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Author Topic: Dragon Rampant - first few games and thoughts  (Read 7434 times)

Online Hobgoblin

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Dragon Rampant - first few games and thoughts
« on: December 24, 2015, 12:57:21 AM »
Dragon Rampant finally arrived today. It was due on Monday from Amazon, who refunded me so that I could re-order it; the original order arrived today, but the second - actually due today - has yet to do so. No matter: I have a copy. The kids and I drew up forces, rolled for a scenario and played our first genuine game (although we've played several using Lion Rampant and the DR Strength Points rules).

We rolled the "ringbearer" scenario, with my son's reptiles acquiring the ring. My daughter and I faced the lizards down with a goblin horde.

The forces were as follows:

The reptiles
1 x Elite Foot* (lizardmen led by a troglodyte) @ 6 points
1 x Bellicose Foot with the armour upgrade (a six-strong Reduced Model unit of lizardmen) @ 6 points
1 x Greater Warbeast (a tyrannosaur) @ 6 points
1 x Scouts (a Reduced Model unit of four small lizard archers led by a snakeman archer) @ 2 points
1 x Lesser Warbeasts (five giant spiders goaded on by a humanoid frog) @ 4 points

The goblins
1 x Elite Foot* (armoured orcs) @ 6 points
1 x Bellicose Foot (orcs) @ 4 points
1 x Light Riders (wolf riders) @ 4 points
1 x Ravenous Hordes (goblin rabble) @ 1 point
1 x Light Missiles (orcish archers) @ 4 points
1 x Light Foot with mixed weapons (night goblins) @ 5 points

A fast and extremely enjoyable game followed. I suspected that the trog-led lizardmen were the likely ringbearers and sent the wolf riders up the right flank to intercept them, with the fierce orcish foot in support. Meanwhile, the tyrannosaur came rampaging through the rocky ground on the other side of the table. The armoured orcs went to meet it, while the orcish archers dug into cover behind a hedge in the centre of the field. The night goblins crept up the far left flank, aiming to get in behind the tyrannosaur, but had to contend with the reptile scouts. The fierce lizard foot came snarling through mire and boulders to bear down on the goblin rabble.

As we weren't using magic, the main novelty was seeing how the warbeast profiles played out. Previously, our tyrannosaur had been a single-model unit of Mounted Men-at-Arms. The Greater Warbeast profile made him significantly more fearsome on the charge, as woods and ruins provided no shelter. But he also acquired a soft white underbelly when caught on the hop. This worked really well, I thought. The spiders - our Lesser Warbeasts - were fun too: fast and fierce. The combination of the Wild Charge rule and the very high movement rate adds a new dimension - uncontrollable but fairly frightening assaults very early on. The spiders initially fared badly, as they were drawn into charging archers in cover and suffered fairly high attrition as a result. But they eventually rallied and returned to the fray.

We also had some pleasures familiar from Lion Rampant. Both Bellicose Foot units hit hard at first, with the fierce reptiles achieving eleven kills in one round when they slammed into the goblin rabble. The surviving goblin, needless to say, took to his scurvy heels immediately, but the reptiles then found themselves withered by archery and cut down by the orcish elite. The bellicose orcish warriors reduced the lizardmen Elite Foot to half strength, but were then themselves cut to shreds. The wolf riders were the first to break, after failing an attempted Parthian shot as the lizardmen charged - with disastrous results.

All of this left the edge of the board clear for the lizardman leader and, I supposed, the ring. But the troglodyte and his surviving henchthings turned towards the other edge of the board - where the rallied spiders and the tyrannosaur (who had munched through the night goblins) surrounded the orcish leader and his guards in a  wood. So if not the lizardmen ... ?

The answer soon became clear. My son had entrusted the ring to the tyrannosaur. It was almost a stroke of genius, as most of my units were keen to keep their distance, but he had reckoned without the Wild Charge rule. This left the tyrannosaur yo-yoing back and forth from the orc leader and guards - until the big reptile, now down to two strength points, failed a Courage test. He was an inch from the edge of the board when he rallied. He managed to survive a half-strength attack from the orc leader (now the sole remnant of his unit and his entire side), before seizing him in his jaws and shaking the life from him. The ring was safe - just.

As to the rules: the warbeasts are excellent additions, and all the fantasy-themed upgrades look very nicely balanced. Overpowered magic is the thing I remember least favourably from my youthful gaming, but it seems unlikely to mar this game.

I had hoped for a few more scenarios, but the six in the new book look good, and these plus the twelve in Lion Rampant give plenty to be going on with. And I've already thought of a couple of my own that I'll be trying out soon.

One house rule that I can envisage introducing is an automatic rally for a battered unit that rolls 12. In Lion Rampant, you don't really care that two or three routed spearmen can't hope to rally. But in this, I wonder whether (for example) a single-model unit should always have the possibility of summoning final reserves of courage and sinew to return to a hero's death. But that's easily experimented with.

Above all, the emphasis on creativity and imagination throughout the book is to be applauded. I loved these lines, in the section introducing the (strictly non-compulsory) sample warbands:

"Let your imagination run free, free like a Druid in a wood, a virgin on a unicorn, or a Troll in a china shop."

And:

"Also remember that it's fine to mix units from different lists: want dwarves and goblins together in your Warband? Go for it, but create a good backstory!"

That reminds me of one of my favourite lines in The Hobbit:

"They [goblins] did not hate dwarves especially, no more than they hated everybody and everything, and particularly the orderly and prosperous; in some parts wicked dwarves had even made alliances with them."

