Last night my friend Lou came over and we took Dragon Rampant out for a spin. For those that don't know, Dragon Rampant is the Fantasy version of Lion Rampant that came out in 2014. LR is a set of medieval wargame rules, written by Daniel Mersey and published by Osprey. So now we have DR which is pretty much the same game, but with Fantasy elements thrown in, and it works!
We've played one or two games of Lion Rampant so had a vague idea how to play. Since this was a learning game, we didn't put a lot of effort into planning. I have lots of LOTR figures, so that's what we were going to use. Orcs vs Dwarves.
In Dragon Rampant, you pick a point value for your game and buy your units. The suggested game size is 24 points. Units are 6 or 12 strength points(number of figures). Though you can choose to take a reduced figure unit, but then each figure is stronger. You can also take "single or reduced model units". Basically your mighty heroes or monsters can be a single model or a few models. A good example would be a unit of trolls, 3 models each at 4 strength points. Or Conan all by himself at 12 strenght points.
You then decide the type of unit, like Heavy Foot or Elite Riders. For example Heavy Foot are 4 points a unit(12 figures). Each unit type might have upgrades or special rules. Light Riders for example get evade and skirmish, Elite Riders get Wild Charge.
After you build your Warband (4 to 10 units) you nominate a figure for Army commander, he comes for free. He just becomes part of a unit, Unless you bought him as a single warrior. Where he is on the table matters as he helps units pass morale rolls. Each unit has a leader, that is what the unit forms around and must maintain cohesion too.
Here are the Warbands we constructed for our first game.
The Orcs:
1 Heavy Riders w/Leader (Melee Warg Riders), 6 figs
1 Light Riders (Missile Warg Riders), 6 figs
1 Greater Warbeasts (Wargs), 6 figs
1 Heavy Foot w/upgrade (2 handed Choppers), 12 figs
2 Light Foot (Orcs), 12 figs each
The Dwarves:
1 Elite Foot w/leader (Dwarf Huscarls), 6 figs(2 points each)
1 Heavy Foot w/upgrade (2 handed axes), 12 figs
2 Heavy Foot (Dwarf Spears), 12 figs each
1 Light Missile (Dwarf Rangers with bows), 12 figs
The battle lines, Dwarves closest, Orcs and Wargs on the far side of the table.
The lines close up on each other.
The Dwarf leader and bodyguard slam into the Orcs on the hill.
The Wargs attack.
The Warg Riders also join the fun.
The Khazad Guard finish off the Wargs.
The Dwarf Rangers are run down.
The Khazad guard are driven back by the Orc 2 Handed warriors.
For a Full battle write up, more pics and a detailed description of how the game plays check out my blog:
http://xinslair.blogspot.com/2015/12/first-game-of-dragon-rampant.html