Feeding the ravens: Saga mass battle

I've been playing a lot of Saga lately, more so than anything else I've gamed since September. I gave Saga a miss in its 1.0 incarnation. Now that Saga 2 has been released, I've jumped into the deep end. I have two warbands painted and am completing another two with more ideas for other warbands to come. There's something satisfying about the game that makes it always a delight to play.

Everything in Saga is about trade-offs. There are no über-warbands or über-troops. Where a unit is strong, it has corresponding costs or weaknesses:

• Javelin-armed troops are powerful (as I've learned to my joy playing Welsh), but have lower armor in melee, making them easier to kill.
• Mounted troop types (I have mounted hearthguard and mounted warriors with my Spanish warband) move fast, but are more vulnerable to missile shooting—unless they're cataphracts (in the works for my Byzantines), in which case they're expensive.
• Building larger units gives you advantages in combat, both in how many dice the units throw and in how well they survive taking losses. However, larger units will mean that you have fewer Saga dice for activations.

The three basic troop types (apart from hero/warlord) provide a good set of options for building a warband:

• Hearthguard have the best combat punch per figure, provide a Saga die even if only a single figure survives in the unit, and have the best armor. But they cost 1 point per four figures and despite their better armor, they die pretty quickly. I've experienced melees where two 4-figure hearthguard units took each other out like the Kilkenny cats—only without even the tails being left. You need to use them judiciously. 
• Warriors still have decent armor (typically 4) and also have numbers on their side. 1 point buys eight figures. A unit of 8 warriors throws as many combat dice in melee as a unit of 4 hearthguard. Hearthguard may be harder to hit because of their better armor, but Saga abilities and using fatigue against them can change the balance of armor. Even if the losses are even, a 4-figure hearthguard unit suffers more from three lost figures than an 8-figure warrior unit does. Eventually, losses will cause a warrior unit to stop generating a Saga die, but the unit will still remain in being and can melee or shoot with half its figures rounded up.
• Levy missile troops are the bomb. At least that's what I think. They're not going to do well in a fight (though they can sometimes drive off their attackers), but they don't need to fight. They can torment their enemies from a distance. You may get only a couple turns of shooting, but that can whittle down an opponent. When they are hit, it's highly unlikely they'll be destroyed in one go. 12 figures (you should *always* have 12-figure levy units) are hard to kill. Even after getting thwacked a few times, there always seems to be a few still hanging on. They may not be worth using at that point—especially since they won't be generating a Saga die after getting chewed down to fewer than six figures. Nevertheless, a timely missile shot—even if it's just 2 dice—can turn out to be a game-changer.

The game

The players were Mike Lombardy, running his Irish, and me, running my Welsh on one side. Dean Clarke and Bill Stewart, on the other side, both ran Late Roman warbands from the Aetius and Arthur book (a.k.a. Age of Invasions).

This was the third time I'd played my Welsh, so I was feeling good about my options on the battle board. I've found that the Welsh suit my style of play very well. They've got some defensive reaction abilities, but they also have a very strong offensive or counter-offensive punch. They do well in rough terrain because they have a Saga ability that lets them move through uneven and dangerous terrain with no movement loss.

The Roman players were both using their armies for the first time. The Impetus rule for that faction is a little like trying to rub your tummy and pat your head. You have to activate Saga abilities that increase your impetus so you can activate abilities that use up impetus. You have to keep priming the pump or you're stuck doing just basic stuff, which can get you from here to there, but it lacks sparks.

We wound up with a lot of terrain in the center board, which benefitted us skulking Celtic types, but didn't do much for the Romans. It gave us stuff to hid in and behind, but which we could also burst through at full move if we played the right Saga ability. I got to use my Fogou Games ruins for the first time.

The men of the Tiber won the coin toss and deployed in an impressively tight, straight linear formation. We just kind of formed up in clumps higgledy-piggledy. Bill was opposite me and Mike and Dean faced each other.

My Welsh formed up against Bill's Romans

Bill had two 6-figure mounted hearthguard units, two 8-figure warrior units, and one 8-figure warrior bowmen unit, plus his warlord. I had two 4-figure hearthguard units (with javelins), three 8-figure warrior units (with javelins), one 12-figure levy bowmen unit, and my warlord (with javelins). I certainly had the missile advantage.

