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 3rd, 4th or 5th
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
