Game of Medieval war. Using Lion Rampant 2 in 28mm.
Organized, using terrain and models and umpired by Leslie.
AAR by Phil McGilton and Leslie Tipping.
Players :
French : Jeremy Nixon ( aka Adam the Impetuous ).
Italian : Paul Blakeley ( aka Adolfo Linguini ).
English : Phil McGilton ( aka Philip the Modest ).
Village people : Leslie Tipping ( aka Leslie the Magnificent and Robina Hood ).
Lion Rampant is a great set of medieval rules for a club game simple, fast and very bloody.
The brief, pre battle and summary :
This was the second battle following on from Peasants Rampant, see February 2025 post.
The English led by the mercenary captain, Hawkins the Mildly Incontinent arrived on the table to ransom his lord, Philip the Modest, who was being held in the peasants village.
Philip was wrongly believed to have been killed in the battle in February but was only severely wounded and was taken to the village to be given medical treatment.
The English threw a d6 to find out the level of his ransom. They scored 4 and then threw a further d6 to establish his health ,scoring 3. The health was subtracted from the ransom giving the English a starting net score of minus 1 point.
Adam the Impetuous, the French commander, played by Paul had to overcome the scandal of his cowardly flight in the previous battle to gain points. He was not allowed to provide a plus 1 to morale tests until he had charged into combat. Paul led several charges until he eventually met his end in combat. He threw a d6 to reward his bravery and scored 5 points. The French suffered from bravely attacking the English and the Italians at the same time and were rewarded with their annihilation.
The Italian mercenary captain, Adolfo Linguini, played by Jeremy was tasked with causing as much mayhem as possible. He played a major role in destroying the French but was then destroyed in his turn by the English and the peasants.
The peasants in the village were once again led by the warrior maiden Robina Hood. As a reward for destroying a German unit in the previous game they gained the points value of the destroyed enemy in reinforcements. They recruited a group of archers and a hero character to improve the units morale if needed. The hero, Leslie the Magnificent or to his enemies Leslie the Bald.
The hero figure used was a model of Genghis Cohen from The Discworld novels. It looks like many elderly wargamers. He is one eyed, covered in scars and carries a very large sword. ( Ed - This would appear to be Leslie's alter ego, he just needs to grow the beard and get an eye patch, furs and a big sword ).
The battle.
Leslie once again umpired and set up the three way mash-up with some fantastic models and pieces that really set the scene. This time the villagers looked on as their land was fought over by the Italian army (Jeremy), French (Alan) and the English (Baron Phil).
Baron Phil had an army consisting of Elite infantry, and archers slow moving but high quality.
Alan’s French army had crossbow men, mounted Knights and sergeants and warrior infantry.
Jeremy’s Italian army was similar to the French army but no sergeants but 2x units mounted Knights
The objective for the players was to take the village at the northern end of the board. The Italian army attacking from the west, French from the east and the slow moving English attacking from the south.
There is a hill with a wood and a church on the left flank of the English which provided good cover from attack for both the Italian and English armies. The English failed to activate twice making their advance at a snail’s pace. The Italian army occupied the church to protect their right flank against English attack as they moved to engage the French. The French moved a unit of sergeants against the English archers as the rest of the army engaged the Italians.
What followed over the next few turns saw the Italian and French armies engage in a war off attrition. The lone unit of sergeants got destroyed by the combined fire off the archers and the fighting abilities of the Elite infantry. The Italians having given the French a bloody nose tried to take the village with a unit off Knights but the plucky village people saw them off no chance of the Italian army staying at the YMCA. The points for the destroyed Italians combined with the ransom for Philip the modest gave them a respectable score of plus 8 points. They will receive these points as reinforcements for the next game.
The English Baron could smell victory using archers to reduce the remaining units in both the Italian and French armies.
The last remaining Italian Knights attacked the English after the French army collapsed after their general was killed. The English Baron dispatch the last off the French Knights losing a figure in the fight. All Phil needed was not to roll a double 1 but off course he did! The Baron dies and does not live to see the fruit’s off his victory.
Yet again a great game of Lion Rampart and a big thank you to Leslie for running the game and the use of his fantastic miniatures.
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Editorial comment : The English started bad, giving loads of ransom and ended worse with a finally dead Baron.
It was such a mighty victory by the Village people that the renowned bards Guy de Campheis and Simeon de Carbunkle composed a ballad to immortalize it.
Your diligent Editor sought out the bards to get the definitive version of the ballad and any additional thoughts on the battle the bards may have. These were quite terse - "Up the people" , "Death to the aristocracy" followed by "Off you go" followed by hitting me with their lutes.
The ballad of "Our Village Fair", by the bards Guy de Campheis and Simeon de Carbunkle (c).
Are you invading Our Village Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
Remember me to the mercenaries who now live there
So they can pepper you with arrows of pine.
Tell Robina to put on a hessian shirt
Parsley sage rosemary and thyme
Without no seams nor needle work
Then she’ll be able to avoid the knights just fine
On the side of a hill in the sprinkling of leaves
Leslie the bald watches the knights grave with no tears
A soldier lies dead having had no fun
Now sleeps unaware of his Lords clarion call
Tell the English we've got their Baron
You can have him back for money so fine
But if you come back there will be no second time
You'll not survive attacking this village of mine
War bellows blazing in scarlet battalions
The French have a bash at the Italians
They come out of it quite downtrodden
As they fight for a cause they have long ago forgotten
The Italians think they are ready for the Village
To propagate their own kind of pillage
But when will they learn
Knights ain't so special when in rough ground
Then the English got into the fray
On the remaining Frogs and Ities their arrows do play
It seems that they will win the day
But the last of the French knights Baron Phil does slay.
Yet again the common people win out
Parsley sage rosemary and thyme
The factions give each other a sizable clout
While the Villagers watched them take each other out
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Photos curtesy of Phil, Leslie and Gary.
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