Trying Dragon Rampant

As I mentioned yesterday I have finally tried Dragon Rampant.  I got the book a while ago and have read it through a few times.  I thought I would like it, but you can never really tell until you try.

I fought two battles against Merlin, my gaming pal from North Yorkshire.  The first battle ended with a narrow victory for his barbarians, all down to glory points and some last minute fluffed courage tests on my part.

As battle commences the orcs advance towards the barbarians

Goblin scouts and orc bellicose foot sneak through the woods to try to outflank the humans

The barbarians chariots prepare to charge the orc line, but can they avoid the orcs on their flank?

Bodvoc's Last Stand; it comes down to the plucky barbarian lord; he held out against everything the orcs could throw at him

The second game was a more convincing victory for Merlin, this time using his beastmen.  We took less photos this time, but here are some of the troops involved.

 

Beastmen foot

The beastman wizard with bodyguard.  Behind them the beastman leader looks on

Beastman elite foot

So what did I think of the game?  I loved it.  It might not be for everyone, one major point is the activation roll.  It is quite possible to fail the first roll of your turn and end up doing nothing.  This happened to both of us, especially to Merlin in the first game, in fact his barbarian foot were notable for not moving throughout the first half of the battle.  Of course it all evens out over the course of a game, and adds a tactical dimension when you decide what to try first.  I am particularly impressed with the flexibility of the army building;  just about anything can be covered.  The game plays quickly as well.  We got two 24 point battles in and neither lasted more than two hours.

the game has lots of 'old school ' touches and some fun characterisation.  For instance each player rolls a trait for the leader before the battle commences.  These are not always good!  Bodvoc, Merlin's barbarian lord, rolled weak, meaning he rolled less dice in melee.  In the second game my orc lord rolled goader, meaning one unit close to him automatically passed a movement activation test.  There are alos boasts which give you extra glory points if you achieve them by the end of the game.

I think my only real complaint is the lack of  'race identification'.  Orc light foot works exactly the same as human or elf light foot (I had the same issue long ago with Hordes of the Things).  There are lots of ways to personalise units with special rules and options however, so it's not too bad. Ultimately, it's down to what you want your army to look like that is the thing.  As an example Merlin's beastmen are a very elite force.  Very few units (four) and lots of upgrades.  It would be quite possible to have a beastman force with lots of weaker units, it just depends on how you imagine beastmen to fight.

A quick note on scale.  The rules are written using inches on a 4x6ft table.  Sicne we were using 15mm figures we simply halved everything and used two of my Citadel Realm of Battle tiles (2x4ft) and it worked fine.

Thanks to Merlin for some of the pics, and for getting me into the game (though the 15mm was, I believe, my idea).