Holiday Gaming 1 - Lion Rampant

Long-time followers of this blog will know that I generally try to get some gaming in over the Christmas and New Year holiday period and this year has been no exception.

I'd asked for a copy of Dan Mersey's Lion Rampant for Christmas and in the hope and expectation that Santa would deliver, I printed off some Teutonic Knights and Baltic pagans from junior general.org.  So the evening of Boxing Day saw what is surely the most old school game ever to appear here.

The Christmas tablecloth and a couple of off-cuts of astroturf formed the battlefield.  Over this snowy expanse fought two units of mounted men at arms and one of foot sergeants for the Teutonic Order against one unit each of foot men at arms, fierce foot, and bidowers for the Lithuanians.

The field of battle.  The Lithuanian knights are off-camera to the right.

 The Teutonic serjeants started with 11 men as one of their number had been eaten by the puppy.

The fierce Lithuanian tribesmen charge the Teutonic Serjeants, attempting
to catch them before they can finish crossing the bad going.

Meanwhile the Lithuanian bidowers enter the other area of bad going.

As the first unit of men at arms approaches.

The foot serjeants roll spectacularly...

... and throw back the fierce Lithuanian warriors...

... with three casualties.

The warriors' Courage Test is disastrous and they rout.

Somewhere hereabouts I lose track of one of the units of mounted knights.  I think they rolled badly after taking casualties from Lithuanian shooting.

Meanwhile the Wild Charge special rule sees the Teutonic Knights charge
the enemy Bidowers.  Not a great idea what with them being
in bad going and all.

Despite the disadvantageous terrain, the Knights drive off the Bidowers
but are then hit in the flank by the late-arriving Lithuanian nobles.

Whilst over the other side of the field, the foot serjeants roll badly when
attempting to rally.  They must rout off the table.

The Bidowers return to the fray and cause some casualties as the Knights
continue to wallow in the poor going.  Alas, though, this is not enough
and the gallant skirmishers rout...

... leaving the Lithuanian and Teutonic knights to fight a final combat.

I'm not going to dignify this little action by giving winners or losers - it was a trivial exercise in getting to know the rules.  

There was more back-and-forth than the above account captures.  I think playing properly designed scenarios on nice terrain, these will be great fun to play.  

I plan to follow David Sullivan's lead and use the rules to play some Late Roman actions when I've recruited the appropriate toys.