Lion Rampant 2nd Edition

Played a regular 24-point game of Lion Rampant in the first time in forever. Pitched Andrew's Byzantines against my motley band of Vikings and Lombards. This was just the 'Bloodbath' scenario which is straightforward but a little dull since it's just both sides trying to grind each other down. Still, it was a necessary refresher and learning game respectively and nice to not have to think to hard about the rules, meta or otherwise.

A turn or two in. The "raiders" army is advancing into the center.

Heavy infantry with warlord attached.

Byzantine horse archers.

Byzantine heavy cavalry measures a possible charge.

Byzantine heavy cavalry after a melee against raider heavy infantry.

The raider heavy cavalry tries to get into charge range - I should have been more aggressive early on getting entire force into relative charge range. Instead, one unit would give it a try and suffer concentrated fire from various Byzantine ranged units.

My Lombard archers out on a raiding adventure.

The Byzantines seemed to have the upper hand early on but things evened out and three unit of the raiders' army were still on table (12 pts) to the Romanlanders' two (eight points) so the win went to the former. We look forward to trying other scenarios that are not so grindy.

Oh and we played using the optional activation rule from the book where a failed activation does not end your turn. No real difference in play, I think (you can stillnot activate any units in your turn, with some bad dice luck), but it does feel less severe than a "one-and-done" failure ending your turn.

Fornovo (1495)

I ran games based on the battle of Fornovo four times in 2018 (playtested once, ran twice at Enfilade that year, and then once for the Portland club after), but never played it myself!  With the need for a simple gridded game as part of the fifth annual (proxy/virtual) Ambuscade gaming event, Fornovo was a good choice, and it was played as the second of three games played in three days. And besides, my Italian Wars collection has grown and changed since 2017, and I can set up a somewhat more accurate depiction now (the 2018 version had too many arquebusiers and not a single crossbowman).

Starting positions, with French at the bottom and Italian league at the top, and the river Taro in the middle. There are two Italian stratiot light cavalry units just visible on the left as well.

In the interest of having a reasonable playing time, the Italians had 12 units plus two guns and the French had 9 plus two guns and four baggage pieces.  In the rush to put three games together in three days I perhaps did not make the victory points as well thought out as I could have.  The French baggage is clearly trying to escape off table, moving 1 square a turn, and the Italians should get points for seizing baggage pieces. 

Italian line at game start.

If I ran this again, I would use more "standard" victory points of most units destroyed and "control of the field," with perhaps a single VP if all four baggage units move off table.  Instead we ended up playing an "escort duty" style game which became somewhat silly towards in the end, in my opinion.

The Italians surge towards the river Taro.

The Italians wasted no time and moved quickly to cross the Taro river.  The French prepared a defense, but were then caught off guard when the Italian stradiots were able to almost make contact the baggage.

The two Italian stradiot units can be seen on the right threatening the French baggage train.

The French quickly adjusted, however, repositioning some of the Swiss pikemen to protect the baggage.

Swiss pikes can be seen to have blocked the stradiots to the right. 

A combination of Swiss pikes and French Gendarmes were then able to drive off the stradiots - but the front of the baggage train had lost a move so perhaps they did their task?

Italian guns firing on the French.

Meanwhile, the Italian men at arms were coming across the Taro and began tangling with French gendarmes and Swiss pikes.  The idea was to soften them up a little until the landsknecht pikes and numerous units of crossbowmen could cross the river and bring superior numbers to bear (hopefully).

There are three units of Italian men at arms in the center left, doing their best to put pressure on the French. 

Unfortunately, because the French were slowly but steadily moving one square towards the table edge every turn, this mean that the Italian center and left (where the majority of their crossbows were) started the game facing the French center and right, by the time they cross the Taro only the French right was still before them. 

Swiss pikes prepare to receive attacks.

