Lion Rampant Day 2 - Wargames Illustrated

It's never advisable to throw yourself into a full day of Wargaming on very little sleep and a night shift looming later that evening. Nevertheless my first experience of the original Lion Rampant Day organised by WI a few months ago was so enjoyable I decided that it was going to be well worth the effort. So myself and Simon (Breen) from the Sons of Simon De Montfort Wargaming Club made our way over to the Wargames Illustrated HQ last Saturday morning for their 'War of the Twelve Bastards'.

The first half hour was spent introducing ourselves to the other eager gamers and downing the much needed and abundant free tea and coffee. I'd noticed in describing the narrative of the game Dan the Editor had used a rather lovely board of the medieval British Isles. This was apparently borrowed from the boardgame 'Britannia' - and served it's alternative purpose quite nicely.

My first reaction after getting my figures arranged and set up for the first encounter, is to usually check out other people's retinues. As regards painting quality it was obvious that there was an incredibly high standard on display. I was also in admiration of some of the conversion jobs. One guy I gamed against had chopped and mixed a Fireforge Foot Sergeant boxed set with a Frostgrave one and come up with some really impressive Lion Rampant 'Fierce Foot' units. Just the right balance of hairy lunatics with big axes and swords that reflects the attributes of such a force.

The game itself was an extension of the original Lion Rampant Day, but this time with the King dead and twelve of his illegitimate offspring scrapping over who should rule. To this end there were a number of Houses representing the different heirs. Dan and Wayne deserve credit for developing not only the intriguing storyline, but also the additional rules such as winning gold coins for achieving certain conditions (like killing an enemy leader, destroying six points worth of enemy units etc etc). These could then be either saved, adding to overall victory points, or spent on added units or skills as the games progressed.

No idea who owns these figures, but the painting is very nice!

The first two battles were simply one on one. With an individual player facing off a single opponent. Scenario one was 'Bloodbath' from the LR Rulebook. The second was 'Kill the Messenger' where an attacker had to escort a messenger figure across one side of the table to the other whilst the defender had to block him. The last one was a large battle of four players going two against two.

Dinner break didn't stop the Wargaming, and whilst we got stuck into the substantial fayre on offer outside we used the now notorious huge pink foam dice to do duels between individual leader figures (one of which was a berzerk looking court jester!!).

I'll not go into huge detail over each of the main games I played, but just to say I lost the first encounter and won the other two. A huge success for one so used to getting thoroughly trounced - and something I put down to my home made lucky Gargoyle battered markers.

In conclusion both myself and Simon came away with hugely positive feelings about the day. Personally I feel that it's a fantastic contribution to Wargaming as a community. It was fun, we met people from all over, chatted about the hobby, admired each others figures and both offered and gained advice on painting, tactics and countless other things. Absolutely brilliant!