Imagine it. Early morning, the crowd jostling the soldiers who cross spears to hold them back. The castle gates swing open and out march the men-at-arms, followed by a horse-drawn cart in which stand Big Tom and the Hangman. Behind walks the priest and - stern faced, his icy glare freezing the crowd into silence, rides the great Sir Richard, Lord of the Manor.
Somewhere out there among the trees is a flicker of movement; an arrow is notched, a sword loosened in its sheath. The rescuers await.
Ah yes, 'Cry Havoc' by Standard Games and Publications Ltd. I have rather a soft spot for this game. It and its companion game 'Siege' have been in my collection since the early 1980's. Over the years I've had some fun games with Cry Havoc. One of the things I really like about the game is that every combatant from the lowest peasant to the mightiest knight is a named character with individual stats printed on their counter. This gives the game a strong narrative feel and leads to some great stories unfolding as scenarios play out.
My copy has sat on the gaming shelf for rather a long time now, so when Pete made one of his all too rare visits I decided it was high time to 'Cry Havoc' one more time.
For our game I dug out my copy of Scenario Book 2, which was produced separately to support Cry Havoc, Siege and Outremer (the version of the game set in the Crusades).
The book contains 29 scenarios of varying size and complexity from solo play to a mini-campaign, but I was looking for something we could play at a leisurely pace within the space of an afternoon. There were several choices, but in the end I picked 'The Day They Hanged Big Tom', a rescue scenario with a few 'twists'.
The introduction at the top of this post sets the scene. To help you follow the action as it unfolds, I have labelled the opposing forces 'Red' and 'Blue'.
On the 'Red' side, we have the forces of the local Lord, Sir Richard:
Sir Richard's Forces
Knights
Sir Richard (Lord of the Manor)
Sergeants
Sergeant Martin (lackey)
Sergeant Arnim (executioner)
Billmen
Rees and Tybalt
Crossbows
Giles and Gaston
Spearmen
Stori, Hayden, Bryn, Crispin, Brendan, Mordred, Gareth, Aki, Hal and Arnold (crowd control)
Priest
Leopold (who appears rather overdressed for a humble friar. Perhaps we can imagine he is more a man of earthly pleasures after the style of Chaucer's Monk)
Draft Horse
Old Ned (past his prime, a plodding old nag)
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| Sir Richard, Sergeants, Billmen, Crossbows and Leopold |
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| The Spearmen |
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| Poor Old Ned |
Opposing Sir Richard, on the 'Blue' side we have the forces of The Outlaws and Peasants:
The Outlaws and Peasants
The Prisoner
Big Tom (halberdier and outlaw, now a captive of Sir Richard with his hands tied and a noose around his neck)
Archers
Bowyer, Chretien, Mathias and Fletcher
Billmen
Robin, Jean and Guy
Halberdier
Frederick
Peasants
Gam, Cedric, Baker, Giles, Wulf, Radult, Roger, Farmer, Carpenter, Gobin, Smith, David, Will'm, Matthew and Salter
The Strumpets
Edith and Audrey
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| Big Tom, The Outlaws and the Strumpets |
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| The Peasants |
The Map
The scenario uses three A2 size map boards from the Cry Havoc and Siege boxed sets; The Castle, The Forest and The Crossroads.
The Scenario
Sir Richard's forces have to transport Big Tom from the Castle, through The Forest to The Hillock at The Crossroads where his confession will be heard before he is strung up from a tree and hung until dead. The Outlaws have to prevent this by rescuing Big Tom.
However, there are several complications:
Hidden forces
The Outlaws' positions are recorded secretly and are unknown to Sir Richard's forces at the start of the game.
Peasants and Crowd Control
Big Tom was always popular with the lower orders. They are opposed to the hanging, but are neither organised nor bold enough to intervene without encouragement. The Peasants will follow the Execution procession at random speed (1d6) but are kept in check by the Spearmen detailed to control the crowd. The Peasants test on a d10 each turn but may not intervene until they roll higher than the number of Spearmen controlling the crowd, after which they may act aggressively.
Bribery and Corruption
The Outlaws may influence events by bribery and corruption. For example they may induce Leopold to drag out the confession, embolden the Peasants with ale, bribe Sergeant Arnim to loosen Big Tom's bonds, employ the local witch to pronounce a 'curse', or encourage the local strumpets to publicly defame Sir Richard. The Outlaws do not have enough funds to achieve all these events, so must choose carefully how to spend their silver.
The Game
A roll of the dice determined sides, with Pete taking Sir Richard's (Red) forces and myself taking the Outlaws and Peasants (Blue) forces.
I secretly recorded the position of The Outlaws, hiding the Archers in the trees within The Forest and the Halberdier and Billmen behind the slope of The Pool at The Crossroads.
Without further ado, the game began with Execution detail trooping out of The Castle...
…while the Spearmen deployed a cordon to keep the flocking Peasants at bay.
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| Crowd control in action |
The Execution detail proceeded towards The Forest at a suitably funereal pace, though probably not out of any respect for the condemned man. Poor old Ned the Cart Horse was incapable of going any faster (or perhaps he was - but refused to hasten out of sympathy for Big Tom). Either way, progress was slow but uninterrupted. Sir Richard's crowd control was working well and the Peasants remained docile.