The Welsh teulu ready to rock 'n' roll

The Romans moved first, but with only four Saga dice on turn one. Bill didn't rush in and take the ruins. It would have required two moves for one unit. Instead, he used his four Saga dice and warlord's abilities to get the whole straight line moved up one M move.

On my turn I played my Children of the Land ability to move without penalty through the uneven terrain. I rushed a warrior unit into the ruins with the intention of making them sacrificial lambs to inflict as much pain and misery as I could on the Romans before they overwhelmed me. I got off my free javelin shot and took out one of Bill's warriors. I also moved up my bowmen out from the woods they were skulking in and took a shot at Bill's other warrior unit, which effected one more loss for him. The rest of my move was just shifting things in my backfield to support my forlorn hope in the ruins.

Sticking my chin out

Bill pitched in right away. He shot a volley of arrows at my warrior unit, but I escaped from injury. He followed that up with a charge by one of his warrior units. To my surprise, I won with no loss to my unit. Bill took four casualties and went reeling back.

Holding fast—like their descendents will do at Rourke's Drift

Bill's next attempt was to turn my left flank using one of his fearsome 6-figure mounted hearthguard units. I think he decided that doing a von Paulus and sending his units into a meatgrinder was a bad idea. 

Looking for the soft underbelly

I decided that I had to get ballsy at this point. The Welsh don't defend well—despite my warrior unit's survival in the ruins. At his first opportunity, Bill would charge my hearthguard behind the ruins to my ruination. Fortunately, I rolled a dragon on the Welsh Saga dice. That meant I could use the very nice Wild Charge ability. I supplemented that with the Deception ability. The upshot is that I added four dice to my attack for wild charge (in addition to getting +1 on my dice for charging with javelins). Deception let me discard two attack dice to gain four additional defence dice. There were no other Saga abilities used by Bill or me. No one had any fatigue to use. I was rolling 10 dice looking for 4s, bill rolled 12 dice looking for 4s. (Had Bill been attacking me, I would have 8 dice looking for 5s against his 12 dice looking for 4s—and no additional defence dice.) I came out just ahead. Bill lost three figures, I lost two. 

Knowing Bill's hearthguard weren't defeated and seeing Dean's hearthguard looming just beyond, I decided to withdraw my surviving two hearthguard to prevent them getting slaughtered.

A rare moment of caution

The turn also saw the demise of Bill's other warrior unit. I shot my bowmen twice, both times scoring 5 hits, not enough of which Bill managed to save. It was a pretty hot dice turn for me.

On turn 3, Bill attempted a main strike against my bowmen: revenge for his warriors. I had a Saga die on the Evade ability of my battle board. I placed it there on turn 1 figuring that I would get to a point where buggering off rapidly was my best move and I wanted to have it available. However, I really had no place to bugger off to. Bill's warband came in and smacked me. When the dust settled I was seven figures fewer and hunkering down.

Bill then sent his warlord in to fight mine. At this point I wanted to invoke the run away rule, but I found out that not only was that cowardly, but the rules don't let warlords evade from warlords. Bill had one fatigue from moving + charging; I was fresh as fruit. We also both had hearthguard within S distance so they could die for us. I used his fatigue to up my armor to 5 and we rolled off even odds: 8 dice looking for 5s. I suffered one casualty, which I took from my hearthguard. Bill suffered three, which he took as fatigue and two dead hearthguard. And he scurried back.

One the other end of the table, Dean and Mike had been fighting their own little war. Mike was getting the best of it, having taken out two of Dean's mounted hearthguard. At this point it looked like certain loss for the Romans. We were already very much ahead in points. We decided to play out our half of turn 3 and see where we were.

I got two dragons on my Saga dice roll. I was reduced now to generating just six Saga dice, but I had dice still on my board, so still eight dice in play. I set up what I hoped to be a chain of events against Bill's hearthguard and warlord:

1. I removed my warlords fatigue.
2. I moved up a full unit of warriors and took a javelin shot at Bill's hearthguard (to no effect).
3. I charged in with my hearthguard against his three surviving figures.
4. I used Wild Charge (+4 attack dice), Combat Bonus with a dragon die (+2 attack dice), Deception (-2 attack dice, +4 defence dice).

