How well does Lion Rampant scale up?

[Basementboy]

Hello all, just wanted to know if anyone had any experience playing Lion Rampant in the vicinity of 50ish points- how smoothly does the game still work? Is it possible to push it even bigger?
Thanks in advance

[Pattus Magnus]

The biggest I’ve gone is to play with two 24-point forces on each side (pretty close to 50 points). We had the 2 forces on each side under their own commanders (so 2 in each army), to keep things moving if a failed command test stopped a force early in that side’s turn (still not an antidote to both forces failing early, though). I think it’s important to do something like that, or tweak the rules around having the player’s turn end on a failed activation- it’s too easy to have command paralysis hit big forces, otherwise.

[Ethelred the Almost Ready]

I have mainly used Lion/Dragon Rampant to play solo, so I have a lot of room to adapt.  I have found large games play very well and, in many respects, I prefer them to standard sized games.  You do need to split each army into separate commands with approximately 24 points in each command - so 50 points and 75ish points work well.  Even if one command fails early, you are likely to have the other two do something.
If you simply have one command but have higher points you will find a large proportion of your force will not activate.   With big armies you might also want to use the rank and flank optional rules to give a big battle feel.

[jon_1066]

We’ve played quite a few big games at the club with 5 of 6 retinues a side.  It works pretty well for these big battles.

[Cory]

We have done up to 60 points spread unevenly over three forces on each side. To offset the potential for a problem we gave each side three rerolls (ala Bloodbowl) to use, no more than one in any turn, additional rerolls could be bought for a point. Worked fine.

[Basementboy]

Cory, I really like the idea of re-rolls, and paying points for more- will probably use this for my game

[armchairgeneral]

My mate and I refought Dyrrachium using Lion Rampant with just a few minor house rules. See the battle report below 


https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=134458.msg1706742#msg1706742

[Dice Roller]

The only barrier to scaling up LR is if you have too many units to activate you will probably never activate them all.
We've certainly played games with 48 points (split between two players, not necessarily evenly), or a single player with 36 points (I reckon that's just about the optimum points myself).
About 8 units per player is about the most you would want to play with the rules as is.
After that you start having to come up with fixes, which can sometimes break a set of rules or distract from its original appeal.
But you can definitely scale it up from the 24 points mentioned in the rules. Arguably, it's plays better if you do.

[Ninefingers]

I have done some very large games at the club, including the Battle of Clontarf.
https://southsaxongamer.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/wargame-the-battle-of-clontarf-1014/

I usually play it as separate commands, so only a player's command passes on a failed activation. Or, if it's a particulary large game just allow players to attempt to activate every unit.

[Basementboy]

Thanks for the advice! And lovely looking game by the way