What was worse was the French guns and Gascon crossbowmen at the end of the French column were able to sit still and repeatedly fire upon the Italian cavalry and infantry who continously tried to traverse before them.  The Italians were thus stuck making half-hearted attacks against the French rear/right and not bringing enough strength against the French front/left where the baggage was.

French King Charles VIII's unit took several casualties at the start of the game and spent the remainder leading from behind his army.

Those pesky Gascons and French artillery!

The Italians did end up dispatching a Swiss pike unit and did end up capturing a French gun, but half of the French baggage slipped back to France, the remaining Italian units on the table were almost entirely at half strength or less.  

End-of-game or close to it. 

Even though 40% of units starting the game had not been removed from the table, the Italians conceded the game early as there was little appetite for last-ditch attacks by half-strength units throwing six dice against 12-dice-throwing defenders.

This was yet another exercise of the recent grid-based games and also of playing Lion Rampant with no activation rolls for movement or shooting (a morale test was required to charge or counter-charge, or for guns to offer closing fire).  As with the previous games, both sides were much more able to make tactical decisions and try and implement them, and in this particular scenario, the Italians were able to bring their army across the river and to engage the French quite quickly - in the prior four plays large portions of infantry on both sides spent most of the game in or close to their starting positions.

Some of the beat-up Italian units, a men at arms with four casualties and a disordered Landsknecht unit.

This game makes me wish there were more set piece battles in the Italians Wars - many involve asymmetrical deployments or one side behind substantial defenses.  I may have to rethink how I represent historical battles (perhaps loosen up on deployments and just use history to suggest terrain and army composition - this is how a lot of my English Civil War games get set up), or even consider creating a fictional campaign to generate battles.

Here are the unit profiles, and some of the modified rules used for this game:

FRENCH ARMY

FRENCH GENDARMES

Att To Hit 4+ / Def to Hit 5+

Move Rate: 4 squares

Morale: 2+ / Stamina: 4

Special Rules: Counter-charge on successful Morale check; Pursuit

SWISS PIKES

Att To Hit 4+ (5+) / Def to Hit 3+ (4+)

Move Rate: 2 squares

Morale: 2+ / Stamina: 3

Special Rules: Pike Block (use first To Hits unless in rough terrain or until unit suffers 50% casualties; always use 4+ Defense To Hit vs other pike units)

CROSSBOWS

Att To Hit 6+ / Def to Hit 5+

Move Rate: 2 squares

Shoot Rng: 3 / Shoot To Hit 5+

Morale: 4+ / Stamina: 2

Special Rules: Skirmish (move half and -1 to hit);-1 to hit if target more than 2 squares

CULVERIN

Att To Hit -- / Def to Hit 6+

Move Rate: 0

Shoot Rng / Shoot To Hit: 

    Short Rng (1-2 squares): 12 dice @ 4+.
    Med. Rng (3-4 squares): 9 dice @ 5+ 

(4 dice if ½ strength)

     Long Rng (5+ squares): 6 dice @ 5+

Morale: 5+ / Stamina: 1

Special Rules: May offer closing fire with successful Morale check. May share a square with another friendly unit. Cannot move during game, but receives one move of 2 squares before first players regular turn.

ITALIAN LEAGUE ARMY

MEN AT ARMS

Att To Hit 4+ / Def to Hit 5+

Move Rate: 4 squares

Morale: 3+ / Stamina: 4

Special Rules: Counter-charge on successful Morale check; Pursuit

LANDSKNECHT PIKES

Att To Hit 4+ (5+) / Def to Hit 3+ (4+)

Move Rate: 2 squares

Morale: 4+ / Stamina: 3

Special Rules: Pike Block (use first To Hits unless in rough terrain or until unit suffers 50% casualties; always use 4+ Defense To Hit vs other pike units)

CROSSBOWS

Same as French.

STRADIOTS

Att To Hit  5+ / Def to Hit 6+

Move Rate: 5 squares

Shoot Rng: 2 / Shoot To Hit 5+

Morale: 5+ / Stamina: 3

Special Rules: Counter-charge; Skirmish (move three squares, -1 to hit if target more than 1 square); Slippery

CULVERIN

Same as French.

