The Crusader Army - part 1

Having put together my Saracen army it was only right that the next large force I should consider is the opponents - the Crusaders. Fortunately I already have around 24 Horse and a 100 foot painted for my Robin Hood games so what you see in the next few shots are the balance of the army...another 39 Horse and almost 100 foot.

The Saracen Army build started in December 2014 - so I am hoping I can get this lot done by Xmas

http://shedwars.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/building-saracen-army-part-1.html


These have all come from the excellent Fire Forge range - still questioning why they never produced an Arab range to go with these guys...

The few metals you see are from Curtey's...plus the one on the right above was a limited edition from Tactica show - his shield not added

These plastics are a delight to build and have so much character. There are three mounted boxes represented here - two from the Mounted Men at arms box set and one from the mounted Crossbow set (no mounted crossbowmen)

 

In addition there are 96 foot - 24 of these are made up as crossbow men and the remainder are all infantry. Unlike my robin hood forces II have not gone for a uniform look or pose. This means they look far more irregular.

Browns, Greys, Greens and dark reds will be the colours

 

Final group shot

 

If you are looking to field an early medieval army at relatively low cost Fire Forge can be your friend - the infantry work out at less than 50p per figure and the horses about £1.50

As I write this my daughter has just turned 17 and so with a car to buy for her to learn to drive in and the additional cost of insurance I think my hobby spending is going to be curtailed for some time

Until next time....

The Tales of Shedwood - Ivanhoe's Rescue

Hi Folks

Monday night saw the shed back in action after a four week gap due to really cold weather and I was delighted to welcome Captain Blood of the Lead Adventure Forum to sample the delights of the Shed for a second time. Whilst over at Tactica he expressed an interest in the Lion Rampant rules and knowing that this was on the agenda I duly invited him over.

All told five of us braved a blustery and mildly chilly night but a great deal of fun was had and more learning's developed from our second play of this fast paced medieval rule set. I'll touch upon the 'new' house-rules at the end of this post.

Monday nights table - Trentbridge Hamlet in the Foreground

Ground view

So on with the game...

…You may recall that in our last tale the Good and Godly Knight Sir Ivanhoe was bested at combat by the sinister Sir Guy De Guisborne. Unbeknownst to Ivanhoe’s followers he did not succumb to his wounds on the battlefield but rather fell into the clutches of the scheming Sheriff of Nottingham.

 

For a full battle report of the last game head here...

http://shedwars.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/tales-of-sherwood-taxing-day.html

 

Like all power crazed maniacs the Sheriff has high hopes of a good ransom but to protect his investment he has decided to move Ivanhoe to the protection of Greystone Keep at Trentbridge.

Hearing the news of both his friend’s living status and his transfer to Greystone Keep, Robin has rounded up his men and supported by Ivanhoe’s own followers, to attempt a rescue along the Trent Bridge Road.

Greystone Keep

Ivanhoe’s is currently being escorted by the Sheriffs mounted sergeants.

Objectives:

The Sheriff Forces win if Ivanhoe can be placed inside the Keep.

Robin’s forces win if Ivanhoe can be rescued

Robin’s forces lose if Ivanhoe is killed by his own men

Ivanhoe will remain a captive as long as he is within 3 inches of a mounted Sheriff/Ally force. In the event that the force is engaged in melee Ivanhoe will be freed if the attacking force is greater in number than the defending force (horsetroops x2) at the end of the round.

Shooting at a force containing Ivanhoe is the same as a Lucky blow – ie on a double 1 he is killed. However if the entire unit is killed by bows any hits not allocated are transferred to Ivanhoe.

Ivanhoe may only move if he is attached to a unit.

Ivanhoe is unarmoured and may not participate in the game – he is still weak from his wounds

Any unit controlling Ivanhoe gets +1 to its movement orders only (ie they know they have to move either to the castle or off the board)

A weak and frail Ivanhoe

Players were issued with their Battle Sheets (resplendent with Ladybook artwork) although I apologies now for some of the errors on the sheets - must double check next time
example below

With the orders of battle issued and the troops laid out we could crack on. (Like most games I run in the shed this was already done as it allows for immediate action).

Robin and his allies (including Ivanhoes retinue now commanded by Sir Reginald de Perrins) were spread along the south side of the Trent Bridge Road. To the North lay the Keep of Greystone.

Alongside the Bridge over the river Trent lay the small hamlet of Trent Bridge.

Clearly Robin and his forces had to stop the Sheriffs convoy from crossing the board. By my initial reckoning if all orders were made the Captive could be inside Greystone Keep within 10 turns.

'Block the road' was the order cried by the Merry Men


So as the forces of Robin advanced across the table the Sheriffs escort party marched towards the bridge. For three turns they milled around waiting to cross the bridge.

