Lion Rampant Crusading……..

We have arrived back in the North where the temperature is tolerable, after a week on holiday in what turned out to be the hottest June week on record. I’m sure other British followers will have suffered similar. Although the heat meant I had to cancel a planned trip to a couple of battlefields we did manage to see a little bit of history.

But first up before we headed into the SW furnace I squeezed in a game of Lion Rampant. Looking for a quick pick up scenario for ply in. Couple of hours we went ‘Crusading’ we had the Christians escorting their baggage train across the desert only to be ambushed by Saladin and his Moorish forces.

The Christian objective is to get the three baggage items escorted by their infantry diagonally across the table. The dry river will be difficult ground. Those with a keen eye will note the similarity of the basic table to the previous Greek/Italian battle ! As to be expected the Arab forces are generally more mobile but more lightly armed.

In the initially couple of turns Saladin gets the better of the dice and is able to move the majority of his force into blocking positions. The scenario requires the Arabs to deploy split in half. The Christian heavy cavalry stubbornly refuse to activate !

This means the infantry carrying the baggage start to more forward unprotected.

The light Arab cavalry armed with bows and javelins sweep into  attack, skirmishing when they need to keep out of range. For several turns the Arabs continue to get the better of it gradually wearing down the Christian forces who are forced back to use the small building as some cover.

Eventually though the Christian’s start to get some better dice and are able to bring their heavy cavalry forward.

Now it is the turn of the lighter Arab forces to be pushed back but they are constricted by the dry river bed

The Christian King and his bodyguard charge in against Saladin who although not killed is forced to flee.

The game is up with the Arab forces accepting defeat as they now don’t have enough troops to prevent the Christian baggage from getting off the table (eventually), a fun game whoch swung significantly as at first the Christian’s almost threw in the towel when they were seemingly pinned into the corner, but things changed around a it turned into a good win 👍

Just a couple of shots from the holiday with a historical theme, we were staying just south of the Forest of Dean, almost in the epicentre of the heatwave !

St Briavels Castle, started in early 12th Century but extended by Edward 1st with the twin towered gatehouse, used as a centre for the production of Crossbow bolts with iron from the Forest of Dean and now a Youth Hostel.

Chepstow Castle , which I had been to before, a wonderful Norman keep which has been encircled and the castle enlarged several times since.

The last remaining medieval gate into Chepstow, there is a little bit of wall still extant which you can see as well

We visited Coleford several times the scene of a small ECW battle in 1643 commemorated by a nice plaque in the main square.

Whilst the rest of the party were shopping in thrift shops I visited the tourist information where they had a small diorama of the battle. Apparently built by one of the Town councillors who is apparently a wargamer, using Warlord Epic figures which were nice to see.

Goodrich Castle, a *** castle overlooking the river wye.

Besieged and taken in 1646 by Colonel John Birch using ‘Roaring Meg’ an example of which is on show at the castle.

Finally in one of my short cycle trips around the area I came across this pillbox over looking the Seven Estuary/River near Lydney Harbour. I always find these WW2 reminders fascinating when you come across them.

Well that’s it for now, more to come soon as I have several games scheduled over the next week or so.

Thanks as always for following along ❤️

Matt