The Sacred Eye Of St. Ivan

Oh those naughty Swedes! They've ransacked a church and stolen the Sacred Eye of St. Ivan! And now they're rushing back to their camp with their ill-gotten loot.

Fortunately a company of heroic Russians are on hand to deal with this heresy.

So here's a pointless exercise for a Sunday afternoon - playing out a Great Northern War scenario using 'Dragon Rampant' when a perfectly good copy of 'The Pikeman's Lament' was to hand. But I did it anyway.

The scenario was the Mole of St Ukkert, rebadged for the setting.

The Swedes gave The Eye to one of their cavalry units, reasoning that it could ride swiftly to the other corner before the Russians could stop them.

The Russians got off to a slow start in terms of activations.

The Swedish looters were already halfway across the table. Their other cavalry were sent to block Russian cavalry lurking behind the village.

A clash of sabres! The Russians got the worst of the casualties, thanks to the fierce Swedish charge, but the Swedes got the worst of the morale test.

The Russians had Cossacks, who were lurking behind the woods hoping to intercept the fleeing Swedes.

The Russian commander led his troops into range of the Swedes, but they couldn't form a decent firing line in time.

The rest of the Swedes were a bit strung out now - an effect of all of their activations being prioritised on getting the cavalry off the table.

The Cossacks skirmished with the Swedish horse, but failed to cause any casualties.

The Swedes swung past them, and escaped. End of game, and a resounding Swedish win.

I played it again, with the same setup. The Swedes got well across the table again, and the Cossacks got into an intercept position again.

The Russian response was a little more active in this game, whilst the remaining Swedes ended up milling around the church.

The Cossacks fired at the Swedes, who lost a man. It didn't slow them down though.

Meanwhile the Russian cavalry caught the Swedes on the trot, and inflicted a few hits on them

The Cossacks moved to block the exit point.

The Swedes charged, and the Cossacks failed to evade. As a result they were wiped out to a man.

The Swedes looked set to escape, but the Russians could clinch a draw if they could force a Swedish unit to fail a morale test, thus fulfilling the Russian quest objectives. Their cavalry charged the Swedes again, and inflicted hits, but the Swedish morale held. It was the Russians who retreated.

The Swedes escaped again.

I randomised quests in both games, dismissing any that didn't make sense in the context of the scenario. In the second game the Swedes were going to win without having achieved one of theirs, which would have given them 4 Glory in total. The Russians have 4 Glory-worth of quests, one of which involved not having more than one battered unit, which they achieved, and the other involving the Swedes failing the first morale check. Had they managed that, they would have drawn with the Swedes (who would have had to have delayed the exit of the cavalry in order to try and achieve their quest). That's the fun of the Rampant games sometimes - achieving the scenario objectives doesn't always give you the win, if the other side keeps an eye on quests.

The armies:

Swedes

2 x Heavy Foot with Enchanted Melee Weapons

2 x Heavy Riders with Enchanted Melee Weapons

1 x Heavy Missiles with Enchanted Shooting and Heavy Projectiles

I use my Enchanted Weapons variant where you always get one use of the ability, then have to roll a 6 on a D6 to retain it for the next use (and so on). For the missile units it represents a first volley. For the other units it represents an initial fierce charge.

Russians

3 x Heavy Missiles with Enchanted Shooting and Heavy Projectiles

1 x Heavy Foot
1 x Heavy Riders
1 x Light Riders

I fancy trying these forces in a straight head-to-head fight.