The Raid -Another Ruckus Scenario

 

The Raid

The Hundred Years War campaign continues…

We decided to play the Raid from the main rule set next as it fits quite nicely with the campaign and it has not yet been play-tested.

The Story So Far A Retinue launches a Raid into enemy territory, taking as much of value as they can and burning and pillaging as they go. The Alarum has been raised and the local Captain is on his way!

The Set-Up A rural setting. The table should be liberally strewn with small walled and fenced fields, animal pens, sties, eel ponds, orchards and maybe a Farm House or a few scattered cottages representing prime farmland. 9 objective markers are placed evenly across the board, one in the centre and the others at least 12” or so apart and surrounding the central marker in a circle or a box shape

Each animal is an objective marker and represents the Booty! A deck of cards, the Booty Deck, is prepared with 6 black cards representing Booty in the form of ducks, sheep, honey, a complacent Longhorn Bull and other movable assets and three red cards representing Resistance from the locals, Angry Peasants, a local village head man, a furious Longhorn Bull bull…

Rob’s English enter the table

“Look! A cow!”

   “Shoot it!”

   “No, you fool, tis Booty!”

Rob is trying a slightly different set up with two men at arms and fewer archers.

 Enter Gui Seigneur de Roche Guyon and his Gendarmes, Bernards de Mantes Jolies is having a nice lie down after his nasty fall from his horse in the last encounter. The unstoppable Gui has become even more monstrous Prowess 4 Health 4 he has since added Berserk Rage

Enter the crossbows…the Laurel and Hardy team of the Ruckus world, they are totally inept and may need a buff of some kind, in a game where points are used for game balance, these guys would be very cheap…something to think about

The Spears, not quite as useless as the crossbows, I suspect they might do better with shields, once they deploy Pavise they are stationary.  They would probably come into their own with dismounted men at arms to support

A brave sight as they thunder through the little hamlet 

Oxford feels drawn to the sheep…

Imminent arrow storm!

“Can I shoot it now?”

“And how will we get it home? Drive it with a stick!”

Long Legs the Archer has two skills Odds Bodkins which means he can pick targets at long range rather than randomising his hits and Strong in t’Arm which increases his range…verily he is a medieval sniper! Luckily I got the Special event "Hic!" and played it on him! This character has been heavily imbibing of the local fermented produce and becomes Feckless even when in command 5,6 = pick a fight with the nearest character -friend or foe! 

While the riff-raff secures the farm, Gui leads his gendarmes to look for a fight

the bigger picture. Two volleys of arrows hit the Gendarmes. Laurens and Ponset’s horses are hit and they both bolt

When Ruckus horses bolt they do so spectacularly and in a random direction, Laurens horse takes him straight to de Vere

Ponset’s horse carries him off into another hail of arrows that brings him down and takes him out of the game

Meanwhile the Earl takes out Laurens

Gui takes out a squire but picks up a Wound, he takes two more before he triumphed in the melee, a tough fighter this Englishman!

Gui’s charges a billman and takes him down, his Berserk Rage kicks in and he charges Oxford

The Doughty Earl takes him down!

Here’s Denis. He became Feckless very early in the game and spent three turns counting his toes before deciding to catch up with the others and join in the fray

By this time the English had snatched three booties and removed them from the table. Raid is a real snatch and run game, but as you get more Booty so the Retinue gets smaller 

 

The hapless crossbows deploy their pavises...well...it gives them something to do

The Spear men burst out of the Farmhouse, Jehan fails a Mishap for sprinting and becomes winded denoted by the purple counter

“Look boys! Target practice!”  Spearman Perrin soon resembles a pin cushion

And to add to their grief Rob plays an ambush card and the angry family that had been hiding in the farm house emerge to ladle out the laldy! Sergeant Cardin is soon Wounded and when he is taken out of the game the French have lost half the force. They roll their Will to Fight test and roll 4, they rout from the table leaving the English victorious!

This was a good fun game; Lady Luck redressed the balance of the previous two games and sat solidly at Robs’ end of the table! The scenario played well I thought. Rob took a magnificent, complacent longhorn bull, a small flock of sheep, a quack of ducks and a hive of honey to earn 11 Prestige Points. I retained some pigs and cluck of chickens so scored 4 Prestige Points. As Rob won the game he scored a total of 21 PP and I scored a total of 9.

This seemed to work well enough. The idea is to play the scenario again with the French as the Raider. After three games in the campaign, Rob is leading 31 PP to my 29.

Every game is a learning experience and although the main rules are pretty much finished , I made few tweaks to the campaign rules, the rules for Steeds and the Hundred Year War supplement