A taxing evening in the Borders : Lion Rampant

After a couple of weeks on other projects and campaigns the  Dungeon saw another evening of Lion Rampant. Clifford the Butcher up against Ranulf de Gernon. One of the few scenarios we hadn't played was the tax collecting scenario. So we set to....

Clifford as the attacker was seeking to collect his annual tax revenue from the then small hamlet of Clifton (just outside Penrith and scene of the last Battle on English soil!) The locals had helpfully hidden their tax revenue in the form of gold coin under various crates around the village. Word had got out to Ranulf who had raced to the location looking for easy pickings.

Ranulf's Crossbows approach village from behind the woods

We had forgotten to roll on the traits table in the first turn, so rolled after turn one, Clifford getting the really powerful Command trait allowing him to re-roll failed tests within 12". Ranulf on the other hand clearly still hungover from the previous evening drinking was in a very bad mood and had the Rash trait giving him the tendency to wild charge (normally a good trait unless as in this case you have your leader in with fairly defensive Sarjeants!)

Ranulf's men approaching the village down the road, Clifford in the distance

Shot of the overall village, local seem unaware of the impending skirmish

Local priest trying to calm things down but Ranulf's men at arms have
 already discovered the first Gold.

One of the interesting aspects of this scenarios is you don't know till you pick it up what tax you have collected and each one has a different value. The first clash took place in the village where the rash Ranulf charged in, only to be pushed back. He had sent a further unit around the outside to hopefully cut off Clifford's men.

First real skirmish takes place outside the church where Ranulf the Rash
charges in with his sarjeants only to be pushed back

With his rash approach Clifford then continued to charge in exhausting himself and his unit. In the rest of the village units were playing a game of cat and mouse, picking up taxes where they could, but once they had all been found it became clear the Clifford had managed to pick up more so the race was on then for Clifford to get off the table and Ranulf had little choice but to charge everyone forward in an attempt to cut off the withdraw. Although they made a fair stab at cutting them off good activation rolls and the occasional re-roll saw them gat away.

Ranulf's cavalry wipe out Clifford's archers and themselves but it is a
 side show as the rest of Clifford's men get away in the distance

We had finished fairly early so picked up another scenario. Didn't capture many photos of this one as it was a classic example of where Lion Rampant can be a bit frustrating. Ranulf had to escort as much of his retinue right across the village and Clifford had to stop him. Even with the scenario advantage of movement activation not ending the turn Ranulf's retinue repeatedly failed to move, this enabled Clifford to set up a good defensive position in the fields close to the village. After some sharp fighting it actually ended fairly close but it never really felt that the objective was in reach. The cross bowmen were effective again and I need to remember to get them shooting as early as possible.

Ranulf leading his men back to safety ?

We have played all the scenarios now in Lion Rampant, overall a fun set of rules, we have painted up more stuff (which in my case also covers as a SAGA retinue) you just need to not take the games too seriously. I am planning to paint some more 'mid' medieval figures for the retinue soon.