Lion Rampant - Danish Warhost

A knight of the House of Trolle (with a strong Danish allegiance)

Miniature from Fire-Forge's "Teutonic" box.

My previous visit to Copenhagen and the DFFcon gaming convention was a much cherished chance to finally game with the Scanian War collection I've been building for some 8 or 9 months, but apart from being the apex of expectations the weekend abroad also opened my eyes to new and uncharted rules and periods. 

Lion Rampant.

The best skirmish rules I've played to date.

Michael and Jonas from our local gaming club here in Stockholm both contributed in the development of an exciting new set of skirmish rules, Lion Rampant, published by renown Osprey. After the fate of Scania had been thoroughly decided, Michael changed the table terrain setup, and offered me and my uncle a chance to roll some dice and test these new rules using some of Michael's extensive medieval collection.

Foot soldiers serving the house of Trolle.

Miniatures from Fire-Forge's Foot Sergeants.

Lion Rampant was a real eye-opener to me. It's really the best and smoothest running skirmish rules I've tried so far. Needless to say, the encouraging gaming experience at the convention had us talking on the train back to Stockholm, brain storming on ideas for how to string together an overall narrative, linking single skirmishes together. 

Bardings, knights and lances.

What more can you wish for as a miniatures painter?

Together with experienced gamer Jesper, we decided to use a Swedish Medieval conflict called "Håtunaleken"from 1306 as our source of inspiration. The reason is that this conflict between feudal lords later became a board game - similar in styles and setup with the PC game "Defender of the Crown". So, using the board game map complete with factions, territories, castles and cities and with the actual historical narrative, we had the framework for an interesting club project. All each player had to do, was to each pick a feudal family, and start painting. Using Michael's experience we decided to start off with a simple 12 point army, which is still enough to give you 2-4 units on the table.

Each noble family in the Håtunaleken conflict will have their own activation card.

Here is the one I threw together for the Trolle family.

As the Danes generally found it hard to leave the Swedes to their own during the Medieval period, and there was plenty of Danish interference in this conflict too, I had no shortage of red-and-white noble families to choose from. However, one Dano-Swedish noble family was special to me - the Trolle family.

Herlufsholm Boarding School.

 Næstved, Denmark.

The Trolle heraldry clearly part of the historical heritage of the boarding school. 

Having spent part of my high-school studies at the Herlufsholm Boarding School, founded 1565 by Herluf Trolle, and situated in an amazing old historic estate, I found it my natural calling to field the eye-catching heraldry of the Trolle family - a beheaded troll carrying its own head.

Only really ludomaniac knights carry their own Chess board into battle.

My warhost will contain a mix of knights, some solid foot soldiers and a small prowling gang of skirmishers. A good mix of punch, movement and firepower to soften the enemy. Painting is frenetic, as I plan to lead my host to it's first conquest in just a few weeks time.

I leave you here with the results so far.

Thank you very much for reading!