Lion Rampant Wars of the Roses Campaign - Game One

The year is 1460 and war stalks the land. Lord Ballroom of Ilkestoyne, taking advantage of the commotions that bedevil the country has renewed his long standing enmity with his neighbour Lord Kerbye of Sherwyd.  Things have escalated and both their Lordships, each hot-headed and quick to anger, have summoned their retinues, determined once and for all to settle matters, in blood!

Having enjoyed our recent Lion Rampant bash, General B. and I have elected to play a short campaign following the Five Game Campaign rules in the Second Edition rulebook. For this each player chooses five retinues, three of 24 points and one each of 20 and 30 points and then assigns them to a game, so you could end up playing with mismatched forces. The scenarios are diced for before each game too, so your chosen forces may not be ideal to achieve your goals.

Game one saw the 20 point retinue of Lord Ballroom attempting to cross the battlefield while attacked from both sides by one of my 24 point forces.

Rivers criss-crossed the battlefield and I sent my Men at Arms to try and cut off the enemy forces.

Whilst my archers prepared to shower the foe with arrows.

In the opposite corner bill and bow closed the range

 

My archers preparing to loose.

Lord Ballroom was with his mounted retinue.

My intent was to whittle down the foe with bowfire before closing for the kill

Lord Ballroom did well to keep his horse moving and remain close to the rest of his retinue.

My archers found themselves knee deep in water, unable to draw line of sight to the enemy.

Evil Ballroom retainers march forth.

Noble men of Kerbye block the way.

Finally I remembered that Knights love to charge and used billmen to lure Lord Ballroom away from his retainers.

The fight was brutal, but the billmen took down knights and did not lose their courage.

Lord Ballroom was unable to hold back his men.

And his troop was whittled down.

Lord Ballroom's men continued towards safety, pursued by my Men-At-Arms.

Bowfire meant the Ballroom retinue was becoming batterd.

Inevitably the Men-At-Arms caught the billmen.

 

And despite the hill's protection, much bloody work was done by Kerbye and his men.

The bill fled the field, leaving but a few Ballroom retainers.

Kerbye and his men paused and let the archers finish their work.

Victory to Kerbye!

This was despite my green clad archers deciding to stay and paddle in the river for most of the game. It's quite a tough scenario for a smaller force to win, and once I remembered to use Wild Charge to pull the Knights (and their leader) out of formation it became much easier for me to dismantle the enemy piecemeal.

Lion Rampant gives a fun and quick game, with just enough friction and grit to give you tough decisions to make - and bad dice rolls to spoil your day.

Looking forward to the next game.

Some more random phone pictures