Dragon Rampart - Playable with Unit Blocks?

[Red Kop]

Hey all,

My gaming group are getting together in a couple of weeks for a weekend of gaming.

Most of us will play 9th Age but there are a couple of us (myself included) who aren't a big fan of the game and am looking at something a little less serious and a bit more social.

With this in mind, I'm thinking of giving Dragon Rampart a go. I have the rules and have played a couple of small games here and there but we are wanting to have a Warhammer look to the game - with blocks of units lining up to face each other etc.

I'm aware the rules aren't really written with big blocks of units in mind, but was just wondering if anybody who has played DR has any rules suggestions or ideas that could make this work or can point me in the direction of a corner of the web where this has already been discussed.

Notably I'm looking for ideas and suggestions on rules around:

• Multi Unit Combat
• Developed rules around warmachines
• Any small rule changes that move the game from skirmish based to unit based

Nothing too serious or ground breaking - the end of the day we're just looking to have a fun couple of hours moving models around but would love to hear any ideas or suggestions from anybody who has thought about this previously.

I've got some ideas which I will follow up with but would love to hear others thoughts on this idea.

Cheers all.

RK.

[has.been]

I would just substitute the numbers you want, (per unit)
for the numbers given in the rules. Job done.

[Red Kop]

Some ideas I have thought about considering:

Strength Points
Units still have Strength Points of 12 or 6 regardless of how many models they have in a unit but rather than rolling either 6 or 12 Attack Dice, they roll the equivalent number to their Unit Strength Points.
So a Heavy Foot Unit with 9 Strength Points would roll 9 Attack Dice for example?
For units with 6 Strength Points, they roll double their existing Unit Strength Points for attacks.

Spacing
Minimise the spacing between units from 3" to 1" which seems to be a common change made anyway.

Multi Unit Combat
This for me is the biggest head scratcher but some ideas I've had are:

• The outnumbered unit is automatically Battered
• The Defense Value of the outnumbered side is reduced by 1 for each additional unit beyond the first in combat with it - so a unit charged by three units would have a -2 penalty to its Defense

Just spit balling ideas at this stage but let me know what you think and what other ideas you have.

Cheers all,

RK

[jon_1066]

I wouldn't change anything.  For hordes (eg Goblins, etc) then you can have 2 figures for 1 SP.  For Ogres then perhaps 1 figure = 3 SP.

You don't need multi unit combat as combat is done and dusted in a single unit activation.  I'd keep the 3" rule as it helps stop multiple units interlocking.

Just try it rules as written first.  You could then look to change it as a group with different profiles for some of your war machines.

[Hobgoblin]

I'd generally agree with jon_1066 - and especially with regard to multiple combats. If you have two or more units in a position to attack one, you're probably going to grind them down pretty quickly using the rules as written. The sequential, "clash-based" DR system works well, I think.

On strength points, there is something to be said for "one figure, one die". That's the system that The Men Who Would Be Kings (by the same author) uses, and it may be an (even) better game. I'd try out DR "rules as written" first, but you could then do what you suggest: 12SP units roll one die per figure, and 6SP units roll two dice per figure. That should even out the relative strengths, so that your Elite Foot, etc., are still hitting very hard.

We tried this out when adapting TMWWBK to a sci-fi scenario, with space-marine types rolling two dice per figure. It worked just fine.

And then - as in TMWWBK - you could try units with bigger or smaller starting SPs. So you could pay the points for (say) 36 goblin light infantry and then group them in two units of 18 or one of 20 and one of 16 or whatever. That's essentially the Saga approach - buy troops in blocks of a given number but deploy them in units of whatever size you fancy.

I think the 3"/1" rule just depends on the size of your table. If you have plenty of room, a loosely applied 3" keeps everything nice and neat. If the table's a bit cramped, then 1" works fine.

[Ethelred the Almost Ready]

I would mostly echo the thoughts already given.
I have tried the one dice one figure idea, but this doesn't work well when you have only a few figures fighting a unit with a high armour save e.g. three figures needing 4 hits to score a casualty.

On the Dux Rampant forum there are some rules for flanks etc.
The 1" between friends but 3" between enemies idea is one I do prefer but has some problems when a unit defeats its enemy but is now left within 1" of another enemy unit (i.e. this unit was within 1" of it's friend).  Flanks and 1" rules may also be a problem if you are playing a game where there is a great difference between unit sizes - one side may have reduced figure bases and another full strength.  This may not be an issue if you are using blocks.

[Hobgoblin]

I would mostly echo the thoughts already given.
I have tried the one dice one figure idea, but this doesn't work well when you have only a few figures fighting a unit with a high armour save e.g. three figures needing 4 hits to score a casualty.

That's a good point. I don't think it would often happen with 12SP units (most would rout before getting down to those numbers; I think it's only possible for Bellicose Foot to still be in the game at that level, and then only with successive great courage rolls). But if you have an Elite Foot or Elite Riders unit down to one man, they're not going to be able to harm anything above Armour 2 (assuming two dice are rolled per figure for the 6SP units).

But you could get round it by allowing all units to roll a minimum of four dice. So, in the rare occasion when a Bellicose Foot unit is reduce to three men and not routed (a 1 in 36 chance for the latest courage test, quite apart from the earlier ones), you'd still have a slim chance of causing a casualty in a final charge at a group of Elite Riders. And a heroic Elite Foot unit reduced to one man would also still be able to cut down a knight.

Four dice instead of two (for one Elite Foot) or three (for three Bellicose Foot) might seem like a bit of a fudge, but it would close off that rare situation fairly cleanly.