Dragon Rampant, an introduction.

Welcome to the first “Fantasy Friday” post.

This is what will, hopefully, become a semi-regular series covering various fantasy rulesets which catch my eye, projects for fantasy wargames, and, well you get the idea.

Basically if it's anything to do with fantasy which doesn't belong on the workbench series, then it'll end up here being posted on a Friday.

That's the plan, but no plan survives contact with the enemy.

Anyway, for the first post, I want to introduce a ruleset I've liked for a while but never had chance to play:

Dragon Rampant

 

Dragon Rampant is part of the Osprey Publishing series of wargames, so it holds up well their high production standards throughout.

It is also part of what has become known as the “Rampant Series” of wargames, which includes Lion Rampant and The Pikeman's Lament, all three books written by Daniel Mersey.

All three books focus upon small, quick and decisive battles which are fun to boot.
They all utilise D6's as their rolling method, and whilst I cannot say for The Pikeman's Lament, as I have never played it, both Lion Rampant and Dragon Rampant share a core ruleset which makes transferring from one set to the other easy.

This page is taken directly from the PDF and shows clearly what is needed to play:

As the game is more warband then army focussed, but not in the Dark Ages warband sense, it is eminently achievable, especially with modern adult life straining onto hobby time and budget.
A green table cloth, a few pieces of terrain, around 50 (if you're maxing numbers) miniatures per side and a handful of D6's.

It's almost like going back to when we started with 3^rd, 4^th or 5^th edition Warhammer Fantasy!

It's nothing like Warhammer Fantasy

For one thing, it's not entirely certain your units will act the way you wish, when you wish them too.

As you can see, every statblock has a number with a “+” symbol.
That is the number you need to roll on two D6 in order to make the order.

So our heavy riders need to pass an “Movement Order Check” at 5+ on two D6.
Melee attacking is on a 5+ again and their courage is a healthy 4+.

The right hand column is where the attack and defence stats are found for when you are actually getting up close and personal with the enemy.
These attack and defence dice are a single D6, and whilst they might seem high, there are modifiers throughout the game which will help somewhat..

Strength points are the measure of the units current power. Most people play with six or twelve models in the unit as these are the two main strength totals, however they are just a measure of how much power the unit has, and when they are at half strength, you roll half the number of dice (You will always roll twelve dice whilst above half the starting strength, when you reach half strength, you will always roll six dice for attacks).

The rulebook even has a handy flowchart to help through the turn sequence:

 

If you read the little designers note on the side it explains how the game turn might not go the way you want it to, these designers notes are something I wish more games authors would add in their works.

Battered units and Wild Charges are something which becomes more relevant when the game is being played and not something I am going to into here.

The most interesting part of the rules for me though is the army creation.

Rather then an arbitrary set of units which must be adhered to, instead Dragon Rampant gives you a series of generic units profiles, with various special rules to add to them for different troop types. You can then add on what the book refers to as “Fantastical Rules” which covers things from Invisibility, to Flying to Flame Attacks and even Were-Creatures!#

There is an option for what is known as a “reduced model unit” which will still have six or twelve strength points, but has less then that number of models, think of 2 or 3 or more wound creatures from other rules and you get the idea.

The main cravats to creating an army is that you have to have a minimum of four units, and no one unit can cost more then ten points.

The unit types are as follows:

Elite Riders – nobles and other high cavalry.

Heavy Riders – more reliable heavy cavalry then the nobles.

Light Riders – scout cavalry and yeoman types.

Greater Warbeast – DRAGONS, and other big beasties.

Lesser Warbeast – packs of smaller warbeasts, or a juvenile DRAGON.

Elite Foot – best of the best infantry around.

Heavy Foot – general heavy infantry.

Light Foot – a catch all of light infantry, they can be pike armed or have the option for missiles.

Bellicose Foot – break heads first, ask questions later types.

Heavy Shooters – heavy infantry armed with missile weapons, but poor in combat.

Light Shooters – general missile type units.

Scouts – small missile armed units who can move through cover with ease.

Ravenous Hordes – zombies, peasants, anything which doesn't think much but is a nuisance.

Your army leader is included in one of the units you pick, rather then as a separate unit himself (he can be his own model by using a reduced model count unit) and he gets a Leadership Trait by rolling three D6 on a chart in the book, thing range from being luckless to being a combat monster, a master with missile attacks and others.

As an exmaple force here is my own Nighthaunt army which I made specifically for Dragon Rampant.
It's a little larger then a standard game at thirty points, a standard game is twenty-four points;

 Here's how it breaks down:

Heavy Riders unit – The Knight of Shrouds on Steed and two Dreadblade Harrows.

This unit include the army leader, and is a reduced model unit, each model has four wounds.
They have the enchanted weapons, flying and undead rules.

 

Scouts unit – Three Myrmourn Banshees.

This unit is a reduced model unit, each model has two wounds.

They have the flying and undead rules. Their ranged attack represents their Banshee Screams.

Bellicose Foot unit – six Cairn Wraiths.

This unit is a reduced model unit, each model has two wounds.

They have the enchanted weapons and undead rules.

 

Light Foot unit – Knight of Shrouds, Soulwarden and ten Chainrasps.

They have the offensive and undead rules.

Lesser Warbeast unit – Dread Abyssal.
This is a reduced model unit, the creature has six wounds.
The warbeast has the flame attack, flying and undead rules.
Like the Banshees above, I envisage the flame attack more as a spectral scream rather then an actual flame breath.

So with twenty-five models in the entire army, it really is achievable to complete a force for this game without having to wait years to get a game in.

Another thing I really like is that the order mechanic's don't guarantee that your forces will act during the turn, so it makes it much more viable for solo gaming, something of a bonus that.

Well, I hope to get some games of this in shortly once I have finished my Stormcast Eternals force to face the undead, I'll post some battle reports as I get into the swing of it, this will be especially useful as I am considering attending the “Rampant Ages Day” in April laid on by Wargames Illustrated magazine.

Until next time...

- Lewis