Spreading The Word By Fire And Sword; A Lion Rampant Mini Campaign

Intro     

     Well we, Danny and I, are back in the 13th century Baltic Duchy of Dannovia, for another game of Lion Rampant. Picking up on my last Lion Rampant post (which was, coincidentally, also my first Lion Rampant post; spooky eh?) we're continuing with our Baltic Crusades themed games.     
     Chronologically we're going back in time from the siege of the Castle Astrus, my previous post, to when the leader of my crusading force, Sir Digby De Baquille, first arrived in Dannovia to bring the light of Christianity to the pagans and, in the process, cleanse his soul of that unfeasably large sinful stain on his soul that he caused by being naughty in the extreme prior to setting off on crusade (and we're not talking overdue library books or serving cheap plonk to his guests here; no, much naughtier, but that's neither here nor there, let's get back to the plot).
     To achieve that return to the beginning, in a narrative sense, we chose to play the Sausages and Mustard scenario in which the attackers must burn the four objectives held by a detachment from the defenders force. This detachment must hold off the attackers till reinforcements arrive

     At the request of Bishop Bono of Bashir, Sir Digby has sent one of his most trusted and capable knights, Sir Hedley Grosse Tete, with a small retinue to flush out a nest of heretics in the small village of Spludge as they have been proving particularly resistant to the Word of the Lord. As a penance for continuing with their heretical ways and as a pointed suggestion to other communities in Dannovia that the Christian way is the safest way, it has been decided to burn down the village of Spludge. But it's one thing to say they are going to burn down the village, quite another to do it, as we shall see........

     

Sir Hedley Grosse Tete and his bold retinue

Eric Langenwanger, local pagan leader and his hearth guard

      Near the edge of the forest, Sir Hedley halted his retinue to await the return of his scouts. These had been sent forward to gather information of the defences, if any, of the small town of Spludge, a hotbed of pagans and heretics that Bishop Bono had been trying in vain to bring to Christianity. 
     The villagers had proven most unwelcoming to the bishop's emissaries; sending them back to Bishop Bono naked, shaved and daubed with sheep dung; a most distressing sight for the papal depute. He had, at the urging of Sir Digby De Baquille, agreed to adopt a different, more robust approach to the converting of these poor unworthies and consequently the thoroughly experienced Sir Hedley Grosse Tete and his men had been dispatched to bring Christianity with fire and sword to the pagans. And now Sir Hedley and his men had come to fulfill their mission. 
     The retinue, hidden by the gloom of the forest, didn't have long to wait before the scouts returned "Well, what news, Master Harry?" inquired Sir Hedley of the leader of the scouts. "Sire, the village is occupied. We saw a group of men armed with bows within the village" replied Harry Treadlightly, Sir Hedley's master scout. "Might not these men be locals; villagers, Master Harry?" Harry Treadlightly leaned on his bow and shook his head "No, sire, this is the harvest season, if you recall; all the men in the village would be away a-reaping; these men were relaxing; playing dice, drinking mead and making a nuisance of themselves with the local women folk from what we could see. They are strangers to these parts, I would wager my best hat on it, sire."   
     Sir Hedley pondered a short while for he knew how fond Master Treadlightly was of his hats "Tell me then, Master Harry, how many of these men; these stranger bowmen, are there? And tell me of the village; how large is it and how well defended it is? If indeed it is defended."
      Harry knelt down on the sandy soil of the forest floor and wiped a large area clear then proceeded to sketch in the sand with his forefinger "There's about a dozen bowmen, sire. The village; t'ain't a large place, sire....."

     The breathless serf was brought before a very bored Eric Langenwanger as he sat upon a stool by a fire in the longhouse of the wooden hillfort.
      Langenwanger was one of Lord Hardknakkas most trusted lieutenants and Hardknakkas had sent him and his men to garrison the hillfort to be on hand should the bothersome Christians attempt to bring their unwanted message to his lands and his people by force. 
     Being the time of the harvest, Lord Hardknakkas was short of men and, rather than levy the local populace to take the fight to the Christians and lose the harvest, he had sent some of his own men to act as a watch on the villages nearest the Christian territory from where they could react quickly to any further incursions by these unwanted visitors.

