Lion Rampant campaign - week 3

Campaign Standings

Saracens: 14 Glory Points
Crusaders: 10 Glory Points

We managed to fight two battles this week - Meeting the Neighbours and The Convoy. Due to illness one of the Crusaders (John) played Saracen.

The Convoy: Saracen  victory - 5 Glory

In this scenario the defender (English) has to escort a convoy of three treasure-laden mules across the table, with the Saracens attempting to stop them. The English deployed with the foot sergeants and bidowers escorting the mules , leaving the archers and foot men-at-arms free to manoeuvre. The Saracens deployed all their infantry if a decent defensive position at the English exit point and all the mounted (3*sergeants and 1*yeomen) forward to harry the English.

English deployment

Saracen blocking force

The English advanced steadily and had some initial success as the Archers roughly handled a unit of Arab mounted. For a while it looked like the Saracen deployment risked them being defeated in detail. Then a defect emerged in the English deployment - the archers were too far to the flank with terrain between them and the main force. The remaining Saracen horse was free to attack the English foot, and unanswered the Arab yeoman did terrible shooting damage to the English.

In a rare sight it all got a bit Napoleonic as the English foot formed squares to protect the mules under pressure from the Saracen horse.

The English advance 

Saracen horse moves into position

Form square - this is waterloo right?

 With some fortunate failures from the English to move, the Saracen shooting weakened the squares and so the charging sergeants were able to capture all three  mules.

The Saracens attack

 

Two squares down - just the Bidowers to go

So in the end with some luck and inconvenient terrain (for the English) the Saracen horse succeeded without help from the foot sloggers.

Meeting the Neighbours: Draw - 1 Glory

This is a slightly unpredictable scenario as both sides are on patrol and seeking to exit the opposite table corner. So you could choose to fight or simply evade and out manoeuvre each other. As victory is based on units escaping the outnumbered Teutonics decided to fight.

Saracen deployment

Teutonic deployment

What followed was a real see-saw battle in the centre of the field as both sides piled all their units into a general melee. At first the Tuetonics had the upper hand before the larger numbers of Saracen units began to make their presence felt. Then things swung back as the small Arab units suffered attrition and the foot men-at-arms rolled-up several units.

The brother knights go into action



End game - its a massacre

 The game ended with the remaining Arabs exiting the field and the brother knights holding the table.

Reflections

We tried the rule amendments outlined in last weeks blog - the "can nt be out first ball" rule seemed to work well and keep the game flowing.