Teapot Rampant

After all this faffing around I've finally got round to playing the Lion Rampant rules that have been sitting on my windowsill for time immemorial. My old teacher Derek, who got me back into wargaming after my long hiatus, has assembled an assortment of early medieval fellows so the only logical conclusion was to have a punch-up.

My deployment: Left are foot yeomen with javelins, foot men-at-arms in the centre, and bidowers on the right

As we're both very new to the game, we played a half-size game without the 'boasting' special rules, and having a straightforward fight to the death.

Derek's rather excellent hearthguard, by Odin!

The first game is not recorded pictorially, but was won after my champion slew his in the first combat of the game (the challenge rules are deadly but can really backfire) so we were able to squeeze another battle in.

And some elite foot sergeant with big axes

I stuck to my tactic of placing the slower men-at-arms in the centre, whilst the faster bidowers and yeomen went for a flanking movement. Derek performed some careful maneouvers, but was unlucky enough for me to get the first charge in.

Derek's deployment

My cunning envelopment plan in its early stages

 The dice were truly with me as my knights outfought their opponents, driving them back in disorder. Meanwhile, the bidowers peppered Derek's hearthguard ineffectually, whilst the distances were  closed...

The men-at-arms get stuck in

Foolishly, I decided to try something clever with the bidowers, letting them be charged in order to take some parthian shots and drag away the viking's best. What actually happened was I fluffed the activation role and my elite skirmishers were rapidly transformed into paste.

Sergeants are pushed back in disorder, but the bidowers (below) are a little too close...

They might be good at range and hard to shift with missile fire, but I didn't really appreciate how vulnerable a 6-model unit with no armour can be. Ouch. 

Scandinavia's finest make short work of my poaching patrol 

Things then went from bad to worse when my men at arms came off the worse in a scuffle with the Viking hearthguard, and fell back 'battered'. As in the first game, the dice were batting for me that evening, and Derek's critical roll to let him charge in and finish me off was failed!

The (unfortunately blurred) decisive moment: The Hearthguard fail to catch my men-at-arms as they pause to get their breath back

Whilst my A-team were taking their half-time oranges and a quick ciggie, men (and woman) of the match, in the form of my yeomen were seeing off the sergeants with mixture of shieldwall, javelin and charging at the opportune moment. Even this, though, was not their finest hour...

The stout yeomen form a shieldwall to see off the sergeants

Meanwhile, the household troops of both side were still slugging away at each other, neither side quite able to gain the upper hand, whilst men fell dead left and right. Even the leaders themselves could find no advantage over the other. 

An attempt to resolve the battle by rock-paper-scissors is unsuccessful

In the end the dice came up trumps for me again, as Derek's leader failed a morale test and fell back into charge range of the yeomen who mobbed him in short order.

He's battered all right. (Sorry, Derek*)

Despite my unusual good luck with the dice, I still think I held the advantage in my missile superiority and numbers: I was able to use my range to hold the Vikings off and "Herd" them into being surrounded where I could mass my forces and get those charges into Derek's battered units which made all the difference in keeping my chaps alive.

Next time we play It'll be 18 rather than 12 points, and I'm looking forward to fielding not only my knights, but also the new crossbowmen who acquitted themselves honourably during the latest fiasco against Joey...

*Not sorry in the slightest really.