Lion Rampant: the Taxman Cometh.

 For this week's game of Lion Rampant we chose 'the Taxman Cometh', scenario. Ian took control of two 16pt forces to contest the tax tokens against Charlie and I, each with a 16pt force. We were using our Barons War figures again.

My Warband led Sir John de Lacy with Charlie's Warband in the background led by Sir Richard de Bolton as we deploy. 

Ian's Lord's warband near to us, Robin Hood at the far side. 

We threw for different Leader skills and Charlie got 'Inspired' which was very useful for the extra unit activations he got. 

The table just before turn 1. There are 6 mdf tokens of varying value to represent the tax collected. The players need to find them and collect them, whoever collects the most tax by the end is the winner. 

Happily all of my warband obeyed orders and moved forwards. 

Charlie's peasants rushed into the first building to find a tax token (worth 1pt). 

My cavalry opt to go around the side of the house to try and clash with Ian's knights, plus they picked up a tax token in the marsh. 

Ian's peasants celebrate their tax find in the cottage.  

Robin Hood's missile heavy force take up a central position.

My knights dice for a wild charge and decided that was a good idea. 

But they charge Ian's skirmishers and wipe them out. 

The two units of knights did clash and both survived but at below half strength. 

Then Ian threw his Mounted Sergeants in and after a couple of rounds of melee with them and another against his knights my knights including Sir John de Lacy were routed. 

My mounted Sergeants were also involved but were also routed. 

The death of de Lacy.

His tax token was gleefully picked up by Ian's knights. 

Elsewhere , Charlie's units had claimed 3 tokens and were in a good central position. 

Charlie also managed to activate his crossbow unit to shoot and rout Robin Hood and his not so merry men . By now Charlie still had 3 tokens and Ian controlled the other 3. However, Charlie's tokens  worth 5 units of tax but Ian's totalled 6. With Ian's units in a good position to withdraw with their tax and Charlie too far away to stand any real chance of catching them, a narrow victory was declared for Ian. 

All three of us agreed that this was a really enjoyable game. I can't play for a couple of weeks but when we next play it will be Lion Rampant again, perhaps trying slightly larger warbands.