SPECIAL RULES:

• PIKE BLOCK: A unit of 6 or more models which is not in rough terrain or Wavering with this rule has both Attack and Move at 6+ and the unit Attacks and Defends with +1 to their dice scores. Pike Block units do not receive the +1 to Defense Value if attacked by another pike unit. If an Attack ends with both units still in contact, the enemy must retreat (unless the enemy is also has Pike Block). If a unit with Pike Block enters rough going, no longer contains at least 6 models or is Wavering, it does not receive the Pike Block bonuses.

• SKIRMISH: This unit may choose to make a half move and execute a ranged attack either before or after this movement takes place at -1 to hit.

• PURSUIT: If this unit has charged or counter-charged an enemy unit, and the result of the melee is that the enemy Routs (a result of 0 or less on a Morale test), then this unit will move towards the enemy table edge in a straight line and stop at the edge. If this line brings it contact with another enemy, it will attack it. If that second melee also results in a Rout, the victorious unit will not Pursue a second time. If the table edge is a terrain feature, the unit will stop in the square in front of that feature. 

• SLIPPERY: (a) When charged by an enemy unit this unit will automatically move two spaces towards their starting table edge, unless they opt to counter-charge (test to do so).  The attacker will follow this unit up to its full movement, and if it ends up adjacent to the target unit it, melee is resolved with target using regular defense value. (b) This unit has the Pursuit rule, but may opt to making a shooting attack at -1 if it is eligible to engage in second melee instead of attacking.

• DOUBLE-PAY MEN: When attacking an enemy unit with the Pike Block rule, the target enemy unit will defend on a 4+ and not a 3+. 

RULES FOR GRIDS:

A. MOVEMENT

1. Diagonal moves are not allowed.

2. Mounted Men At Arms move 4 squares, stradiots move 5.

3. Infantry moves 2 squares

4. Light artillery moves 2 squares

5. Culverins and other heavy artillery cannot move at all, but receive one free move of two squares into a “forward position” at the beginning of the game.

6. Artillery units may share a square with another friendly unit, including another artillery unit.  Dice for shooting and melee attacks by a single units against two units sharing a square must allocate 2 of 12 (or 1 of 6 if halfstrength) dice towards the non-artillery target.  If both units in the square are artillery pieces, divide the dice evenly. 

B. RANGES

7. Crossbows: 3 squares
   Arquebusiers: Short 1 square, Long 2 squares
   Light Artillery: short range 1-2 squares, medium 3 squares, long 4-5 squares
   Culverins: short 1-2 squares, medium 3-4 squares, long 5+ squares

8. Line of sight is calculated from center of originating square to center of target square (use a stick).  If the line passes over a square that contains another unit, or obstructing terrain such a a building or woods, then there is no LOS.  If the line touches the corner but does not cross the square, there is LOS (this is possible at direct 45 degree angles).

C. SKIRMISH ORDERS

1. All units armed with ranged weapons, and light artillery, may make a half move and shoot at -1 to hit.  This can be move/shoot or shoot/move.

D. ORDERED ACTIVATIONS/REACTIONS.

2. Move, Shoot, Skirmish actions are considered automatic, and no activation roll is required.

3. If attacking an enemy unit, the attacker must pass a Courage test. Usual modifiers apply.

4. A Countercharge and Closing Fire action requires a Courage test.

E. COMBAT

5. An attacking unit can attack an enemy unit in an adjacent (but not diagonal) square. IF the defending unit is in a building, or woods, or behind an obstacle, and loses the melee, the attacking unit will “carry the position” and move into the square vacated by the enemy.

6. Attacks on Guns:  Guns will always test against Morale to offer closing fire (at close range). If the attackers take casualties and fail the morale test, they fall back to the second square from of the gun. If they pass the morale test, they will “carry the position” and move into the gun square. The gun crew is assumed to flee. No melee is fought.  If the gun is sharing the square with another non-gun unit (see above), the attacker will fight a melee with that unit (if it weathered the closing fire from the gun).  If that unit loses and retreats, the gun crew flees and, again, the attacker moves into the gun square and captures it.