When the fighting was done, I'd lost two figures, but eliminated Bill's hearthguard unit. Then I charged his warlord with mine. Bill already had two fatigue from earlier in the turn. I got +1 to my dice for attacking with javelins, so we were 8 dice each looking for 4s. I took one hit, Bill took two, which ended him.

The end

That same turn, Dean lost his warlord to Mike. The Romans decided Wales wasn't worth the effort.

Afterthoughts

It was a fun game—for Mike and I. I'm really liking the Welsh. They're kinda brittle because the javelins reduce their armor in melee. I've found that they die quickly if I'm not careful. The key is to maximize the effect of their javelins and to not get caught standing by a charge. The one-two punch of Wild Charge and Deception is a nice combo for a crucial attack. Adding Combat Bonus dice to that is just gravy. If you can use your opponents fatigue to increase your armor, all the better. It's a good riposte style warband.

Bill got to use his beautiful newly painted Late Romans for the first time. Every army needs to get bloodied; they just more so this game. The local ravens had Italian for dinner.

Bill's lovely Romans

I got to use my Fougou ruins. I bought them online from Fogou Models in November. They came quickly and are very, very nice resin castings. They're a lot of bits and pieces that can be arranged in multiple ways. For this game I used the Osric's Outhouse set. I'll use the Farmhouse later.

¡Santiago!

This post is a reboot from an earlier draft that through diligent neglect became obsolete. Back in 2016, I started painting a lot of Crusader Miniatures Medieval Spanish for a Lion Rampant retinue. Things were going on schedule for a game day we were planning for September that year, but at the end of July Grendel was diagnosed with cancer and for six awful weeks I managed to get almost nothing done towards finishing the army. When he died on September 6, it just took everything out of me for a while. The army sat unpainted for a long, long time. (Well, not really long as my unfinished projects go. I've got partially painted lead from the 90s still haunting me with no dead cats to justify my malingering.) When I got back to painting, I devoted my efforts to other projects (there are so many) because completing the Spanish no longer had any urgency.

But why Spanish? As I mentioned in a previous post, I've gotten deep into all things "Rampant." I'd been meaning to paint a Lion Rampant retinue since the rules were released back in 2014. I've had a lot of Old Glory Medievals partially painted, but for some reason, I couldn't psyche myself into finishing them (though I'm getting up steam for it now). I needed an army that cold inspire me in terms of the history and the figures available. I toyed with Later Crusaders or any ca. 12/13th c. European army, but nah. Then I got bit by the El Cid bug.

El Cid

This period in Spanish history is fascinating and controversial. The real El Cid, Rodrigo Díaz del Bivar, was a nobleman from the kingdom of Léon who lived in the latter half of the 11th c. His title is from the Arabic 'Al Sayyid, meaning "the lord". Díaz was also known as Campeador, which translates as "strong warrior." It comes from the Latin campi doctor, which means "master of the battlefield."

Díaz' activities are legendary for the most part, although there is enough fact mixed with the fiction to create an historical sketch. His deeds were recorded first in a poem in Latin called Carmen Campidoctoris (Song of the Campeador), which may be as old as 1083, i.e., composed during his life time (Díaz died in 1099). Some scholars, however, date it some 50 years after Díaz' death.

Díaz came to prominence fighting for King Sancho II of Léon and Castile, rising to the honor of being the standard-bearer of Castile. Sancho's enemies were his own brothers, in addition to the Andalusian Moorish city-states. When Sancho was murdered, his brother Alfonso VI became king, which lead ultimately to Díaz' exile from the court of Léon-Castile.

As an exile, Díaz fought for the Muslim taifa of Zaragoza against various other Muslim and Christian states. The invasion of Spain by the Almoravid Berbers in 1086—and their defeat of Alfonso's army at Sagrajas—brought an end to Diaz' exile. As the foremost warrior of Spain, Alfonso needed Díaz on his side if he hoped to withstand the Almoravid onslaught.

