Campaign for Kingdom: Batle of the Lonely Tower

Last night saw the brave Lionel of Stonekeep (me) a few battles away from grasping the crown once and for all. Across the field were the forces of Roderick the Younger (his father and grandfather already killed in the campaign).

Both had nobles at their side with their own loyal retinues. Unfortunately for Lionel, both his allies were buffoons (not insult, that's what their randomly rolled leader rating were.)
It began as usual with an archery duel, with both sides seeing off a few of their enemy's units.
But, also as it always does, the battle came down to the scrum in the battleline.
One of Lionel's general's Ulrik, played well by the Boy, had horrible luck with the dice. He had one of those turns. A turn where the whole game is in the balance, and you have only to roll the dice....
He only needed 6s or below on a 10 sided die. He did not get them.
The next turn, his opponent crushed his whole force.

 The cavalry hear "CHARGE" when the order was "maneuver". The paid the price.

But the fault was not all due to the buffoonery of his nobles. Lionel had some terrible luck too.
In the end, Lionel's head would decorate Roderick's lance and the Kingdom braced for another battle.

The game ended so quickly we got in a game of Exploding Kittens with our own kitten watching.

Fistful of Lead: Reloaded now available digitally

If you missed out on the Kickstarter, Fistful of Lead: Reloaded is now available in pdf form from Wargame Downloads. Until the FfoL webstore is up and running this will be the only place to get them.
The scenario book, with 20 new scenarios, including "Revenge of Boothill" featuring zombies, and the scenarios exclusive to custom Gunfighters, will be available after Kickstarter backers get theirs sometime before April.

Spread the word!

The Ravens come to roost: A Lion Rampant AAR

When we last left our Norman lord, Guy de Fountainbleu, he was high tailing it back to his stronghold after a crushing defeat. Confident in defending his home turf, his massed what was left of his men, and faced down Inaar the Redhanded.
His tenats were less confident and left town.

We had 3 Viking players each running enough points to get somewhere around 48 points of troops, while Guy and his faithful lieutenant (me) had roughly the same.
As I've mentioned in earlier posts, I've run these two forces several times and they've traded blows pretty evenly, so I feel they pretty evenly matched.
What was to follow was another complete beating for the Normans.
It started Guy not being able to motivate his men. After the last thrashing I can understand. Even with the house rule of at least being to move one unit, we still got a late start.

Guy thought he caught a break when some Viking bowmen were caught in the open. The heavy knights, pride of the army, charged right in. Unfortunately, the bidowers evaded, loosing a lucky volley that picked off one of the horsemen. A terribl Courage checked then failed forcing the horse back. What followed were sevrl truns of the horse making (or failing depending on your perspective) and charging the bidowers until they fell back into rough terrain across a stream where they were now evenly matched. Horse meat's back on the menu boys!

My own best laid plans to force out the viking berserkers were my horse could counter charge and crush them failed. It was me who was charged instead when my counter failed, where I was slaughtered by the barechested brutes.
In the end, the Normans may have broken one unit of the vikings, where we were systematically beaten to a pulp. I'm making just a few tweaks to the Norman lists, but it won't change Inaar wintering in Guy's keep.
In the meantime, Centaurs for Dragon Rampant!

Barrels of Fun- A Fistful of Lead: Horse & Musket AAR

With the finish still wet on my Hessian Jaegers, and troops and terrain from John at Curio Clashes, we took the field to try out some amendments I made to the Fistful of Lead variant for Horse and Musket era.
Most of the rules are the same, but Close Combat is slightly more dramatic, shooting automatically gives you a reload marker, in this case smoke (no six shooters here), and a few cards act differently. But, essentially the same game we know and love.

The scenario: A fresh wagon load of much needed gunpowder for the Rebellion has been left at Fleckal's Farm. The farmer, spooked by news of a Redcoat patrol, has taken off with the only horse to the wagon. The Continental army needs it. The Redcoats and their Hessian allies would be happy just to blow it up.
We had 7 players. Three ran the Redcoats with 6 models each. The 4 Rebels each had 5 models, only slightly outnumbering their oppressors.
First to turns were spent mostly maneuvering.  The Hessian (me) got in range first and unloaded a mostly useless fusilade against a well protected group of Continentals hiding behind a wall. That means the next turn I spent mostly reloaded (COME ON SIX CARD!).
By turn 4, the British had made a run for the wagon. One was gunned down while the other managed to light the wagon. At the end of the turn, we rolled a die. On a "10", BOOM!. If a 10 wasn't rolled, it added a +1 to next roll at the end of the next turn. Alas, we rolled a "9", and the very next turn the Rebels managed to stamp out the fire.

Over the course of the game there was alot of close combat and death around the wagon. For a while it looked like the right flank of the Rebels, held on;y be Militia, might crumble, allowing the Redcoats to flank that horrible wall.
It was not to be. As in all FfoL games, somewhere near quitting time, the Wound rolls just keep coming up "Dead". Today the Continental army would have it's day. The last Hessian Jaeger slunk off the find a nice Pennsylvania Dutch girl and settle down, while the last British survivor had bad news for Command.
Tweaks worked out great. 38 models on the table, 2 hour game. Most of all, everyone had fun.

Phase 1 Kickstarter : Digital Rules go out today!

For those lucky enough to get in on the Kickstarter for Fistful of Lead: Reloaded, the digital version of the rules go out today. Check your inboxes and spam folders.
Enjoy!

Lion Rampant- Battle of Two Crossings (or the Normans get spanked).

This was be the third time I used these armies, and I feel they are fairly balanced. The first battle saw a close tie between Vikings and their Norman kin. The second battle saw the Normans crushing the invaders. This time, Guy de Fountainbleu and his Norman retinue got walloped.

We had 6 players, 3 a side, each controlling 4 groups. Now that we've got a few games under our belts, we finished 2 hours.
The scenario involved control of two separate crossing of a small river. Both sides needed it to continue their respective campaigns.
The Normans had a tough go getting their forces moving. We have instituted a house rule, where if you fail to activate on your first try for the turn, that unit still gets to move (no shooting or attacking) then you are done.

The battle? Well, there's no way else to say it. The Vikings rolled over the Normans. Some of it was good dice vs bad, but most of it was proper use the forces involved. Our bidowers got in the trees and sniped. Our rank and file formed shieldwall in important places and our tough guys charged.
Guy himself was able to defeat a Viking leader in single combat, and routed a few Viking units. Despite the beating, it was a lot of fun. All that chainmail and beards. How could it not?
The colored discs in the pictures are color coded to the guys reference sheets to remind them of the troop type.