Dragon Rampant - Solo Game

For some time I have had an urge to do some fantasy gaming. I used to play a lot of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, but I stopped playing just before AoS came out. I sold off most of my miniatures and only kept a smaller Empire army, a handful of undead characters and a bunch of zombies.

Now it should be mentioned that I actually play Middle-Earth, which certainly is fantasy gaming, but for some reason I make a difference between Middle-Earth and other fantasy gaming. Probably because I feel that my LotR miniatures collection is tied very much to the game Middle-Earth, even though you could easily use other rule-sets to play with them.

Since my Warhammer days I have seen and discovered a lot of other fantasy manufacturers, but I still have a strong connection to the Warhammer universe, and I still think the GW miniatures are (mostly) great looking. So I will, at least initially, look to do some kind of Warhammer armies, but use other rules to game with, such as Dragon Rampant, Saga Age of Magic and Oathmark.

Since I have a small Empire army and a very small collection of undeads, one of which is a female vampire I have used in a Mordheim warband, I quickly thought of a narrative scenario which hopefully will be the starting point to a new and exciting world.

Elvira Le Borgne was a young noble woman from one of the smaller houses in the Caedoran kingdom. She was seduced by prince Cassius, the heir to the throne, and fell madly in love with him. When the prince eventually disavowed her in favour of a wealthier noble woman, Elvira was left disgraced and dishonoured. 

She fled to the eastern island sea to plot for her revenge. Here she met Lord Acheron, a powerful and ancient vampire, who was more than eager to enlist Elvira in his ranks and aid Elvira with her vengeance. Once her powers had grown Acheron gave her 3 companions, and she went on her quest for retribution.

The scenario is Elvira and her companions first attack on a small Caedorian outpost close to the coast. I use the Dragon Rampant rules in a self-made scenario. The rules is a sort of sandbox where you can make your own units from a set of preset unit templates. I will not go into detail how the various units work, apart from 'The Companions' unit which is one where I have tinkered more with the rules to make a unit that worked for me.

Armies

The Undead Army:

Elvira - Elite Foot - 9 pts.

Special rules: Ranger, Hatred(humans), Fear, Undead

 

The Companions - Heavy Foot - 9 pts. (approx.)

This unit is comprised of 3 different characters; a Ghoul Lord, a Spectre and a Necromancer. The characters must be within 12" of one another. They can be ordered either individually, or as a group of 2 or 3 in which case they have to be within 6" of each other. The Ghoul Lord and the Spectre have 6 attack dice each and the Necromancer has none. The 3 characters have 4 defence dice each. If the they are within 6" of each other they will use their combined attack/defence dice. Each character have 4 strength points. If more character than one character is involved in a fight or the target of a shooting attach, they will divide any hits equally starting with the closest character to the enemy.

Special rules: Undead (Ghoul Lord and Spectre), Fear (Ghoul Lord and Spectre), Venomous (Ghoul Lord), Invisibility (Spectre), Summoner (Necromancer)

Zombie Horde - Ravenous Horde - 3 pts.

The Necromancer can summon zombie hordes using the Summoner rules. Only 2 Zombie units can be on the table at any one time.

Special rules: Undead, Fear 

The Caedorian Army:

Captain - Light Foot - 3 pts.

Wizard - Light Foot - 5 pts.

Special rules: Wizardling (spells: Almighty Prod, Stronger Shields, Sharper Blades)

Halberdiers - Heavy Foot - 4 pts.

Special rules: Wall of Spears

Swordsmen - Heavy Foot - 4 pts.

Special rules: Wall of Spears

Crossbowmen - Heavy Missiles - 4 pts.

Scouts - Scouts - 2 pts.

Deployment 

The outpost is in the center of the board with some woods to the west and a ruined monastery to the east. The Companions start in the woods, while Elvira starts behind the monastery.