A good omen, I think, for many happy hours ahead. Oh, and the kids loved the game too!
« Last Edit: January 02, 2016, 01:01:55 AM by Hobgoblin »

Offline Malebolgia

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Re: Dragon Rampant - first game and first thoughts
« Reply #1 on: December 24, 2015, 07:18:31 AM »
Looking good. Also like your lineup of miniatures. Gives me an oldskool feel, which is always good! Hmmm, this game is sounding more and more interesting.
“What use was time to those who'd soon achieve Digital Immortality?”

Offline tomrommel1

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Re: Dragon Rampant - first game and first thoughts
« Reply #2 on: December 24, 2015, 07:23:39 AM »
nice report thank you
In hoc signo vinces

Have a look at www.wargamesgazette.com

Offline beefcake

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Re: Dragon Rampant - first game and first thoughts
« Reply #3 on: December 24, 2015, 07:29:56 AM »
Nice write up. I'm looking forward to getting it and giving it a go. Looks like you don't need hordes of minis either which is always favourable.


Offline Bodvoc

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Re: Dragon Rampant - first game and first thoughts
« Reply #4 on: December 24, 2015, 07:40:00 AM »
Sounds like you had a great game, well done for getting your kids to play.
I hope to try the rules out myself over the Xmas period.
'If I throw a 6 I will do my happy dance.

Offline Momotaro

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Re: Dragon Rampant - first game and first thoughts
« Reply #5 on: December 24, 2015, 09:43:32 AM »
Great battle report and good to hear your thoughts on the game - the fantastical special abilities certainly look ok, but it will be interesting to give them a run through in play.

Love it when a game goes down to the last unit/inch/roll of the dice!

Offline Steam Flunky

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Re: Dragon Rampant - first game and first thoughts
« Reply #6 on: December 24, 2015, 10:12:26 AM »
Nice AAR.
I got my copy yesterday so i spend some quality time over xmas reading it through (OK, i know quality time  is the time with the family but i am not in the mood for being politically correct and we all know what we really prefer doing).
You have some lovely old figures in the game. I still have a lot of those "Fantasy Tribes " range of orcs (IMO some of the best orcs Citadel ever made)and i think i recognise a couple of even older Citadel red orcs on wolves in one photo. I am still looking for those on the original giant tuskers.
laf medals by Robert  (steam flunky), auf Flickrhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/torq42/sets/

Online Hobgoblin

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Re: Dragon Rampant - first game and first thoughts
« Reply #7 on: December 24, 2015, 12:21:15 PM »
Nice write up. I'm looking forward to getting it and giving it a go. Looks like you don't need hordes of minis either which is always favourable.

We had 23 on the reptile side and 60 on the goblin side. I think you could get away with fewer than ten miniatures on one side if you went down the heroic "reduced-model unit" route. Of course, that would only make sense if the other side had larger units - otherwise, you'd be better playing SBH (or Song of Arthur and Merlin!) or another small-scale game.

Online Hobgoblin

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Re: Dragon Rampant - first game and first thoughts
« Reply #8 on: December 24, 2015, 12:26:54 PM »
You have some lovely old figures in the game. I still have a lot of those "Fantasy Tribes " range of orcs (IMO some of the best orcs Citadel ever made)and i think i recognise a couple of even older Citadel red orcs on wolves in one photo. I am still looking for those on the original giant tuskers.

Cheers! Yes, the old Perry orcs - from the FF range to the first of the slotta-based ones (the Orc's Drift era) - are terrific. And yes, those are red orcs. They all feature here at some point.
« Last Edit: December 24, 2015, 12:32:03 PM by Hobgoblin »

Offline Bloggard

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Re: Dragon Rampant - first game and first thoughts
« Reply #9 on: December 24, 2015, 02:17:15 PM »
I still have a lot of those "Fantasy Tribes " range of orcs (IMO some of the best orcs Citadel ever made)...

yes indeed - the dwarves too imo.

Offline killshot

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Re: Dragon Rampant - first game and first thoughts
« Reply #10 on: December 24, 2015, 02:42:55 PM »
Thanks for the write up, it sounds like a great game.

Offline mdauben

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Re: Dragon Rampant - first game and first thoughts
« Reply #11 on: December 24, 2015, 11:16:30 PM »
Thanks for the great write up!  I've gotten a copy of Dragon Rampant, too, but have not had a chance to try it out yet.
Mike

Offline Argonor

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Re: Dragon Rampant - first game and first thoughts
« Reply #12 on: December 25, 2015, 05:11:11 AM »
Been thinking about getting the rules, and your write-up makes them sound like right up my multi-purposing-everything-principle alley.

Thanks!  :)
Ask at the LAF, and answer shall thy be given!


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Offline beefcake

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Re: Dragon Rampant - first game and first thoughts
« Reply #13 on: December 25, 2015, 08:15:16 AM »
We had 23 on the reptile side and 60 on the goblin side. I think you could get away with fewer than ten miniatures on one side if you went down the heroic "reduced-model unit" route. Of course, that would only make sense if the other side had larger units - otherwise, you'd be better playing SBH (or Song of Arthur and Merlin!) or another small-scale game.
That's a nice amount of minis I think. Not like others where you need 20 for just one unit.

Offline Malebolgia

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Re: Dragon Rampant - first game and first thoughts
« Reply #14 on: December 29, 2015, 07:19:33 AM »
Excellent read and pictures. Found it so inspiring I bought the PDF online! Turned out I bought the .epub file and not a regular PDF. And the epub is a pain in the ass to read. Oh well, will slog on and read it and then time to play a a game :)
But thanks for the inspiration!

 

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