F. RETREATS

1. A unit retreats half a move after losing a melee or failing a Rally test. Retreat moves are always towards controlling the player's starting edge. If the retreat is into a square occupied by another friendly unit, the retreating unit will pass through that unit (and any others) until it reaches an empty square.  Units passed through must pass a Morale test or become Disordered (although they are not required to retreat from failing this test).  If the retreating unit is retreating because it lost a melee, but did not become disordered, it too must pass a Morale test or become disordered due to it retreating through friendly troops.

Theodosius at Rutupiae (c. 368)

In the spring of 368, the Roman general Flavius Theodosius, at the order of Emperor Valentinian, crossed the English Channel from Gaul and landed parts of four auxilia palatina (Late Roman era infantry units) at Rutupiae (today Richborough).  Britian at this time was reeling from multiple invasions (from Picts in the north, from Ireland from the west, from Franks and Saxons from Gaul)  relating to the barbarica conspiratio.  Theodosius succeeded to re-securing Britain, and did not fight any pitched or set-piece battles, the invaders probably being more interested in looting and leaving than conquering and staying.  

Frankish warriors.

However, since I had just painted up five units of Frankish foot warriors (and already had five units of Saxons) an invasion of Roman Britain by a combined Frankish-Saxon force was too tempting to pass up.  Theodosius landed at Rutupiae and proceeded to Londinium.  For the purpose of having a game of it, we shall suppose that he found a Frankish-Saxon army blocking his way.  This game was the first of three remote games (via Google Meets) that I ran/played in three days as part of the the fifth annual (Virtual) Ambuscade! game event.  I have organized and ran games at Ambuscade for the last four years, and although a social gathering with 30+ people was clearly out of the question this year, I didn't want to lose 2020 altogether.  Besides, its' Ambuscade V and "V" is for virtual, so there you go.

Starting positions, Romans on left.

With forest to his left and marshes to his right, Theodosius puts his scholae (armored Roman cavalry with javelins) on his left flank and his heavy cavalry cataphractii on his right.  His center is four units of auxilia with a unit of archers (sagitarii) in support of each flank of the infantry.  The barbarian right was held by the saxons and the left by the Franks. 

At end of first moves.

Both sides advanced towards each other in line.  The barbarians massed warriors in the center in two waves.  Progress was slow on the barbarian left as movement was slowed by plowed fields from a nearby hamlet.

Frankish warriors.

The Roman scholae then began harassing the Saxon flank with javelins. 

Roman scholae engaging the Saxons.

Meanwhile, in the center, the barbarians had advanced close enough to start exchaning small missile fire such as javelins, hand-axes, and rocks. 

End of turn 2.

Franks on the barbarian left.

Barbarian center - Frankish warlord out front.

Barbarians approach the Roman shieldwall.

Roman shieldwall awaits the rush.

Franks massing for the attack.

At this moment, a throwing axe struck and killed Theodosius!

The throw that slew Theodosius!

In this variant of the Lion Rampant rules, an army general not only adds +1 to morale checks but also adds 3 dice to any melee his unit is involved in. Any sub-leaders only add 2 dice.  Given the relative same-sameness of Roman and barbarian infantry in melee (barbarians will attack on a 4+ with Romans defending on a 4+, and Romans attack on 5+ against barbarians who defend at 5+) these two or three extra dice have the potential to make or break combat.  Although the units to each side of Theodosius held their position, his personal bodyguard unit fell back in disorder, creating a gap in the Roman line. 

Gap in center of Roman line after death of Theodosius.

Battle lines after death of Theodosius.

Saxons routed by Roman scholae can be see at upper right.

Keeping their cool, the Romans simply shifted the entire right flank to the left, plugging the gap left by Theodosius' bodyguard.

