I have ordered Crossed Lances from Sally 4th, ans some plastics from Fireforge Games (Templars Cavalry and Infantry, and Foot Sergeants), to make some early feudal knights for the game.
Crossed Lances is rules for knightly tournaments, with jousting, melee, and archery (for the squires)
Each character needs to be done in 3 versions:
- Mounted, with Lance and Shield
- Mounted, with Hand Weapon and Shield
- Dismounted, with Hand Weapopn and Shield.
To make the knights useable for skirmish and/or battle games, too, I'll use the same gear and hand weapon for the mounted and dismounted versions.
I am presently looking for a solid ruleset to use for the games outside the tournament field, but I have some requirements that have to be met:
- Easy-to-learn, simple mechanics
- A minimum of record-keeping
- Minimum or no use of counters on the table
- Fast gameplay
- Some period flavour; I don't need the rules to reflect whether a warrior is using a sword or a mace, or whether he wears a full helmet or one with just a nose-guard, but rules for lance charges, longbows, crossbows, and the likes is a must!
Until further notice, I'll just use Song of Blades and Heroes, as it meets most of the above criteria, but I would like to find something made for historical gaming, instead of fantasy,
My main protagonist will start out as a newly knighted youngster who's been given a small hamlet to attend to by his feudal lord.
I am going to use this as an outline to build a small 'castle' consisting of just a stone house, and a courtyard surrounded by a wooden palisade. I'll then over time add a small hamlet, some fields, and the peasant familes to go with it. Over time, the hamlet should grow into a village, with a road inn, a mill, more houses, etc., etc.
The terrain will be used for games set around the knight, and, of course, for other settings, too.
I am going to build up an entourage of retainers over time, but I feel that the number of men-at-arms available to our knight should depend on the size and quality of his possessions.
Thus, depending on the ruleset chosen, I'll apply an upkeep allowance for each peasant hut/family, field, and other assets maintained by our hero.
Right now I'm fostering the idea to use some of the old sets of Mighty Empires I own to create a map of the area, but that is a future project.
As soon as I receive the Crossed Lances rules, I'll have to construct some jousting tills, some archery targets, and some enclosures for the close combat competitions, and parallel to that I'll get some knights assembled and painted.
This, of course, does not mean that I'm ditching my other ongoing projects, I'll just add this to the work I can switch between to avoid boredom.
And, really, having been ever a medieval afficionado, I think it was about time I started some 'real' medieval gaming...
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