The Sheriff cursed - we could of been home and dry by now - such is a villains life

The Cavalry of he Bishop of Lincoln thundered forward towards the serfs hiding behind the grazing cows.

These poor folks stood no chance and what followed was a swift bloodletting watched on by the grazing beasts.

Battle was set fast in the centre, arrows flew and hit their marks, horses screamed, men cried and cows made milk...

Meanwhilst the good knights of Sir Reginald dithered should they attack Guy de Guisborne or rally to the cries in the centre

Little John knew no other task than to march forward and confront the rash Guy - advancing closer to the castle they let rip with their clothyard missiles.

The Bishop advanced his forces into the arrows of the Merry Men - although claiming god was oin their side his holiness could not prevent the desertion of his congregation

Finally our manic Sheriff advanced only to stop again for two more turns !

Robins men were making mincemeat of the Bishops forces in the centre

And Little John was forcing Guy de Guisborne into so many unlucky die rolls

With the centre of the Sheriffs forces about to collapse the Bishops last forces formed into defensive schiltron

With the road clear the Sheriffs horsemen thundered up the road with their captive

Sir Reginald advanced with his templar chums

Sir Reginalds mounted units finally crashed through some poor serfs winter food garden and into Guys troops - dispersing them amongst the weeds

With Guys forces dispersed the mounted Templars thundered up the road clapped on by happy serfs (apart from the gardener)

Little Johns decimating the forces of Guy with withering volleys..

Sir Reginald and his Knights block the road in front of the Sheriffs men..

With his allies either routed or killed The Sheriff still felt that if he could weaken the centre he might still be able to punch through to the castle. But how to weaken them - he must kill Sir Reginald.

Not accustomed to duelling - he sadly didn't last long...the Sheriff slipped from his saddle into a pile of his own horse's s*** - looks like we need a new Sheriff in Nottingham

Robin and his remaining men cheered...wishing they could sing that tuneful hit...'I shot the Sheriff...

Sir Ivanhoe is rescued and Robins fame lives on...

What next in the Tales of Shedwood...



At the close of the evening we had a bit of a chat about the proceedings and arrived at simple some house rules & reminders...

• We must not forget the -1 extreme range penalty rule for shooting. Somehow we always remember this half way through the game. It will certainly limit archery fire.
• If the score to hit with a bow exceeds 6 to hit then the additional pips required to hit are added to the targets armour value in addition to any other modifiers.
• If a Leaders unit is routed the Leader may stay on the table - he is after all the boss. He retains the armour value of the original unit he was attached to.
• Infantry attacking cavalry was a big bone of contention. Cavalry may always counter charge or evade attacking infantry on a successful attack roll.
• One further potential addition might be to reduce Infantry armour value by one if attacked by cavalry  - these last two need to be tested.
• We have already adopted the rule for our large multiplayer games that all units may dice for orders each turn rather than a turn ending on one failed order.

Thoughts on the above are most welcome...

Until next time folks

Tales of Sherwood - A Taxing Day

Rather sadly I was forced to cancel last weeks Monday game due to the freezing temperatures outside…even the shed can be chilly, so it was with great excitement I welcomed five players to christen the table with the new Lion Rampant rules.

 

 

Before I crack on with the write up I should start by stating that these rules were written as a two player game and not designed for six. A trawl of the forums found a wonderful review of the game by Dalauppror and on his site he talks about multi player games using card activation.

 

Link to his great site: http://www.dalauppror.blogspot.co.uk/

 

 I pressed into action a standard deck of cards and pulled out red diamonds 1-6 and black clubs 1-6. A diamond card was issued to each player randomly. This would be their designated number. The black cards would then be our turn deck cards. The only caveat being that a player who went last in the previous turn could not start first in the next round. Hope that makes sense.

Now if you were reading my blog two years ago you will recall that I started a project called the tales of Shedwood. I even wrote a set of rules but they just sucked with missile fire dominating the game. I was keen to see how these worked given the rave reviews.

It was interesting to note that of the six players in the shed five had actually bought the rules (or in Legatus’s case had won a set from the author).  All credit to Osprey and the author for bringing out such a book and testament to the fact that such a rule set was in demand.

So the Tales of Shedwood’s first action would see a scenario called ‘A Taxing day’, like all good economies the Shedwood denizens have to cough up. In this particular case we had three players clearly collecting money for their own aims (The Sheriff needs a new wardrobe, the Bishop of Lincoln wants a new roof on his palace, and Guy of Guisbourne wants a new subscription to Bastards Weekly) and three players trying to do what is right (Robin Hood, to share with the needy, Little John being needy of his share, and Ivanhoe back from the Crusades to raise money for the good King Richard) .

