Here's the Ruckus Game

We played a four player game of Here's The Ruckus. The scenario (loosely based on the assassination of Thomas Becket) is that a certain fat friar has offended the local grandee: two players have to defend him with their knights and men at arms, and two players have to break into the compound and ... how shall we put it, have a stern talk with him.

The fat friar has holed up in the chapel, and the defenders have barricaded the gates. Beautiful piece of terrain the chapel, with a decorated interior shown here with the roof off, and a bell tower with a small bell!

One group of attackers approaches with a ladder to scale the walls. These are my figures that I'd just finished painting.

A defending crossbowman peers over the wall at another group of knights approaching through the woods.

Two more parties approach through a vineyard carrying a battering ram and a scaling ladder.

There was fierce fighting at the gates as the defenders brace against the door to absorb the impact of the battering ram.

3 ladders were thrown agains the wall, for a total of 4 points of attempted entry for the defenders to deal with. The mechanics of the scenario meant the the door had 3 points of damage that the attackers had to take down before it broke, while the ladders meant that only one soldier could cross the wall (and fight) at a time.

Meanwhile, one of the attacking crossbowmen, having been left out of command range of his leader, fails a test and flees off board. At least he had managed to shoot the defending crossbowman before running away, so we supposed that that was his job done for the day, and he deserved a break!

The attackers took quite a few casualties, and failed to breach the compound by the 10 turn limit that was set for the scenario: the gate remained standing, and while several attackers had scaled the walls via the ladders, they'd been surrounded and cut down on the other side. So, technically a loss for the attackers - however, to see how things played out, we carried on, and by turn 12, the gate had been breached, and the tide turned against the defenders.

That by itself may not have been decisive as the attackers had taken quite a few casualties at this point - but the sudden appearance of a mob of opportunistic pitchfork-wielding peasants, eager to settle their own grievances, meant that the defenders were pushed back again. In the end we decided that the defenders would have asked for parley and negotiated, and we ended the game.

All in all, a fun game, and we got to use the 28mm Baron's War miniatures we'd painted. Here's a bonus photo of the figures I'd painted, taken on a sunny day.