For several years, Díaz served Alfonso, but during that time he also worked to gain control for himself of the city of Valencia. The Muslim ruler of the city became his vassal, but was later overthrown by the Almoravids. Díaz besieged and took the city in 1094. He ruled it until his death in 1099.

While Díaz is popularly seen as a Christian hero, he actually gave his service to both Christian and Muslim rulers and fought with Muslims against Christians, Christians against Muslims, Muslims against Muslims, and Christians against Christians. Valencia during his rule was a pluralistic city with freedom for both Christians and Muslims alike. In the patchwork of Christian and Muslim kingdoms of Spain, politics, business, and ambition often transcended religion.

Díaz can be seen mostly as an adventurer seeking renown wherever he could. His taking and ruling Valencia is evidence of his desire to establish an independent dynasty and be free of serving kings and emirs of any faction or religion. Without his leadership, the city-state of Valencia failed. It was ruled by his widow Jimena until 1102, when it was retaken by the Almoravids and held by them and various Muslim dynasties that succeeded them until it was captured by Aragon in the 13th c.

El Retinue

I'm easily sold on things for the silliest reasons. What struck me most about the El Cid Spanish was that they had slingers. I've mentioned my love of the sling before. In a world of Medieval armies, only one uses the noble sling. So I had to paint it.

Initial thoughts

I tinkered around a lot with the composition of my retinue for the upcoming tournament. I like the punch of Mounted Men-at-Arms, but they're awfully expensive and can be enticed into charging about rashly. I thought maybe cheaper and better controlled was worth having less punch. I may revise my opinion after Saturday.

I like having light horse (Mounted Yeoman), but the Spanish historically used jinetes, who flung javelins at close range and then scurried off to regroup and return again to fling their javelins. The reality was, I think, a bit more effective than the Lion Rampant rules reflect. A 6" shooting range combined with a pretty dicey (7+) evade make it pretty tough to get away from whomever you're harassing. Getting caught on an evade by Mounted Men-at-Arms or Mounted Sergeants is pretty much instant death. I decided not to chance it for a tournament army. Also, they cost 3 points, which is just an awkward thing to have to factor into a 24-point retinue list when most units are either 6 or 4 points. You're bound to have an odd point preventing you from making a tidy list without adding a unit of Serfs.

Finally, the slingers—the raison d'être for making the retinue—are a bit lackluster and the rules say contradicting things about them. They have a 12" maximum shooting range AND they're just like archers (who have an 18" max. range). That's an erratum, it turns out. They have a 12" max range, but only cost 3 points (there's that odd point thing again), so not exactly like archers. I assume a lot of players are going to have shooty retinues and bringing a sling to a bow-fight doesn't seem smart to me. So, no massed slingers, but the figures will appear as bidowers.

And now, the final tournament list for Saturday:

Mounted Sergeants

Because 11th c. knights were simply mail-clad and may not have used (or solely used) a couched lance, it's easy to justify fielding them as Mounted Sergeants rather than Mounted Men-at-Arms. Mounted Sergeants sacrifice power (only a 4+ attack v. 3+ for Mtd MAA) and protection (3 armor v. 4) for better maneuverability (5+ to move v. 7+) and no need to worry about suppressing urges to wildly charge anything that wanders in range.

There are two units at 4 points each.

Foot Sergeants

I tend to like horsey armies rather than foot-sloggy ones, but I figured a solid core of infantry would be good to have. They can hold up to a charge by Mounted Men-at-Arms (well, maybe, or chew them up a bit while dying) and can provide a sort of semi-fixed wall for the mounted forces to maneuver behind.

There are two units at 4 points each.

Crossbows

These were a late addition to the retinue. I only bought the minis in February. I started to think that a little more firepower would help—especially given the disappointing slinger stats. Crossbows have a 4+ shoot value, but a 7+ shooting activation (v. 5+ shoot/6+ activation for bows and slings). I've played on the receiving end of crossbow fire; I'm looking to be on the giving end for a change.

There is one unit at 4 points.

Bidowers

I like bidowers. When the other side has 'em, they're annoying. So, at the least they can counter-annoy your opponent. But if you have terrain for them to skulk in, they can have a considerable asymmetric effect against more powerful units who are discomfited by fighting in rough terrain. (But if Foot Men-at-Arms come after you, run like hell.)