The Captain and Wizard start in the tower. The Swordsmen are in one guard post and the Crossbowmen in the other. The Scouts are posted at the wall towards the woods, while the Halberdiers stand in front of the tower. The Caedorian soldiers have to spot Elvira and THe Companions before they can attack them. This is an action on 8+ if within 12" and 9+ if over. If one Caedorian unit spots either Elvira or the Companions then all other Caedorian units can see them as well. Conversely if Elvira or The Companions attacks the Caedorians then they are spotted by all.

Elvira sneaks through the ruined monastery while the Companions approach the outpost from the opposite side.

It takes 6 turns before the Caedorians spot the Companions. The Captain immediately descends the tower, but the rest of the humans seem petrified in fear and fail to activate.

Meanwhile Elvira gets closer to the Crossbowmen, who fail to spot the vampire, probably distracted by the shouts from the other end of the outpost.

After having been spotted the Necromancer summons a horde of zombies.

From the top of the tower the Wizard tries to aid the Caedorians, but apparently he's a novice, as he often fails to cast any spells. Or maybe the Spectre in the woods somehow messes up his spellcasting.

The Swordsmen move to defend the walls against the zombies. The zombies are easily pushed back but at least keep the Swordsmen in place.

On the other side Elvira finally ambushes the Crossbowmen. Apparently they are so shocked by this attack they immediately runs away.

The Ghoul Lord has crawled over the walls and attacks the Swordsmen who almost flee, but stand their ground thanks to the Captains nearby encouragement.

After slaughtering the Crossbowmen Elvira moves to attack the Halberdiers, while the Companions press the attack on the Swordsmen.

Elvira attacks and push the Halberdiers back up the tower.

The Swordsmen manage to kill off the zombies across the wall, but more zombies appear from the monastery. The Captain bravely attacks the Companions but is pushed back battered.

Elvira kills the Halberdiers, while The Companions move towards the Scouts. The Swordsmen and zombies kill each other by the monastery.

The poor wizard is trapped in the tower and is effortlessly killed by Elvira and thrown out off the tower. The Scouts were also killed easily by The Companions, leaving only the Captain alive, who wisely decide to run for it. Elvira first attack was a great success. The outpost will be burned down, and Elvira will assemble more troops to continue her attack on the Caedoran kingdom.

This was a great, narrative game that went really well. I did make some rules errors throughout the game, but as it was a solo game it didn't really matter. And it was my first game of Dragon Rampant, and several years ago I last tried Lion Rampant. My rules for the Companions worked really well and was a fun narrative addition. 

I also liked the look of the game. The cardboard terrain was new and from a company called Battle Systems. I really like the buildings and the scatter terrain, but am a little unsure about the walls as they lack some depth to look entirely natural. But in general I think it works very well.

In general the game was probably in the Undeads favour, but as this was a narrative game, that was perfectly fine for me. It should be noted, however, that the Caedorians rolled rather poorly throughout the game, so it could have been more close. And the Ghoul King was one strength point away from dying, and the Spectre two, so they could have died as well. Elvira was a beast, but I thoroughly enjoyed that.

I have already ordered some more reinforcements for Elvira's army, but I need to paint them before I can play again (and the zombies as well, sorry about that). I'm thinking about playing some games of SAGA Age of Magic and Oathmark as well, but I don't think I have enough Undead troops to that properly. 

So we'll have to see what the future brings. I really want to continue this narrative, so I'll be thinking about of ideas to how that story shall continue.

Update - terrain and 6mm Pontic imitation legionaries

 Although my painting endeavors are limited by a current shoulder injury I do still try to get something done. At the moment terrain and bases are the easiest things for me to do.

First up are some 6mm Pontic imitation legionaries from Baccus. In January I painted some other Pontic troops and I had painted 6 out of 8 bases of the legionaries, except for doing finishing the bases which is something I usually do when I have painted all the figures. However, because of the shoulder I never got to paint the last 2 bases, but eventually I decided to at least finish the 6 bases I had painted. With these figures I tried to use mainly contrast paints over a metal spray and it worked out nicely.