A shorter Roman line with the gap plugged. 

The came the moment of impact, with multiple barbarian units attacking along the line. Attacks on Roman archers were particularly fruitful, causing the cataphracts to charge in and send a Frankish unit running.

Roman archers have fallen back with four casualties, while cataphracts counter-attack on the Frankish flank.

On the opposite flank, the Roman scholae were preventing the barbarian sub-leader from attacking the Roman infantry line, which in in turn allowed archers on the Roman left flank to continue to fire with impunity.

View from Roman left.

Franks attack the Roman lines.

Cataphracts attack the Frankish flank.

Frankish warriors seen here pushing through middle of Roman line. 

End of turn 5.

Then several things happened very fast over the next two or so turns: first, the Saxon sub-leader advanced on some of the Roman scholae, who countercharged.  With the sub-leader's +2 dice for combat, the Saxons drove the scholae off.  Secondly, after successfully attacking one unit, the Roman cataphracts failed to charge a second unit.  And lastly, a Roman auxilia failed its morale check to form shieldwall, and it was driven back disordered.  

The result was that the barbarians had taken more casualties, but managed to have one more unit on the Roman side of the table than the Romans had on the Barbarian side.  Theodosius had been slain but the Frankish warlord had also fled, so the entire game was judged a tie - to give it a historical spin, the Roman broke the barbarian raiders' army and scattered them, but the death of the Roman general stalled the advance on Londinium.

This was the best run of my 'Barbarian West' mods for Lion Rampant to date.  As with other recent games, I tossed activation rolls altogether, except for a Morale test to determine if a unit charged or not, and also a Morale test for maintaining the shieldwall advantage of 3 armor vs. 2 armor.  Additionally, all the little rerolls or +1s for combat were removed, and pretty much every unit had a ranged skirmish attack, because being able to move half speed and make a ranged attack at -1 seems to greatly encourage players to attempt tactical moves, and avoids a situation where the player who moves into range first is at a total disadvantage as they will have to take a shooting attack before they can shoot.

LATE ROMANS

CATAPHRACTII (HEAVY CAVALRY)

Attack 3+ / Defend 5+

Move 3 squares

Courage 4+

Armor 4

Special Rules: Counter-charge. Evade Infantry.

SCHOLAE (CAVALRY)

Attack 4+ / Defend 5+

Move: 5 Squares

Courage 5+

Armor 3

Special Rules: Counter-charge; Javelins (range 2; hit 5+ (-1 if more than 1 square); Skirmish; Evade Infantry.

AUXILIA PALATINA (INFANTRY)

Attack 5+ / Defend 4+

Move: 2 Squares

Courage 4+

Armor 2

Special Rules: Shieldwall (+1 Armor from shooting and melee attacks if Courage test passed); Javelins (range 2; hit 5+ (-1 if more than 1 square)

SAGITTARII (ARCHERS)

Attack 6+ / Defend 5+

Shoot: 5+ / 4 squares

Move: 2 Squares

Courage 5+

Armor 2

Special Rules: Bows (if target over 2 square, 6+ to hit)

GERMANICS

GEOGUTH (“Doo-guth”) or FRANCI (WARRIORS)

Attack 4+ / Defend 5+

Move: 2 Squares

Courage 4+

Armor 2

Special Rules: Ferocious; Counter-charge vs. foot; Javelins (range 2; hit 5+ (-1 if more than 1 square);  Impetuous Charge (test if start turn adjacent to enemy unit)

LEADERS: 

Each army will have one general and one or two sub-leaders.  A leader is attached to a single unit for the entirety of the game - this is his personal retinue/bodyguard.  A leader grants a +1 bonus to Courage tests to his unit and to any friendly unit in an adjacent square (not including diagonal squares).  Additionally, the general will add 3 dice to melee rolls for his personal unit, and sub-leaders will add 2.  Accordingly, the risk to leaders in personal combat is elevated: a general will be killed in melee on a lucky blow roll of 2 or 3 instead of the usual 2 (for shooting attacks the usual 2 still applies). If a leader is killed all adjacent friendly units must take a courage test immediately. This can trigger “cascading” courage tests as described in Rule 11 below.