There are two units at 2 points each.

In sum

The retinue has 7 units. No unit is more than 4 points, so it'll take losing at least three units to get to half strength. (I could easily see myself quickly losing two Men-at-Arms units in a blaze of glory.) Everything except the crossbows move on a 5+ activation. I think that overall it has a pretty good balance. If I'm wrong about that come Saturday, the most logical factor to blame is my incompetent generalship. The cats won't be there; I can't blame them.

All snug in their box dreaming of glory

The also rans

As I've mention elsewhere, I have many more minis painted (and am painting) than are needed for a single retinue. Even though I eschewed using them for the tournament, I have the following on deck:

Mounted Yeomen

I only have one unit completed, but will have two eventually. I think having at least two is needed if you have any. A retinue with 2 x Mounted Men-at-Arms and 4 x Mounted Yeomen/javelins might be interesting.


Slingers

Ah, the beloved (but not by Dan Mersey) slingers. I have 12 figures painted, so enough for a full missile unit. Someday, but until then, I'll use them as bidowers (see above) side by side with the javelin-armed foot.

I have some thoughts about house rule for slingers that would take into account (1) there's little evidence that slings had less range then self bows, which most of the bows in Lion Rampant represent, and (2) the concussive effect of sling stones made them more effective against armored men than arrows. That makes me think about the following:

Keep them at 12" max range, make them 4 points, but give them a -1 effect on the target's base armor value to a minimum of 2, i.e., armor 4 would reduce to 3, armor 3 would reduce to 2, but no effect on armor 2 and 1. The armor effect of cover would be unaffected; for example, an armor 2 unit in cover would still be a 3 because the base armor value of 2 is unaffected.

Alternately, use the same armor effect as above for targets within 12" range, but give them 18" max range and make them 5 points.

All we are saying is give sling a chance.

Archers

I only have 8 painted so far. I hadn't really intended on doing a full unit, but I should buy another pack and make a full 12-figure unit. Between the slingers I love and the crossbows I need, the archers are the redheaded step children. I could use the figures in a mixed unit with Foot Yeomen (see below) or just go with vanilla shooters after I build out their numbers.

The Sir-Not-Appearing-in-this-Film lot

Because they're still raw lead, the following units are on hold while I finish other projects that have come to the front burner now that I have a retinue completed.

Foot Yeomen

Honestly, I'm not sure why anyone values these units. They're an inconvenient mid-point between Foot Sergeants and Serfs. They have decent combat values for defense (4+), but lousy armor for melee troops (2). The one interesting thing you can do with them is create a mixed unit, which gives them some firepower, but at only 12" max. range and the unit can no longer form schiltron. That may be something for me to do with my forlorn archers, but I'm not sure if mixed units combine the best or worst of the two types. Cruel experience down the road will likely teach me which.

Serfs

Because Crusader makes the minis, I have 'em. Also, if using 3-point units like javelin-armed Mounted Yeomen or slingers as missile units, I may need a 1-point unit to fill out the full 24 points. Or maybe in a spirit of bonhomie, I could just field a unit (or two) to give my opponent's mounted troops some oiks to run down. That's the Medieval spirit. They can also function in a scenario-based game as enraged peasants defending their fields and farms from marauding Moors. They're actually quite nice minis and can plug into any retinue/scenario. I have 24 of 'em, which will give me two units if I should ever be daft enough to field them.

Rampant in Gig Harbor

This Saturday we had a Lion Rampant game day at the Gig Harbor, WA public library. Pat Lowinger runs this annually. I was all set to go last year, but Grendel's sickness and death took the mickey out of me and I didn't manage to get my El Cid Spanish retinue completed. (It is, in fact, still uncompleted, which necessitated my borrowing an army for the day.)

En route

Having 58 miles to cover, and always unsure of how the traffic will be, I took my trip south in stages. I started out from home around 9:00 and stopped to have delicious Swedish pancakes for breakfast at Family Pancake House in Edmonds.

