Having three full but same liveried 24 point retinues(!) ...but no other medieval forces; and Andrew with no available forces himself, we shrugged off history and he brought his Chinese (refitted after an unfortunate box dropping incident) to have another go at the Lion Rampant rules.
Both of us having the rule book in hand, we helped each other through. The rules are simple and effective and with good friends not worried about the "half inch extra", it makes for a fun game. Had us both talking of making new retinues (armies).
His retinue in this battle had seven units including 2 bidowers (read: small unit of skirmishers) who actually did stellar work on my larger units of expert archers. My good rolling of 'courage' saved me from losing them.
I used one of my retinues consisting of a dismounted MAA unit (tough lads these) a unit of foot sergeants, and two units of expert archers (these hit 17% better!)
The highlight of the battle - well for me at least - was the attack of my dismounted men-at-arms (and dutifully counter-attacked by his mounted boys) but with ALL my dice gaining hits and taking off 4 of his contingent including, with Andrews incredulous roll of double ones, his General! Unfortunately for the Chinese, their battle went downhill from then.
a few pictures of the action
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| The key clash of the battle. |
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| One of the Chinese bidower units coming out of the woods to take a good shot at my archers |
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| part of Andrew's retinue |
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| the battle mid-game |
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| the archers a few casualites down |