Battle Report - Double Feature Lion Rampant and Frostgrave

Hello Folks,

So this past weekend Stan Duncan and I got together to play some games, and have a bit of a chat about Cangames. We are going to run a frostgrave event, and Duncan is considering a crusades game so we wanted to try some ideas out, and have an excuse for some gaming.

Lion Rampant:

The first game to try out is Lion Rampant. The idea being that because this game is very simple it is a better candidate for a large convention game then Saga which is a bit complicated and there are allot of questions, which will be ongoing for the full game.

So we set up to play a 24 Point Crusade game, Duncan had 24 points of ah Arabs and Stan and I split the Crusaders so I had 10 points of Heroic Teutonic Knights, and he had 14 points of dirty Crusaders. For fun we decided to roll randomly to see whos leader would be in charge every turn and they had different Traits as follows (you roll on a table):

Teutonic Commander: Braveheart (easier to win challenges)
Crusaders: Commanding (easier to give orders)
Arabs: Commanding

We just played the blood lust (forget the exact name) scenario but basically kill the bad people. The game also has boasts (bets) you make to get extra points and have a bit of a laugh. I boasted that I would kill more Arabs then Stan and also kill the enemy commander, the Arabs vowed to kill more people with bows, and the Crusaders would out kill the Teutonics. So some rivalry going on, but can't feel good for the Arabs with so many people betting on how many they will kill!

So here we are at the start, didn't have super suitable terrain but you use what you got. Teutonics in the fore ground, Crusaders to the right, Arabs across the way.

First turn there were no trouble with orders so everyone just moved up to get ready to kill.

Second turn the Arabs moved up and tried some bow shots, but the Crusader armor was mostly to good. On our turn the Crusaders took over command, so my Bishop of Battle was not able to issue a challenge, but Knights are impetuous so they were at least able to charge and beat up the enemy commanders units without having to listen to any up-jumped peasants. Most other stuff moved up and I think the cross bows fired.

Next turn the Arab camels tried charging the Teutonic foot, but then discovered they were better at shooting, and thus didn't accomplish much except dieing. I think this is also about the time that morale started to go bad for the Arabs. My Bishop finally got to issue a challenge and I think a few units fell back due to that, so pressure was on. My Knights charge another unit and did some damage, but the failed a morale. This game has all units acting really well until you start to loose to many guys. Eventually you become less effective and start failing tests.

But anyway the crossbows pretty much murdered the camels.

With the Teutonics starting to be less interested in battle the crusaders continued to press and we got a few more kills. Then decided to call the game. The christian side killed more units so got 5 points to start. Boast wise I didn't kill the enemy commander (he technically ran away), and Stan killed more units then me so -2 points leaving me with 5. Thus the Crusaders accomplished their boast and had 6. Finally the Arabs did manage to kill more people with arrows then swords, which was a 2 point boast so they ended with 2 gloy is what you call points in this game.

I found it to be a pretty fun game actually, nice and simple and fast so good for a convention, but still a bit of a laugh in there. But it is not a super deep game either so I can't imagine we will be playing it dozens of times.

Frostgrave:

So on to Frostgrave. We decided to try out the first scenario in the hunt for the Golem campaign thing. We had 2 Necromancers, one with an apprentice which was Stan's warband, and mine without, and then Duncan had ah I forget actually?

I didn't end up with that many pictures of this, so hopefully one of the other guys puts up a better narrative. But the idea is that there are 15 corpses spread around, some are treasure some are zombies, and one has the golem plans.

So we set up in a oddly walled section of the city and went to work searching corpse, and trying to annoy the other guys and steal all the treasure. I moved on from the bottom, stan from the top, and Duncan on the left. My plan was to have the ranger in the tower, take the corpses close by, and sneak my barbarian to the gate for a surprise attack. First turn I summoned a zombie to try and prove I was the best necromancer.

Turn two we are starting to see that the bulk of the treasure is all along Stans edge! But I keep on with my plan hopign to get what I can. My ranger is in the tower to start taking shots, and my Cleric (infantryman) has 1 treasure in hand.

Next turn the action heats up. As Stan runs off with all the treasure I start to fight it out with Duncan. My Necromancer moved up into the alley and fired a Bone Dart off, which actually put his wizard out of action! Meanwhile my treasure hunts got on a treasure.

There ended up being quite a scrum for that treasure, my hunter was easiley murdered by some enemy treasurer hunters and a captain. But I sent in some Infantrymen and then summoned a demon to help out! Meanwhile my other guys ran off with some treasurer and  my Barbarian and Theif ran in and got themselves put out of action.

Duncan managed to snag the Golem plans which is the big blue ball by the wall, and after getting over half the treasure the remains of Stans guys tried to get in the battle. My ranger continue to fire arrows but did nothing.

Well that was all my pictures. But in the end Duncan made off with 2 treasures and the plans, Stand got 500 treasures, and I got 2 treasures. But I killed a wizard, and the Ranger killed an apprentice. So I was feeling significantly smug about things. We rolled for stuff, no one important died or got any interesting wounds. I set up a base in an Inn and learned a new spell. Hopefully we will carry on to mission 2 of the Golem with the same wizards sometime soon.

I think everyone had a good laugh with Frostgrave. It's a bit random so you just have to go with it at the end of the day hah. I think my plan to not have an apprentice and have better soldiers was a big failure thou but oh well.

Thanks;
Mike