As the procession strung out through The Forest, the Peasants remained resolutely passive due to less than favourable odds and some hopeless dice-rolling on my part. Something had to be done to buy more time. It was at this point that one of the Outlaws' bribes came into play.
Sir Richard and his entourage were startled by giggles coming from the undergrowth and the sudden appearance of two women, the local strumpets Edith and Audrey, skipping towards them...
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| A bustle in the hedgerow |
…assailing Sir Richard's dignity with a battery of scurrilous and saucy accusations!
An opposed die roll was required to determine Sir Richard's response. There were a number of possible outcomes, from silencing the women with one of Sir Richard's famously icy stares, to sending the crossbowmen in pursuit (which would have emboldened the Peasants to leap to the rescue). In the event, the opposed roll was a draw, resulting in a stand-off for two turns while Sir Richard parried the women's slurs with sharp words of his own.
While Sir Richard was thus distracted, The Outlaws sprang their trap.
The Outlaw archers Chretien, Mathias and Bowyer appeared from their hiding places in the trees to send a shower of arrows speeding towards Sir Richard's soldiers. Only Mathias found his mark, wounding the billman Tybalt. The Outlaws had given up their advantage of surprise with little to show for it.
It still took a moment for Sir Richard's forces to react, giving The Outlaws just enough time to take out the hapless Billmen Tybalt and Rees, before the tables started to turn.
Down the Forest path, eagle-eyed crossbowman Giles took out Bowyer with a single well-aimed bolt, whilst Matthias suddenly found himself hunted down and trapped at spearpoint in his treetop perch.
Meanwhile, the Peasants surged forward, attracted by the sound of battle drifting across The Forest. The Outlaws had spent coin to tank up The Peasants on cheap ale, but so far they seemed more inclined to be happy drunks rather than aggressive ones.
The Spearmen had yet to suffer physical attack but had to endure a no less unpleasant assault on their senses as they struggled to contain the unwashed masses herded together and pressing against them. They were forced to give ground, but only very slowly.
With the Peasants held in check and Sir Richard no longer distracted by Edith and Audrey, the Outlaws could do little to impede the progress of the Execution detail. Resistance was swept aside as the advanced elements of Sir Richard's forces moved clear of The Forest.
The way through The Crossroads seemed clear, but The Outlaws were not finished yet. With wild yells, Frederick, Robin, Jean and Guy rose from their hiding place by The Pool and charged Sir Richard's men. The Outlaws were outnumbered, but their enemies were still stretched out in a ragged column and unable to bring their full force to bear. Caught off guard, Spearmen started to fall.
Meanwhile Chretien - the only surviving bowman, crept to the edge of The Forest and began to harry the advancing Spearmen with arrows. As ever, it was an embarrassing demonstration of inaccurate archery that failed to achieve a single hit. The Spearmen hurled insults back, not even bothering to halt their advance.
The Outlaws fought hard and opposing Spearmen continued to fall, but their situation was looking increasingly desperate. Frederick and Jean were both felled by crossbow bolts while Robin and Guy battled on.
It was at this moment that The Peasants finally revolted.
Realising that the tide of public opinion had finally turned against him, Sir Richard urged his men on to The Hillock, leaving crossbowmen Giles and Gaston to hold off the pursuing Peasants.
The Peasants surged forward, besieging Sir Richard's men at The Hillock where they had made a stand. Here, a final pitched battle played out. Sir Richard spurred his horse and rode into the Peasants, laying about him furiously and striking down men left and right. The Peasants were many, but they were no match for an armoured knight on horseback. Meanwhile, the Outlaws Robin and Guy fought hard to break through to Big Tom but the odds against them were just too great.
While the battle raged below, up on The Hillock Leopold was taking Big Tom's final confession. On and on the priest droned, but Big Tom remained unrepentant. Defiant to the last, he continued to curse his captors until the noose tightened, choking off his stream of abuse.
The sight of Big Tom's lifeless body suspended from the hanging tree above them was too much for the Outlaws and Peasants. Their resistance broke and in a moment they had dispersed. Sir Richard was triumphant. It was all over.
After the Battle
With hindsight, Pete and I agreed that success for the Outlaws relies heavily on the early intervention of The Peasants, which was something I failed to achieve. I had probably relied too much on Edith and Audrey to incite Peasant protection and support, but they had only achieved a stand-off with Sir Richard and caused a delay that I was unable to exploit. Taking out some of the Spearmen early on would also have improved the odds of a Peasant uprising, but my archery was too poor and I had chosen the wrong targets. Perhaps the hapless Outlaws would have been better spending all their silver on bribing Sergeant Arnim to loosen Big Tom's bonds. He would probably have stood a better chance of escape on his own!
All this aside, Cry Havoc once again delivered an engaging, fun and highly narrative game. Regardless of the outcome, both Pete and I found it highly entertaining. Scenario writer Jim Webster's advice to players in his Introduction to Scenario Book 2 sums it up perfectly:
"...remember, the winners are the ones who enjoyed playing".
Further resources
If you would like to find out more about Cry Havoc, I recommend you take a look at the
Cry Havoc Fan website.
Until next time, thanks for reading.
