Sunday 29 May 2016

When Dragon Rampant and Warhammer Quest collide! (Everyone has fun!).

 
My son has been constantly lurking round the display case since the 24 hour painting challenge last weekend.

"Daddy" he pipes up "When can I play?".

"This weekend son . . . . .Which goodie do you want to be?"

"No Daddy" he replies " I want to be these guys" he says pointing at the Pink Horrors!!

BollORKS I think there is no way his 6 year old mind is going to handle having his monsters hacked to pieces while I rampage round the Silver Tower!

In exasperation I raise my eyes to the Heavens and . . . . . . .




Glance upon this.


Hang on, field what you want and reduced model units! . . . . . SOLD!

So I have a quick think and we have two opposing warbands of 'Goodies' and 'Baddies'.


Most of my army are reduced model units of Heavy foot. The Stormcast Questor is Elite foot due to his heavy armour. The Gryph hound is a reduced model unit of Lesser Warbeasts. The Warpriest gets a spellcaster upgrade to grant him 'heal'. Total 26 points.

A couple of bits are thrown at the table. I keep it simple as I just want to nail the combat mechanics at the moment.


First turn and I fluff the movement roll for the Gryph (of 5+) and that's probably the shortest turn in history over!


Troy's warband of Baddies surge forward . . . . .


Except the Ogroid Thaumaturge (reduced model unit, Greater Warbeast) which fails to make it's movement roll of 5+!


Second turn sees both warbands rush forwards with reckless abandon.


My Doomseeker is a reduced model unit of Bellicose Foot so has to make a 'wild charge' check. Yep. . . .  fails and off he thunders into the Ogroid!


My Gryph pitches into the Blue Horrors!


Troy's turn and the Ogroid 'Wild Charges' into my leader. . . .


and causes carnage!


Thankfully the armour rating of 4  saves the Questors bacon (just)!

Then Troy spots the Doomseeker out in the open and his leader, the Gaunt Summoner with Chaos familiars in toe (Elite foot with spell caster upgrade to give him 'fire of Tzeentch'), opens up on the Doomseeker with his 'fire of Tzeentch' fireball. . . . .


. . . . . . leaving the Doomseeker on one health.


My turn and my Doomseeker attacks the Ogroid due to it's wild charge but bounces off the thing without it even noticing. I then decide to try and cast heal (on a 7+) but the Warpriest fluffs it and thats the end of my turn!

My Doomseeker is at the mercy of the Ogroid . . . . all Troy has the do is roll a 5+ on two dice . . . . . .when . . . . . . . .

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!"

Yep rolls a 4! His face was an absolute picture!

I try to relieve the pressure on the Doomseeker by pitching in the Darkoath Chieftain . . . . .


Yep! Roll a three and thats my turn over!

The Ogroid is in and dispatches the Doomseeker with ease.


The Pink Horrors surge forward.


My turn and everything pitches into the Ogroid to try and finish it off before the Pink Horrors show up.



But it's high armour value saves it's bacon!

My Warpriest finally casts his 'heal' spell.


I finally kill the Ogroid but then the Gaunt Summoner wrecks bloody havoc with it's 'fire of Tzeentch'.


I send the Gryph charging forward to put some pressure on the Baddies.


Once again the Priest casts Heal.


Troy's turn and the Pink Horrors try to make a snack out of the Gryph!


Then the Summoner fails to finish it off with the firebolt!


My turn and I send the Gryph after the Summoner to distract him away from the wounded heros.


Once again the Priest fails to cast heal and that ends my turn.


Troy's Pink Horrors flank me in order to finish off my Darkoath Chieftain, hiding behind the pillar!


As my Darkoath Chieftain breaks cover as he flees from combat he is spotted by the Summoner and incinerated by a firebolt!!


My turn is ineffective and then . . . . . . .

The Pink horrors surge forward to finish off the Knight Questor...


With my Warpriest looking out over a deserted battlefield and not fancying his chances of charging across a unbroken battlefield towards a fireball casting Wizard, decides that discretion is the better part of valour and bolts for the back table edge!!!!!


And thats my first real taste of  Dragon Rampant . . . . and I LOVE it!!!!

Simple rules with enough tactics to get your teeth into, the rolls for every action adding a real sense of jeopardy, the opportunity of putting whatever you fancy on the table thanks to reduced model units. Whats not to love.

Just a cracking rule set!

14 comments:

  1. Sounds like a really fun game and your freshly painted miniatures look great. I've got the Dragon Rampant rules but not had a chance to play them, but I might just have to now, cheers for report Riot and congrats to Troy :-)

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    1. It was a really fun game. Now I have to get the Elf heros painted up so we can play a bigger battle!

      I was a little underwhelmed when I read the rules originally but am fully sold now I have actually used the rules and certainly endorse them!

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    2. Interesting, that just makes me want to play with them even more, cheers Riot

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    3. I have to say I enjoyed this more then the Frostgarve rule set.

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  2. What a rumble! Is the board a frostgrave one? It looks almost white, but maybe that's just the lighting in the photos.

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    1. It was a proper tear up!

      The board is borrowed from my mate Neil. It is a GW battle board that was originally painted up for a 40K winter campaign. I like it as the grey terrain pops out more.

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  3. Have to give DR a bash right after I try Frostyballs, Open Combat & WARBAND hehe.. bloody rulesets hehe

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    1. Truth be told, I enjoyed this far more then Frostgrave.

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  4. What fabulous read and hugely entertaining. That's another positive review for Dragon Rampant so I think it might be time to give them a go myself.

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    1. I was skeptical when I first read the rules but they have won me over.

      The rules are easy enough for a 6 year old to understand (literally) and offer real tactical choices. The fact you can bring whatever you want to the table is a welcome bonus.

      It's certainly worth an hour of your time to check it out.

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  5. Big fan of Dragon Rampant...and the Single/Reduced Model Unit rules really open the game up to pretty much anything.

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    1. I noticed on your blog how you took full advantage of the reduced model units and now I have played myself see how well it works.

      I am a real convert to this system.

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  6. I bought Dragon Rampant when it first came out, but I've barely skimmed the book. Thanks to your battle report here (and Gordon's, which I'm now looking through) I'll be reading the book ASAP! Thanks.

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    1. I have to be honest I was underwhelmed when I initially got the rule book I suppose because it looked a bit 'amateurish'compared to the professinal looking efforts rececently released.

      It is only after I have used the rule set I have seen it's true potential. I think this rule set owns itself to getting stuck in rather then trying to digest it by reading it.

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