Byzantine encircled - a scenario from A Viking in the Sun

Last night was the inaugural game for Luca’s new Byzantines against my Normans in 11th-century Southern Italy. 

 The scenario we played was “Massacre by the River Olivento”, taken from A Viking in the Sun, an expansion of the Lion Rampant ruleset by the History & Games Lab at the University of Edinburgh, led by Dr. Gianluca Raccagni and dealing with Hardrada deeds around the Mediterranean before the Crusades. In the game, the Byzantines had to escape across a river while pursued by Norman forces. 

After several cavalry clashes in which the heavier Normans, supported by archers, routed the Byzantine duke and his koursores, the Varangians broke the encirclement, eliminated the Norman commander, and opened a gap that allowed the rest of the Byzantine troops to escape the trap. Norman infantry followed the enemy, but tired from the long pursuit, failed the last-moment charge. It was a hard-fought battle with a fun and original scenario, ending in a 6-4 victory for the Byzantines.

Escape from the Crusader city with Lion Rampant

Lion Rampant is a light ruleset that aims to recreate the clashes between retinues during the medieval period. The system is highly flexible and the scenarios included in the book allow recreating many different settings with few adaptations. 

We played a scenario set during the beginning of the Crusaders States. A Crusader city has just been conquered by a large Seljuk force. A group of citizens has taken shelter at a fortress, and as the walls fall, decide to try to cross the city to reach the docks, where some ships, owned by the Maritime Republic of Genoa, are still at bay. We adapted the Scenario "The Convoy" from Lion Rampant, each token representing a bunch of civilians. Due to the urban setting, we decided to use the "reduced models" optional rule from Dragon Rampant to avoid cluttering too many models in small spaces, so we halved the miniatures needed for each unit. The Crusaders started on the NE deployment zone, while the Seljuks entered from the NW and SE deployment zone. The exit zone was the ship at the SW deployment zone.

I won't write up a detailed after-action record here, but overall the game was quite balanced, and until the last two turns all sides had a chance to win it.  The Seljuk player resulted less effective in causing casualties and the Crusaders were good at protecting the foot serjeants' units carrying the civilians, allowing all the three groups to escape safely.

We had great fun, and the reduced models rule worked great. I suggest using it in an urban setting. It is also a great gateway, allowing new players to start playing with a few models. The second edition of Lion Rampant is going to be published in the next few months I hope it will implement this option.

This scenario was actually a playtest for an incoming project, keep following the blog for more details!

And now, some pictures! Crusaders are Normans from Conquest Games, Seljuks from Gripping Beast, and buildings and the ship from CleverPaper.

A furore Normannorum libera nos!

A short Lion Rampant AAR to present my new purchase: painted 28 mm Normans!

Last week I met with Paolo to give my new army its first go.

I recently purchase some painted 28 mm Normans. Actually I bought only knights and foot shooters, so anyone wishing to sell me 24 painted foot sergeants/yeomen could contact me. For this game I recruited some Irish mercenaries from Paolo's strategic miniature reserve and started an invasion of Byzantine Southern Italy!

a close up of Irish mercenaries

The scenario was Bloodfeud:  Paolo aim was to kill my leader, mine to keep him alive! The game ends also when less than 5 units remains on the battlefield and a greater value is scored on 1D6 roll.

Normans (leader: insipid)

2x Mounted Men at Arms* @6 points each

1x Crossbowmen @4 points

2x Foot Yeomen (Irish mercenaries) @3 points each

1x Bidowers @2 points

Byzantine (leader: rash)

1x Mounted Men at Arms (Cataphracts)* @6 points

1x Mounted Sergeants @4 points

2x Foot Yeomen + mixed weapons @5 points each

1x Mounted Yeomen (Pechenegs mercenaries) @4 points

The fight ensued with my infantry deployed as a screen in front of my leader units (which, being mounted men at arms, has the "wild charge rule"), the other knight unit in reserve.

My bidowers took shelter between the ruins of a Roman temple (quite a common feature in Southern Italy), but during the game their firing was ineffective.

Paolo used his mounted yeomen to harass my infantry line which quickly deteriorated. My crossbowmen repeatedly failed their shoooting activation, but at the very end they routed a mounted sergeants unit in close combat!

The game was turning bad for me, since I had only the leader unit and the bidowers left against Byzantine heavy cavalry, mounted yeomen and one foot yeomen unit, but luckily I rolled 6 on the roll for ending the game: in his last activation Paolo failed to inflict any damage at my leader unit with his cavalry. His heavy cavalry was too far, having failed a morale roll on a (otherwise successful) close combat against my foot yeomen (which routed) the previous turn. So I won!

We had a lot of fun and found the game very balanced till the last turn. Glad my Normans had their fire baptism with a victory! Now I just need some infantry!