A top weekend of gaming...Blood Bowl & Lion Rampant

Two gaming sessions this weekend. 

It seems as though I've been in a bit a drought, because it's been close to month since I've sat down & socialised around the gaming table. I was aching to dust off my burgeoning collection of 1/72 Medieval figures for a game of Lion Rampant, but happily, I also managed to get a very satisfying game of Blood Bowl in as well this weekend.

First up, some Saturday afternoon Blood Bowl 7s with my good mate C_. It was so good to get back to it after what seemed like an age. I was a little bit fuzzy on the rule sequences at first but it started to come back to me.

Tactics however are another thing. All the options are so tantalising in Blood Bowl, but the added chaos is what makes it so enjoyable.

For this game, C_ let me play his Wood Elves and he took his Goblin / Ogre team.  It was a nice break from playing my Norse team and gave me a better sense of the tactical game-play. 

Something I hadn't anticipated was the tactical knowledge one can hone by playing another team. I've been playing my Norse team for a while, but still haven't 'mastered' them.

The Wood Elves are much faster than most BB teams. The 'WarDancer' players in the team have a 'leap' special ability that - along with their already super quick movement allowances - can enable them to cross almost half a pitch on a turn. 

With a bit more coaching from C_, the Wood Elves won the match 3 - 0...but it did get pretty rough, with my inexperience showing. Several of my players - including one of my devastating WarDancers were slotted by C_s Orges as the game progressed, and it was only by a few cruel twists of fate that C_ didn't mange to punt some of his Goblins across the try-line.

Towards the end of the match we rolled a 'heat wave' pitch event...and practically lost 2/3rds of the players on the pitch. Losses C_ could sustain with extra Goblins on his bench, but I definitely couldn't. A good portion of my team were K'O or dead. 

It was one of those funny moments. Two Wood elves kicking off against a full side of Goblins. 

C_ also had received one of his Kickstarters. It was a you-beaut Blood Bowl carry case, but one of the nifty little extras was the player 'ball token'. You can see it here in the photos, it's a beautiful metallic base/token that represents the ball and fits right inside the grid.

The little luxuries in game do make a difference I have to say. It just cleans up the confusion a little as sometime we have lost track of the little ball amongst the chaos.

The token also has a few little reminders about passing, kicking modifiers as well as randomised ball template on the flip side. Great for when the ball gets fumbled of bounces several times.

On Sunday, I took my son & father-in-law to a newer club that has started up on the North Side of Canberra. The group has established itself at The Canberra Raider's Club in the suburb of Holt and the club intends to meet once per month.

It was their first meeting of the year, and was a good turn out with close to forty people playing on about 10 or so tables.  For the three of you that regularly read this blog you will know that I am a big Canberra Raiders NRL fan, so it is the best of both worlds for me.

We had a great game and the venue was tops. The people were really friendly and welcoming too. 

I was pretty much coaching my son as he played my father-in-law. It was my son's first game of Lion Rampant and pretty much his first fully fledged wargame. 

Adjudicating the rules is probably not my strength normally but Lion Rampant is a game I've played a lot of the past few years, so I'm pretty happy to get through a game without bogging down in rules look-ups.

My son - A_ - set up the table and we played a French vs English 100 Years War themed game. A_ went for  the 'Early English' army I had assembled from the 2nd edition book. It has a good variety of missile, foot sergeants and mounted men-at-arms. It gave him plenty of options rather than the overloaded-with- archers English retinue that is recommended elsewhere in the book.

My father-in-law, B_, played the French. Being a skilled gamer himself, B also coached his grandson along in tactical play. 

We set up the forces for 'Scenario 3: Defending the Indefensible' from the 2nd edition book.

The siege engine / ram was the object for the french to capture. The terrain set-up gave the English a good position for his archers to rain plunging fire up the approaches to the ram, so A_ set those troops up behind the wall, and screened them with his Foot Sergeants.

On his right flank, he sent out his mounted troops on the attack.

B_ did not have any dramas in this game moving his forces onto the table. In fact, this was a game in which most of the activations - for both sides - went smoothly. Only on a few occasions were units left high & dry. 

I realise it's one of the main criticisms of LR, but in the games I have played the bad rolls have evened out, and it's one of the simple ways that the game has added friction. I've never had a problem with the mechanism to be honest. To be sure, it's come up and derailed my plans on the odd occasion, but sometimes even the thought of NOT activating a certain unit has driven my tactical choices.

And that makes the game all the more interesting if you ask me.

B_s French retinue was very imposing on the table from the onset. His crossbowmen were to be particularly troublesome for my son.

Soon enough, A_ had moved his second unit of Foot Sergeants into position in order to guard the Ram.

The clash on A_s right flank went as expected. His Mounted Knights clashed heavily with B_s Foot Sergeants and mounted Sergeants...and came off worse for wear. Most were killed with only one surviving Knight fleeing the field.

A_s Mounted Sergeants faired much better and really dusted up B_s units for a few turns.

B_ rode out to meet my son's aggressive antics on that flank. It was all in all a pretty good strategy. Hold the centre, and harass the flank in an attempt to disorient the French thrust towards the objective.

It didn't really help the French that there were so many obstacles in the way either. The circular 'grove - complete with well & forge - was to be troubling, and slowed the French onslaught somewhat. 

All the while, the English archers kept peppering the French Cavalry with arrows as they made the approach. The English Foot Sergeants - unfortunately for them - were to be line of resistance that would fight off multiple charges and harassing fore from the French Crossbowmen. 

It did come close for the French, but as A-s units were whittled down, we had to roll for the conclusion. 

A_ had sustained so many casualties that only his Archers remained by the Ram, but he had, at the conclusion of the round, held off the French advance.

A minor victory for my 13 year old son. The French came off bruised and bloodied, and retired for the day. 

The best outcome for three generations of gamers in the family!

All the best.