Monday 11 March 2024

Lion Rampant. Playing the Warlord and revolting peasants.

 

I'm plowing ahead with my not-Robin-Hood campaign.

I did 3 orders with Museum Miniatures during Dave's January sale.  There's one CP priest and 2 Battle Valor figures, but the rest and the pallisade are all Dave's excellent work.  My apologies for not having a single finished figure here, but I've been ill. 

Campaigns, linked games are a concept a lot of players aren't familiar with.  Plonk some scenery down, line them up and my snotworthy woggle boys can beat your woggledancing flaming witches of doom IF I field this special figure that only costs----.

I also went to https://www.charliefoxtrotmodels.com/  for some more penny based movement trays and love the results.  With some if you can assemble to get a mirror image, giving you a nice V shape.  I went for 6's and 3's so each unit is on 2 trays.  "Why didn't you do the cavalry?".  Bleep.

As discussed in the first post,  each side has 2 potential army lists so there's a wealth of variety.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGSfwUaYzDo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouluDyKAdWY

Viking Sea Raiders





6px2 Elite Infantry   6  


Move 5+ 6”


Attack 5+  Attack V 3+ Defence V 4+

Courage 3  Armour 4




Flexible.  Normal attack/defence in rough.






12x2 Vet HI


Move 5+ 6”


Attack 4+  Attack V 5+ Defence V 4+

Courage 4+  Armour 3




No wall of spears.






OR Sea Raiders




1x Vet HI as above. 

16p 4x Warrior Infantry 12


Move 6+ 8”


Attack 5+  Attack V 3+ Defence V 6+

Courage 4+  Armour 2




Flexible. Normal attack/defence in rough.

Wild Charge.  

Counter charge vs Infantry 






1x 2p Skirmishers  6 


Move 5+ 8”


Attack 7+  Attack V 6+ Defence V 6+

Courage 5+ Armour 1 


Shoot 7+ 5+ 12”


Hard to target. Arm 2-12”  Skirmish/Evade7+.






2p Local Flighty Skirmishers 6


Move 5+ 8”


Attack 7+  Attack V 6+ Defence V 6+

Courage 5+ Armour 1 


No Shooting.


Hard to target. Arm 2-12”  Skirmish 6+ Evade7+.






1p    Levied Locals   12 


Move 6+ 6”


Attack 7+  Attack V 6+ Defence V 6+

Courage 5+  Armour 1










Normans 





18p Elite Cav  6


Move 7+ 10”


Attack 5+  Attack V 3+ Defence V 5+

Courage 3+ Armour 4 




Wild Charge.  Counter Charge






4p Crossbow  12


Move 6+ 6”


Attack 7+  Attack V 6+ Defence V 5+

Courage 4+ Armour 2 


Shoot 7+ 4+ 18”








2p Skirmishers  6 


Move 5+ 8”


Attack 7+  Attack V 6+ Defence V 6+

Courage 5+ Armour 1 


Shoot 7+ 5+ 12”


Hard to target. Arm 2-12”  Skirmish/Evade7+.






OR  Anglo Norman 




2 elite cav, as above OR Elite Inf.  

2 Skirmishers.

8p 2x HI


Move 5+ 6”


Attack 6+  Attack V 5+ Defence V 4+

Courage 4+  Armour 3




Wall Of Spears







6p Elite Infantry   6  


Move 5+ 6”


Attack 5+  Attack V 3+ Defence V 4+

Courage 3  Armour 4




Normal attack/defence in rough.






Three objectives.  Each was placed 27" apart.  The chapel, tower and the white marker represent where the raiders ships are moored.  So each side starts with one objective secured.  The seaward area is a hard going line of dunes and salt marches. 


I chose the Norman variant.  Skirmishers in the tower.  Left force of crossbow and cavalry to make a feint on the chapel then strike the centre.  Commander in the middle ready to go for the boats.


Easton chose the Viking version.  He kept one unit back to protect his ships.  Liking the new bases.


Easton's other HI head for the village, flanked by the elites.


At long range the crossbow proves effective.


I missed a bit here, the cavalry and heavy infantry pound each other.


There are 6's on the dice!


Infantry attack cavalry who fail to countercharge.
 

I've lost 1 unit of cavalry, my generals unit is depleted and about to be surrounded.  The other unit pushes on to the ships.


My general countercharges like an enraged bull.


I had hopes, but my cavalry are broken-.



The elites are pounded, but - my general goes down.


Again missed - heavies get clobbered, but not enough-.


The remnants--.


The skirmishers and one-shot-in-entire-game crossbow run for it.




Game 2.  The middle game is moot, as the Norman lord is kaput.  On to what would be game 3.  The invaders have possession of the tower and the relief column is going to engage!


Normans turn up.


The invaders have encouraged the locals to help possibly by not pillaging and raping.


The plan.  Skirmishers watch the flank from the church whilst the protected crossbows advance.



Elite infantry follow skirmishers to seize the chapel.




Cavalry intercept and comes off worse.



Crap.  The Normans lost another leader!


My skirmishers discover shooting.


Cavalry crunches through infantry.




Crossbows rout one unit from the tower, shoves the second out.



Norman morale collapses, remnants of the invaders have the tower.




Robin Hood list x 2 

12p 2x Elite Infantry   6  


Move 5+ 6”


Attack 5+  Attack V 3+ Defence V 4+

Courage 3  Armour 4




Normal attack/defence in rough.







20p 5 x  Archers  12


Move 6+ 6”


Attack 7+  Attack V 6+ Defence V 5+

Courage 4+ Armour 2 


Shoot 6+ 5+ 18”




8x Skirmishers =16


2p Skirmishers  6 


Move 5+ 8”


Attack 7+  Attack V 6+ Defence V 6+

Courage 5+ Armour 1 


Shoot 7+ 5+ 12”


Hard to target. Arm 2-12”  Skirmish/Evade7+.






2p Flighty Skirmishers 6


Move 5+ 8”


Attack 7+  Attack V 6+ Defence V 6+

Courage 5+ Armour 1 


No Shooting.


Hard to target. Arm 2-12”  Skirmish 6+ Evade7+.

Huge numbers!  I had about a dozen figures left--.  Left to right: large groups are archers, small groups elite and dispersed flighty skirmishers.


I missed some, Normans advance.  Square bases are heavy infantry, you can see the crossbows peeking to the left.



Outflanking cavalry working through the marshy ground.



Mass of skirmishers


Archers (honest--)


Cavalry plow into archers, but it doesn't go all their way.






One cavalry unit gets shot away.



Archers win against crossbow, throwing them back.  Others start to reduce the heavy infantry.


Cavalry pause.


Flighty skirmishers seek cover.


Bulk of the Normans slowly move up.



As the flighty skirmishers melt away the rest are trapped and outflanked.





Conclusions:
Having one general vs two made a difference, making the Normans more manoeuvrable.

Forget flighty skirmishers.  They melt faced with ordinary skirmishers and cannot stand in a fight.  I had thought strength through numbers but it didn't work.



Not the best pictures, sorry.  Vast majority of figures used here are new Museum Miniatures z sculpts.  Quality is superb.