"First game of Dragon Rampant" Topic

Last night my friend Lou came over and we took Dragon Rampant out for a spin. For those that don't know, Dragon Rampant is the Fantasy version of Lion Rampant that came out in 2014. LR is a set of medieval wargame rules, written by Daniel Mersey and published by Osprey. So now we have DR which is pretty much the same game, but with Fantasy elements thrown in, and it works!

We've played one or two games of Lion Rampant so had a vague idea how to play. Since this was a learning game, we didn't put a lot of effort into planning. I have lots of LOTR figures, so that's what we were going to use. Orcs vs Dwarves.

The Orcs:
1 Heavy Riders w/Leader (Melee Warg Riders), 6 figs
1 Light Riders (Missile Warg Riders), 6 figs
1 Greater Warbeasts (Wargs), 6 figs
1 Heavy Foot w/upgrade (2 handed Choppers), 12 figs
2 Light Foot (Orcs), 12 figs each

The Dwarves:
1 Elite Foot w/leader (Dwarf Huscarls), 6 figs(2 points each)
1 Heavy Foot w/upgrade (2 handed axes), 12 figs
2 Heavy Foot (Dwarf Spears), 12 figs each
1 Light Missile (Dwarf Rangers with bows), 12 figs

The Stunty Side

The Bad guys side

The Dwarves advance

The Orcs advance behind a screen of Warbeasts(Wargs)

First blood goes to the Dwarves as the Elite Foot slam into Light Foot.

The Wargs cannot hold back so charge the Dwarven Heavy Foot, much to the dismay of the Dwarves, who prompt flee the field after being mauled.

Heavy Riders(Warg Riders) charge around the ruins. The Dwarf Archers do not like this development.

The Wargs chew on another unit and force them back.

The 2 Handed Axes of the Dwarves prove to much for the remaining Wargs and they are dispatched.

Final fight, Orc Choppers drive back the Dwarves, but the losses to the Orcs are 2 much and they quit the field.

On my blog I do a full write up on the game play and the battle as it unfolds. And as always MORE PICS!
link

Xin

Cool , my copy of the rules arrived yesterday and I'm anxious to give them a spin. Loved Lion Rampant.

Looks great, I just always feel sorry for the Wargs being sent in first to loosen thing up a little. lol Thanks for the write up. Oh and based on your brief comments if you funnel troops through the narrow opening of a bridge there would be no defensive benefit?

Duane

Syr Hobbs. Again, this was our first play through, so we might have missed a few things. When trying new rules, it's a bit of a rush to absorb everything and there is an itch to get "right into the action". Tactics take a back seat on our first go.

That said, I did just read in the rules, that the players should define terrain before hand. So we could have counted that as cover or an obstacle, which ever would help in melee. Even if this is not covered in the rules, it's not a deal breaker as it can easily be added.

Edit/Update:
Further reading the author gives examples of defending up hill(cover, +1 to armor) and suburb cover(+2). Using those mechanics you could say, guard a pass or narrow opening. A bonus to armor is a big thing.

Hope this helps, Xin

How does this compare to other options, like LOTR SBG or similar?

Yogi, it's simpler than SBG. It will play quicker, which means you can have bigger battles. But I still love SBG.

Xin

We just tried a couple of games of Dragon Rampant last Sunday (using LOTR figures too oddly enough) and found it light, fun entertainment. (Although your battlefield looks much better! Very nice pictures!)

Honestly, there did not seem to be a lot of thinking or planning needed. No unit facing, no flanks, units can only ever fight one unit at a time. I love the uncertainty of movement, and the whole philosophy behind the rules, that you are given the tools to make your own idea of a fantasy army,

That said, I think HoTT has a roughly equivalent philosophy, but with a much more subtle game system, that rewards good tactics and thinking.

Great use of LoTR models – thanks for the write-up, looks interesting to play.

Cool…thanks. Good 're-use of the LOTR figures.

Great looking game, nice to see LOTR figures battling it out. Love the terrain also, nice board!

Tony S:

There is a relatively simple way to add formed units, flanks, rear etc. (See my earlier post: a Weekend of Lion Rampant). Greatly improves the game with a minimum of fuss.

I agree thought that HOTT is almost as simple and has far more thinking but try the rules I laid out – makes for a great skirmish game.

TomT

Thanks for the report. We will be using the DR rules next week. The game looked fun, and you have a nice looking set-up. Does the game have some similarities to Song of Blades and Heroes…just with larger units? It seemed as if the activation (at first glance…and a quick glance at that) was similar.

Thanks again!!

Sealion,

Yes the unit activation is very similar to SOBH. You keep rolling activations till you fail. The difference is the type of order you give to the type of unit.

So each unit has a different activation number for the 3 order types, Attack/Shoot/Move.

You have a higher chance of success activating Archers to shoot, then if you gave them a charge order.

This rewards using the correct orders for the appropriate units. Telling Hobbit Archers to frontally charge a dragon is not good use of the archers, and they most likely won't do it.

Xin

Good stuff…thank you, Xintao :)

Does the game have some similarities to Song of Blades and Heroes…just with larger units? It seemed as if the activation (at first glance…and a quick glance at that) was similar.

There are similarities, in that in both games you roll to activate units and a bad roll can lead to the end of your turn (i.e. a turnover). However, there are some important differences – in DR you have different target numbers for activation depending on the action and unit type, whereas in SoBH it just depends on the quality rating of the figure. And in SoBH you can attempt multiple actions when you roll to activate a figure, and it is only a turnover if you fail two of the activation rolls. This means that in SOBH you can mitigate against the likelihood of a turnover, or even eliminate the possibility completely, depending on how many dice you choose to roll. You don't have this choice in DR, so a bad roll will always result in a turnover.
If you only try to activate each figure once in SoBH you will typically get to activate around half to two thirds of your warband each turn (more if high quality troops or with a leader), and it would be very unusual (unless you are very reckless) to not activate any figures on a turn. In DR you typically activate an average of two or three units each turn, regardless of how many units you have, and on about 20 – 30% of turns you will not get to activate any units.

Great looking table and game!