A Lion Rampant scenario
Yesterday, on a grey Sunday afternoon we decided to indulge in some wargamer wellness: playing Kings of War Historical, Battletech and Lion Rampant namely the Fugitive scenario.
As a starter, David and I agreed upon the said scenario from the new Lion Rampant book. What follows next, is an account of some random Viking raider’s mundane travel log.
A great summer holdiday
Let me introduce myself. My name is Leif Erikson. I’m the leader of a small village on the south coast of Sverige. Winters are harsh, summers are less harsh. We don’t have much. Trade (with gold and other valuables) is a thing here in the north. We have no gold or other valuables thereafter. They have them in the south, on the other side of the Baltic sea, the North sea and the Chanel. So they do further inland. There’s an island, west of us, that’s worth looting. However our competitors from Iceland, Denmark and Norway already set foot there. South of that island, separated only by a narrow strip of seawater, there’s a coats line worth visiting as it’s not very popular (yet) with our Scandinavian neighbors. That’s where we’re headed this summer. Let’s set sail!
Meanwhile in a remote settlement on the northern coast of the Duchy of Normandy
Close to a small settlement near the to be French northern coast there’s a village bound to become a city in future. As most of these places are to be Christianized, there’s of course a church. Let’s rather call it a chapel. But it’s no ordinary chapel mind you. Coming back from a business trip from Aachen, François, le Ch’ti, the mayor of town, being progressive for his time, decided to hire this young avant-garde architect famous for this new way of designing religious buildings everyone is talking about these days. Nowadays we’d call it Romanesques architecture.
Summer of 822
The year is 822. It’s the end of, a rather nice, summer. Nice, but if it wasn’t for these yearly summery raids from these barbaric, uncivilized folks landing on the coasts in their rather peculiarly shaped boats to pillage every settlement they stumble upon. It thus happened that, at the end of that particular summer, a war band of these sea raiders, let’s call them Norse for the sake of simplicity, attacked our settlement … again. However this time they didn’t waste their time, stealing from innocent farmers, forcefully making children with their women and afterwards setting their homes on fire. Oh no. Churches, or chapels for this sake, have a way of telling you: “Over here! Look, there’s gold and stuff!”
That’s when our newly consecrated chapel was obviously looted and burnt to the ground . After the fire was extinguished, someone (important) was missing in town: the abbot Father “Bob”, the Christian Church not allowing to reveal his real name for the sake of early middle age GDPR. No corpse or misused husk of Father “Bob” could be found. After a successful Wilderness check, a host of highly trained Norman soldiers, summoned by Mayor François, le Ch’ti, set out to follow, what looked like foot prints of Father “Bob”.
After two days of hex crawling through the Northern Duchy of Normandy, the Norman war band arrived at a marshy strip of land where the tracks were leading in different direction to different potential hiding spots.
The search for Father “Bob” had begun! At the same time, and the same place as it so happened, the Norse sea raiders were also on the lookout for this fancy fat cleric to steal his wallet.
Lion Rampant: The Fugitive
The premise of this game of Lion Rampant second edition was simple but very immersive: The defending player, in our case David’s Normans (24 points) were sending out a small vanguard to search, find and bring home the fugitive, a missing abbot. Rules wise they had to to search (by rolling a D6) in six pieces of terrain for Father “Bob”. When found, they had to carry him off the board before my attacking Vikings (24 points) could kidnap him from the Normans. François, le Ch’ti promised his Norman soldier 5 Glory points for successfully bringing back Father “Bob”. If not, the Vikings would win 3 Glory Points and the Normans 0.
Furthermore we played using each a 2-glory boast. David’s Normans were out to avenge their fallen leader in the battle at Wifey Farm using the “We shall avenge them” boast. My Vikings however were out doing Viking stuff and intimidating their opponents by making them “tremble before me”.
The Vikings rushed into melee, as fast as they could and as their move order allowed them to.
The Norman soldiers, organized people they are, systematically advanced as a line formation to find Father “Bob”.
So did my Norse sea raiders. Apart from Father “Bob”‘s jewels they were ordered by their leader Leif Erikson to make the Normans “tremble before him”.
The two retinues soon clashing at the center of the battle field.
Father “Bob”, the Fugitive
The Norman Leader and his cavalry unit finally found Father “Bob” behind an old gnarly tree commonly used for heathen rituals at the center of the battlefield! How long was he hiding there? But the real question is what was he actually doing there? As a man of God?? How dares he! Oh well, no one will ever know … . Focusing on his 5 Glory Points, the Norman Leader, grabs Father “Bob” by his collar and pulls him up his horse, just realizing the approaching Bóndi (Heavy Infantry), Levied Infantry and Berserkers quickly approaching.
What happened afterwards, happened very fast.
The three Viking units seeing the cavalry escape, set out to follow them. Alas with no success. Have you ever tried to outrun galloping horses?
That was 5 Glory Points and victory for the Normans!
Even though Leif Erkison, Leader of the Norse war band, managed to heavily injure their opponent, it was too late to “make them tremble before him” … . Thus no Glory Points for the Vikings. But none for the Norman’s vengeance glory-boast as well.
| Retinue | Glory Points |
|---|---|
| Normans (24 pts.) | 5 (Winner) |
| Vikings (24 pts.) | 0 |
And this marks the end of the end of the Fugitive scenario for Lion Rampant 2nd edition.
In the end Father “Bob” was brought back to his town. The Norman retinue leader claimed his 5 Glory points and Father “Bob” lived on, helped rebuilding the chapel and baptizing the cr*p out of his community.
He, of course, told no one what he was really up to out there … That story shall be told another time.
Epilogue
We salvaged good valuables, amassed some food and booze 1 for the coming winter. Nonetheless I could see the disappointment in the faces of my men, rowing our boat northwards. It should be enough to keep us warm and happy until next summer. We’ll meet this fancy druid man again. Next time I’ll get his jewelry!
Skol and Hail Odin,
Leif Erikson
PS: Stay tuned for an upcoming post show-casing my Viking war band.
1 – a kind of mead made from fermented apples