From there I headed down I-5 and when I hit Tacoma, I turned off to visit the Tacoma Book Center. It looked even more packed than before. I meant to just stroll in and browse—the game day started at 12:00 and I was making good enough time that I had time to kill. However, I didn't manage to leave until I bought four books on Medieval warfare. I seem unable to ever leave a bookstore without books in hand. C'est comme ça.

From Tacoma Book Center, the next stop was the Gig Harbor library. To get there, I had to cross the Narrows Bridge, which was made famous back in 1940 for its spectacular collapse.

The only life lost back then was Tubby, the poor cocker spaniel who was left in the car and went down with it when the bridge collapsed. An attempt to rescue him before the collapse failed when he was too frightened to get out of the car and bit one of the people trying to pull him out.

My trip across the bridge (rebuilt in 1950 and with a second span completed in 2007) was much less eventful. No lives—animal or otherwise—were lost.

Doubly stable now

I got the the library just after 11:00 and we started setting up. The venue is very nice, with room to fit six tables comfortably (and more uncomfortably). There's access to the meeting room from outside and it was a very short schlepp to bring in our toys 'n' terrain 'n' stuff.

Setting up

We set up 6 tables and had about 10 people playing. There was no tournament, just find an opponent and play. I got two enjoyable games in.

Game 1

My army for the day was borrowed from Mike Garcia. He was playing Medieval Russians and I used his Mongols. I think I gave him reason to think he ought to have loaned me the Russians and played the Mongols himself.

We played on the table I set up with all my terrain. It was nice to get my new trees on a table. We set out the units in our retinues and I won the die roll to start first.

Mongols are, I have learned, a lovely army. I made a retinue with 2 x Mounted Sergeants with bows, 3 x Mounted Yeomen, and 1 x Bidowers. The whole army is fast-moving missile troops. The Mounted Yeomen can skirmish and evade, the Bidowers can scoot through terrain, and the Mounted Sergeants provide a bit of close combat backbone.

Opening moves

In the initial sparring, I lost one of my Mounted Yeomen units when Mike got off a nice shot at it, taking out two figures, and I rolled snake-eyes for my courage test. That had me worried because that unit constituted my entire right wing. Everything else was concentrated on the center and left.

But in the center, I managed to get the advantage on Mike's two Foot Yeoman units. They suffered under the Mongol bowfire. I charged one with my Mounted Sergeants and that was that. The other one broke from an extremely failed courage test.

Running down the oiks, Mongol style

Through bowfire and combat, I managed to wipe out Mike's center. Mike's dice didn't treat him well. I think I had better than average luck. I used my reliable, venerable bakelite dice. I brought my beloved Viking bone dice, but since they're only vaguely cuboid, I figured someone may object to agents of chance that couldn't possible be truly random (though I can attest that they fail me as often as they favor).

The ending action was the combat between Mike's general's unit and mine. We were both Mounted Sergeants, though I had bows. I took it badly in the combat, being beaten twice, but my supporting units managed to put enough arrows into Mike's unit that it evaporated.

Vladimir's last stand

Game 2

For game 2 of the day, Dean Motoyama and Ron Beery challenged Mike and me to a 2:2 game. They'd played each other earlier and were looking for another game. So we added another table to the one Mike and I played on and rotated my felt mat so it perfectly covered the 6' x 8' surface. (I was worried initially that the mat I brought would be too big.)

Table set, forces deployed

I was on our right, Mike was on the left. Opposite me was Dean with his bowless English 100 Years War army. Dean was trying to bring the minimal number of figure, so he had four expensive 6-figure units: 1 x Mounted Men-at-Arms, 1 x Mounted Yeomen with bows (+ expert), 2 x Foot Men-at-Arms. It looked to me more formidable than it turned out to be. Englishmen without bows are kind of a toothless dog.

Mike's force was the one he used in our earlier game: 3 x Mounted Sergeants, 1 x Mounted Yeomen with bows, 2 x Foot Yeomen.

Ron brought the big guns. The core of his force was 2 x Crossbowmen with pavises. They were formidable. The pavises make them hard to hurt, but they inflict hurt at 18". They felt kind of like Hussites without wagons, Foot Hussites, or Hussites zu Fuß. He also had an Archer unit and 2 x Mounted Sergeants.

