The Battle of Anachronism Bridge

As habitual readers may be aware, I often like to come up with little stories to explain why my toy soldiers have come to blows. In this  particular report, however, I cannot think of any reason why Edward Longshanks and William Marshall should be ganging up to fight Bishop Odo.

Derek sets out the forces of Edward Longshanks in cover of the trees

Inspired by a post on Lead Adventure, I thought that a big scrum over a bridge (Hold On Tight!) would be appropriate considering the terrain available. The impassable river makes things a little different, as you can't try flanking round the objective, you have to throw your forces into the meatgrinder. 

These Foot Yeomen wandered around aimlessly all game

The tone of the game was set when I passed comment on the costing of foot sergeants/yeomen. Yeomen are one point cheaper, 2" faster, and only lose one point of armour. 'Surely,' I said to Matt, who supplied his beautifully painted High Medievals, and who had play-tested the Lion Rampant Rules, 'they are clearly a better investment?'

A view of my approach from Derek and Matt's side. Foot yeomen in the bottom left, Mounted Men-At-Arms charging down the road and bidowers in the farm. 

Having strategically chosen the side of the table with all the cover, I ran into my first obstacle in Lion Rampant: units must be at least 3" apart unless in combat. This does keep troops sensible distances apart, but it meant starting with my Leader off the table, and being  a mounted man-at-arms, getting him to move on would prove a challenge.

Matt's host (led by William Marshall) took a while to get going.

After some false starts, Derek's forces got into position first, his Mounted Sergeants seizing the bridge and accumulating Glory (aka victory points) whilst hist crossbows covered them from the bank.

I heroically decided to let Bishop Odo bring up the rear.

Edward Longshanks and his Mounted Sergeants rush onto the bridge and being accumulating Glory for Derek. 

Units not moving will be a key feature of the game...

My forces assemble in perfect parade-ground order whilst Derek's Sergeants continue to accumulate glory

It was at this point that I was forced to eat my poorly chosen words. My right-hand unit of foot yeomen cleared the treeline into the waiting quarrels of Derek's crossbows, took 3 casualties, and promptly fled the table.

Armour 2 doesn't help against crossbows.

Derek and Matt dig in behind their bridgehead

Worse, rather than heroically storming the bridge, my first unit of mounted men-at-arms proceeded to stop and pick flowers whilst hails of crossbow bolts bounced off their mail armour and I failed to roll a five or more on two dice 3 times in a row, whilst Matt and Derek fortified their position and Longshanks continued to accumulate glory.

After four turns of dithering, my mounted men-at-arms finally make a Wild Charge.

With one glory point away from Derek winning the game, my luck with the dice finally returned, and the mounted men-at-arms did what they do best: beat up things in melee. Storming through Longshanks' bodyguard, they snatched a glory point from the very jaws of defeat.

Edward decides that he'll let someone else accumulate the glory from here on.

My other troops had been pretty much static for all this time, held up in the flower-picking induced traffic jam at the bridge. My crossbowmen had ineffectually traded shots with Derek's from the shelter of the woods, but refused to shoot a Longshanks as he fled the field, presumably out of a misguided sense of chivalry. It's worrying when your dice are more sporting than you are.

Glory points! Huzzah!

Overenthusiastic knights put their backs out routing Derek's crossbowmen

Back on the bridge my mounted men-at-arms had got their blood up and wild-charged into Derek's crossbows. I'd rather they had stayed on the bridge and not died, but that's mounted men-at-arms for you. Whilst they did set the crossbowmen to flight, they also took two casualties and retreated themselves.

Derek's Foot Sergeants storm onto the bridge...

In the all-too-predictable endgame, Derek's counter-attacking foot sergeants dashed onto the bridge and caught my bidowers with their trousers down again. I wish I'd had a slightly tougher unit to rush in after the knights, but I was still unaware that bidowers die like flies unless hiding in woods, bushes and other scenery.

... my bidowers yet again fail to evade

And so with that charge Derek got his revenge for our last gaming session. A very fun game all round, although perhaps a little more space for manoeuvre would have been nice, as would better dice rolls for the Wild Charge activations, but that's Lion Rampant for you.

They think it's all over! It is now!

I think that's it in terms of updates for the time being, but I have the next two weeks off work (holiday!) so that will no doubt involve painting, photos and a special anniversary game...