Lion Rampant - Retinue Sizes

[Mr. White]

I know the standard game is designed for 24pt retinues, and the book even says you can go less or more depending on your collection. This seams obvious.

However, for those that have run 12pt retinues or, say, 36pt retinues, what has your experience been? It's not going to dissuade me from playing smaller points as I build my forces up, but just curious if there are any pros and cons at smaller and larger games that I can consider.

Thanks!

[Hobgoblin]

I've never played smaller, but I've often - indeed, usually - played larger. Smaller games might be a little dull in comparison with the standard 24 points, simply because the fewer units you have, the fewer potential interactions you have. I'd be tempted to steal Strength Points from Dragon Rampant and play the odd heroic lone knight as Elite Infantry or whatever so that you have more moving parts on the table. That said, if you have - say - 16 points consisting of foot, archers sergeants, fierce foot and two units of bidowers, you'll get a decent game - whereas two units of men-at-arms and a unit of archers might be less fun.

Larger works just fine. We've played with anything from 30 to around 100 points without any problem.

[Mr. White]

Using Dragon Rampant for lower unit games is a _great_ idea. in fact, the first portion of the DR rulebook is just LR (minus the leader duels) with points, so I can just run that system (DR minus fantasy elements) until I have a decent enough number of units ready for LR proper.

Cheers for that!

[fred]

I’d go for half-strength units (i.e. half the number of figures) rather than going for fewer units, DR or LR forces are hardly big at 24pts size, so fewer units wouldn’t be great.

But simple counting each model as having 2 attacks and 2 hits will let you get a decent number of units on the table, while keeping the figure count lower.

[Mr. White]

Another great option!

[AdmiralAndy]

You probably want at least 4 units, so 12 points if a unit or two of skirmishers with some standard infantry could do that.

36 points should be ok, anything larger you might want to check out Lion Rampant big or bigger battles, there have been some magazines with various rules suggestions.

Normally revolving around more than 1 leader each with there own retinue.

Play first leader and his retinue as per normal activation, then switch to opponent and then switch back for your second after his first has completed, then swtich back over, rinse and repeat..

Check out Wargames Soldiers and startegy and Wargames Illustrated mags for there Lion Rampant issues, they've had a few covering this but can't recall which specific issues off the top of my head.

[Atheling]

There are a few battle reports with four players on my blog which you might find interesting in terms of the size of the retinues?

http://justaddwater-bedford.blogspot.com/2016/02/haggis-rampant-its-war-part-one.html

http://justaddwater-bedford.blogspot.com/2016/02/clubbing-it-haggis-rampant-and-black_5.html

http://justaddwater-bedford.blogspot.com/2016/01/haggis-rampant-sausages-and-mustard.html

http://justaddwater-bedford.blogspot.com/2016/01/clubbing-it.html

Pics of my retinue:
http://justaddwater-bedford.blogspot.com/2020/02/haggis-rampant-men-at-arms-on-foot_11.html

http://justaddwater-bedford.blogspot.com/2020/02/haggis-rampant-fierce-foot-unit-i.html

[pws]

I've never played smaller, but I've often - indeed, usually - played larger. Smaller games might be a little dull in comparison with the standard 24 points, simply because the fewer units you have, the fewer potential interactions you have. I'd be tempted to steal Strength Points from Dragon Rampant and play the odd heroic lone knight as Elite Infantry or whatever so that you have more moving parts on the table. That said, if you have - say - 16 points consisting of foot, archers sergeants, fierce foot and two units of bidowers, you'll get a decent game - whereas two units of men-at-arms and a unit of archers might be less fun.

Larger works just fine. We've played with anything from 30 to around 100 points without any problem.

So do we, just played couple of games at the beginning to check how the rules works at 12pts, then always 24 or more, usually more, without any problems. 30pts is good for one-time battle or campaings. We use the standard game restiction about max points x units etc...