Two Lion Rampant games set around 1260, two years after the Mongols had ruined and depopulated
Baghdad and wiped out its Abbasid Caliphate. Kitbuqa is the Mongol general in charge of forces in
the middle East.
The first game scenario is taken from the second edition of the core rules and is Number 16: Bloodfeud found on page 166. The back story is that a Mongol Warlord has raided a Turkish caravan and taken captive the betrothed (a Princess) of a local Turkish Prince. The Mongol Warlord is so smitten by the Princess's beauty and charms, that he has decided he will marry her himself. On hearing this, the Princess informs the Warlord that she will never marry someone who looks and smells like a reanimated corpse. In his fury, the Warlord has the princess strangled and her body sent to the Turkish Prince, her betrothed, who understandably is now determined to take his revenge on the Mongol Warlord and rides with a large force to intercept the Mongols.
The Attacker (The Turks) must kill his opponent's Leader with a Lucky Blow, a challenge, or by wiping out or routing the Leader's unit. The Defender(The Mongols) must destroy or rout his opponent's Warband and keep the Mongol Warlord alive.
The Turkish force comprises three units of heavy cavalry with bows; two Elite units of infantry, one with a Holy Man (+1 for that unit's courage tests) and one with the Leader, the Turkish Prince (+1 to any units taking a courage test within 12" of his unit and 1x reroll for a failed activation once per turn); a unit of Archers and two units of Light Infantry with Javelins.
The Mongol force comprises three units of Heavy Cavalry with bows, and one of these contains the Mongol Warlord (+1 for any unit courage tests taken within 12" of his unit as well as 1 x reroll for a failed activation once per turn); a force of Genoese Mercenaries comprising one unit of Elite foot with a commander (+1 to that unit's courage tests); one unit of Heavy Infantry with Pavises and one unit of Crossbows with pavises.
The above forces were used in both Games One and Two.
GAME ONE
As the Attacker, the Turkish force deployed on the Northern long edge of the 6x4 board and the Mongols on the Southern edge.
The Turkish force deployed all three units of Heavy Cavalry on their left flank. In the centre were the two Elite units of Infantry with the Leader and Holy Man and on their right flank were the Archers and two units of Light Infantry. The Mongols deployed their Cavalry units in the centre and on their left flank alternating light and heavy units. All three Genoese units were on their right flank.
The game started with the three units of Turkish cavalry advancing towards the Genoese on their left flank. At first it looked as though all three units were aiming for the Genoese, but two swerved to the right riding towards the centre of the battlefield, while a third moved towards the Genoese Crossbows, who initially seemed reluctant to fire.
On the right flank the Turkish Light Infantry advanced enthusiastically towards the Mongol cavalry and as the Mongol force approached, formed shield walls to weather the anticipated arrow storm. They left a gap between them to allow the Turkish Archers to shoot though at the advancing Mongols. The two Turkish Elite infantry units moved up to support the Light infantry and boost their morale. Both Light Infantry units took casualties from the Mongol arrows, but they stood firm.
One unit of Heavy Mongol Cavalry hit a shield wall and was repulsed. The shield wall became battered, but so too did the Mongol Cavalry unit which had also taken heavy casualties and was reduced to half strength. The Turkish unit never recovered and eventually left the field. The battered Mongol Heavy Cavalry unit was targeted by the Turkish Archers and was wiped out. The other Turkish shield wall fared better and weathered successive arrow strikes and even managed to hit a unit of Mongol Heavy Cavalry with their javelins causing some casualties.
Back on the Turkish left flank, the Genoese Crossbows fired on the remaining unit of Turkish Heavy Cavalry, and one warrior was swept from his saddle, but the unit passed a courage test and moved away from the Crossbows and headed towards the other Turkish cavalry in the centre of the battlefield. This effectively left the whole Genoese force side lined as it would take two or three moves before any of their units could contact an enemy unit.
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Meanwhile in the centre of the battlefield the Turkish and Mongol Cavalry exchange arrow fire. The Turkish arrows start to wear down the Mongol Cavalry units, but in the process, a Turkish Cavalry unit is routed only for the gap to be filled by the Turkish Cavalry unit that had moved away from the Genoese Crossbows.
At this point the Mongol Warlord's unit enters the fray to the right of the Turkish centre. The Turkish Prince sees his opportunity and moves forward, waiting for his chance to engage the Mongol Warlord in battle. With the Genoese left behind on the Mongol right flank, the Mongol cavalry units are now taking hits from javelins thrown by the Turkish Light Infantry, from Turkish Cavalry and the Turkish Archers.
Two more of the Mongol cavalry units become battered and move back from the fight. Although the Mongol Warlord's unit is pretty much in tact, it slowly starts to wither under the pressure from the Turkish missiles. The Turkish Prince seizes his chance and attacks the Mongol Warlord's unit with his Elite infantry. The Mongols fight bravely, but they are tired and reduced in number and when hit by this fresh unit, the Warlord himself fails the courage test and flees from the field. The Turkish force is jubilant as they take control of the battlefield, but although the Mongols have been beaten, the Turkish Prince has not had his revenge. Another time, perhaps....
GAME TWO
The scenario is loosely based on Scenario 9: Attack on a Crusader Village on page 129 of Lion Rampant Crusader States book. Rather than go into a blow-by-blow account of the action, I will give an overview and cover points that arose during the game, which as it turned out was a little unbalanced in favour of the Defender. Remember both forces are identical to those used in Game One.
In this scenario the Genoese have taken control of a small walled village that has its own well and is to act as a staging post for further Mongol advances into the Levant. It is crucial that they retain control of this valuable source of water.
With the Genoese ensconced in the village, the Turkish force deploys along the North and South (long) edges of the table. The Mongols will deploy on a short edge of their choice at the start of turn two.
The Turkish force has two clear turns to engage the village defenders before the Mongols can intervene, and this they did with gusto shooting arrows 'en masse' and Javelins as well, but here came the first issue. Only two or three casualties were caused amongst the defenders and this was due to both the quality of their armour and the cover afforded by the stone wall and Pavises.
This meant that even a Crossbowman unit would take four hits before a model would be removed, and the Heavy infantry also with Pavises and the Elite Infantry required five hits to remove a figure. That is hard work. My suggestion for anyone wishing to fight this scenario, would be to just take the normal armour of the troop type and add one for the cover, although this would still mean five hits to remove an Elite infantryman.
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The Mongol Cavalry very quickly made contact with the Turkish force attacking the village and it quickly became clear that there was no way the Turks would be able to capture the village. Here, again, my suggestion would be that if using an attacking force that is predominantly cavalry, they should not be deployed until the start of turn three with their activation happening in turn four.
I felt another important observation made by one of the players, was that, as the Defenders have the security of a walled position, it would be a good idea to either reduce the size of the defending force or increase the size of the attacking one. This is the classic wargaming dilemma, where we want to even things up a bit to produce a balanced game, but how much do we add without over egging the cake? I think I'll leave that one with you to ponder on.
Thank you to the players who were thoroughly good sports and were patient while I snapped away in an attempt to capture some key moments.
I hope you enjoy the pictures.
Mike
