Friday, January 22, 2016

Dragon Rampant

So it was Northstar and its Dragon Rampant/Frostgrave crossover that got me interested in trying this game. It has a similar simple elegance to it and it's easy to imagine things escalating in Frosgrave to full blown warfare.
So I built two armies one for Mike using the Nortstar necomancer list as insperation.  I based my own army on Thinneth's Warband with some additional recruites.  So it was sort of a battle of heros vs minions.
The undead on the enemies right flank.
My own army, Lucian and Hagman's archers have trouble getting going... I blame the mousling archer and his constant snacking. The Warriors of the White Willow hold the center and are Belecos foot so they moved quickly through those ruins. Thinneth herself is a unit Elite foot with the shooting add on (I wanted to stay clear of spells in this first game) and her warriors (plus a few extras) also Elite foot.
Our mission is to take and hold the mystical stone circle and the Willows have gotten there first but are menaced by banshees (scouts with a ranged attack from their wailing). I lose one Strength point but pass my courage test with ease.
The rest of my force is falling in behind them...
except for the archers who are still looking for cheesy in their ration pack.
The Necromancer has taken a commanding position (he's profiled as a Heavy Missile unit) and the Cultists are passing the defile.
My Bellicose foot take and over run the banshees... (we forgot the evade rule which may have effected the battle as a whole).
The Skeletons pile in and my boys counter charge and a big scrum develops..
I killed 3 skeletons and they got one of my men but as the Undead care not for losses I must make a courage test and I roll snake eyes thus my unit breaks and routs.
Mike summons his ghouls and they pop up...
My unit of adventurers has take psition but is looking a little lonely...
Fortunately the Archers have finally moved up... and land a hit. Thinneth and the Necromancer exchange shots...
In come the Gouls but superior skill and especially armor allow us to drive them off and the unit is destroyed.
We each have a broken unit but and Thinneth has gotten the worst of the exchange of shots with spells.
Mike hits me with a one two punch first skeletons and then..
cultists... my heroic companions are falling fast, half strength, though they are selling their lives dearly.
Thinneth drives in on the cultists and inflicts significant damage driving them back in confusion before her spells and deadly blade.
Mike drive in again with the skeletons and I lose another fellow.
Thinneth is wounded but still deadly and drives back the cultists with heavy casualties. (Mike rolled really well on his courage tests for these guys so the stuck around.
My archers move up in support... and my companion troops fall back. Mike is too smart to walk in to the trap.
His Necromancer who has been shooting at my troops and doing goo damage falls back when he realizes how close Thinneth is to him.

My archers hit the skeletons and two more of the drop...
I reoccupy the position in the mystic circle
The cultist try one more time and this time are defeated and routed
Mike tries one more push but cannot activate his skeletons and concedes at this point.  We both liked the game it was simple and fun. The one change we made was that failed rolls to activate didn't end your turn only that units turn (I don't like a player to have to sit out a turn because of a single bad roll, its no fun.). I think our only major mistake was forgetting about the Banshees ability to evade, that might have been significant. In other new I am comming up on my 1000th post... should do something to celebrate that... stay tuned.

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