Friday, December 16, 2016

Feudal

During the Middle Ages, there were two feudal kingdoms which bordered one upon the other.  One kingdom was ruled by King Ethelred the Great; the other by King Aelfric the Barbaric.  Raids between the two kingdoms were frequent and often savage.  The bloodiest part of each kingdom was the border area which was  claimed by both kings.  Both had tried unsuccessfully to gain possession of this disputed territory as had their ancestors before them.  Many schemes had been tried and had failed.
     One day Aelfric decided that the only way to end the dispute....

Christmas in the Lion's Den

  Thursday night was the Secondhand Lion's Christmas party and gift exchange.  We gathered at Ken's for a pizza and beer dinner and the wargame for the evening was going to be the venerable old title:  Feudal by 3M games.

We discussed the rules and went over the game set up and then we put all of the kings from the various forces into a box lid and drew our part in this "old saw."

Fighting for the Blue force:

Terry C. played the part of King Ethelred.  High commander of the Blue banner. 

Ted C. played the part of his brother Ethelbert the duke of light blue.

And Jon Mark played the part of the young prince, Edgar.  Heir apparent to the blue throne.

And the Browns

 Across the field of battle the rustic brown heraldry can be glimpsed in the unadorned and unassuming banner of the Brown King Aelfric.  Called a barbarian by the prissy blue aristocrats our own good king and provider was played by
D10 Bill C..  Seen here marshaling his forces against Duke Ethelbert.


And secure in his castle proper we see my part in this Feudal drama.  I played as the Son of Aelfric, prince Alfred, sporting the medium brown heraldry.  I survey the battle field from my castle as I attack the shire of prince Edgar my counterpart rival from the blues.

On my immediate left flank fought the allied duke Athelstan.  Recent family friend to the brown household of King Aelfric played valiantly by Tommy M.

Each noble royalty went into battle against a randomly drawn opponent and fought one battle under one on one Feudal board game rules. The match ups were: King Ethelred vs. Duke Athelstan and in this combat the Duke of the Brown turned the aggressor into the besieged and won the day.
The Blue King would be trapped in his castle.
It looked bad for the young Duke at first but Tommy would turn this press into a win.

Prince Alfred the Brown would overcome his rival in the Blue household and beat Edgar into a besieged capture.

Word from the battlefield of King Aelfric was that he is prisoner of the Duke Ethelbert and lost his battle.

Current tally Blue is 1-2 while Brown is 2-1.  

The evening gift exchange went mildly with no contesting prizes in the white elephant and then everyone getting a good chuckle over the assorted gift bags and boxes.

Pleasantly this years war game season passes into history

We ended the night with a 2 minute per lane Carrera GO! road rally with discussion leading to much more slot car in the future.

5 comments:

  1. It's simple, really. With Ethelred and his son, Edgar, captured or killed, Ethelbert assumes the Blue throne. Likewise, Aelfric's demise/capture would propel Alfred to the Brown throne (there's a toilet joke in there somewhere). Family honor and duty, right?

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  2. We are not savages sir. These are royal persons. They are chivalrously captured and held at ransom.

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  3. My brother and I played this game constantly in the early 80's. At one time we were talking of buying 4 games and making an enormous board to fight on. Last year I found a copy at an estate sale and paid $2.00 for it!

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  4. Wow!
    I just followed a link to your blog from another, and I was amazed: I just posted about Feudal on my blog last week! Now I've definitely got to drag it out and have a play: http://edmwargamemeanderings.blogspot.com/

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    1. We will eventually do the follow up battle. Christmas presents and beer took up a lot of our evening.

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