Lion Rampant Campaign - Week 2

Campaign Standings

Saracens: 8 Glory Points
Crusaders: 9 Glory Points

Just the one game this week as most folks were recovering from the exertions of Christmas. This weeks scenario was The Messenger

The Messenger: Crusader victory - 3 Glory

A pretty simple set-up for this game - the Saracens had to escort  a messenger from one corner to the other. If the messenger was killed by a lucky blow or the escort being destroyed it would be a Crusader victory, otherwise the Saracens win.  Both sides deployed most of their troops in opposite corners, with a small Crusader force of foot sergeants guarding the exit

 

The Teutonic blocking force guards the exit

The Teutonic interceptors

The Saracens - is that a ruck or a maul?

 

The early turns saw excellent movement dice from the Teutonic knights but very little activity from the Saracens. It looked like they might be trapped in the starting corner with barely a move.



Saracens making slow progress under crossbow fire

 

The light horse evade and cause a few casualties - the next turn they were caught and killed

Eventually the Saracens got moving and split their units either side of a wood on the left of the table. At this point the Teutonic mounted knights rumbled into action but were skilfully taunted into first charging some foot sergeants and  charging into the wood where they met their end.  



The heavy armour heads cross-country 



A killed zone in the centre

 

The knights charge



But help is on the way for the Saracens

And the knights are no more

After a hard slog the centre was cleared and a game of cat-and-mouse ensued that eventually saw the Saracens on the table edge and just a move away from victory.

The black guards defend the messengers unit

Then... twang,,,, thud.... disaster, an  incredibly lucky shot from the Crusader crossbows saw the messenger felled as he left the table. So a last gasp Teutonic victory and their first of the campaign or practice games. 

We've won!

 

We've lost !

New Rules

One thing which has been a bug-bear in the last few games is the prevalence of people failing to move at all as they have a activation failure on their first or second unit. Part of the game but it gets tough if you get a string of them. So a new rule was tested, based on garden cricket - "Can't be out first ball"

Can't be out first ball

• If your first voluntary activation (not rally or wild charge) fails then you may re-throw that attempt.
• It must be the same unit with the same attempted action

This seemed to work pretty well as its takes the sting out of a very early failure. It might tempt you to try a slightly riskier activation as your first but perhaps that's no bad thing.