Hail Caesar- back to Medieval gaming.

 Inspired by yet another good article in the Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy; this week's game is a medieval battle from the Thirteenth century. The article detailed a 'what may have happened' scenario with a young Prince Edward (later Edward 1st)(Ian), rushing towards Kenilworth Castle to try and capture it back from the Rebel Barons led by a Simon de Montfort the Younger, (played by Nigel and myself). In the scenario Simon de Montfort the younger, hearing of the approach of Prince Edward, marches out his troops to meet him in battle. 

One of the main changes we made was to use our later Medieval/Hundred Years War figures and I had to swap the stats around as the original author used the Lion Rampant rules whereas we would be using Hail Caesar. However, it looked like a fun game with the deployment of troops spread out along the road.  

I placed card markers where players could then take turns to place the troops written on the underside of the card. Here Nigel has deployed the Rebel infantry. 

The Rebel cavalry division is now deployed ahead of the infantry as per the scenario.

Disaster struck the Rebels in turn 1 as Nigel threw a blunder and was forced to withdraw two moves, taking all of the Rebel Infantry off the table. 

Ian, commanding as Prince Edward deploys some of his troops. 

The Rebels deployed with the magazine scenario at the back. 

(we had left the withdrawing Infantry on the table edge). 

Simon de Montfort the Younger rides toward the enemy, despairing at the misfortunes of his infantry division. 

Prince Edward (Ian) advances to meet his foe. 

In the background the Royalist extra unit of knights arrive.

Simon de Montfort the Younger was feeling rather outnumbered. Nigel suggested charging the enemy crossbowmen with a unit of sergeants who, in a spectacular charge managed to break both units of crossbow. 

The unit of skirmish longbow in the woods (bottom left) had chased off the Rebel light cavalry and now turned towards the rest of the enemy cavalry. 

Turn 5 and Nigel gets the Rebel Infantry division moving at last. 

Here are the Rebel sergeants about to crash into the Royalist crossbow. 

An almighty cavalry clash took place in the centre, Prince Edward was wounded and the Rebels seem to be gaining the upperhand. 

Royalist Infantry rush to help but Prince Edwards division was broken as was the Rebel Cavalry division led by Simon de Montfort. Nigel had managed to get one of his longbow units into range and with the rest of the Rebel infantry marching up Ian conceded the game and Prince Edward withdrew his remaining troops from the board.  

Brilliant fun but we felt a bit sorry for Nigel whose game was spoiled by a poor 'orders' throw in turn 1. Thus is fate. 

Rapid Fire: The Battle of Lebisey part 2

 We were back at Nigel's today to finish off our Battle of Lebisey game. Having played 10 out of the suggested 15 turns we had left things finely balanced with either side capable of the win. 

The view from behind the Germans. 

A couple of shockingly bad morale throws by Nigel saw one of his Infantry brigades rout along with some of his armoured vehicles. He also had a new infantry brigade coming into play. Here we see the two infantry units pass each other. 

Some German armour on the run. This event really turned the game in the British favour. 

A german panzerschrek team was creeping about the ruins but thankfully failed to make an impact on the game. 

The British advancing to Victory as the Germans decide to withdraw. 

We played through the last few turns quite quickly and seem to have grasped most of the rules now. This was an excellent scenario that kept both sides anxious about the end result. It was also fun to play on Nigel's wargames table with his excellent collection of 20mm WW2. 

Next week we return to medieval times. 

Shadowdark: an enjoyable return to RPG

 Good friend Chris recently told me about the Shadowdark RPG and it seemed a good fit for someone like me who mainly plays wargames with just some occasional roleplaying. I bought the quickstart guides first and was so impressed that both Chris and I got the full rules printed and bound for us. Today was my first chance to get a game in with another of my main gaming friends Ian taking on two characters (fighter and priest) and my daughter Jenny also taking on two characters (wizard and thief). 

For our first adventure I re-wrote an old D and D starter adventure of mine dating back to the 1980's, placing it within the land of Camberlann, an old campaign world of ours.

All set to play. 

The adventure ran well with many highlights and thankfully no deaths within the adventuring party. 

A fuzzy photo of the PC's approaching a poor woodcutters hut near to the village of Wyrms Fell. 

This encounter sent the adventurer's off on a quest to rescue the woodcutters daughter from some goblins holed up in a cave system nearby. 

Quickly overcoming some goblin guards and finding some treasure under the giant statue (big chap waving a sword about). All seemed to be going well until Ralinna the halfling thief fell off the bridge taking a wound as well as a soaking. 

More goblins fall to the PC's swords but beware the large Hobgoblin now approaching.

No worries, Lothielle the Elf Wizard soon charmed him. 

After locating an ancient, hidden dwarf forge the PC's find a way out of the cave system only to come across a beastman fighting a giant centipede. A quick melee solved that problem and the players emerge higher up the hill.  

After totting up their treasure the PC's escorted the woodcutter and his daughter back to their home. After resting overnight to heal their wounds the PC's continued onto Wyrms Fell to stay at the Dog and Dagger Inn. A spell of carousing saw Lothielle survive a dagger throwing contest whilst her three fellow adventurer's all woke up in the stocks for setting fire to a building. Yan the half-orc fighter found a pewter amulet with a wheel symbol on it in his pocket yet he has no clear memory of it getting there? Wyrms Fell is currently rife with rumours of a newly found old temple and possibly the site of an old Chaos Knight's tomb. I wonder where the PC's will venture next and who will come looking for their amulet? 

Shadowdark plays very well. Quick character generation and an equally fast system of game play leads to a fast moving game. The numerous random charts available add to the flavour of the session and we used several of them to great effect. With the adventure completed and some carousing and trading done, most of the PC's are roughly half way to second level, better funded and with some new equipment. We are all looking forward to our next game.