 

Nottingham before the excitement

 

Each force was given four units from the rulebook totalling either 15 or 16 points. This points ceiling and composition of forces was set by the number of figures at my disposal. In the end these 4 unit forces proved more than adequate for the number of players on the table.

 

Guy's Manor House

 

The scenario worked as follows. There are seven buildings across the table representing the dwellings of Locksley. Each building has a card ranging in value from 1-3points. These points roughly translate into gold. The combination of cards came to a sum of thirteen points of treasure. You can probably guess that the team with the highest number of points wins. Correct.

To spice this up further an additional two points could be earned for each leader killed.

 

The Sheriff inspects his troops

 

Finally the Lady Marian is on the table but is in a dreadful state as she has lost her hand maidens. If one side can reunite the good Lady and her two ladies a further three points can be earned. To make matters interesting the Ladies will move around the table each turn in a random direction (2-16inches – roll a d6 +d10 add together for distance – direction indicated by pointy bit on d10).

Before I start with the AAR a few other points which both helped to speed up the game but also the in house rules we adopted as the game unfolded.

 



·         Firstly each player had his own roster sheet. These were set up in word and I can now produce new versions for each game.

·         All the figures bar the cavalry were placed on movement trays. I appreciate they are unsightly but they do massively increase the speed of play.

·         By accident we dropped the extreme range on bows – not too sure if we will revert. A couple of the guys had already played Lion Rampant and exclaimed that the game is too missile dominated. In our case the terrain helped to block line of site and the continuous failings by Robin and Little John to get the shooting activations was a bone of contention.

·         This lack of activity by failing order dice instigated a big change in proceedings. We dropped the rule that if you fail your turn is over. This had a better impact on the game and certainly became more engaging for all involved.

·         Finally we introduced a rule that if the Leader becomes the last man standing in the unit he is unaffected by courage etc. After all its his choice, the players choice if they want to continue. This certainly makes sense if you were developing a campaign approach.

 

 

The Above picture shows the scene from the ramparts of Nottingham. In the far distance you can see Guy de Guisborne's manor, the chapel of her Fair Lady (currently occupied by the Crusaders). Sherwood Forest lies along the right hand edge of the table and the Lincoln Road can be reached over the bridge in the centre

 

View from Nottingham

 

So onto the action….

 

Think of this AAR as a bit like match of the day...only the highlights. There was so much going on so photos are rather scarce.

 

So our first engagement saw Ivanhoe launch a charge into the retinue of Guy de Guisborne, with a challenge issued both leaders missed and the fight to the death ensued.

 

Charging cavalry

Our first melee saw both units wiped out with only the leaders standing. Alas for Ivanhoe he was exposed to Guys heavily armoured mates. Ivanhoe sadly went down in a pool of blood and a pile of metal.

The demise of the Crusader

 

 

Meanwhilst the Bishop of Lincoln advanced into town and rather fortuitously captured both the ladies in waiting.

 

The Bishop of Lincolns armoured retinue march into Locksley and start turning the place upside down for hidden gold.

Bewildered serfs stand in amazement (and dread) as the Bishops men march into the hamlet.

Boldly charging in the front of his troops The Sheriff makes swift work of the peasants and serfs defending the village. With a harsh cackle he rides the corpses down again just to make sure.

Are there no warriors worthy of mighty skills...he cries (subsequently choosing to ignore the taunts from the Merry Men)

Finally Robins men entered the rather depleted village to slug it out with the Sheriff crossbowmen. A lack of orders meant they soon got chopped up by the quarrels of Nottingham.

With Ivanhoe dead Guy de Guisbourne rode his charger towards the Chapel of our Fair Lady for Spoils and loot...

The Bishop of Lincoln leads the charge against Little Johns archers and smashes through them like a juggernaut. Maid Marian falls into his sweaty palms

 

Turning his charge around The Bishop dashes for the Lincoln road, dragging the horse of the Lady. To his right Little Johns Merry men open fire decimating the cavalry unit. The Bishop all alone rides hard for the village.

He reaches the village only to fall to an unerring shot from Robin Hood. Eager to promote his vanity Robin dashes forward for a photo artist opportunity. Whilst not looking the Maid Marian is snatched and dragged across the bridge by the dead Bishops forces.

But all was lost...half the forces of good had fallen and all the treasure looted.

The final score 13 points to the Ruling Class and Six to the Merry men.

A great game - several turns last about 2.5 hours and a fantastic time had by all. We will definitely be rolling this one out again next week.

For a further read head over to the excellent blog run by Legatus Hedlius

http://legatuswargamesarmies.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/robin-hood-at-shed-with-lion-rampant.html


Until next time...