Back in February I showed some 6mm latex fields/rough ground I had made. Now I have finished them all and here is a photo to prove it. These are very simply done with a brown spray, some shading and drybrushing, and few areas pained with contrast paints.

The fields/rough grounds are from TimeCast and with them I also purchased some fords and bridges which I have also finished. These are painted enturely with contrast paints.

Over time I have bought various 6mm buildings for different time periods. So I decided to make one base which could be used with the different buildings. Here is the base with first some ancients houses and then some ACW houses. The idea is to use them as a village/town and you can move the houses around to accommodate the figures.

Back in November when I was browsing a ton of webshops for Black Friday I came across a Polish shop, terrain4games.com that sold various terrain, including painted stuff. I was very curious about it, but didn't buy anything from at that time. But I kept coming back to the page, and a month ago I just decided to try it out. So I ordered a Rocksy terrain set with 16 pieces for 61 $ including shipment. It actually took a little longer for them to send it than expected (I had ordered a 'Ready to ship' item), but as a bonus they had added 3 more pieces to the set. I'm very happy with set and can recommend the webshop.Here is the set with a couple of 28mm fantasy figures for size comparison.

So although I don't get to paint as many figures as I would like (and need) to, at least I get something done. Unfortunately I also keep buying new stuff, but really comes as no surprise.

Game - Gondor/Fiefdoms vs. Isengard - Middle-Earth

 The other day Chris and I played a game of Middle-Earth. We played 750 pts. and had agreed on a Gandalf vs. Saruman fight. Chris took on the role of Gandalf while I was Saruman.

Gandalf's army:

Warband 1:

Gandalf on Shadowfaxe

13 warriors of Minas Tirith, 7 w. sword, 6 w. spears

2 Knights of Minas Tirith

Warband 2:

Prince Imrahil on horse

3 Knights of Dol Amroth

Warband 3:

Forlong on horse

3 Knights of Dol Amroth

Saruman's Army:

Warband 1:

Saruman

13 Uruk-hai, 7 with shields, 6 with pikes

Isengard Troll

Warband 2:

Lurtz

13 Uruk-hai scouts, 6 with shield, 7 w. bow

Warband 3:

Orc on warg

6 warg riders, 3 with throwing spears, 3 with bow

We selected the scenario randomly and ended up with Hold Ground which meant that we had to fight over an objective in the center of the board. The good side won the initiative and thus had to deploy their warbands first. Unfortunately for Gandalf the dice rolls meant that Saruman could decide where Gandalf's and Forlong's warbands should enter the field. Saruman chose that they should enter in opposite corners in hope of being able to deal with them separately. Prince Imrahil was more on point and thus entered close to Forlong to support him.

Almost as planned Saruman was able to enter where he wanted to and chose to deploy between Prince Imrahil's and Forlong's warbands, ready to take them out quickly before Gandalf was able to aid the knights. Lurtz entered next to Saruman in a good position to support his master. The warg riders were forced to enter on the opposite end.

Saruman immediately used a sorcerous blast to kill a Dol Amroth knight and unhorse Prince Imrahil.

The good side won the initiative again in turn 2, but Saruman called a heroic move. Forlong tried the same, but the dice gods favoured Saruman. The troll and uruk-hais quickly attacked the knights and killed a couple of them, while Forlong was unhorsed.

Prince Imrahil was surrounded by uruk-hais but the evil warriors were unable to kill the great warrior. At the same time Lurtz led his scouts towards the obejctive.

Meanwhile Gandalf and Shadowfaxe have reached the objective and gets ready to defend it at all cost.

We had a time limit on the game and it was approaching fast. The Gondor army was attacked by Lurtz' scout from one side and the warg riders from another. So although Gandalf stood right on the objective he had not enough troops with him to hold it, and Saruman won the battle.

Despite being completely surrounded by Uruk-hais all through the battle Prince Imrahil managed to survive and lives to fight another day.

Forlong, too, survived his fight with the troll and ended up escaping over the ruins.

