Lion Rampant French versus English 100 years war and a trip to Shrewsbury

 Had a go at a couple of Lion Rampant scenarios at the club.  John chose later English rather than Scottish, Irish or Islesmen and I took French, the French were 100 years war billmen but the crossbows and Knights were great Italian wars Gendarmes and crossbows, standing in for their grandfathers and the mounted sergeants were Spanish Jinets but they looked vaguely good enough! The English were all Perry war of the Roses so again close enough as I think I might have mentioned before I do have a French and an English 100 years war force that needs to be assembled, primed and painted but for now these will suffice! John's English retinue consisted of a unit of men at arms , a unit of expert sergeants and two units of expert archers, my French retinue consisted of two units of mounted men at arms, a unit of mounted sergeants, a unit of sergeants and a unit of crossbow men. 

In the first game we played the fugitive scenario and spread the six areas of rough ground around too much ( where the fugitive was hiding)  as the defender I had to find and rescue him, each time I got to a piece of rough ground I rolled a dice to see if he was there, finding him on a six to start with and then getting progressively easier, unfortunately for the game I found him on my third go with a mounted unit that was easy to activate and got him off the table before we had come to blows as John hadn't been able to activate his archers at all!

In the next game we played the  convoy scenario,I was happy about this as it meant I got the wagons on the table in a meaningful way for the first time since I painted them some years ago!John needed to escort three waggons/ pack mule trains diagonally off the table, he had a free first go, activated everything and then got another go, meanwhile I was spread about with a unit in each of the other corners and then two units I could assign where I wanted. I stuck the crossbow men and sergeants in an ambush position halfway up the table and hoped to hold them up long enough for the other units to join in! John managed to move forward but got disrupted due to failed activations I moved the unit of men at arms forward to menace the convoy and being subject to wild charge they did just that, meanwhile my crossbow unit started chipping away at John's lead men at arms unit and my other distant men at arms unit failed to activate, which it was to repeat on more than one occasion!  The first mounted men at arms unit was able to hold up two of the transports and dealt out a lot damage to a number of units before they were eventually lost, meanwhile the crossbow men had whittled down the men at arms , so much so that they ( and they're wagon!) charged my sergeants and were repulsed with casualties, the sergeants charged them but failed to damage them but the crossbow men finished them off and the English force had to take a courage test, which they passed. The mounted sergeants hit the other unit of archers and left them battered like the first unit of archers, unable to shoot or it seemed rally, the mounted archers were killed off by the expert sergeants, not without loss, the crossbow men eliminated one of the archer units, the other mounted men at arms finally moved down the table, my sergeants blocked the  expert sergeants,  the second unit of archers failed their last rally test and expired and the mounted men at arms charged in, eliminated the last unit of sergeants and won the game, typical knights! 

Fun game, we're looking forward trying Scots/Irish and or Islesmen next time. It's quite a tough one for the English as they are all infantry so have to plod along and get shot and as they're all expert, there isn't many of them to screen or send out, it seemed best to send the men at arms out first but as there's only six of them it doesn't take long before they're dwindling rapidly!

Last week I was in Shrewsbury the day after Norm of Battlefields and Warriors blog, so acting on his information I visited both model shops and got another model church, what I also did was visit the battlefield from 1403, Henry Vs first battle as prince of Wales the first where both sides shot each other with longbows apparently, we were heading back from Aberystwyth so needed somewhere to walk the dog!

The field doesn't look that exciting but St Mary Magdelenes church was very nice having grown out of the chantry chapel built on the site of the charnel pit in the middle of the battlefield, not over restored by the Victorians either, unusual to see a pieta in an Anglican church but it was hidden by a local family during the reformation and returned at a later date        ( when it wouldn't get destroyed by iconoclasts I guess?) The shields of those who took part and of course a diorama model soldiers, what's not to like! 

All the best 

Iain