the Miniature World of Mike Peters: June 2023

The Ambush

The fourth game of my Ruckus campaign with Jordan found Sir John de Barre seeking revenge on his arch enemy Sir Henry Graves for the humiliation he had suffered after being captured and held for Ransom. It could not be said that Sir John was a vengeful man but he would give his left arm to get his own back ...well…someone’s left arm.

Sir John plotted and schemed, probably rubbing his hands together and laughing maniacally and waited patiently until the last Thursday of the month, rent collecting day…Mwhahahah!

It is Thursday! Sir Henry has been collecting the Rent and is escorting his ill-gotten gains on mule back to his castle home with his Retinue. The road passes through the thick Forest of Shirewood, a dense forest well known to local outlaws and a prime place for an ambush. To prevent being waylaid on the main road, Sir Henry has hired a guide and some local peasants to lead his Retinue by one of the many lesser paths that wend their way through the Forest.

Sir Henry is not a modest man however, and word of his wealth has spread through the county. Sir John has heard tell of the gold is determined that it should be his. He gathers his Retinue and in small bands they patrol the Forest in eager anticipation of acquiring Graves Gold!

Sir Henry has been a mean landlord and his recent rent increases have not gone down well with the serfs, news of his recent haul of treasure has further annoyed them. Bands of angry peasants wander through the Forest looking to get their grubby hands on the treasure!

For this game we modified an existing scenario written for the Outlaw band. Sir John briefed his Squires and they set off in their spears. Dickon Codsock never showed up however, his Old Wound was playing up as he rolled a one and he spent the day with a leech

"The table should be liberally strewn with trees and clumps of foliage, small rocks broken walls and other pieces of cover, representing open woodland. There should be several areas of forest where the trees are particularly dense and the underbrush overgrown which are considered Hard Going. These areas should be 6-12” across and clearly defined. The table has a track running across it from one edge to the other, this should have at least two bends in it."

Sir Henry's mule train is led by a local man, goes by the name of Black Bart. If the Treachery card is played , he will reveal himself as the local peasant agitator and try to steal the gold.

Sir John's squire, Bill Squires , leads Garret Skinpole and Edmund Hood through the undergrowth to get in position

Sir John is coming down the road from the other direction , he has his Faithful Sergeant Symes and two archers Morian Dykes and Falchion Moor with him

Supremely confident in his fluted plate ,Sir Henry strides down the road at the head of his column, he has heard rumours of Outlaws and unruly peasants but thinks naught of it

Bill Squires assumes the position to the South of the road

Sir John is blocking the road, Bill Squires is in position and from the North Barton Fields is leading his contingent, Ivo, the Bill man, and the archers Marny Dirge and Robert Furcap.

No one can say that Sir Henry is a coward! He charges into the Ambush and attacks Bill Squires

They go at each other in a furious melee, Sir Henry has the edge but Squires gets a cruel blow in and both are wounded

Bill Squires Battle Fury skill helps him at first but Sir Henry is unstoppable and soon overcomes the Squire knocking him unconscious and out off the game

In the foreground John Hamlin leads his men over the small hill to the South of the road

Garret Skinpole and Edmund Hood deprived of Bill Squires leadership are marked as Feckless, a d6 will decide what action they perform next unless they are brought back into Command before the end of the turn

Sir John arrives in time to restore control and Edmund Hood shoots and hits Sir Henry twice. His famous fluted plate fails to save him and he is removed from the game.His Retinue are made of stern stuff they survive the Will to Fight test that is caused by Sir Henry's demise!

It is suspected that the Chronicler of this escapade may have dozed off on this hot sunny day as some of the pictorial evidence appears to be missing. Rumours biggest that John Hamlin charged Sir John's men behind the wall and either killed them or drove them off. He himself was then attacked by a now a somewhat rash de Barre, confident of having his revenge. However, he could never be called the luckiest of men , appearing to trip as he charged he was easily dispatched by the triumphant John Hamlin Or as BIG Marcus put it " I ain't never seen no dice nuffink like it!"

Sir John lies felled by John Hamlin

Sir John's fate may well have been decided before the game...

...luckily he had a Reroll card...oh!

To add to the misery of the de Barre crew a bunch of revolting peasants appeared and attacked them "full mightily"

Barton Fields and John Hamlin both wounded had a duel,that went back and forth it was a close thing but Barton topped out with a quick Thrust in a timely manner taking the green liveried squire out of the game

This game had more back and forthes than a Weston donkey, more ups and downs than a two groat doxie, the giant that is Bertram le Chance, known as that Bastard, came charging into Barton and the hottest fight of the game began with all to play for..

oh.... lucky he has another Reroll card

..er...

That bastard!

This was another excellent,exciting and amusing game, as Jordan put it "the situation changed not just turn by turn but play by play" We really had no idea who was going to win. It was an exceptionally hard fought and bloody contest, four of de Barres Retainers were Killed! I managed to capture two mules but the victorious Graves Retinue took them back.

Both of our Retinues have developed new skills however, at the end of the battle, when the dust had settled Sir Henry was nowhere to be found. It seems that an enterprising Edmund Hood having knocked Sir Henry out had dragged him from the field and he lies now a prisoner at Sir John's mercy.

We learnt a lot from this game and I will make few tweaks to the scenario which mostly worked well

A captain of Archers

I was fortunate enough to receive some marvelous figures from Martin Brook of 7th Son. Cast in a flexible non brittle resin these sculpts are absolutely fantastic. The stature and animation of these characterful figures are second to none and the detail is astonishing. Martin is working on a fourth figure, an archer armed for combat with buckler and sword, something that is defintitley missing from the market at the moment. The figures will be available from Martin's Etsy shop, RaggedeStaffMinis in the near future, hopefully by the end of the month.

I have painted him in fairly simple colours. I will use him as a Mercenary Captain in Ruckus

Sir John de Barre of Barrs Court is a War of the Roses Baron that lived just down the road from me. He is the principle character in my Ruckus Retinue, he has a sad time of it but he will no doubt perform much better in his new form.