Spring 990 - The Battle of Crabgrass Meadow

Brother Superior, the Grand-Master of the Brethren, climbed wearily onto the rocky outcrop. The faces of the surviving Brethren looked at him, hope still in many of the weary eyes.

It had been two days since the battle of Crabgrass Meadow. He had chosen their last battlefield well, with a single narrow crossing of River Hogan and set his forces on the high ground of Mount McManus. Sadly he knew his own impetuousness had cost them dearly. Since then they had been retreating further and further.

He took off his helmet and wiped his head with his hand. Then looked into the faces of the men before him.

“Brothers and fellow Brethren, it is with a heavy heart I stand before you. You have all fought hard and well. I have just come from speaking to the Treyine General and have reached an agreement with him. The Rock will now become part of the Treyine Empire.”

He paused while this news sank in. A few murmured disbelief, but most just looked blankly at him. A few even seemed to look relieved, which he could understand.

“The Red Sun still has a purpose for us.” He began again. “ Although we will no longer run the border area, we shall still have a presence. Treyine will allow us to maintain our chapels and preceptories, but in a much reduced state. No chapel may have more than 20 Brother Knights and 100 Brother Sergeants at any one time. We must also pledge our loyalty to King Edward IV.”

Again he paused while the murmuring died down.

“I know this is a bitter pill for many of you to swallow, but we will still be able to do bring the Sun's light to bear and protect this land from the Goblins and Orcs. If any of you cannot do this, you have a choice. The prisons of Treyine or Brother Blitzenhosen is leading a party into Zog-Rot and on to Naz-Goth to set up a new land for the Brethren. I myself have given my word to the Treyine that I shall return to them and act as hostage for remaining Brethrens' behaviour. Thank you for your bravery and loyalty. Continue to do The Sun's work and may It's Light shine on you whichever way you travel.”

With that Brother Superior climbed down, mounted his horse and rode towards the Treyine camp in the distance.

The Battle
The terrain consisted of a large hill on the Treyine left flank that was never a feature of the action. A smaller hill lay in the centre of the Brethren deployment zone. An unfordable river crossed the battlefield. It could only be crossed at the bridge. Other than these features the terrain was largely flat.

The Brethren had chosen to place their infantry on Mount McManus, while the cavalry waited to catch anyone unwary enough to try crossing the bridge. Naturally, the Hykar ponywomen obliged by galloping across the bridge, ribbons streaming in the wind and cavorting lasciviously in front of the Brethren, whose vow of celibacy might have wavered a little that day. Sir Geoffrey Chambers led his own mercenary knights and the Troplian Equites over the bridge somewhat more sedately, but with no less determination.


Battle was joined. The Brother Knights and Sergeants eagerly joined the fray, knowing that they outnumbered the enemy at this time. A small unit of peasant archers also advanced on the Hykari ponygirls, who only noticed them at the last minute.


Sir Geoffrey fought off the Sergeants, who could not withstand the assault of his hardened mercenaries, while simultaneously holding his ground against Brother Superior and the flower of Brethren chivalry. The Tropilian Equites acquitted themselves less nobly and many died trying to cross the river. As this fight was going on Sir Alaric Fitzhugh was following the dashing Sir Geoffrey across the bridge and two units of mercenary handgunners were also manoeuvring to cross the bridge. Meanwhile the arrows of the Hykari slatterns had driven off the peasant archers.


The fighting was hard in front of the bridge. Sir Alaric drove off a unit of Brethren just as the other unit rejoined the fray. Brother Superior's own Brethren Knights charged once more at Sir Geoffrey and crushed his knights, who were now exhausted. They routed and Brother Superior pursued right into the first unit of handgunners who were now on the bridge. Their guns crashed. Knights and horses fell, but it was not enough. The handgunners were ridden down. Flushed with success, Brother Superior lead the charge into the second unit of handgunners, who were also ridden down, but again at the cost of some knights and horses. The charge continued towards a line of stout Treyine yeomanry. The yeoman archers loosed their arrows at the oncoming knights and this final volley was too much for them. Brother Superior's horse spooked and ran from the arrows. His knights followed and the Brother Sergeants joined the rout.


