He who fights and runs away……

Which wargamer could resist the allure of the Tales of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men? Swash-buckling adventure in a time when it wasn’t frowned upon for men to wear tights. What started out as a run of the mill introduction to another set of rules got me planning a whole campaign with the innovative and exciting “Lions Rampant” from Osprey publishing. What follows is an account of our first game but I’m hopeful that it won’t be our last.

Hurrah for Merrie Englande!

Ross the professional figure painter of Rossfigurepainting☺️, set up the scenario and provided the figures. The rules are easy to pick up and we were playing within minutes. Lions Rampant has quite a retro feel but it is perfectly suited to Hollywood style adventures. Each unit is between six and twelve figures and what is more, doesn’t require special dice or faction tables.

We were embarking on the Convoy scenario found in the rulebook. Roger’s evil Normans had to escort three VIPs, Saracen  emissaries to the duplicitous King John no doubt. Our freedom fighters had to stop the convoy and “convince” the Easterners to give us our rightful King back. Roger’s escort comprised two units of mounted men-at-arms, two units of foot yeomen, one unit of twelve crossbowmen and a six man unit of bidowers. For more information on the role of bidowers see the excellent Arcane Models blog.

Overconfident John’s lackeys!

As we were early in the career of Robin, we assembled a wider variety of figures than the lists, also in the book, stipulate. The forces comprised two units of hard fighting yeomen ( a mix of forest revolutionaries and the tenants of Robin’s father ( who is on Crusade with King Richard of course), one unit of archers, one of crossbows( again from Earl Locksley’s estate) and six bidowers with javelin. Ross ‘ ‘javelins have to be seen to be believed! I do hope he ‘so not overcompensating for some shortfall elsewhere?

Coming from Canton in Cardiff, my partner Chris was of course well grounded in guerrilla warfare. Our deployment was based on using the Earl’s household troops to spring an initial ambush from the Southern forest. I would wait with Robin in the marshes to the South West that Roger would have to pass on his way off the table. To the North were the Earl’s mounted men at arms and our forester bidowers.

Read how the action played out in our special bank-holiday episode of Robin Hood and the convoy!