"Dragon Rampant - Devon Wargames Group" Topic

In a rare excursion for the DWG, which tends to focus on historical wargaming, some of the chaps pulled together a couple of games using the Osprey 'Dragon Rampant' rule-set and 'Mr Steve' gives his considered first impressions of how they played.

If you would like to know more, then just follow the link to the club blog.

link

Jonathan

Thanks for the reports. It's interesting that you had fun, but in the end the rules didn't quite seem like the game you would want. I've been using Lion Rampant for Dark Age (Britons vs Saxons) raid scenarios, and what I found is that they played much better – at least under those circumstances where both sides were moving a lot – without using the "roll to move" mechanic. In other words, everyone could move normally without attribute checks, but you still had to roll to charge. This kept the game moving and all troops involved, but still introduced some uncertainty into combat, where it belongs.

There is also a "game end" rule that states that when there are less than 6 units on a side you roll 1d6, and if the score is more than the number of units left, then the next turn is the last – sounds like it might have affected your games?

Cheers,

Christopher

There is also a "game end" rule that states that when there are less than 6 units on a side you roll 1d6, and if the score is more than the number of units left, then the next turn is the last – sounds like it might have affected your games?

Not sure that this is correct. In the Bloodfeud scenario you roll when there are 5 or less units in total, not on one side. Most 24 point forces will struggle to have more than 6 units a side.

Oops – you're right. I meant to type 6 units *total*, not on one side.

I have both LR and DR, and while that rule is LR (in the main rules text and under the Bloodfeud scenario), in DR the number of units is 4 rather than 6.

One other idea that some of the LR/DR players in the club are playing around with is that instead of an automatic 12 or 6 dice , you instead deduct your total hits and roll that number of dice .

Now I have my own set of the rules its definitely something I will pull out whenever I want a quick 20 minutes of mayhem.

Nice write up Steve and all hail Bob

Rampant system is promising but seemed a bit unfinished as if the author was rushed (he says he was working on a "unit" rule but didn't finish it before publication).

Needs some sort of formation rule (I've already done one and suggested it and many people have asked for a copy). Also a mass move rule where a commander can activate several units as a battle line. As knights have difficulty activating to move they tend to oddly sit around why the rest of the army fights.

Fun but needs work.

TomT

I haven't played it yet but I felt that there was something missing. I guess I'll wait to see how the game does for me.