"Rampaging Dragon anyone?" Topic

Today, we had another Dragon Rampant game trying some different troop types and reverting to the original rules.
To see how it went, please go to my blog at link

Enjoy!

I have to say Herky, nobody rampages like you my friend!

Empire ( Napoleonic rules) I see isn't the only set to have activation issues

Nice report, thanks! I agree with your conclusion about applying a failed order test only to the unit in question and not ending the player's turn. Not only is it frustrating to have turns where one does hardly anything (as will invariably happen, given the fortunes of dice-rolling), but the rules as written greatly disadvantage force selection of ordinary or cheap troops and reward a selection of elites and monsters, tooled up with special rules.

My group enjoys DR, but not the "failed order test ends the player's turn" mechanic. Not only do we not play that mechanic, we give every Leader the Commanding trait, allowing one reroll (once) of a failed Move, Attack, or Shoot order within 12" of your Leader's model, once per turn.

On that note, my gaming group did a house rule that allowed the player to move any 1 unit before changing sides for initiative with the exception of the unit that failed the roll to keep things moving. We too had a certain player that almost always would fail the activation rolls and this was the compromise the group settled for.

Thanks for the insights guys!-and for commenting, which is always welcome!!!

A couple points about changing the DR rule regarding ending a turn on a failed unit activation roll…

This rules mechanism adds a lot of statistical variances (chaos) to the games. If you want more variance, then changing the activation rule to only effect the unit that failed isn't a good idea. This can be critical in games and campaigns where the sides are not evenly balanced, but you still want to give the side with crappier troops a chance. True, things may very well work out the same in any case, but at least you are giving the outgunned troops an improved shot at winning.

Secondly, it removes a significant part of the tactical decision making every turn. Since harder actions for units require tougher activation rolls, it makes the order of activation something you really need to consider and adds some additional challenge to the game. As noted in other comments, you can always tweak the rules to allow 1 free activation or command reroll if you can't stomach the original rule.

A related important effect is complicating an otherwise deadly two stage attack to first batter and then finish off an enemy unit. If you have to worry about losing your turn with a failed activation, it makes these attacks a lot riskier if you cannot complete the double whammy attack and potentially leave your first unit exposed.

Yes, there is the frustration factor of losing your turn when you had a brilliant plan in mind or losing your turn altogether… That is part of the "fun" of dice games. If you lose, you can always blame the dice with that extra variance. For the record, my gaming friends don't like my take on this issue so whoever is hosting or adjudicating the game sets the rule.