Lion Rampant : 'The Convoy' - Swiss Mercenaries vs Border Raiders...

 

I met up with old mate C_ for a bit of Lion Rampant this Saturday at Jolt Games in Canberra's very chilly Northern suburbs. The venue is a great place to meet up with fellow minded gamers, and there were scads of people about playing a Game of Thrones 'Song of Fire' tournament. 

Luckily for us there was still a table available.

Soon enough, the atmosphere was bubbling along, with loads of serious gamer types, moving their big blocks of units about. 

Then there was me & C_  just throwing dice about, cursing our luck and carrying on like good-natured idiots. For some reason, it always seem like I'm playing at the rowdiest table in every single venue I game at.

I decided earlier in the week to contact C_ about meeting up, organising a retinue and choosing a scenario. C_ decided to run a 'Border Raiders' retinue from the suggested list in the blue book. It gave him eight units to play with:

• 1 unit of Mounted Serjeants
• 2 units of Mounted Yeoman & Javelins
• 2 units of Foot Yeoman & Javelins
• 3  units of Bidowers

I decided that it was time to blood up my Swiss Pikemen that I had recently painted...and as is the case with freshly painted troops, there were to get blooded up good & proper. 

My 'Swiss' retinue had:

• 2 units of Expert Sergeants (My Miniart Swiss Pikemen)
• 2 units of Fierce Foot (My French Halberdiers)
• 1 unit of Crossbowmen

Everything, of course in glorious toy-soldier 1/72!

The scenario from the LR bluebook, 'The Convoy' states that one player - my Swiss - were to escort a small convoy of three wagons (I used my Hussite war wagons and my Siege Ram) from the SE corner to the NW corner table edge. The wagons couldn't move on rough terrain. As one can see, there was only a singular way through, and it wasn't going to be easy.

I decided to move in an arrowhead formation. I would try to use my /Fierce foot units to flush out the skirmishers and light troops from the both flanks of the column. My Pikemen & Crossbowmen could only shepherd the wagons along the route, and according to the rules, these units couldn't really advance to contact away from the wagons. 

This little exception effectively hogtied these units to the wagons and negated the benefits of my Pikemen's 'expert rating'. Oh well, they were still here, and I had painted them...so they were going to fight on..and more likely die!!!!

I sat my Crossbowmen in the final wagon of the packet...this too was another tactical misjudgement upon reflection. My reasoning was that the the Crossbowmen could be tricky to activate, and I didn't want them holding up the convoy if they were at the head of the packet. That would cause problems in a scenario in which mobility was key.

Alternatively, those Crossbowmen would be brutally effective if they were in range...and if..if, they activated in time.

Soon the game began...

C_ sent his light Cavalry - his Mounted Yeoman over the small hill to try and harass the column. Of course, my Fierce foot were soon off on a wild charge chasing them down. Bugger.

These Fierce Foot managed to inflicted a few bruising blows on one of C_s mounted Yeoman, but got lured away by C_s second mounted Yeoman unit when the evaded off the table. Effectively, both units were out of the game. It was a loss C_s could afford to lose...but not my Swiss. The Convoy needed that right flank protected, as there were quite a few Bidowers hiding in the woods along the route waiting to ambush...

All the while, the Convoy shuffled into the killing zone.  

Soon enough, the lead wagon was hit on their right flank by an assortment of arrows, slings, javelins and even some sporadic handgun fire. The initial effect was more surprising than serious. The leading Pikemen became battered after a poor morale roll. They rallied the next turn, but had lost momentum. 

Furthermore, they had lost a member, and those Pikemen could only sustain so many losses before it would become more difficult to rally. 

My only recourse at this stage was to make a run for it.

Meanwhile on my left flank, my other Fierce Foot unit was faring a little better, that was until their poor discipline started to draw them closer to oblivion.

These guys would get whittled away and drawn into a very bloody confrontation with C_s Foot Yeoman. Those Yeoman on the slopes were eventually bloodied and routed, but the contest effectively drained the combat power of my Fierce Foot. It didn't take much for C-S cheeky Bidowers to harass and force a poor morale roll, forcing them to flee the field.

The ambushing screen on the right flank of the Convoy whittled away the leading Pikemen again and again, eventually weakening them and ensuring that they were easy prey for an assault by C-s Mounted Sergeants. Those that weren't killed outright soon fled the field...

Still the convoy pressed on, and the second wagon - the siege ram - was soon slinking around the collapsed wagon full of dead. 

Time waits for no one! 

My good old Crossbowmen were dragging their tails much further behind. True to form, if they weren't failing their movement activations, they wouldn't shoot when you wanted them...

'Can't move, can't shoot'...

There were also some pesky Bidowers on the other side of the woods still monitoring the Convoy and moving into position. Now that my right & left flanking Fierce foot were nowhere to be seen, the noose would be tightened around that convoy.

But not without a last ditch scramble to safety!

C-s mounted Sergeants would soon chase those scampering Pikemen down.

It would be a bitter and hard-fought confrontation. Both sides sustained casualties and were forced back.

The day would belong to the little guys however, as the Bidowers trailing the Siege Ram would manage to fire off a few volleys and inflict a solitary casualty on the Pikemen. It was simply one casualty too many, and those few Pikemen left soon fled the field.

While this was all unfolding my Crossbowmen and their wagon had sat back, missing activations. They were too far out of range to provide any effective support for their brothers in arms. 

The game was a foregone conclusion by this stage but we did press on for a few quick turn to see how fate would deal with these lazy, no-good Crossbowmen. As expected they were wiped off the mat, but not without taking out a few units in reply. Once activated and in range, these Crossbowmen are lethal.

Too little, too late!

So. There you go. We both had a really, a really good time. 

Half way through the game, old mate C_ said "I'm really liking this game'. I'm pretty sure he was implying that while it was good fun walloping me to death in Lion Rampant, it was his first time playing it, it flowed really smoothly, the turns were quick, the rules were intuitive, and the scenario was pretty straight forward, and it was fun.

All the best.