The Lion Roars again....

Friday night we were able to have our second go at Lion Rampant. Ranulf de Gernon's force supplemented by some painted dark age figures for the two units which I haven't completed yet. They were again up against a Teutonic retinue...some looking very grey in the cold February weather !

Ranulf's retinue attacks from the right

We were straight into the first scenario, the mustard one which required the attacker to set on fire and destroy objectives held near the centre of the table. I had already decided that I wasn't going to complain if I failed any leadership tests and play as far as possible to the end of each scenario I would just have to hope that Ranulf's luck especially with his cavalry was better than last time. This approach worked and both sides had to shrug off lots of bad dice rolls. I also decided to put Ranulf in one of the infantry units as this felt a bit less vulnerable. The games are really quite quick to play so I didn't capture masses of Photos.

Heavy cavalry finally get moving into the battle

THe first two photos show Ranulf's retinue coming in from the right. They successfully pushed the grey sarjents out of the way and started burning the hut to the ground. His other unit of Sarjents (I had chosen to swop the Yeoman from last time to more dependable Sarjents) can be seen moving towards the further onjectives but sadly they never made it being flattened by the Teutonic moutned men at Arms. The scenario ends when the attacker is down to half points and as can be seen we had only managed to burn two objectives so a fighting draw and two glory points each.

Ranulf's horse finally get on the move.

Our second scenario was convoy, with the Teutonic Knights attempting to escort a baggage train of pack animals from one corner to the other. These are really hard scenarios but the Teutonic Knights played a very carefully thought out strategy of whittling down the normans before starting to move the convoy. Despite his best effort Ranulf couldn't break through and his retinue was defeated piece by piece. (I didn't get many photos as it was too exciting). The high point was our first official challenge when Ranulf called out the opposing lead and cut him to pieces, Despite this the Teutonic knights did really well. A final (and would have been grossly unfair) flurry from the norman archers was extremely close to turning things around but it wasn't to be and Ranulf's retinue slunk away for another day.

Ranulf sets road block and awaits the convoy

Overall two really good battles one close draw and a tactical win which nearly failed at the last. Have immediately decided to paint up my crossbow men next.