Samurai Clash

 Hosted a Samurai game using Lion Rampant at the local mini-con.  

While the new 2nd Edition of the rules has the rule's author Dan Mersey argue for the one-failed-activation-and-you-are-done rule to be continued, I and many others have not done so as the players have felt dejected from not having any involvement for turns - or for the entire game in one famous event! However, as this game was essentially a four-way fight and each player only had 2 or 3 units, I made this original rule in effect.  Of course, there were many failures but this had the turns fly by and kept everyone very much engaged.  "What? My turn again? Excellent"

One event of the game stands out.  The banner of Okudaira Sadamasa was "stalled" lacking the activation to move with the army by PeterM's usual rolling.  However my also usual poor activation dicing had this prime target for the villagers to gain victory points out of reach.  This sorry state would last for much of the game, turn after turn.  Meanwhile the other players had a time with great slaughter.... 

The camera must have been on one of those funky settings.  The villagers are massed behind the building ready to come out of the gate...if i could only roll high enough dice.....

100 Years War grunge match

Prologue: Well, they are finally painted! I have had these very old Gamesworkshop 'Brettonian' knights ready to paint for many, many years. I have an old post of them still in black primer from 2016  (see: previous post ) I recently added embossed shields from Fireforge which emblems matched some of the headgear of these knights. These shields make painting of the knightly "logo" much easier.  The use of crested helmets did continue to some degree during this period, and the Osprey edition on Crecy and Poitiers illustration plates certainly show them, so I don't think they are too far off the historical track <wink>

Introduction:  After The Battle of Crecy in 1346, the French nobles felt the English with their ‘crooked sticks’ didn’t fight fair, so they want another go at it. 

 So in the blue corner weighing in at 24 points we have the contenders - the French - with three ‘Battles’ of knights on steeds with the help of "Genoese" crossbowmen.

And in the red corner also weighing in at 24 points, the defending champions - the English - with two groups of 'elite' longbow archers behind stakes and a group of men-at-arms together with a group of yeomen spear.

Unlike the first match at Crecy, we are giving "the Genoese" their protective pavises and not having any muddy ground to hamper French movement. These two factors are used to account for the historically overwhelming English victory. Round One: Deployment of the crossbow and archers was at maximum 18” for both. The English longbow shot first but the crossbow morale withstood both lights of arrows and they returned fire causing casualties but no discouragement from the English. Historically, the French knights grew impatient and charged through their crossbowmen. To account for this, I rolled for their movement. If successful, they would move through the crossbow into charge ranges, if not the crossbow would be allowed to shoot, softening up the English. But the impetuous French knights being who they are….. Round Two: Those "Genoese" who avoided getting trampled, moved into a tight group to avoid the advancing knights who, despite casualties from the archers, launched into the more respectable opponents of the English men-at-arms and spearmen; and while the spearmen were pushed back, the men-at-arms of foot held fast and the French mounted knights fell back to regroup. Unfortunately for them the archers, still untouched, launched volleys of arrows into them finally cracking their numbers and spirit. However their sacrifice allowed the reserve knights to move into charge range without casualties.

Final Round:
The French knights (or more the fact, their horses) avoided the stakes and attacked a more chivalrous target in the English knights on foot, and while pushing back the English, opened themselves to be a target of the archers who shredded them. Addendum: important rules which I forgot to employ were the stakes while offering extra armour for the archers cost 2 points which would not allow the archers deployed behind them to be ‘expert’ and shooting better; with the result the French knight gained more casualties than they should have skewing the battle result. Thus the need to rewind. So Grunge Match #2….. The historically numerous deployed Genoese would have spread across the who breadth of the French line but "Lion Rampant" rules prohibit such deployment. This tightening of frontage allows the French knights to avoid the crossbowmen rather than riding over them into a position to charge the English.

My dice rolling came into effect which did not allow the English bow to fire over two turns (!) allowing the French knights to charge without casualties. The Right ‘Battle’ of French knights avoided the stakes to crash into the English spear knocking them back. The crossbowmen, with clean sights, routed the longbow. The Left ‘Battle’ of knights charged directed at the longbow despite their protective stakes and pushed them from those obstacles. The English men-at-arms on foot, could and would advance into the milling French mounted knights getting the better of the fight. Emboldened, they would later charge at the crossbow knowing that should they await the French, the crossbow would merely shoot them down as they stood. However the crossbowmen do know their trade and punctured the English knights as they paced forward. The English, no doubt seeing the further array of the French knights behind the crossbow pavises lost heart.(*)

The English archers while heroically withstanding attacks of the French knights finally succumbed to these armoured warriors. The English army was no more. Crecy revenged!

