The Quest for THE Rules, Part 2

Hello,

In the second instalment of Nephew Nick's and my quest to find the definitive set of rules for our forthcoming Dark Ages Ireland show game for 2017, we moved on from Games Workshop's "Lord of the Rings" set (which we liked overall, but had one or two reservations about), to another possibly suitable offering in the form of Dan Mersey's "Lion Rampant".

We have only tried this set out for a single game before, a quickly-arranged affair using my Late Medievals. I set up the forces, working out something that was vaguely Viking and something else that was vaguely Irish, and we set to.

I was most enthused by the idea of "Fierce Foot", but then discovered just how rubbish they are when defending! Nick placed great store in his huscarls, greatly aided by the fact that we used the Foot Men at Arms stats for them...

The Vikings won is all I will say for now.

Nephew Nick's Vikings set up ready to take it to the Irish. Those huscarls are ROCK HARD when counted as Foot Men At Arms. Perhaps a downgrade to Armour 3???

The Bhoys!

I used my Warlord and his "Fierce Foot" (he was "rash" in the game, so upgraded the unit he was with from their actual status) as a reinforcing unit to take advantage of my breakthrough in the centre...at least, that was the plan. It actually worked until I ran out of figures and he ended up having to take on all comers!

Nick's Vikings, with one or two of my figures knocking around somewhere.

The Warlord's unit broke through, but was overwhelmed in the end.


So, what did we think?

1. The rules were very quick and bloody, perhaps too much so! We may well be able to play this three or four times per show!!!
2. The rules worked well.
3. The Irish should all be fleet footed as per the rules, even the Fierce Foot, to allow for faster movement.
4. The Irish also deserve a job lot of javelins.
5. Viking huscarls are IMMENSE!!!
6. We have a plethora of ideas to enhance the game with mini-scenarios within the main game, different victory conditions and so on.
7. We can easily accommodate several players per side, which would allow us to have some participation element.
8. WE LIKED THESE RULES A LOT!

It is debateable whether we will continue our quest having found "Lion Rampant" to our liking so much, but something like "Legends of the High Seas", basic (i.e. 1st Edition-ish) Warhammer and no doubt a few others may yet get a try out. Hmmm.

G