Dragons and Lions Rampant

On Sunday, Tom and I decided to have a game of Dragon Rampant. We haven't played for a while, but knew that it would be easy on the brainicles! Tom joked that I had posted a 'tutorial' video on Dragon Rampant, so should know the rules..I hadn't thought of it like that, but watching it again, I see what he meant! 

In our pre-game texts, we agreed to take 30 points and to go 'old school'. Tom has GW history and still plays WFB regularly.. I've never really done more than dip my toe, but recently was gifted a rather lovely collection of vintage Wood Elves, which I've been in the process of 'refurbishing'. So, Wood Elves vs Night Goblins it was! *The experts will no doubt spot that the mounted Elves are not GW, but still of a respectable vintage :-)

Tom has written up a nice Goblin-centric account of the game on his blog, so just some pics ..

Love these Troll figures!

Then, on Monday evening, enthused by our Dragon Rampant game, and my recent purchase of the new edition of Lion Rampant, I set out a little solo game on my dining table using some Wars of the Roses figures - I used the standard armies from the book*, and played the second scenario 'Gladiators' - where a pre-battle duel gave each side some extra dice. I played Bourchier, who was 'Rash' with Wild Charge, against Stanley, 'Blessed', which allowed him to reroll a set of dice (he picked the wrong ones as it happens!). This was by no means a historical match up, just what I had available.

It was a very quick game and ended by the untimely demise of Thomas Stanley, one of the commanders, but gave me a taste for more Rampant games!

(*One Elite Foot, One Veteran Heavy Infantry and Two Veteran Archers)

Men at Arms clash, bringing down young Stanley

Lion Rampant.. at last!!

My Foot Sergeants form schiltron to hold off the repeated charges of Greg's knights

Some considerable time after finishing off my retinue for Lion Rampant, Greg (& Ben) and I finally managed to get a game in at the Polly last night! That has to be one of the longest delays for painting to table.

Neither of us had played before, although we both had copies of the rules and had a read through in the week preceding.. in fairness, there isn't a lot to take in really.

My Retinue were based upon the German list in the rulebook. 
Basically this consisted of;
A unit of mounted men at arms, with the leader
Two units of Foot Sergeants
One unit of Foot crossbows with Pavises
One unit of Mounted Sergeants with crossbows

Greg and Ben, if I remember rightly, had some GW Brettonian/Empire figures;
A unit of Mounted men-at-arms
One unit of Foot men-at-arms with the leader
One unit of Bidowers
One unit of Foot crossbows
One unit of Expert Foot Sergeants with halberds

We neglected to roll for Leader characteristics and opted for the simple head to head 'Blood Bath' scenario without playing any boasts. This was about getting a feel for the game.

The battle played through very smoothly and without too much reference to the book, or puzzling over situations that one sometimes gets in these first games.. a testament to the simplicity I guess. It was also a fairly satisfying bash, with some valuable lessons learned..

We write liked the way that once your impetuous knights are committed, they are pretty much out of your control and will grind themselves into oblivion and/or achieve glorious victory with their Wild Charges.

Mounted Crossbows try to keep the halberdiers at arm's length

Crossbow fire across the field doesn't disturb the cattle

Although these sheep are about to become the mutton in a Knight sandwich!

Don't block the retreat of your own units is pretty fundamental really - no excuse for that one!

The courage tests worked quite well, with the accumulative effect of losses, building the chance and tension with each test.

We called a halt when we hit five units remaining, although I realise that we didn't actually work out who had won! Never mind..

So, overall a thumbs up.. especially if we introduce the character of the scenarios, boasts and leader qualities on top of the 'vanilla' game. Greg seemed to keen to have a root through his unpainted GW figures too!

Dat Gloria Vites!

"Glory Gives Strength" I honestly don't know whether that is the actual proper Hogg family motto.. but the internet says it is, so it must be true!