 (*) a decisive victory made more impressive that a third of the French men-at-arms, the knights in reserve, failed every move roll (!!!), got nowhere near the fighting thus could have been fresh for any further contest.

Medieval artillery

The ballpoint pen ran out of ink.  Of course I did not throw it away but I looked at it, took it apart and used the parts.  Hey, it is still part of the recycle, reuse, repurpose phrase is it not?  :)

The main "chassis" on this particular pen is quite thick and the inner dimension of the tube not so large.  Medieval casting of a cannon sized actually, and needing a cannon for my crew I set to work cutting the plastic tube after removing the inner ink tube (that to be used to allow me to envelope with a flag thus allowing it to be slipped over an existing standard-bearer wire pole to have different flags for the same unit).

The cut tube was placed within a balsa wood frame, itself reinforced by additional bits to handle the cannon's recoil.  Metal straps were of paper softened by a water and PVA(white glue) mixture.  The whole was then primed and painted.  A very quick, easy project which I "needed" to do.

While that is the medieval 'modern' version of artillery, they still had the old-fashioned weapon very much still in vogue (at least for a couple more years) in the shape of the catapult.  Here is one I came across in the fantasy section.  It comes already primed.  While the wood is probably a bit rough and weathered for realism,  I will be using it for objective purposes for scenarios (I don't have any figures suitable as crew at present).

Just piddling away at the many diverse projects I have on the go....

The week in gaming

Still haven’t got to my “Saratoga” game set up on the table for the last three weeks..... but did take my Samurai on the road for a Monday Game.

The Oyamata were to escort the musicians and gifts to a wedding while the rival Takeda wanted to halt the convoy. Used Lion Rampant rules with an add-on for the Teppo (handgunners).

The Oyamata procession

Takeda ashigaru soldiers

  Short story:  the Oyamata players rolled poorly and wore out fairly quickly.  Extremely poor courage tests by both sides had units vanish rather than be battered.  I guess one’s life (based as ever on the randomness of the fates) was not worth the honour of wedding gifts, even for the Samurai…..

The mounted Samurai who, with rather poor activation rolls, did not move but once the entire game (but didn't really need to....)

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On Friday, it was the ClubNight and, after offering scenarios set up for Will’s Jacobite game (see his blog: link ), I got into Lisa’s Congo rules game of slavers vs tribes vs rival tribe three-way.  She made a call for additional figures and a couple of us offered what we had; and ended up playing in the game anyway.

The jungle, the Lisa version, using plastic plants to good use.

 The interesting rule introduction by Congo is the method of unit ordering and activation.
The player has a handful of cards each. The cards have an initiative number together with symbols for movement (footprints), shooting (bow and arrow) and/or panic (umm, something scary to Congolese warrior).  These come in various amounts and so the player can pick three of these to play in their next three plays.  You can sorta guess what you might need to do in the next 3 turns but things could certainly change which makes the selecting difficult and hit-and-miss.

The 'ordering and activation' cards.  The rules use an assortment of dice 

Various 'stress' tokens.  Too many and you start having fellows leg it.

more examples the activation cards.  In this case, my turn is probably after everyone else (the top '2' is low).  I can shoot with 1 unit and move another.

Points were allotted to victory conditions.  As a Masfusi I wish to rescue our prince, and the other captives, kill slavers and prevent the hated Kosi from doing the same.  It did not start well for me as, of course, I picked up the dreaded chit as I entered the rough terrain and so panicked so firing at the nearest group (friend or foe).  It was to be my fellow Masfusi  for me to blast away using my only trading-muskets causing death and wounds.  This then panicked that group who fired back with accurate spear fire, killing three of five musketmen!   Meanwhile another group of mine were shooting at the slavers.  There was only a small chance to killing one’s own but my fire firing did just that!  While usual for me, not a great start….
I managed to gain the most victory points at the end so redeemed my early ineptitude however. I still think I eliminated more of my own than the enemy!

To add a bit of weight to her plastic models, Lisa glues them to old pennies (the same size as an American penny).  Canada no longer uses pennies as currency.  So when I mean old, I mean old - note the minting in 1929!   Mind you metal washers cost much more than 1 cent these days.....