     "Well, what news, Gurth Lackarm? Is it the Christians?" said Eric. The one armed serf nodded "Aye, and this time it's not their holy men, Eric Woman Pleaser; they have sent warriors to our lands; you must come quickly! he continued. 

     At the word "warriors" Eric Lagenwanger leapt to his feet and reached for large axe that lay by his feet "Warriors!? By Odin' beard that's good news; men, to arms!! We have some guests to entertain and I don't wish to keep them waiting".....

Sir Hedley's force make the first move

Sir Hedley's mounted serjeant's trot boldly towards Spludge

..as his archers, seeing the enemy within Spludge and just within
range, let fly their shafts 

Sir Hedley and his companions get carried away with blood lust 
and approach the village by the most obvious route, along the 
track, which makes them a too tempting target for the archers
in the village. They soon show their prowess by whittling down
Sir Hedley's companions

The Dannovians reinforcements arrive in the shape of two groups 
of mounted serjeants and two of ferocious foot. One group of 
pagan horsemen make a beeline for Sir Hedley. Sir Hedley's 
archers show how good they are by striking down three of the
horsemen.

The pagan archers hold the village and prove a nuisance to 
the Christian forces while the villagers worry about the BIG
barrel of mead they had brewed especially for the harvest 
festival.

...while a group of expert foot serjeants, mercenaries who
have joined the crusade, under their leader Gilbert of 
Cockermouth prepare to do battle with one of the groups of
Langenwanger's Fierce Foot.

  

Dannovian Fierce Foot reinforce the line 

Quickly forming schiltron, the spear armed foot serjeants brace
themselves for the charge of the mounted pagan horsemen

Fierce Foot and expert Foot Serjeants take a brief breather
before continuing to bludgeon one another

Events appear to be overtaking Eric Langenwanger as his troops
reach the battle before him and he risks being named Eric
Laggardly

In spite of their best efforts, Sir Hedley and his companion can't quite
close with the enemy archers. His own archers provide some respite
for Sir Hedley as they target the enemy bowmen and start to cut
down their ranks

Finally Eric Langenwanger and his fierce foot reach the
battle field...

....and charge the now depleted ranks of the foot serjeants, who
 once more manage to get into schiltron formation just as the fierce
Dannovians charge and in a decisively brutal combat Eric
Langenwanger's men are broken. As a result of seeing their leader
laid low, the rest of Langenwangers men desert the battlefield,
leaving Sir Hedley and his battered force the victors. 

With enthusiastic ineptitude the crusaders set about winning
the hearts and minds of the locals by burning down the village

     Sir Hedley knelt in the churned up mud in the centre of the village, head bowed, and gave up a brief prayer of thanks to the Almighty as first whiff of burning thatch reached his nostrils. In the village, his men also gave up a communal prayer of thanks to the Almighty for their victory and the capture of a BIG barrel of prime Baltic mead, surely a sign of the righteousness of their cause and of their damned good luck.

     And that, my friends, is how Christianity was brought to the pagan lands of the Grand Duchy of Dannovia.....or was it? No, it took many, many more battles, not a few of which I will chronicle herein so sticketh around.

     And that, my friends, was a cracking battle that could have gone either way but the crusading Christians got a couple of lucky breaks against a very determined foe. The breaking of Langenwanger's fierce foot clinched it as this took their losses to over half the total points of the retinue and forced the remainder to take courage tests which ended up with only one unit prepared to fight on but to no avail as they were outnumbered by something or other to one.

    

     Credit where credit is due, Danny's men came on in a rush with no hesitation in their ranks, eager to let their axes taste Christian blood, and I thought it was a forgone conclusion after I had failed not a few activations but luck and a belief in the righteousness of their cause (and the promise of free prime Baltic mead in large quantities) held my forces together and they triumphed...this time. I'm sure, judging from the steely glint in Danny's eye at the end of the battle, that there are harder battles to come.

     My thanks to Danny for hosting the game and being such a spiffing opponent. There will be more Baltic Crusading in the future. In the meantime I'm thinking to add some more characters to the narrative including Bishop Bono of Bashir and Lord Hardknakkas daughter, who apparently is as tough as Hardknakkas men or so Danny tells me; we'll see.

Pip pip,

Jimbob