Dean and Ron won the coin-toss, but elected to receive on turn 1. I pushed my troopies forward against Dean, whose units were all deployed back or behind trees. I was soon able to start pouring bowfire into one of Dean's Foot Men-at-Arms. It takes a lot of 5s and 6s to remove a figure, but I slowly whittled him down.

The fight on the right

I was troubled a bit by Dean's Mounted Yeomen, but I was ultimately able to bear more weight of shot against him—though they fought bravely to the last figure.

On our left, Mike had to contend with Ron's death-dealing Hussites zu Fuß. Actually, we both did, though Mike got the brunt of it. I lost two units in the game, both withering under a hail of crossbow bolts.

Attacking the Hussites zu Fuß (to no avail)

Mike managed to attack one unit with one of his Mounted Sergeants—and push it back, though without being battered—but the attack faltered when Ron started pounding him at close range with the crossbows. That was Mike's high-water mark. He soon lost hist two Foot Yeomen to arrows and crossbow bolts (mental note: Foot Yeomen = pin cushions), and had nothing left to challenge the center. By the end of the game, he was riding around the flank with his surviving two units to see if he could worry Ron's edges without coming into range of the fearsome Hussites zu Fuß.

On my end, I had eliminated two of Dean's units, which was half his force, and was working away on the second Foot Men-at-Arms with my surviving four units.

Hunting Men-at-Arms in the woods

I eventually got it, but not before it managed to charge one of my Mounted Yeomen, which failed to evade. They tore it up, but not fatally. Dean's Mounted Men-at-Arms never got into the fray. He held them back. That was the unit his commander was with and I suppose he didn't want it tearing around the field making unwise charges against units in rough terrain.

At this point, we called the game. Dean and Mike were effectively spent at one and two units remaining respectively. I was still above half strength, but barely. Only one of my units was at full strength and one was reduced to just 2 figures. Ron was sitting pretty. He'd taken just a few losses to one of his Hussites zu Fuß units and a few to his Archer unit, but was comfortably above half strength for both. Every other unit was pristine. His retinue hardly broke a sweat and I wasn't about to tackle him.

After that, we picked up and packed up. I had a long drive home and left just after 4:00. I stopped for lunch/dinner at the Carl's Jr. just over the highway from where we played. I grew up in California where we had Carl's. It's new-ish to Washington. There are a few somewhat near to me, but out of the way. Since there was one athwart my path, I had to stop. Carl's was as delicious as I remember it, though they've added menu items and changed their fries. I loved the Carl's fries I recall from my youthful days in CA. The new fries are good, just not as good as before—or maybe my memory is faulty. I left CA 30 years ago.

It was great to have a Lion Rampant game day. I'm quite chuffed to have been able to use my new Lion Rampant version of the "Barker marker."

Lion Rampant is one of my favorite games, though I hadn't played straight-up Lion Rampant in quite a while. Everything I've been playing has been focused on variants like Quetzalcoatl Rampant and Pikeman's Lament.

I have a renewed interest in getting my El Cid retinue finished and in making progress with all the Old Glory Medievals I bought 20 years ago for the Pig Wars Late Medieval variant I did. I'm also getting eager to play Chariots Rampant, Pat Lowinger's Late Bronze Age variant that was published in Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy 82—I've already priced out a Mitanni retinue using Foundry figures...

These wounds I had on Crispian's day...

Chris Craft ran a 100 Years War game on Saturday using Warlord Games' Hail Caesar rules. The scenario was a hypothetical action just after Henry V and his wee army cross the Somme: Harry and the lads have an advanced guard set up behind stakes with plenty o' arrows. Coming on to their left are another English division and, farther off, a small Gascon division. The French facing them consist of a division of mounted men at arms, two divisions of dismounted French men at arms with a few crossbowmen, and a third division of militia.

The English advance guard well-positioned with cannon

John Kennedy, Ken Kissling, and I were the French; Chris and Steve Puffenberger were les Anglais. All the figures were painted by Chris.

The serried ranks of French chivalry à cheval et à pied

The second English division forms up

The French attack started somewhat disastrously. Three of the five mounted men at arms units went forward against Chris' position; the other two went right against the second English division with the right-hand dismounted men at arms in support.