Quote of the game:  the Kosi player having fun with a small group of poison dart armed Pigmies (pun included??) also envisioned his tribe to be cannibals.   A rule of ‘Congo’ could have you add a stress token to your unit for a chance of saving figure from being killed. “Nah, we’ll eat him later”  We had a light and fun attitude to the game….

Medieval ‘LR’ clash

With a slow rotation of games (telling me I have way too many armies/eras/‘projects’ already) we tend to forget the rules and spend quite a bit of the game asking ourselves “what happens now? The rule is?”

Trying to keep fresh on the Lion Rampant rules, I invited the guys over for a simple ‘refresher’ game.  Not knowing the numbers of fellows I placed down terrain, said “you English over there, we French over here”, gave out personal objects randomly (I was the only one who gave THAT any thought) and went at it.  No planning or battle strategy.  Very medieval that.

The only real innovation came with my introduction of a deck of playing cards for initiative.  As we had four players, each player was assigned a card suit from the deck.  With each card of that suit drawn the player then could try to activate any of his units.  If fail or activated, a marker is placed indicating that unit is done.  Eventually, all the players units would have been used. Once that happens, all the markers are removed and should his suit card be drawn he once again can nominate any of the un-activated units to be diced for.  Once the deck has been used up all players would have had an equal number of activations.  Not necessarily on a consistent basis, but eventually at the end.  We did have one player have five of his cards come up in a row (!) thus he was able to try to activate all his units one-after-another with one of the units doing this twice but with only 13 draws per player, it eventually evens out.
With this, rather than the I-go-you-go or heaven forbid the one fail you're out (per original rules), it creates more action and natural flow of the play.  Of course this can be for any game to get away from predictable player sequence.  Anyway it was agreed it did help with the play.

Pictures of the game.  All figures are mine and painted by moi.  (I was using my newly painted Dunkerque liveried types - in yellow and white with the bright blue dolphin and black on yellow shields)  Historically note: Dunkirk/Dunkerque was not actually French but Flemish during this time of c.1350 - the time of the Battle of Crecy and the armour styles portrayed on the figures. D’oh.  Didn't discover that tidbit until after painting them. Let’s over look that historical inaccuracy shall we…..

Dunkerque mixed yeomen militia (sheep optional)

massed English archers

Having achieved my 'personal objective' by burning the farmhouse, the yeomen will enter the battle.  The 'shield' 'marker indicating that unit has rolled for activation and cannot be chosen until after all the players units have done so.

Apparently this lad wanted to make sure the flames got it all.

my new straw fences using real pine fir needles! ....and lots of glue...

and yet more English archers behind stone fences.  The French really could not win this battle/game.

a Tercey battle

The Tercey Campaign:  fictional solo game : Battle of Sticksley

With the return of the main armies to the Shire, and Earl of Rockforth’s Red faction’s command of the area, the Tawney party was on its heels.  However the knowledge of one of the Red’s wagon was a prize to tempting not to resist,  and so Lord Pomsby sought to plan its ambush near the town of Sticksley.
The area was very flat and with crops not of any height, he needed to place his ambush units some distance and widely spaced.  Longe’s Musketeers were to be the main unit, hidden as it was in a graveyard near the important crossroads.  Ballard’s Pike were to march from its hidden location to block the bridge and support Longe.  Ballard’s Shotte would then advance from its hiding of a farm house to the creek’s far edge offering protection as it would offer volleys into the flank of the enemy column.

Robarte's Shotte at the bridge

The Red column was led by Urry’s experienced horse.  However there seemed to be no overall command of the column which was to led to problems during the battle. The wagons for example continued their slow trek only to clog up the bridge and be lost in during the battle.

Urry's horsemen about to be shot upon by Longe's musketeers

The battle commenced with Longe’s very effective volley into the surprised horsemen. The following column too were put into confusion by the start of the fighting, rolling not to activate at all.  Bravely charging their tormentors, Urry’s horsemen, hurled themselves at Longe but the musketeers calmly met the charge.  Urry’s remaining troopers morale finally collapsed as they fell back to the bridge now cluttered with wagons, packhorses and men from the musketeers of Robartes Regiment. The latter had advanced to meet Ballard’s counterparts who had rapidly moved through an early growth wheat field to line the creek edge.  They would continue to shoot at each other for most of the remainder of the battle bravely matching casualties.“the valley was all smoke and fire such as the bowels of hades” wrote one participant, “and such bravery the devil himself could not conceive”
(Successive courage tests were passed regardless of the casualties)

Ballard's await word to advance.  The sheep look on.