SHIELDWALL:   Any unit with this rule is automatically assumed to form Shieldwall, as long as it has  6 or more models, is not in rough terrain, and is not Attacking another unit, and not Disordered/Battered.    Shieldwall increases a unit’s Armor by 1 point against both Attacks and Shooting.  However, when a Shieldwall unit is the target of an enemy Attack or Shooting action, it must make a Courage check (usual modifiers apply) – if the test is successful the Shieldwall holds – if the test fails, the Shieldwall breaks for some reason and the +1 Armor is not counted.   If an Attack ends with both units still in contact (i.e. tied for casualties and both sides passed their Courage check), the enemy must retreat. 

SKIRMISH: This unit may choose to make half move and shoot at -1 before or after this movement takes place. 

EVADE INFANTRY:  Unless is it is disordered, if this cavalry unit is charged by an infantry unit, it may automatically move 2 sqaures towards its back table edge - it will not leave the table because of this rule. 

EVADE: Unless is it is disordered, if this cavalry unit is charged by another cavalry unit, it may attempt to make a full move towards its back table edge - it will not leave the table because of this rule. Test in the form a standard courage check (usual modifiers apply), and evade if successful.

IMPETUOUS CHARGE: If, at the beginning of this player’s turn, a unit with this rule is adjacent to an enemy unit, it must make a standard courage check (usual modifiers apply).  If it passes it will attack the nearest enemy unit as their activation for this turn (if more than one, dice to determine target of attack). If it fails, the unit may be activated normally.  Do not test if unit is disordered/ battered.

ADDITIONAL RULES FOR GRIDS, etc:

A. MOVEMENT

1. Diagonal moves are not allowed.

2. Cavalry move 5 squares (Cataphracts move 3)

3. Infantry moves 2 squares

B. RANGES

4. Bows: 4 squares (over 2 squares is -1 to hit)
   Javelins: 2 squares (over 1 square is -1 to hit)
   Line of sight is calculated from center of originating square to center of target square (use a stick).  If the line passes over a square that contains another unit, or obstructing terrain such a building or woods, then there is no LOS.  If the line touches the corner but does not cross the square, there is LOS (this is possible at direct 45 degree angles).

C. SKIRMISH ORDERS

5. All units armed with ranged weapons, may make a half move and shoot at -1 to hit.  This can be move/shoot or shoot/move.

D. ORDERED ACTIVATIONS/REACTIONS.

6. Move, Shoot, Skirmish actions are considered automatic, and no activation roll is required.

7. If attacking an enemy unit, the attacker must pass a Courage test. Usual modifiers apply.

8. A Countercharge and Closing Fire action requires a Courage test.

E. COMBAT

9. An attacking unit can attack an enemy unit in an adjacent (but not diagonal) square. IF the defending unit is in a building, or woods, or behind an obstacle, and loses the melee, the attacking unit will “carry the position” and move into the square vacated by the enemy.

F. RETREATS

10. A unit retreats half a move after losing a melee or failing a Rally test. Retreat moves are always towards controlling the player's starting edge. If the retreat is into a square occupied by another friendly unit, the retreating unit will pass through that unit (and any others) until it reaches an empty square.  Units passed through must pass a Morale test or become Disordered (although they are not required to retreat from failing this test).  If the retreating unit is retreating because it lost a melee, but did not become disordered, it too must pass a Morale test or become disordered due to it retreating through friendly troops.

G. MORALE TESTS

11. If a unit is defeated in combat and fails its morale test and routs off the table, then any friendly units adjacent to that unit (when it lost the melee) must also make a morale test.  If those units fail their tests and route off table, the effect will be “cascading” and initiate another round of morale checks for adjacent  friendly units.