Medieval Battle in 54mm II

Ah, much better! I put a grid of 6" squares on a piece of felt, divided my medieval 54mm collection up into two armies of 13 units each (10 figure foot units and 5 figure mounted units), and played a very satisfying game of Lion Rampant (as to be expected). Lion Rampant works very well on a grid! It is also visually pleasing with 54mm figures because units can be smushed next to each other and you can still easily tell one unit from another. This creates a very nice massed effect.

Starting deployments.  Imperial forces on the upper left and Papal forces on the right.

One army had five units of Britains Deetail Saracens in it, and was therefore nominally that of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (r.1220-1250), who was also King of Sicily (r.1198-1250) and enlisted his Muslim subjects in his armies because, as Muslim soldiers, they cared not for the excommunication by Frederick's rival, the Pope.  Accordingly, the opposition could therefore be the Papal army of Gregory IX in 1229.

I kept things very same-same and the units were all mounted sergeants, foot sergeants, and archers. There was also one unit of foot yeomen, being my Robin Hood figures I finally finished painting (I got them and started painting them 4 or 5 years ago!). For the mounted sergeants I gave them the 'Venomous' rule from Dragon Rampant (when attacking, a 6 will count as two hits) which I have found to be a good but balanced mechanic for the shock effect of heavy cavalry.

Starting deployments. Imperial army at bottom, Papal at top.

For movement on a grid, infantry could move one square and cavalry two. A move can have only one diagonal move. Archers had a shooting range of four squares, and again, only one of those squares could be a diagonal move. Three squares was close range (5+ to hit) and four was long (6+). The foot yeomen had mixed weapons, so had a shorter maximum bow range of 3 squares.

A gathered host of Imperial infantry.

Papal knights and infantry.

Opening moves. The Imperial infantry advances on the right. The Papal horse fans out and advances.

The flow of the game was as follows:the Papal foot yeomen are routed by Imperial cavalry on the Papal right.  On the Papal left, all four units of cavalry advance.  They rout one unit of Imperial cavalry, lose one unit themselves, and the remaining three take casualties and pull back. The most intact of these three units fails several rally tests and also flees the field. The Papal left is therefore effectively collapsed.

Imperial Muslim cavalry rights forward.

View from behind Imperial lines.

Papal infantry.

At center left, Papal mounted knights are on the attack.

At upper left, the Papal cavalry has been effectively repulsed.

The two great masses of infantry now move towards each other.  Archery is exchanged and several attacks and counter-attacks take place.  The Papal force get the better of the Imperials this time around.  

Imperial infantry advances.

Papal archers in the face of advancing Imperial infantry.

Papal archers get out in front.

The Imperial and Papal cavalry having fought to a draw on one flank, the infantry masses trundle towards each other in the center and opposite flank.

Endgame or close to it. Papal forces have routed almost the entirety of the Imperial left.

We played until 10 of the starting 26 units had been removed  (regardless of side), and then counted up how many units each side had remaining.  Papal forces eke out a victory, 9 to 7.

Using 10 and 5 dice instead of 12 and 6 worked just fine.  I thought it would really slow figure removal but the whole game was played in about 80 minutes so if it was slowing the results, I could not tell.  We did not have leader figures so the +1 to courage checks that would have conferred was not in effect - I think this might have made a big difference. A few of the DSG foot knights are a perfect pose to be converted to a standard bearer, so I may have to make some big banners for them, and those can be used to designate leader units.