And so ended another great battle in Middle-Earth. I was really lucky with the deployment which meant I could unhorse the good heroes and kill most of the Dol Amroth knights almost from the start. Unfortunately I couldn't quite those heroes but I ended up swarming the objective, and the good army was only one soldier away from breaking. I really need to get the army painted as I am rather pleased with how it plays.

Game - WW2 US vs. Germans - Big Chain of Command

Sunday Steffen and I had a full day to play and we decided to play a truly Big Chain of Command game with 4 platoons on each side. Steffen played the Americans and I played the Germans. Steffen had made a scenario based on the Normandy campaign. With the help of Google Maps he found a place which we recreated on the table.

Steffen's scenario:

Northern France, west of Saint Lo on the road towards Periers. The strategic focus point is a few scattered buildings around a crossroad. The scenario will be a mix between the Going with a Bang Scenario from the 1940 Blitzkrieg book and the Attack on an Objective scenario from the main rulebook.

Steffen had forces from the 30th infantry division and armoured support from 3rd armoured division. I had forces from the 352 infantry division and armoured support from the Panzer Lehr division.

Each player have 3 infantry platoons and one armoured platoon. 2 of the infantry platoons can enter play from the start, and one of the senior leaders from these platoons is a ranking leader, who can use all his command points to call for reinforcements. If he does so the remaining infantry platoon and armoured platoon can enter play from the next turn.

The table and jump-off points. The 2 starting infantry platoons have 2 jump-off points each. The Germans had to demolish 2 buildings and the crossroad. (The US used Russian jump-off markers)

One of the American platoons had to enter the battlefield from the jump-off points at the edge. One squad came under heavy fire as soon as it entered the field. The US forces responded fire with Bofors gun.

The other American platoon had jump-off points further up the field and began an attack in the tree-line, while the Germans tried to setup defensive positions.

A German squad had taken position in the house at the crossroads and fired on the Americans across the field. At the bottom of the picture a demolishing team is preparing to set charges on the other building.

The Americans take heavy fire and their advance is completely halted.

The Americans call in mortar fire on the crossroads.

The American ranking senior leader has managed to call in reinforcements and a Sherman 105 is the first tank unit to heed the call.

The Germans respond quickly with a Pak 38. Although hitting the US tanks repeatedly it was unable to knock out any tanks during the battle.

Heavy fighting in the tree-line. The German platoon tasked with holding the tree-line has taken heavy casualties and the Americans keep on coming.

The Germans setup another defensive line on their left flank but come under sustained fire from the Americans, who now has another Sherman 105 on the field (seen at the top of the table).

After some delay the German ranking senior leader finally gets some reinforcements to help their defense. A SdKfz 222 recons forward and realizes that more help is needed.

The American advance through the tree-line has been halted after heavy casualtis but more troops are advancing forward.

German panzer come forward in a desperate counterattack. The SdKfz 222 at the crossroads was destroyed by an 76mm AT gun.

Random event! Suddenly unknown mortar fire hits the area around the tree-line, preventing the Americans from pushing on their attack.

The German counterattack is stopped. One pzIV is destroyed at the crossroads and the remaining two panzers take heavy fire.

More US tanks and troops have arrived on the field and the Germans losses are mounting. Soon after morale breaks in the two of the infantry platoons and the armoured platoon, and the Germans flee. The Americans have won a great victory.

This was a truly big and epic game of Chain of Command. Although the end result never really seemed in doubt it was still a great game. The Germans just couldn't kill any of the tanks, despite several hits. I also made a great tactical error when I placed one of the jump-off points to far forward in the tree-line on the right flank. Steffen played a good game and just kept on pressing forward, despite some initial losses to his infantry. 

Steffen and I don't get to play as often as we would both like to, so it's great to play Big Chain of Command when we do. That way we get to put a lot more troops on the table. We actually had time to play a regular game as well, and once again the Germans were severely beaten. Thankfully there are no photographic evidence of this battle.