Les chevaux advance into the withering bow-fire

Unfortunate command die rolls kept the units going against Chris from contacting right away. They got plastered by bow-fire and two of the three were driven back.

The view from the English side

The French right prepares to go into the fray

Undaunted, the third unit smacked right into a well-supported longbow unit, where it got beaten to a pulp and broken.

while all the world wondered (sorry, wrong war)

Cry, "God for Harry, England, and St. George!"

At this point, some of the units from the left-hand French dismounted men at arms (who were commanded by Constable D'Albret) began lurching forward. They hadn't fared well in their early command rolls and were going in piece-meal.

The dismounted men at arms push forward

The two mounted men at arms that were pushed back by bow-fire earlier, returned to the fight and smacked into the English line, only to be repulsed.

Twice the punch as before, but the same fizzle

Over on my side of the world, my crossbowmen managed to inflict some pain on one of Steve's men at arms units. Two turns worth of flinging quarrels at him caused him to withdraw disordered into the cow-pen beyond. In turn, Steve's bowmen obliterated my crossbows.

Trying to just move forward and menace them, I sent a unit of men at arms forward and wound up blundering to glory. I rolled box-cars on my command dice and the blunder roll forced me forward three moves, just enough to smack into Steve's bowmen.

Furia Francese in a very small space

The ensuing melee was hard-fought, but I forced him back and kept pushing. The end result was my unit becoming shaken, with one of his bowmen shaken and another bloodied. I stayed in place, not sure of whether I really wanted to.

After the dust cleared from the second French mounted attack, John sent in his dismounted men at arms and contacted along most of Chris' line.

Foot sloggers forward!

On English left, the Gascon division finally made its presence felt. Steve moved the mounted men at arms against one of my dismounted men at arms units. I managed to bring another unit into support and the Gascon charge fell flat.

Before the charge

Gascons stymied

I followed up and in my next turn, I charged Steve's men at arms. This was a tie that left us both shaken.

Back in John's part of the field, his attack met the massed closing bow-fire of Chris' with aplomb. In a spectacular bit of bad luck, Chris inflicted no casualties on John. In the ensuing fight, John wiped out the English cannon, and pushed back their supporting bowmen.

The Frenchies keep pushing

From here it was all downhill for Chris. In the next turn, John broke four of the bowmen units and the dismounted men at arms. King Harry was wounded and sought shelter with the only remaining bow unit on Chris' side. The Constable of France was also wounded in the fray, but the prospects for his survival looked better than Harry's.

Back on my side of the world, Ken tried for several turns to get his cavalry stuck into Steve's bowmen. One of the unit's broke after a desultory bow-shot caused a break test in which Ken rolled snake-eyes. However, the remaining unit came to blows and drove the bowmen back. My shaken men at arms just happened to play a part by remaining where they stopped a few turns back, but were in just the right place to support Ken's victorious attack.

The Irish make trouble

The Gascon's were a spent force, though my men at arms were as well. Steve now brought up his Irish skirmishers to harass me. He got only a single ineffective shot before we called the game. The English had taken a beating, most of their loss coming from the collapse of Chris' flank. The French were pretty hurt as well, but the fourth division of militia was fresh and uncommitted. They were no great force, but had three units of crossbowmen and three units of men at arms.

It was great playing Hail Caesar again. I played it a few months ago commanding some Gallic/barbarian hordes against well-disciplined and better-armed Romans. That didn't end well for the semi-naked savages.

The game has me re-thinking (or is it re-re-re-thinking) about what to do with my Early Bronze Age/Biblicals from Cutting Edge (Warlord Games). I would need to get a lot more figures to get even moderate opposing forces, but I'm heading that way. Four-stand units, which is what Chris uses for his 100 Years War armies, would be the way to go. "Heavy" infantry would be four figures on a 40mm x 40mm base, light infantry would be three figures, skirmishers would be two. Chariots would be one model on a 40mm x 60mm deep base (for two-horse or two-equid chariots/war-carts) and, I think twice the width for the four-equid battle carts.

At this point, I should just start painting the figures...