With the Brethren general and knights gone, the Treyine army formed up into column and began to troop across the bridge as the Hykari valkyries raced towards the Brethren infantry on the hill. Screaming and baring their chests they taunted the Brethren. While they did so Sir Alaric was marching his band of stout hearts towards the men on the hill.


Sir Alaric reached the Brethren line in time to realise that a Cleric stood among the ranks of the spearmen. A blast of eldritch sunfire flew from the Cleric towards Sir Alaric but his squire dived between them, taking the full force of the blast. Sir Alaric was enraged and charged the Cleric and his men down. The force of his fury was too great to bear and the Brethren spears fled.


Another unit of Brethren heavy infantry could take no more of the Hykari taunting. The raced down the hill in pursuit of the bare-breasted myrmidons, panting slightly and feeling strange urges in their codpieces. Unfortunately, as they approached the Hykari swiftly rode away from them, drawing them from the cover of the hill. While they did this, Sir Alaric turned to his right and rode down the spearmen that now stood in his way. His wrath was not yet fully assuaged.


The girls danced around the unit that was chasing them, while Treyine longbowmen took up position to bombard the troops on the hill. Sir Alaric took advantage of the distraction caused by the Hykari to charge and rout the spearmen.


With the archers now flooding across the river, it became clear to the remaining Brethren that their position was untenable. They surrendered.

This was our second RRtK game and it went more smoothly than the first.

Magic feels very different and much weaker because of the reduction in range and the changes to the way that it is cast.

Massed missile fire is deadly. The Brethren general basically destroyed three units in one turn but was brought down in the end by the casualties already taken and the power of the Treyine longbows.

Skirmish troops seem more effective now too. They are able to run up to troops, harass them, draw them out of line and then evade more easily than they could previously, or so it appears.

Heroes are massively powerful. One hero can destroy a standard unit of infantry really easily with little fear for his own life. The Blast spell from the Cleric caused the only hit on the hero that any unit took. The main problem is their high armour class. The only way to defeat a hero with AC8 is to mob him with several units, which can prove difficult, especially if the hero dictates the pace of the game. The other option would be to shoot him to bits. Massed missile fire should be able to hurt a hero quite badly if you can bring it to bear.

The Capalan League

To call someone Capalan is to call them devious and treacherous. The Capalan League is known for its dirty politics that rely on assassination more than merit as a means of promotion. This then is the nation that will be joining the campaign in Spring 991.



Its army consists of the wealthier and better quality Knights (front left) and the City Knights (second row left), who are not as well-seasoned in battle. Woe betide you if you let them get behind you though. They are more than familiar with using a soft word and a knife in the back to achieve their ends.

The guard unit (front row right) is the best quality infantry they have, but they only get one of those. The bulk of the infantry are city spearmen (second row right), who are supported by city crossbowmen (third row left). The contadini infantry (third row right) and contadini archers (fourth row right) provide additional support, while mercenary arquebusiers (back) are sometimes used for shock value. The infantry are uniformly of poor quality and the army relies on its knights to win battles with shock and awe tactics.

With the demise of both the Border Kingdoms and Ekra I had two armies that were no longer involved in the campaign so I allocated suitable elements of each army to the Capalan League. This expands our campaign again and gives me the opportunity to keep all my figures in play. The front row of knights are some that I painted in a more Italianate style recently. I am quite interested in putting together an army for fifteenth-century Italy but the lack of a full range of suitable 6mm figures has put me off so far.

Spring 990 - R-Ekra-iem for the Masses

Altengard had invaded Ekra and the Ekrans had rallied every last man capable of carrying a weapon or even a large lump of wood. They had gathered near the small village of Clair de la Lune. As usual the knights took the position of honour on the right of the Ekran line while the Altengardian knights clearly had no class because they deployed in the centre of their line, thus giving precedence to the light horse on their right flank. No class, these Altengardians.


Unfortunately, the Ekrans had been caught on the hop and the Altengard light horse was able to rampage around their flank and into their rear with only the Ekran peasants and crossbowmen to hold them up a little. There was only one thing to do: Charge! The Ekran knights charged towards the Altengard handgunners but were repulsed with losses. On the left flank the peasants drove off one of the Altengard light horse and the infantry was able to repulse the Altengard knights and the hero.


