Medieval May ~ Lion Rampant Battle Reports

 A few few days back at our last club meeting we celebrated the start of Medieval May with a couple of games of Lion Rampant. My friend Mike and I brought out our Imaginations Medieval forces and fought for glory, reputation and renown.

Game 1

The first stouch was just a basic clash. My Hemmingaetic League (modestly named after myself) and Mike's Knights of Noirebrûler (that's Blackburn to us uneducated peasants).

Above: Bishop Eisenwurst leads the forces of the H League, whilst below: some pathetic knight leads the Noirebrûler scum. We rolled our Leader Qualities. Mike rolled Strong (Re-roll one failed To Hit dice). I rolled Sly for Eisenwurst (he can get out of challenge because he's a slimy turd).

Early on The Noirebrûler knights charged. Earlier some arrows were let loose and the Noirebrûler archers hitting my foot sergeants hard (6 sixes on 12 dice!). However, this charge didn't go to plan and my knights won the fight.

On the flank I sent my mounted sergeants through some woods to come up on Mike's archers. They were on a hill this improved their armour rating and helped them hold their ground. As a result my heavy cavalry retreated and became Battered.

A band of halberdiers attacked my crossbowmen. The crossbows had already taken a couple of shots and worn down the heavy infantry. From experience I paid the cost for parvises and this proved to be a good choice because they managed to stand their ground and inflict losses on the halberdiers causing them to retreat. The Noirebrûlereans then failed their Courage Test and fled the field. Hooray!

This lead the way for my spearmen to advance. In fact both of our spearmen advanced and looked at each other with trepidation. I don't think they got into combat with each other. I'm not certain but I seem to remember both sides just staring each other down.

"Who you lookin' at?

'Who us? 

'Yeah you lot...

Nuffink. We're just standin' around."

There was another clash of armoured knights in the centre with the Bishop's men coming out on top. Only the Leader of the Noirebrûlereans remained and he was forced to retreat.

The brave Knight of Noirebrûler then failed his Courage Test and was last seen fleeing the field followed by his archers and leaving is spearmen to their fate.

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Game 2

This time we used one of the scenarios in the 2nd Edition Book. The one with and objective in the centre. The objective we decided on was decided, whereupon a mystical voice cried out:

"He who pulleth this sword

from this stone and anvil shall

be the true King of Medieval May!"

We both swapped out our forces. I opted to get rid of the heavy mounted sergeants (4pts) and also ditched the pavisers for my crossbows (2pts). Instead I took a unit of Foot Knights (6pts). We rolled our Leader Qualities: This time around Mike rolled whatever it is that makes him only able to be hit on a roll of 6 when in a Challenge. My commander Freidrich von Flintenstein rolled a 2 (Forgettable but with a fine moustache!)

Above: Freidrich von Flintenstein the Forgettable looks toward the holy relic of True Kingship.

We both jockeyed for position and this time those scheming  Noirebrûlereans sent a band of mounted archers around my flank. I didn't realise, at first that they were archers so I drew up my spearmen into a Schiltron formation thinking they were going to charge.

In the centre my foot knights approached the holy relic but stopped in reverend awe as they gazed upon its majesty (either that or they failed their Activation).

The Noirebrûlerean Knights didn't waste any time and charged as soon as they could thinking to quash von Flintenstein and his holy warriors and drive them from the field.

The Hemingsaetic knights counter-charged but got the worst of the fight and were forced to retreat from the onslaught of their enemies. At least they passed their Courage Test so they did not become Battered.

Meanwhile, the foot knights got over their reverence and slogged up the hill to the monument only to find Noirebrûlerean spearmen trudging up the opposite slope. This was going to come down to swords and stout hearts!

In the centre von Flintenstein the Forgettable led his knights into the fight again and evened the odds against their foe. This gave the Hemmingseatic spearmen the chance to charge home and try their luck. 

The Noirebrûler knights failed to counter charge and the fight was a draw (both losing one figure) so the spearmen retreated Battered and, for the remainder to the battle stood around whilst enemy archers slowly picked them off at short range. But they had further weakened the enemy knights.

The archers on the flank were doing little but were witling away at the schiltron which prompted them to break formation and advance on the horsemen.

In the woods beside the shrine a group of vagabonds lurked. The looked mysteriously like that Robin the Hood fellow you may have heard about. They were causing a nuisance so I diverted my crossbowmen to deal with them (seen advancing in the distance).

Yet another clash of knights in the centre brought victory for von Flintenstein's holy warriors but because the sole remaining Noirebrûlerean knight (the commander) retreated they were forced to charge the spearmen on the hill (due to the Wild Charge rule). Not surprisingly they were forced to retreat with the loss of another man.

Seeing the riders retreat back down the slope the foot knights charged home and defeated the spearmen who then failed their Courage Test and fled leaving the knights in possession of the sword in the stone.

Again Wild Charge took precedence and the armoured knights clashed again. This time the last of von Flintensteins men were killed leaving only the two leaders facing each other.

Not wanting to face the Hemmingsaetic spearmen Mike's horse archers made a last minute dash around the flank to be met with a hail of crossbow bolts (which were ineffectual anyway).

The Noirebrûler commander decided to issue a challenge seeing that he had the advantage of me having to roll 6's to hit him. He would be hitting my chap on 5's and 6's.

We rolled 3 dice each.

Freidrich the Forgettable was hit once.

But he hit the Noirebrûlerean twice (I rolled two 6's) and the foe was worsted.

In celebration the Fredrich von Flintenstein the Forgettable charged into the enemy archers laying several of them low and scattering the rest! 

'Twas a glorious victory for the forces of the Hemmingsaetic League.

"O frabjous day. Callooh! Calhay!"

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Conclusion:

It was a good start to Medieval May. Both Mike and I started medieval when Lion Rampant first came out. The idea being to build large forces for Hail Caesar but to start with LR so that we could get some troops done quickly, get them on the table and have some games. We're using the same plan for Medieval May (a concept new to our club).We've started with LR and we'll conclude the final meeting in May with a big Hail Caesar bash. This coming weekend it's a moderate HC game followed the next week by some Lion and Dragon rampant action.