More Lion Rampant by Skype

On Sunday we had another game of multi-player Lion Rampant with the players spread across three counties.  Again it was using my 15th century Swiss-Burgundian Wars models. Once more, Gus and Mark ran the Burgundians but this time Andy was joined by John to command the Swiss. Very kindly, Jamie helped out by moving the toys around.

Again, I was too busy running the game to take a sequence of photographs but I did get some nice pics about three-quarters of the way through.

The battle saw the first outing for my new Burgundian ordonnance pikemen (see below). Needless to say, they were routed from the table. This is wholly traditional for any newly painted wargames unit.

The scenario this time was a basic line-up-and-fight approach.  I thought it would be interesting to make sure the table had two distinct areas - one characterised by dense terrain with little room to manoeuvre and the other more open.  The western end of the table was built up and had gardens and scrubby ground that were declared to be Rough Ground.

The centre of the table was dominated by a significant area of open ground (albeit with nearby woods and a steep hill).

I wanted the players to think about where they deployed their units and make sure they sent the right horses to the right courses.  To some extent this was what they did but Heinrich von Schimmel (Mark) did have one of his companies of mounted Burgundian men-at-arms lured into the built-up area where, predictably, they were ambushed and routed by Swiss hand-gunners.

In the centre and on the eastern flank of the field the Burgundian leader, Riccardo di Stanza (Gus) had high quality troops - ordonnance longbowmen (Expert Archers) and pikemen (Expert Foot Serjeants) but they were outnumbered by the Swiss. The Burgundian men-at-arms and coustilliers who should have supported them were slow getting into action.

The opposing Swiss fielded two units of pike, one of Italian mercenary crossbowmen, and one of mounted crossbowmen.    

Believing that the enemy's superior numbers were about to tell, di Stanza issued a challenge to the leader of the Swiss pikes, Beat Züsli (John).

Unfortunately, the Lord was not on di Stanza's side and he soon lay bleeding on the field of battle.

The defeat of their coustilliers by a combination of pikes and mounted crossbowmen and the slaughter of their men-at-arms, shot down among the cabbages, persuaded the Burgundians to withdraw.

So now we have two games under our belts and one win each for Burgundians and Swiss. We counted Glory this time and the following totals are carried forward to our next game:

John - Beat Züsli - 5 Glory
Andy - Gustav Schneffl - 4 Glory (he had made a boast that all of his units would get into hand to hand combat but they did not)
Mark - Heinrich von Schimmel - 0 Glory
Gus - Contare Riccardo di Stanza 0 Glory and deceased.

I gave Gus the option of rolling on The Pikeman's Lament's Officer Casualties Table to see if Count Riccardo really was dead.  Gus, however, was glad to see the back of him.  Riccardo di Stanza's body, looted of his fine coat and armour, was consigned to an anonymous grave-pit on the field. The ladies of Strasbourg, though, still speak of his elegant manners and fine moustache.