Trying to salvage something from the wreckage the flower of Ekran nobility charged again. Their general sought out his opposite number among the enemy and sought to reach him and cut him down in a bid to demoralise the enemy and regain the initiative but it was not to be. His valiant charge was repulsed easily and he was driven back. The enemy general pursued and caught him. In the ensuing rout many Ekran knights were cut down and others fled the field. In the end only one blissfully unaware unit of peasants remained on the field (circled in blue). The battle was over and Ekra was no more. The only slight consolation was that the enemy wizard had given himself a massive migraine the first time that he tried to cast a spell and had to leave the field as a result.


This was our first campaign battle using Rally Round The King. It was good fun and the rules were familiar enough to us from having played Warrior Heroes so much but they also felt different. The rules feel tighter than Warrior Heroes and magic is handled quite differently. Based on our initial experience, you really need more than just one level 1 wizard in your army if you want to cast any spells. This makes magic harder to use and probably much less powerful than in Warrior Heroes. Overall though RRTK clearly gives us what we want in a game. We just need to get our heads round the differences between it and WH.

Spring 990 - Planting in Alwinton

Ragnar spent a peaceful spring helping in the village to replant the ravaged fields and fettle the apple trees. His people also helped to rebuild the houses properly. The village was back to its old self, but with slightly fewer people. Still the future was looking better now and the local militia were back training each week. With the worst of the Goblin depredations dealt with some of the young men took to thinking about revenge and asked Ragnar if there were room in his group for more warriors. Edmund and Alfred were the names of the two archers that joined the group. Perhaps, thought Ragnar, he should head out in search of fame and fortune once more come the summer.

Spring 990 - Campaign Update

With the close of winter, the campaigning season begins again. The armies of Treyine and the Brethren emerge from their winter quarters and the Treyine army immediately takes the offensive, launching an assault into the heart of The Rock.

To the west Altengard has awoken. Seeing easy pickings their army enters Ekra with the intention of annexing it.

In Hykar civil war has broken out between Barbax Gutripper, former leader of all Hykari, and Hardecg Legbiter the emergent leader of the tribes of the south. The Mirish, possibly taking advantage of the chaos caused by a civil war, but also rumoured to be secretly allied with one or both of the Hykari factions have entered Hykari territory intent upon seizing it.

Numerous mercenaries, heroes and wizards have emerged to seek their fortunes amid the conflict and blood and gore of Talomir and it just remains to see which armies choose to recruit them. Full army lists may be found on the Campaign Army Lists page. The leaders of each nation are all detailed on the National Leaders page.

The situation in Spring 990:

Winter 989 - Oh Brother Cedric!

Dear Griselda,

Thank you for the bread you sent over. You are however going to have to be more careful while baking. There was a large piece of metal in the last loaf you sent. Fortunately one of the guards spotted it and removed it before any harm could be done.

It’s a strange place Treyine, with very bizarre customs. Last week the laundry woman came in and told me to strip her, tie her up and then put on her clothes. I immediately called for the guards and had the young lady thrown out. I know they say when in Tropilium and all that, but there is a limit.

The heads of the Brethren still seem to have a shortfall of money for my ransom. It has been a very expensive few years apparently. Still, they are hoping to hold a jumble sale in aid of my release later this month. It would have been earlier, but apparently Father Dugan’s donkey needs an expensive operation.

I am still being treated well by the Treyine. Although Lord Fondlegrew seems a little forgetful. Every time he sees me, he asks why I’m still here.

I was pleased to hear that the lads all got back safely after the battle. Although it must have chafed walking all that way naked.

Hope to see you again soon,
Brother Cedric

Winter 989 - Putting their feet up

The winter passed uneventfully for Ragnar. He remained in Alwinton working with the villagers to rebuild their shattered homes. It was a tough winter with no harvest to rely on but Ragnar was able to buy in some food to help tide them over and his negotiations with the local lord enabled further aid for the villagers.

The casualties of the previous adventure had obviously brought home to the locals how dangerous Ragnar's life was and he was able to recruit only one archer to his band this winter. Edgar looked a worthy fellow though, a stout Treyine Yeoman brought up from early childhood to use a longbow and keen to make his mark in the world.