Tawny forces converge on the Red position at the bridge. Longe is in the field on the left, Ballard along the creek on the right, Ballard's Pike coming down the road.  Robarte's red-coated shotte facing Ballard while the useless Nerne dragoons are unable to find ammunition to fire upon Longe's unit in the field. The abandoned wagon blocks the bridge.

While Robarte’s Shotte was effective, Nerne’s Dragoons were still on the far side of the creek, the wagon abandoned at the bridge, its horses shot down and driver having legged it.

Robarte’s officer now ordered a retreat hoping to take the remaining pack animals back to the other side of the creek to safety but obviously his men’s ardour overwhelmed them. (I sought to have the unit save themselves but it failed its move activation!) It took further casualties and a courage test to have them break and run.

Meanwhile, Nerne’s Dragoons, true to form based on their rather poor previous performances in battle, failed numerous activations and stood about without effect. (it failed 70% of its activations this game!)

Pomsby's ambush has been a success. The wagon, not surprisingly stocked with liquor, was quickly ransacked by the troops.  An officer managed to recover one bottle of claret which the Lord accepted gracefully. He toasted the troops for their victory which was met with resounding cheers. The Tawneys may have found their new leader to challenge the command of the Earl of Rockforth’s dominance of the Shire.

Walk in the woods..

With our penchant for ‘Rampanty” rules, the new “Rebels and Patriots” was exciting so JimF brought over his French and Indian Wars figures for a go.  I played the French while Peter took the ‘Injuns’ while Clayton commanded most of the British with Jim handling the single cannon (as he suggested he would be doing enough to consult the rules)

Now as with all Rampant rules, a poor die roll will most likely change things immensely.  Clayton found that out as his Provincials ran off very early in the game (and later, Jim’s cannoneers would but sit around failing many successive activations  (no more ammunition perhaps??) .

The French on the left, British Highlanders in the distance facing the natives (right)

Peter’s natives flittered about in the wood edge targeting the aggressive highlanders which Clayton could not seem to get into contact.  Meanwhile my French “marines” (regulars of the New France) performed light infantry duties against the Highlanders also while my Coureur de Bois (skirmishers) harassed the British light gun.

"the eagle's view"

The big units of natives did well, and the Highlanders finally gave way but not until one unit was totally eliminated!  The new way of testing for morale certainly can result in lots of loss before breaking….as long as you roll well, of course……

Sengoku battle

Fictional Battle of Zenrokkumura

Oh, this is but one of the multitude of minor squabbles occurring during the Sengoku period of Japanese history - the time of the classic Samurai we all know and game.

Having no idea who will show at host’s Francis’ place, the scenario has to be, well, ‘loose’ to allow for various number of players.  I deployed a triad of forces, with small one in the village to protect the sacred ‘Zen White Stone’ , the other equally matched forces on each side.

The village defended by the Oyamada.  The Zen white rock with stool in the center. Peasants to the left, Samurai at lower right.  

Being a Lion Rampant game, it is hard to describe the action but the Okurdaira and the Takeda aimed for each other while controlling the Oyamada protecting the village I sought to stay out of the fight only entering once one side was weakened thus being on the winning end ( much like Stanley at Bosworth Field )

The mass of Takeda early in the game.  I ignore the 3" rule....obviously.

But like any plan, it went for nought, as while Rene left my Samurai alone as he moved against DaveS’ and Kev’s red and white flagged Okurdaira,  his compatriot Francis promptly charged my Oyamada samurai and lost the combat.  “They are samurai?!” Francis exclaimed in his defence,  “I thought they were peasants. Aren’t peasants easy to kill?”

The Takeda mounted Samurai (Kingsford Miniatures)

Okudaira army advances ( the red/white sashimono was a common theme for several clans it would appear)

However with that, I decided to help the Okurdaira but as I came out of the village DaveS and his Okurdaira teppo (handgunners) then shot at me “They were the nearest and best target!” he would say.  You do get the idea that these players do not care a wit about strategy and just want “to throw dice and kill things”

I retreated but to the village to let them sort it out, which, after quite the bloodbath, the Takeda with their black flags, won the attrition battle.

Nap. Lion Rampant

The new project gaining some of my attention these days is developing “Lion Rampant” for Napoleonic cavalry action. Yes, the medieval rules!.  Cleverly titled “Hussar Rampant”, these are specifically and exclusively for the use of only cavalry during the Napoleonic Wars.  This exclusivity avoids any need for complications with the addition and interplay of artillery and infantry for what were often only mounted actions between the colourfully clad cavaliers of the era.

