ALY MORRISON'S "BUTTERFLY" ADVENTURES IN THE WORLD OF WARGAMES AND TOY SOLDIERS

Sunday 7 February 2021

Lion Rampant 3rd Century... First try

 Greetings...


As I have now painted up enough figures for two small forces, I thought that I would have a little solo game to see how they perform...

It’s been a while since I have played Lion Rampant or any of its variants, so this was a nice opportunity to refresh myself of the rules...

I got the Roman and Sassanid stats from the I live With Cats blog...

http://ilivewithcats.blogspot.com/search/label/romans

So each force was six units strong and I played them pretty much as basic stats...

I used playing cards to decide whose move it was to add a little uncertainty... Red cards for Rome and Black cards for the Sassanids.

When a unit failed an activation roll ... Instead of the turn going to the other side... I turned another card over.

This is the initial set up after the first move... no subtle tactics...
More a case of “let’s get in these and see what happens.”

The Sassanids 

The Romans
The Sassanid light cavalry make a move towards the Roman Temple.
Due to... predictable activation roll fails... this is where they stay for a bit.

Sassanid heavies moving forwards slowly.
It does make a nice picture though.


The Romans start a steady advance.

Sassanid skirmishers in the woods.

The Sassanid Levy Infantry... loiter.


The Roman Noble Horse charge the Sassanid Cataphracts.
And bounce off.

Encouraged by this the Cataphracts decide they want to move forward 


The Roman and Sassanid Light Horse skirmish with little effect.

The Roman Infantry look tough.

The Sassanid Levy... loiter...sigh!

Having gotten the worst of the skirmishing.
The Sassanid Light Horse fall back

My Leader eyes up some Romans as a possible target.

The Sassanid Levy decide to have ago at the Roman Auxilia.
What could possibly go wrong?


A Raven’s eye view of the battlefield.



Having managed to charge the Romans...
The Levy decide they may have bitten of more than they could chew.

Sadly no before picture...
But here is the after.
The Sassanid leader has disappeared in a puff of...
Death!

At this point I decided that this was a good point to call a halt to the action.

I thought that the cards work well for the turn sequence, but by the way my dice were rolling the basic Lion Rampant none activation result felt a bit brutal... next time I will lift the Double One/Double Six rule from Pikeman’s Lament and see how that works... I also think that the Cataphracts could be a bit more aggressive/easier to move.
I also need more Light Horse for the Sassanids.


I really enjoyed this it was nice to see the toys on the table... I already feel like painting more up.
I shall set up a new table and have another game...

All the best.   Aly



 

42 comments:

  1. It was a pleasure to see your toys in action for me too!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Jonathan.

      I’m looking forward to when I can have a face to face game with them...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  2. Always nice to get toys on the table. It all looks very nice indeed.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Paul...

      I think I spent as much time just looking at the toys as I did playing the game.

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  3. Grand to see the new toys in action...or not.😁

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    Replies
    1. It is indeed David...
      Even if they aren’t moving... at least they are on the table.

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  4. I agree with all those above, Aly. Great to see the toys in their natural habitat. Love that shot of the Sassanids in the wood.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Mark...
      The skirmishers in the wood didn’t really get much further than that... 😁🙄

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  5. Most splendid and great to see your finely painted troops in their natural habitat.

    I must get mine out for a little solo action soon.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Phil...
      Yes get your toys out... you know it makes sense.

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  6. Lovely figures as always and nice terrain to boot. The advantage of the Rampant games engine is that you can lift bits from the other rules, without breaking anything, which is good.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Steve.

      Lion Rampant appears to be like Drums an Shakos... you can kick it around a bit

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  7. Nicely done as usual. Always good to see new figures in action.

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  8. Love the Sassanid light cavalry mushroom hats! All of the apparent “deficiencies” in play you discovered are easily fixed and the game looked great anyway. We demand more!!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you JBM...
      Lion Rampant is a forgiving system so there will indeed be more.

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  9. Nice to see your toys getting an outing. Your baes look great. I like the idea of using the cards....I'm sure some custom designs could be made up to make them more army/nation specific too.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Stuart...
      Some custom cards would indeed be nice...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  10. Nice Aly, I do love sassanids bravo

    cheers
    Matt

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Matt...
      The Sassanids are indeed very pretty .

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  11. Nothing like a game to inspire painting.

    (But don't get me started on all or nothing activation rolls either in theory or practice).

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    Replies
    1. Yes indeed Ross...
      All or nothing activations can indeed be very frustrating...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  12. Great looking game and nothing like getting them on to the battlefield to encourage some more painting. I do enjoy lion rampant the failed activation is just part of the pain and in the end it happens to everybody. This has been modified in Rand P but it works for me. 👍

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Matt..
      It’s nice to add a bit of risk to activation... but with my dice throwing.... 🙄

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  13. Great looking figures, shame you could not make them bend to your will. Better luck next time :)

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Paul...

      I’m sure the toys will learn to do what they are told... 😂😂😂

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  14. Very nice indeed Aly - I agree with Mark about the atmospheric shot of the Sassinads in the woods! With your propensity for poor dice rolling, rule sets involving the possibility of non activation should be avoided.....or modified!

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    1. Thank you Keith...

      The Sassanids liked it to... they didn’t want to leave...
      There will be some modifications... the rules are tough enough to take it.

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  15. Really nice to see the minis and temple in action. The Sassanids look great! The next battle should be the the attack on the Roman villa. How is the work on it going by the way?

    Best wishes,
    Jan

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Jan...
      The villa is waiting for me to clear the game off the table... so I can finish it😁

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  16. Lovely looking battle, as others have said the Sassanids in the woods is a very atmospheric shot, but I do really like the cataphracts!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thank you Iain.
      I have quite a few cataphracts in the painting pile... I am looking forward to getting paint on them...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  17. Great looking game Aly. I too really like that photo of the skirmishers in the wood!
    Regards, James

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  18. Wonderful to see your 3rd Century Romans in action!

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    1. Thank you Nick...
      It’s great to get them out and on the table.

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  19. Just drop activation rolls altogether. I've done this a few times and results are fantastic! You won't even miss them!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Spencer...

      That is definitely one of the options I am going to try...

      All the best Aly

      Delete
  20. Very nice looking game Aly

    Glad to see some 1,2,3 basing ;)

    Might I recomend to let all Leader add +1 to all activations to units with in 12" like Officer do in The Pikemans Lament.

    Best regards Michael

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Micheal...
      I really like the three, two ,one basing... you will be seeing more of it in future projects.
      I intend to plunder a few things from The Pikeman’s Lament for my next game...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete