Instead I set up, a game of Lion Rampant - working on the principal that it doesn't have magic to take into consideration and I could set up a game between hoplites - the player is bonkers about the Spartans – and Achaemenid Persians (because they were the only troops I had that were remotely contemporary with the Hoplites. I suppose that I could have used my Amazons but I wanted to keep it legitimate.
Both of these armies were originally collected for use with Warhammer Ancient Battles, so the units were big – there is no percentage in small units for WAB, though they also had bases that would allow them to be used for Wargames Research Group Ancients, these days – I wouldn’t do this but the Greek army looks so good, there’s no way I’m going to take it apart. I may do another one specifically for Lion Rampant if I can find enough figures.
I picked out two armies based on what I had of the Persians two units of Heavy Archers (Archers and Slingers in LR), two units of Heavy Foot (Yeomen Serjeants) for the Sparabara, and two units of light troops. There were also enough for two units of light cavalry (Mounted Yeomen).
As you can see, because we play mainly Dragon Rampant at our club, I tend to switch between the two in terms of definitions.
For the Greeks I gave the player four units of Heavy Foot (Foot Serjeants) two units of light troops – both of them archers, and two units of Mounted Yeomen.
The Achaemenids have the edge in bowmen – it being quite a “shooty” army, but the Greeks were very much what that player wanted so – hey ho!
So, when it came to set-up the Persian player (on the other side of the board) chose to set up his army fairly conventionally – for him. He plays Rampant games – a lot. He used what for him is a typical set-up. Horse on either wing, light troops inside of that, and the heavy foot in the middle. I did feel like he was missing his usual battery of wizards – which he uses like a mortar battery – but he was going have suck it up this time.
The Greek player – nearest to the camera plonked his lights on the left wing, his phalanxes inn the centre and concentrated his horse on the right wing.
After a first round where we played it strictly by the book – if you fail an activation roll for your troops, your whole move is over and the turn passes to your opponent, just so the new player understood what was going on, we went back to the way we usually play these games – you test the activation for the unit, but if you fail it you just move onto the next unit, until you’ve tested every unit you want to test.
After an hour or so we were in this situation.
The Persian player’s light horse have been savaged. Those on his left wing by the Greek cavalry (yes, yes, I know Greek light horse were that big on mounted archery but I had to even the armies out somehow), and those on the right by the Greek light foot troops. That got worse when the ones on the right got a battered marker (the token behind the unit) which stopped them dead in front of the Greeks, and the Persian player felt it was time to move his other horse to the right wing.
Elsewhere the Persian archers did what they do best and shot the Greek phalanxes to a stand-still. Even so, the Greek player managed to get in to hand-to-hand combat with a Persian unit, but by that time it was time to pack up.
I’m sorry there weren’t more pictures – everyone was quite absorbed in the game. Those involved quite enjoyed the game – which is what it’s all about really.
Thanks for looking in.
