Saturday 30 January 2016

1st playtest of Dragon Rampant

Yesterday we played a first game of Dragon Rampant. Since the gaming engine is almost identical to Lion Rampant, we also used our modded version of the rules, playing on a hexgrid.

We used a scenario from the book, in which one side has to transport a magical artefact to the other side of the gaming table. We used roughly 50 points for each side, so almost double of the what is recommended in Dragon Rampant, in which the standard is set at 24 points. Since the gaming engine is activation-based, taking a unit as the atomic element, this didn't cause too much troubles.

The two forces were Skaven and Undead from my extensive Oldhammer collection.

A few things I might consider changing for future games:
  1. In our hexified rules, it is stipulated that a full hex should be maintaind between units. This is the equivalent of the 3" proximity rules between units in the original Rampant rules. For the medieval games, this worked quite well, since 6 or 12 25mm models overflow the hex significantly, and hence, providing a buffer zone between units (a single hex), helped the game.
    However, since Dragon Rampant works with Strength Points per unit (and which are not necessarily equal to the number of figures), this problem is less pronounced. Hence, units can be made to fit a hex rather nicely, and there is no need to keep a visual buffer between units. So perhaps the 1 hex distance between units can be lifted, and a tighter density of units on the table is possible. This in turn would make it easier to play bigger battles.
  2. Talking about bigger battles, as a player you naturally want more coherent behavious between units. I.e. you want units to move together rather than all individually. So I think we need to introduce some type of group order. E.g. all adjacent units can be given the same order (move, attack, ...), but using the least favourable activation role of any unit in the goup. A further penalty might be introduced (a -1 or even -2?) to balance the fact that it otherwise would be too easy to move a large number of units in a single turn.
Preliminary picture:


2 comments:

  1. Very Very interesting approach. We ( our Playersgroup of two ) play a very old Fantasy TT, you may have heard of : ARMAGEDDON. It dates back to the late 60ies and early 70ies. We started playing it back in the late 70ies until early 80ies as an ongoing ( eternal ) game.

    Back then, we used a 3D Model of the world MAGIRA ( which occupied a full room and we had the luxury to have the minis, buildings etc. staying on the TT between our bi-weekly gaming-weekends). MAGIRA was played on 18mm Hex-Grid and in 3 height-levels.

    Only recently, after more then 25 years break, my friend and I decided to restart our old game. But of course , by using todays technology. So there's no need for a 4 mtr diameter playing field anymore. We have a virtual world on the PC which covers some 30.000 Hexfields. Battles are faught based on partially random events and occurances of enemies in the vicinity of our hometowns ( on the virtual map ) or which pop up during our excursions to find our more about our new world ( no name yet ).

    We also changed the setup in so far, as we added not only more cultures as in the original game ( which consisted of only human cultures ) but we also added the wll known warhammer races from Skeletons to dwarfs, from Lizardmen to Skaven, Beastmen, you name them.

    This in return brought up the need for race-specific rules ( not as elaborate and overdone as in the late Warhammer editions though ). We wnat to keep things still somewhat simple but yet challenging, colourful and "fantasy-like". Think you know what I mean.

    So in a nutshell, we are in need of somewhat different battlerules and I was already searching for a while. Only recently I came across Lion Rampant / Dragon Rampant and just yesterday I got the rule-books. Now it is my task, to "convert" these roles to ARMAGEDDON and to a hexbased playground.

    Then , by coincidence, I found your blog through search on the Dux Rampant forum.
    If you don't mind, I will take ýour rules and will try them also with our game.

    Maybe we can exchange some experiences.

    Best regards
    Stefan ( Erkrath , Germany )

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    1. No problem if you borrow some of our ideas. That's what the internet is for :-)

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