As ‘LIon Rampant’ is at its best when dealing with the back-and-forth swirling action of the mounted warrior, it is ideal for this interplay.  I mentioned this during a late Saturday night beer sipping conversation with a group of wargaming buddies and immediately we started with how to go about making this happen.

Obviously besides the gaining of, painting of, and use of miniatures; we need a set of rules.  I didn’t think converting LR would be a problem.  Already, many wargamers, including an article about using LR style for the use of small unit Napoleonics published in Wargames Illustrated magazine No.342, have taken this approach.  However we wanted only cavalry, make all troop types effective, have no ‘national characteristics’ so that, whichever unit the wargamer wants to command, it would be roughly equal, and easy to play in a convention setting, to be imperative.

Three of us, in separate cities and in two different countries, continue to hone the rules.  Part of this process is the play-test so I took the stat charts and did a quick solo game using WillB’s Russians and French.

Anyone who has played Lion Rampant knows that any change, for example, from 7+ or 8+, is a huge difference and must be carefully weighted and so many more tests will be required to fine tune the charts.

[random thought: is that Dan Mercey sighing?] [Nevertheless Dan, thanks for the inspiration]

But for the moment, I will just present a few photos to show the look of the game.

Using WillB's French heavies supported by his unit of hussars. Marshal Ney commands in the middle.   I must say that the flowing ranks of the miniatures look more impressive on the table than in a photograph.

the cavalry battle somewhere in Russia

we rule writers will need to determine how long will units last with combat effectiveness.....

As a group we have settled upon the Battle of Waterloo as the basis of the collecting as to keep the historical integrity of the troops used.  I already have two simple scenarios based upon real events in the battle which we could use.

Currently there are seven of us which have pledged to have units ready.  Today I was busy building the Netherlanders 4th Light (Dutch) Dragoons to add to my ready to paint British 12th LD for the Allied side.  Lots of snipping, scraping and gluing of these Perry plastics but, well, I seem to really enjoy doing it!

Jimasa has a burning desire….

Jim suggested he had individually mounted Japanese Samurai to add to my collection for a “Lion Rampant” rules game.

These rules, while designed for the European medieval period, work well for other conflicts and convert well for early Japanese warfare ( well for tabletop wargames anyway)
The introduction of the gunpowder handgun (‘teppo’) into Japan in the early 16th century adds a weapon not within the Lion Rampant rules arsenal.  Jim declared he would rather use a bunch of bows, but I like them as Samurai killers.  But each troop type has advantages and disadvantages…as long as you can activate them!  That is the key to LR, and outcome of games as usual, will depend upon them.

The scenario has the holders of the castle running out of the castle to prevent Jim and his contingent, along with the ambushers of Kevin arriving randomly later, to systematically burn each of the fields and village buildings thus burning the castle inhabitants food source.

Jim's ashigaru burning along.  One of the banner designs he used is the same as mine and the same Kingsford Miniatures.

Jim and Kevin were having the usual LR trouble with activating, while Will and Peter were doing better, shooting up opposing teppo units “before they can shoot back!” Even the rather weak firepower from the castle wall got a couple of important hits. As Peter points out:  “Every courage test required could be a disaster”.

a teppo unit about to be attacked by irate peasants 

The game swung slowly to the castle defenders favour despite my back up plan to have a reinforcements arrive after a (d6) number of units from one side or the other were eliminated and we had a few more hours to go. Kevin’s dice rolling had the extra unit depart rather quickly unfortunately.

Jim's ashigaru vs one of Takeda samurai commanded this game by WillB. More of the Samurai's friends are just off camera.

Fighting at the village gate

I had my Peasant favourites situated in the village to attack any unit trying to burn a building.  Peasants are rather poor fighters and did little, even against a teppo unit, so fell back to their station within the village. One of Kevin’s ashigaru infantry units ignored them while torching ( well, TRYING to alight the thatch of a village building…all that was needed to do so was the unit’s  ‘move’ activation, something he was unable to do for many turns! ).  My peasants, finally rallied, had enough of this burning and went into these elite fighters.  The results were not good. The peasants were slaughtered.  And their attack on the ashigaru?  I needed sixes.  I got 6 ones! Ugg. But as was agreed by all, it was “Doug’s usual rolling”.

my usual dice rolling....... sigh ......

Fun game with the usual unpredictability.

ground eye view of the action between my collection's clans (Kingsford Miniatures)