Medieval Mayhem - A Barons War Project

Over the last year or so I have been getting more and more interested in Medieval history. I have been listening to audiobooks, acquiring books on various armies of the medieval period. This started with the building of a 15mm Portuguese army for Mortem et Gloriam, which was followed by a trip to Portugal and a guided tour of some of the Templar sights.

Anyway it got me thinking I would like to do a campaign for our gaming club. I started off thinking about using MeG but then I decided I wanted something a bit more low level. I wanted to set the campaign in our county of Bedfordshire. I wanted to be able to get several games in a single session of the club. So it quickly became clear I needed a set of rules that could be a bit more skirmish like.

Looking around there were two options that suited what I was looking for. This was Lion Rampant and The Barons War  I ordered both sets to read and decide on which to choose.

Lion Rampant – the medieval version of the Rampant rules series from Osprey. I have played other variants such as Xenos Rampant and Pikemans Lament. The pros of this were they were easy to play and everyone at the club would enjoy. The cons they didn’t quite have the flavour I wanted feeling a bit too generic and there would be the tendancy to want to creep into chunky units.

The Barons War – these were a new set of rules to me and specifically designed for the period I am interested in playing. The pros are that they seem to be a bit more flavoursome, with almost a movie style. They played with small units and quite fast. The cons are they are slightly more complex and I would need to teach my club mates how to play.

After some deliberation and a play test of Barons War I decided that these would be the rules I would use.

I am actually creating this project sat in sunny Florida on vacation with a cocktail by the pool…it’s a hard life but hey sometimes you got to relax away from life.

Stil as much as I am getting away from things I am getting hobby withdrawal so that is why I am creating this blog..lol

Anyway the barons war action plan I have decided that this will be split into three types of entry.

1. The gaming in which I will plan the games/ campaigns of Barons War
2. The Miniatures – discussing the Miniatures I paint and why I have chosen them.
3. Terrain – Barons war requires lots of terrain and I do enjoy a bit of terrain making.

The order of what I plan to do in terms of getting my club involved. Is to start small with introduction games. Before running a campaign at the club hopefully later on this year, or early next year.

Terrain Ideas

So far I have a Church, a Castle and  water mill. I also have a couple of houses that were precast out if plaster.

But going forward I am thinking of creating the following buildings

• Blacksmith
• Inn or Tavern or both
• Barn
• Farmhouse
• Bakery
• Fletcher’s
• More houses
• Market stalls

If anyone has any other suggestions please feel free to drop them in the comments.