Arielle quickened her pace. The lure of the ancient ruined Temple of Lilaeth was strong. It was as if the magic of the goddess was calling her. The young Elf mage looked to her right, observing her escort, led by the Elf-noble Elirion marching in perfect step through the late morning sunshine. Elirion Orc-Bane…a fitting escort for an in-training Mage-Princess of royal blood. Arielle was glad of the presence of the Elf-noble and his warriors. The borderlands could be a dangerous place…
On the valley slopes, hidden among the rocks and trees, the Orc warband waited. The leader, a fierce, brutal Orc by the name of Ruglud smiled a savage grin. The slaughter of the pointy-ears in the Temple had been almost too easy! Thank Mork he had thought to bring along Nobrot the Unclean! The Shaman’s magic had befuddled the pointy-eared worshippers preventing their weak sorcery from working. Ruglud had taken great pleasure in the slaughter and even greater pleasure in the torture of the one survivor who revealed through his agonies that a pointy-eared princess approached. Ruglud had barked swift orders for an ambush to be laid, before one final defilement of the altar within the temple…that Snotling curry had been giving him discomfort all morning and what better place for relief than the altar of a pointy-ear temple..? Thus began my first game of Dragon Rampant with regular gaming buddy and fellow The Men Who Would be Kings playtester, Andy MacTaggart.
We had pre-selected the forces – 30pts each as we wanted to field decent size warbands including magic and some fantastical items. Andy had selected a reduced model unit of offensive heavy foot for his leader, Ruglud, supported by a reduced model unit of shiny-armoured bellicose foot including the wizardling Nobrot (yeah…I know…sorry!) The rest of the warband included 2 units of bellicose foot, a unit of Goblin archers and a unit of Goblin scouts. Rglud’s unit had ‘mystical armour’ which could potentially cancel out some casualties in melee.
My High Elf warband was led by a unit of elite foot with the ‘Slayer’ special rule, enabling me to re-roll missed attacks in melee – a 10pt unit!! There was a unit of light foot with ‘wizardling’ – represented by a female mage and her wolf familiar. The Elf warriors included a unit of offensive heavy foot, a unit of light foot spearmen and a unit of archers with the ‘sharpshooter’ special rule enabling them to hit at 4+ rather than 5+.
We chose the ‘Death Chase’ scenario, with the Orcs ambushing the Elves. I had to get my Elves all the way down the length of the table and we were unable to give any shoot or attack orders in my first two sets of activations. Hmm…tricky!!!
Anyway, here’s what unfolded. The pics I took were mostly useless as my kitchen is very dark, so I took some extras tonight in my lounge to supplement the report. I know how you like a little eye-candy!!
Andy went first and only managed to activate one unit in his first two turns due to some woeful dice rolling. I managed to activate most of my force twice due to uncommonly decent dice! I opted to place my mage in some cover to attempt to disrupt the goblin archers nearest to her and also to support her warriors (she had ‘stronger shields’ as one of her 3 spells meaning she could give a unit within 18” a +1 to armour!)
First blood of the game was a unit of Bellicose Orcs hurtling downhill and smashing into my swordmasters. Although the combat was a tie, the Orcs became battered, failed their rally test and retreated. This set them up to be counter-attacked by Elirion and his bodyguard. Luckily, I had managed to cast ‘stronger shields’ on the Elf hero giving them a staggering armour 5!! This, combined with the ‘Orc Slayer’ rule devastated the Orcs, destroying them utterly!!
Across the battlefield, Ruglud assaulted the Elf spearmen. In a fairly even fight, the Elves were eventually bested, but Ruguld’s unit ended up becoming a pin-cushion as the Elf archers pounded it. An unlucky courage test then sent the unfortunate Orc warlord routing off table!!!
Undeterred, the Orcs pressed on. At this point though, I realized that I needed to do something about Nobrot!
He had cast ‘befuddle thee’ on the spearnen, battering them. However, he was stuck in a unit of Bellicose foot! This meant that he was subject to ‘wild charges’ so I duly advanced Elirion’s unit to within 8” of the festering Orc shaman, thereby forcing a series of brutal combats which gradually ground the Orc shaman’s unit to nothing. However, although it prevented any more magic, it did take Elirion below half strength.
At this point, the remaining Orc infantry assaulted the spear Elves, battering them to the point where they failed their courage test and routed! At this point, we had both achieved our secret quests (having two enemy units battered at any one time) and, due to the scenario victory conditions, Andy was now winning as he scored points for routing my units, where I only scored them for exiting the table!
Andy’s final unit of Orcs battered my swordsmen who had been weakened by Goblin archery and the Elves then failed their courage test and routed! Luckily, the Orcs also failed their courage test and routed too!! However, I was now on the back foot with only 2 elites running for the home borad edge and my archers and wizardling left to face the goblin archers and scouts, both of whom had undertaken some serious shooting!! Up to this point, my mage had been largely useless, failing 4 attempts in a row to cast ‘befuddle thee’ on the Goblin archers. I realized I had to destroy both Goblin units to have a chance of winning so she stepped out of cover… My archers turned around and a torrent of death was launched! Arielle launched an attack on the Goblin archers, but was beaten off. The Elf bowmen launched a torrent of death that wiped out the scouts, leaving me in with a shout at last!
Andy manfully launched a fusillade of arrows at the Elf mage, but she survived the onslaught and finally successfully cast a spell – ‘power-bolt’ that routed the Goblins.
Victory to the Elves by a single, solitary point!!!
Wow! What a great game!! It see-sawed back and forth throughout! We learned that magic doesn’t necessarily dominate (although ‘befuddle thee’ is a mighty spell if ypu can cast it!) and that putting wizardlings in Bellicose foot is a bad idea!! ‘Slayer’ can be a brutal rule too!!
Once again, a set of Dan Mersey’s rules has given us a fantastic evening of entertainment! We shall play this again!!
Arielle climbed wearily to the Temple. The stench of death hung heavily over the ruins and her tears flowed freely as she wept for her fellow acolytes slain so brutally. Stepping through the mutilated corpses, she was suddenly aware of an even more fetid stench emanating from the altar… Seeing the Orc warlord’s final humiliating desecration of the Temple of her beloved goddess set a fire burning within her soul. The Greenskin would pay!! She would see to it… Turning to the West, she made to follow the Elf-noble Elirion. She would have need of his warriors again…
August 04, 2015, 08:07:50 PM