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Osprey Wargames #8
Lion Rampant - Medieval Wargaming Rules
"Lion Rampant" is a set of rules designed for fighting historical or Hollywood battles in the medieval period from the Norman Conquest to the Hundred Years' War. This period is well suited to large skirmish gaming as played with "Lion Rampant" as it was a time of anarchy, feuds, robbery, and raiding. Become Robin Hood, Richard the Lionheart, Gamelyn, William Wallace, Llewellyn the Last, or other legends and leaders from the colorful, dangerous medieval period.
Lion Rampant is ideal for players who wish to collect medieval miniatures without wanting to muster huge forces or spend time learning complex rules.
Gameplay is very simple, and requires the player to use units in the correct tactical way: knights are great at charging down enemies but less useful for guarding convoys, while spearmen are jacks of all trades and masters of none, and bowmen are to be feared at distance but easily cut down if you can get close enough. An army usually consists of 6-8 units comprised of 6-12 individually based figures (making it ideal for 15mm or 28mm games), and is led by a Leader, who may have some unique character traits that affect game play and provide some opportunity for role playing. The action, however, focuses very much on the small units involved in the battle rather than individual characters: each unit moves and fights independently, assuming that they follow your orders rather than just doing their own thing. Command and control is just as important on the battlefield as the power of a mounted knight.
Some army lists are provided, and guidance given for players seeking to create their own forces, but this game is not army list-heavy. The rules include a good number of scenarios, which are important to this style of gaming.
Lion Rampant is ideal for players who wish to collect medieval miniatures without wanting to muster huge forces or spend time learning complex rules.
Gameplay is very simple, and requires the player to use units in the correct tactical way: knights are great at charging down enemies but less useful for guarding convoys, while spearmen are jacks of all trades and masters of none, and bowmen are to be feared at distance but easily cut down if you can get close enough. An army usually consists of 6-8 units comprised of 6-12 individually based figures (making it ideal for 15mm or 28mm games), and is led by a Leader, who may have some unique character traits that affect game play and provide some opportunity for role playing. The action, however, focuses very much on the small units involved in the battle rather than individual characters: each unit moves and fights independently, assuming that they follow your orders rather than just doing their own thing. Command and control is just as important on the battlefield as the power of a mounted knight.
Some army lists are provided, and guidance given for players seeking to create their own forces, but this game is not army list-heavy. The rules include a good number of scenarios, which are important to this style of gaming.
64 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 20, 2023
I liked this book. I first bought Dragon Rampant which is pretty much the same rules dusted with fantasy. I liked the simplicity of the rules and the style as well as the production. They are beautiful books with beautiful miniature photographs.
Lion Rampant is a set of medieval wargame and miniature rules. It’s about 54 pages and seems pretty complete. It uses only six-sided dice which I appreciate. The miniatures are very abstracted, coming down to “Mounted Yeoman”, “Foot Yeomen” and “Bidower” units. And no, it doesn’t tell you what a ‘bidower’ is.
These units have varying numbers of figures but the rules say they are about 40-60 figures per side. How they are broken up is a little fuzzy to me and it really doesn’t seem to matter for in most cases, you will deal with the unit as a whole group of figures rather than individually.
Losses (ie, deaths) remove units individually and certain rules for movement and taking cover deal with individual unit but in a very easy to use manner. The rules were very light and yet not hand-wavy. It just isn’t overly fiddly which I also appreciate a lot. The rules are simple to play by anyone I can think of.
Units are activated (get to take a turn) based on a die roll. So it’s possible (and I’ve played games where it happened), where you could play three turns and never get to move a single figure. You keep rolling for every unit and the first time you fail, your turn stops. Including on your first roll for activation.
This is a deal breaker for some and just the breaks for others. Everything has been simplified to provide a good medieval game without a lot (or any) rules references or arguments. It’s all very straight forward. The units are a set of points, so it should be fair for both sides and there is a little bit of customization allowed in Leaders, but not much (about 11 skills rolled randomly), and units can be ‘upgraded’ with a couple of different weapon choices.
But it isn’t the kind of game where you can twiddle with simulating the weapon load out of a historical army. All in all it’s a good game with a limited scope. I’d play it if invited but honestly I don’t think I’d choose it over other miniature games. But for a low-stress no arguments, lets get in and play and not take 4 hours per game, I think it’s a really good choice with a pretty flexible rule set.
It does have the annoying habit of using obscure words without defining them. Snobbery or laziness? You decide.
It also has a very cool special rule called “Boasts”. It gives you additional ways to win ‘Glory’ by giving additional conditions that if you succeed, earns more points towards victory. So you can in fact fail the scenario, but win the battle by having more Glory at the end. Boasts are goals like slaying the leader, killing more enemies with ranged attacks than melee attacks or making the enemy run away. Very cool stuff that makes each scenario more flexible.
I dislike that the scenarios only describe the way the table should be setup without actually illustrating it.