I've been waiting for some pending commercial and fancy-shmancy genuine shield transfers to become available .. but that doesn't seem to be happening. I put off tackling anything myself, because I knew that as soon as I did, they would appear in the web-shop, so today I am testing that theory!

Recently I remembered that I had a sheet of transfer paper that I'd bought from eBay some time ago, (turns out that was 'clear'. You can get 'white' transfer paper too).

I put together a graphic of the shield pattern that I wanted and printed off onto my inkjet. The quality of the print is not brilliant, but not bad. A couple of passes of  a matt sealant and these were good to go. 

This afternoon I nervously prepared my desk, cut out and dunked the first transfer, wondering if the ink would lift off the paper. It held just fine and went on to the shield better than some commercial products I have used in the past.

So, despite mis-calculating and not quite printing off enough, I now have my Lion Rampant retinue properly 'badged'.

Once these are really dry, they will get a coat of varnish and then some touching up to blend the transfers in where necessary.

Not up to professional standards, but I have the pleasure of making something myself, and a retinue which now bears my own family crest. Pleased.

Lion Rampant Retinue progress

Nothing like a deadline... 

Quint is arranging a Lion Rampant day at the club soon. Having bought the rules at Partizan, I had yet to build and paint my retinue from the boxes of Fireforge Sergeants that I had bought at the same time. One of the stipulations of the tournament day is that players use armies from pages 59 - 60 in the rules. At first I couldn't figure out a way to do that from the figures that I had, but then I realised that with a little swapping and chopping about I actually could field a 'German' retinue as per the list - brilliant!

With this renewed inspiration, the deadline for the game day, and the knowledge that I am due to attend a pretty intensive training course next week (ie no painting time), I have recently cracked on with my force. 

The one thing sadly lacking so far is the heraldry. I am assured by Richard at Battleflag transfers that a set for my own surname is pending, so I can't let that opportunity pass by!! So hopefully my retinue will be carrying something like this..

There is a 'theme' of black and white running through the units (with red as a highlight colour here and there) which I think should go well with the shield design and give the retinue a consistent look.

So, the force will consist of;

(Not finished) Mounted Men at Arms. I will be using the Fireforge mounted serjeants. Although they are on undecorated horses, I think they will look sufficiently 'heavy' to pull this off. I will be painting each of the six knights in his own colours, one of whom is my leader.

One unit of Mounted Serjeants with crossbows.

One unit of Crossbowmen with Pavises. I added some shields planted in the ground to half of the unit, which I hope will serve as a visual indicator for the pavises..

Two units of Foot Serjeants.. As I made up half of these with hand weapons, rather than spears, I will mix them up so that it is clear that they are spear armed..

Lion Rampant.. first unit

At Partizan I picked up the new Osprey ruleset by Daniel Mersey, 'Lion Rampant'. I've been looking forward to these for a while. Although I'm not a huge medieval wargames fan, that's more because I simply haven't played much, and don't know enough about the period, than because of any prejudice.

Many years ago I had a collection of the Foundry 'Barons Wars' figures and had great fun playing solo skirmish games. However, these were sold a while ago.

Whilst at Partizan, I figured that now that I had the rules, I ought to get some figures too, so I made a quick purchase of a box of Fireforge Foot Serjeants and a box of mounted Serjeants. Knowing very little about these I was intrigued to examine them and get them stuck together. I'm a little torn. These are nice figures, lots of character, easy to put together and actually as it turns out, great to paint.. but there's something about the poses that seems a little 'Workshop'. Anyway.. I may end up painting these up and selling them, or maybe they'll grace the table.. who knows.

To start, I've painted a unit of crossbows.. I've decided to stick to a two tone Black and white livery as I have a particular look in mind for my retinue. Obviously bases to do yet. I did consider painting these with a black undercoat and layers, but actually ended up using a wash instead over basecoat and I am quite happy and looking forward to getting stuck into the rest of these.