The * Rampant Family of Games...discuss

[Mr. White]

So, I've got three rulebooks from this line...Lion Rampant, Dragon Rampant, and Pikeman's Lament. Well, the last one is en route. I'm the type who likes to have a game completely assembled and painted before playing, so I've been amassing 1/72 minis, terrain, etc, and have yet to play an actual game. However, I can tell from the rules, and reviews online, I'm gonna love it so am not concerned at all with the time/money sink going into this beforehand.

That said, do all of these titles offer a different enough flavor in play? I mean, I was thinking of doing my samurai armies with Pikeman's Lament, but it looks like I could possibly just do them with Dragon Rampant as well as it has rules for 'weighted projectiles' for gunpowder. DR also has the fantasy rules to let me bring in Oni, foo dogs, dragons, etc along with Reduced and Single model units. It then makes me think that I could even just do my HYW with DR too. But does LR better serve HYW?

Can anyone speak to how different the titles actually feel in play?

[Captain Blood]

They feel very much the same. Different enjoyable flavours ; main ingredients the same across all three sets.

[has.been]

We (Vodkafan & I) have tried using Pikeman's Lament
for Samurai games & they work fine.

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=131913.msg1674965#msg1674965

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=130964.msg1660607#msg1660607

If I get around to fielding some Japanese Myths
I would use DR,  for HYW though I would go with LR.

[Mr. White]

Is Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy issue 92 necessary or could one just use the exotic list form Leck's blog? I can't locate a copy of that magazine.
https://dalauppror.blogspot.com/2017/02/exotic-army-lists-for-pikemans-lament.html

[mellis1644]

You can easily extend/tweak the rules as needed. For example, in the in the report below we just gave commanders an extra failure before the <side out> as the forces were twice as big as normal.

https://mellis1644.wordpress.com/2017/04/30/another-pikemans-lament-aar/

[has.been]

Is Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy issue 92 necessary

No, it just saved Vodkafan & I having to work out stats.
As it was we still tinkered with the stats given.
It is only (as a friend of mine would say) 'A starter for ten'
In other words you decide. Your table = your rules.