It's Magic!

[has.been]

In the grim North forces were stirring.  The evil wizard Sremye the Inad has been recruiting troops, and ...
the Sacred Text of Raytipp the Ancient has been stolen!
Age old prophecies are coming true.

The forces of Virtue hastily muster and move towards the dreaded Temple of the Perished, where, legend has it,
the End of Days will  come to pass.

The above was the intro given to the lads for a game of Dragon Rampant.
Three players:-
Bob (aka Flatpack) played Sir John Cunningham [ 6 Border Horse, 12 Heavy Infantry, 6 expert longbow men, & the giant Cremin.]
James (aka Vodkafan) played Sir Richard Perrers [ 6 Brave Knights, 12 Stout foot, 6 Heavy Crossbow men, & 12 Men of the Dale]
David (aka Digits) played the Bishop of Itsda [6 Heavy Horse, 12 Valient Spearmen, 6 Devout Monks & 12 Sturdy Dwarves.

I played the Evil Wizard (Type casting?)
[ 2 Dragons, 2x 12 Uraks (Men Orcs), 12 Goblins, 3 Were-wolves (body guard for the wizard) and two 'Terrors' ( The terror in the dark &
Old Mother Rye-Lee)

Every move the wizard concentrated on Incantations he gained 10%. Once, & only once, in the game he could call upon the 'OLD ONES!'
Sounds better with echo.
He must throw BELOW his current % score. The further below = the better for him & the worse for the good guys.

The baddies, Boo Hiss!  Oh hang on that's me.




The Bishop Of Itsda leading his retinue.




Sir John Cunningham's motley crew.





The battlefield.






Sir Richard Perrers waiting to enter the fray.






Itsda Bishop !  (for those few that didn't get the joke earlier)





Uraks & Goblins prepare to hold the ford.
(The shrine marker is a bit of broken costume jewellery mounted on a stone from the garden)




Depnipiant, the Green dragon prepare to help the defence of the ford.
(Both dragons came from a toyshop & before repaints & basing cost £2 each)





The Bishop's troops prepare to force the crossing.  It was mooted that had the Dwarves not crossed by the ford,
but by the river, would they have drowned? 





Sir Richard Perrers best unit, his knights. They stayed sooooo long near the pass that rumours had it that they had
slipped out of their armour & gone to the tavern.




Hard fighting at the ford saw a miracle! The devout Monks turned back the Green Dragon !




Meanwhile on the other flank, Hamasting, the Red Dragon, was terrorising the other two forces of good.





But eventually there were too many for Hamasting & Sir John Cunningham & his (surviving) border horse break through
and charge towards the Temple.  MY Were-wolf bodyguards intervene, but I think it is time to call upon... the OLD ONES !!! (must get some echo)




The total % now stood at 70%. As stated before, the lower the dice score the better for the forces of Evil.
My score was not brilliant, but enough to ensure any surviving goodly troops would flee the battlefield.

I was happy with that, but brought back to the ground by David's utterance, 'Is THAT it? Pretty rubbish Evil Wizard' 

Game was fun & players seemed to have fun. I'll leave it to them to add their own views & photos.

[mikedemana]

I am looking forward to the release of the 2nd Edition of Dragon Rampant, and plan to pick it up and start playing it. Looks like you guys had fun. That's the thing that attracts me the most to the Rampant system -- fun game for multiple players per side... 

Mike Demana

[has.been]

Mike I worked it out years ago, it is more the people you play with than the rules, but fun rules do help.

[Digits]

I was happy with that, but brought back to the ground by David's utterance, 'Is THAT it? Pretty rubbish Evil Wizard' 

So we were gathered together to take on the forces of evil because it was said the end of worlds was happening right here!   Having lost my poor brave but vertically challenged dwarfs…….having had all my cavalry slaughtered and sent to the glue factory and the Bishop and his halberdiers mashed up and spat out……it was shall we say, a bit of an anticlimax that his spell simply made us “run off”!    Not that I had much left apart from my kick ass monks!  But what happened to  “the end of days”?!     All that death….we could have stayed home with tea and biccies!


Fun game Peter!   Thanks for hosting and the temple looks the dogs!


Looking forward to “ Charlie Rampant”!  😉

[Seal]

Mike I worked it out years ago, it is more the people you play with than the rules, but fun rules do help.

Loved this report and the game looks fantastic. I also wholeheartedly agree with your quote, too.

[has.been]

Looking forward to “ Charlie Rampant”!  😉/

    (Vietnam rules)

Me too David. If Mr Mersey can't be persuaded to write them, we'll have to give it a try.

Loved this report and the game looks fantastic. I also wholeheartedly agree with your quote, too.

Thanks Seal.

[Little Odo]

Great looking table and figures - looks like you had a lot of fun there. I really like the water effect on the ford scenery piece - very realistic.

[has.been]

Thanks Little Odo. The river sections are from Last Valley. He often sells out at shows,
so worth going to him first. 

[Hobgoblin]

Great-looking game - those wonderful Essex knights in particular!

[has.been]

Ta Hobgoblin, they were painted by my friend Dave Brookes.
He does very nice stuff, as anyone who saw his El Cid game at the recent Partizan show will attest.

[mikedemana]

Mike I worked it out years ago, it is more the people you play with than the rules, but fun rules do help.

So, so true! Our group has been gaming together (with some folks leaving and others joining) since the early 1980s...always lots of laughs when we get around the table. 

Mike Demana

[flatpack]

Pictures from the forces of virtue.

Bit of a rumble with a wicked wizard.

The enemy. Wizard and his evil helpers.


Our virtue boys mass.


Digits boys charge the enemy at the ford.


James knights, on a big knight out.


James boys attack the red dragon, thro the stream.


Digits boys take on the green dragon on the right flank.


My boys pile in to support James’ troops.


Unfortunately Digits men were cut to pieces at the ford, which just left a few troops trying to sort out the green dragon.


Back to the left hand side of the battle.
My cavalry attacked the red dragon.


My boys finally advanced on the wicked wizard, only to be attacked by his werewolves.


We were finally driven from the field by the wizard casting his dreadful spell.
With a cry of “he’s a very naughty boy !”, the wizard dismissed us.

Fun game, played as ever in the right spirit.
Thanks to Pete for the great game, and umpiring.

I particularly liked the rules.
Nice and easy, and they flowed.

Is anyone working on a Vietnam version of the rules ?
Charlie rampant ?

[has.been]

Thanks for the view from your side of the table Bob (aka Flatpack).

In response to several comments after the game,  a lot of troops are getting a matt varnish.
On a LAFer recommendation I picked up a bottle of AK Ultra Matt Varnish at the Partizan show.
It is like skimmed milk but works really well.

[mikedemana]

Is anyone working on a Vietnam version of the rules ?
Charlie rampant ?

We have used Xenos Rampant for Vietnam once, and several of the gang were really happy with how they worked out. It's a great set to use among the various iterations because there as SO MANY special abilities to use to replicate what you want to for Vietnam.

The pictures are awesome and it sounds like everyone had a good time with DragonS Rampant...haha! Looking forward to playing it when the 2nd Edition comes out this fall...

Mike Demana

[has.been]

Thanks Mike. I have a copy of Xenos Rampant, but not yet played it.
Will have to take a look at it again, with Vietnam eyes.