factions of barbarian invaders against four factions of Late Romans and allies.  There will encouragements for players, particularly among the Romans, to attack other players on their own side.  I'll be using a slight modified version of the Lion Rampant rules.  Although Lion Rampant is a skirmish game, I'm using it as a sort of pseudo-strategic vehicle.  The game will be decided by victory points, represented by coins, with the barbarians acquiring coins for sacking various locations on the board and the Romans for having these locations intact by the end of the game.

This is going to be on a double sized table, about 6" x 8". My game room isn't large enough for this sized table so I did the test set-up in two stages.

This is one side of the table, representing the main area of the province of Ruritania.  One corner contains the provincial capital of Colonia Stresona.  There are also a few villages, villas, a state-owned granary (taxes were often paid in kind in the late Empire), a church, and a settlement belonging to the Roman-allied (at least initially) Sarmatian tribe, the Ruritanii, for whom the province is named.

The other side of the table will be the frontier area, dominated by the might Ister Flumens.

Here's some shots of the various forces involved:

 Queen Amalsuntha of the Gepids

Aurelius Victor, an Imperial pretender

 Victor is supported by a sizable army

 The Comitatenses of the Dux Ruritanicum

 The Sarmatian Ruritanii

Huns and their Slavic allies 

Less than enthusiastic Limitanei

Some "action" shots:

Warning signals from the border outpost

Defending the river

Breaching the river defenses

Goths engaged with Roman troops

The city prepares for the barbarian onslaught

Cold Wars 2017

Attended Cold Wars 2017 with a unexpected pleasant surprise.  My son Nick's spring break plans fell through so he came to the convention with me and helped my run my game, "Caesar vs. Pluck: De Bello Ruritanico ad Mare."  This was something of a sequel to a similar game I ran a few conventions back.  It was based on Howard Whitehouse's Science vs. Pluck rules.  Science vs. Pluck is essentially a Victorian role-playing game where the players portray British army commanders in 19th century Sudan.  I modified the rules for ancient warfare with most of the players being Romans.

The scenario was this:  The Sarmatian Ruritanii have again crossed the Ister River and invaded the Roman province of Sylvania, capturing the Adriatic port of Colonia Turgidium.  Local Celto-Dacian tribesmen, the Shueti have risen in rebellion and rallied to the Ruritanii. Illyrian pirates together with some far-ranging Syrian corsairs have joined them as well.

A Roman force is hastily organized under the command of Domitian, the emperor Vespasian's second and less talented son (played again by Walt O'Hara with suitably whiny arrogance).  He led a squadron of the Ravenna fleet with a landing force of Praetorians while a task force built around the VII Legion attacks from the landward side.

We had twelve players, all but one played Roman commanders.  The twelfth player ran Burebista and Burorola, twin sisters vying for the vacant throne of the Shueti.

The naval side of the battle went well for the Romans, with the pirates ships dispatched handily.  However, one Roman trireme was destroyed by naphtha fire from a Syrian pirate.  Once the bay was cleared, the crews and Domitian's gladiator bodyguard landed to support the Praetorians.  The landing force fended off attacks from the Shueti and destroyed the barbarians in battle on the beach.  Princess Burebista committed suicide to avoid being captured by the triumphant Romans.

Things went more difficultly for the Romans on the landward side.  The auxiliaries stormed with some loss the captured watch tower that guarded the approaches to the port.  They then didn't move from the hill.  The Roman cavalry pushed rashly forward and were hit by both the naked fanatics of the Shueti and the heavy cataphracts of the Ruritanii, who had emerged from a forest to strike the Romans in the flank.  After a very hard fought battle the Roman cavalry was completely destroyed, having been left to their fate by the Roman legionaries whose commanders were not enthusiastic about risking their necks in such brawl.  Only a couple of cohorts of the Legion tried to help, under the leadership of young tribune (played with aristocratic cluelessness by Howard W. himself).  Despite the loss of the cavalry, the Roman line held, the Shueti completely destroyed, and the Ruritanii badly bloodied, causing them to retreat.  The Princess Bororolla was rescued at the romantically last minute by King Rheomitalces Rufus of the Ruritanii. The two rode off vowing vengeance against the Romans...

Everyone seemed to have a great time and the game was awarded a PELA for its time slot.

I also got to play in Jeff Allan's Frostgrave game.  A magnificent table!

It was an eight player game with most of the players unfamiliar with the Frostgrave rules but things ran very smoothly and a good time was had by all.  We were divided into two teams, Good vs. Evil but each player had a unique warband.  I ran a good shaman (witch) in the center of the board and had a relatively easy time of capturing treasures and avoiding any casualties.  Many of the other players were not so lucky on casualties.

A lot of time and laughter was spent on a couple warbands pushing each other around on the ice flows in the harbor.

As it turned out, we all faced far more danger from the GM-run wandering monsters than from each other.  In the end, I even got some of the evil players to rally around my animal familiar, Greg the Bear to save him from a skeleton lord awoken in a crypt.  A very fun and memorable game.

Here's some other games that caught my eye.