The Face of Battle

I've recently finished a large mass of medieval household levy – 49 figures to be precise.

The models are a mix of 80s and 90s Citadel, Marauder, Grenadier, Hobby Products and Foundry, all distinct sculpts, with a lot of little conversions to drag them at-least plausibly into the mid-fifteenth century, with a gentle sprinkle of the fantastic.

They're (mostly) individually based and magnetised into little 3*2 trays; a convenient size I've settled on that lets me use them across a few games. These nine trays make for three units of mixed light and one of heavy infantry for Lion Rampant (with a half unit to spare), or three wider units of mixed household for Hail Caesar. They also fit together into a single block for that classic reason: why not? Perhaps one day I'll find a game that calls for the lot of them together.

I used a semi-Zorn palette of five workhorse colours, that meant dabbling with some slapdash non-metallic metal, and through the process of painting and snapping a few photos I found myself particularly enamoured by the character of the various faces and helmets. It's been a fun process but I'll be moving on to smaller units for the next while.

There's no metal here. Here, there's no metal, alright?

Blunders for Lion Rampant

I've been mulling blogging for a while. I have several half-written first posts, ambitious attempts at a grand overview of my life in toy soldiers or philosophies of game design, but perfect is the enemy of good so here's something complete and coherent.

I've been playing a lot of Lion and Dragon Rampant lately. I enjoy the general lightness and tightness of the rules, the way it scales from small warband skirmishes to larger multiplayer engagements, and particularly how its friction mechanics frustrate planning and prompt a narrative explanation of why things are going horribly wrong.

I've made a huge mistake

The Rampant games sit firmly in the Warmaster tradition - roll to issue orders, turnover on failure. I read through Hail Caesar as another articulation of those ideas and while I found it a bit meandering and finicky, I was enamoured by the blunder tables and the idea that not only might your forces not do what you want, they might do something else entirely. Being interested in the Wars of the Roses of late I was instantly attracted to a mechanic that might facilitate not just Henry Percy stubbornly refusing to leave his hill at Bosworth, but the mistaken identity at Barnet, outright trachery at Northampton, and so on.

A bit more digging revealed extant Rampant-system blunder rules in both The Pikeman's Lament and the Renaissance Rampant adaptation, so drawing on these various influences I knocked out some critical failure (and success) rules for Lion Rampant. We've been using these in our games, large and small, polishing them along the way and they've produced a lot of fun. I've had entirely-plausible moments like light cavalry running down fleeing pikemen in a bog, blundering deeper, then refusing to come back out for thirty real-life minutes as they stripped the corpses clean, or over-eager militia archers charging out of their defensive positions before realising quite how many cattle-rustlers had swept down over the border, along with the usual gunnery misfires.

Into the bog!

Our rules are as follows:

Critical Successes and Failures:

When making a rally, wild charge or order test, if a double 6 is rolled, the unit does not count as having activated and hence may attempt a further order if the player wishes.

If a double 1 is rolled on a wild charge or order test, roll a further D6 and consult the Blunder table opposite. Blunders may never be re-rolled.

D6	Blunder Outcome
1	Treason! If armed with missile weapons, the unit makes an immediate Shooting attack against the nearest friendly unit. Otherwise, the unit makes an Attack move against the closest friendly unit. If no friendly units are in range, treat this result as Wavering instead.
2	Wavering. The unit must immediately make a Courage test.
3	Cowardice. The unit immediately retreats its full move value away from the nearest enemy.
4	Caution. The unit immediately retreats half its move value away from the nearest enemy.
5	Fog of War. The unit immediately moves its full move value in a random direction.
6	Get ‘em, boys! The unit immediately moves its full Move value directly towards the nearest enemy. Resolve combat if contact is made.

Blackpowder Misfires:

Apply as appripriate (e.g. Lion Rampant Handgonners, Dragon Rampant Artillery and missile units with Bodkins). If such a unit blunders on a Shooting order, the unit must immediately resolve that attack against itself.

What could possibly go wrong?

I'd to love to hear if you give these a go.

Rob