The last chapter is a list of 24 point ‘squads’ rather than whole Army lists. There are even a few non-historical lists. Robin Hood, King Arthur and a Good and Evil fantasy list.
This illustrates that really since the units are all standardized, the particulars of the squads are really interchangeable. In a beer-and-pretzel game this can be considered a feature, and Lion Rampant has never claimed to be strictly historical. But it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Army building should ideally be a fun exercise for a miniature game. In this game it’s pointless. I’d give it three stars.
It’s innate simplicity and standardization is a bonus. It’s boardgame like simplicity and standardization is also a negative.
I’d play it, but I wouldn’t suggest it.
Lion Rampant is a set of medieval wargame and miniature rules. It’s about 54 pages and seems pretty complete. It uses only six-sided dice which I appreciate. The miniatures are very abstracted, coming down to “Mounted Yeoman”, “Foot Yeomen” and “Bidower” units. And no, it doesn’t tell you what a ‘bidower’ is.
These units have varying numbers of figures but the rules say they are about 40-60 figures per side. How they are broken up is a little fuzzy to me and it really doesn’t seem to matter for in most cases, you will deal with the unit as a whole group of figures rather than individually.
Losses (ie, deaths) remove units individually and certain rules for movement and taking cover deal with individual unit but in a very easy to use manner. The rules were very light and yet not hand-wavy. It just isn’t overly fiddly which I also appreciate a lot. The rules are simple to play by anyone I can think of.
Units are activated (get to take a turn) based on a die roll. So it’s possible (and I’ve played games where it happened), where you could play three turns and never get to move a single figure. You keep rolling for every unit and the first time you fail, your turn stops. Including on your first roll for activation.
This is a deal breaker for some and just the breaks for others. Everything has been simplified to provide a good medieval game without a lot (or any) rules references or arguments. It’s all very straight forward. The units are a set of points, so it should be fair for both sides and there is a little bit of customization allowed in Leaders, but not much (about 11 skills rolled randomly), and units can be ‘upgraded’ with a couple of different weapon choices.
But it isn’t the kind of game where you can twiddle with simulating the weapon load out of a historical army. All in all it’s a good game with a limited scope. I’d play it if invited but honestly I don’t think I’d choose it over other miniature games. But for a low-stress no arguments, lets get in and play and not take 4 hours per game, I think it’s a really good choice with a pretty flexible rule set.
It does have the annoying habit of using obscure words without defining them. Snobbery or laziness? You decide.
It also has a very cool special rule called “Boasts”. It gives you additional ways to win ‘Glory’ by giving additional conditions that if you succeed, earns more points towards victory. So you can in fact fail the scenario, but win the battle by having more Glory at the end. Boasts are goals like slaying the leader, killing more enemies with ranged attacks than melee attacks or making the enemy run away. Very cool stuff that makes each scenario more flexible.
I dislike that the scenarios only describe the way the table should be setup without actually illustrating it.
The last chapter is a list of 24 point ‘squads’ rather than whole Army lists. There are even a few non-historical lists. Robin Hood, King Arthur and a Good and Evil fantasy list.
This illustrates that really since the units are all standardized, the particulars of the squads are really interchangeable. In a beer-and-pretzel game this can be considered a feature, and Lion Rampant has never claimed to be strictly historical. But it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Army building should ideally be a fun exercise for a miniature game. In this game it’s pointless. I’d give it three stars.
It’s innate simplicity and standardization is a bonus. It’s boardgame like simplicity and standardization is also a negative.
I’d play it, but I wouldn’t suggest it.
July 4, 2021
"Lion Rampant" is a set of rules designed for fighting historical or Hollywood battles in the medieval period from the Norman Conquest to the Hundred Years' War. This period is well suited to large skirmish gaming as played with "Lion Rampant" as it was a time of anarchy, feuds, robbery, and raiding. Become Robin Hood, Richard the Lionheart, Gamelyn, William Wallace, Llewellyn the Last, or other legends and leaders from the colorful, dangerous medieval period.
Lion Rampant is ideal for players who wish to collect medieval miniatures without wanting to muster huge forces or spend time learning complex rules.
Gameplay is very simple, and requires the player to use units in the correct tactical way: knights are great at charging down enemies but less useful for guarding convoys, while spearmen are jacks of all trades and masters of none, and bowmen are to be feared at distance but easily cut down if you can get close enough. An army usually consists of 6-8 units comprised of 6-12 individually based figures (making it ideal for 15mm or 28mm games), and is led by a Leader, who may have some unique character traits that affect game play and provide some opportunity for role playing. The action, however, focuses very much on the small units involved in the battle rather than individual characters: each unit moves and fights independently, assuming that they follow your orders rather than just doing their own thing. Command and control is just as important on the battlefield as the power of a mounted knight.
Some army lists are provided, and guidance given for players seeking to create their own forces, but this game is not army list-heavy. The rules include a good number of scenarios, which are important to this style of gaming.
October 1, 2021
Probably my favourite historical wargames rules. Simple to play and easy to change to have different house rules
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews