This is not a typical AAR of the game I put on at our club's October meeting. I thought that those of you who are familiar with the Dragon and Lion Rampant rules, might like to hear about how I introduced some Non Player Characters into the game, so here we go.
With Halloween approaching, I thought it would be appropriate to put on a Rampant game with a nod to good old Beowulf and add a supernatural flavour.
I could have just lined up some humans warriors against an army of the undead, but I thought this was perhaps a bit too obvious and might even put off some of our members who have a more traditional/ historical bent to the games they play, and so I devised the idea of introducing some fiendish and undead (Skeletons) as NPCs. I'll explain the mechanics behind them a bit later.
SETTING THE SCENE
The game was a combination of scenarios from Lion Rampant (The taxman Cometh) and Dragon Rampant (The Crystal Gale).
A group of woodsmen tracking a rather handsome stag are drawn into an area of fairly open woodland, where to their amazement they see riches in the form of jewelled amulets, small chests filled with gold and silver coins and all manner of extremely valuable swords and daggers and other wonderous things; but as they pounce on the riches a fog descends and lightning shoots across the woodland, striking and killing one of the woodsmen. The rest flee for their lives leaving all treasure behind believing it cursed.
Their story is recounted to their respective warlords who listen with great interest and decide to find this cursed woodland glade and take the treasure for themselves. The respective retinues leave, each guided by one of the surviving woodsmen, and so our two sides now face each other across the cursed glade keen to grab as much of the treasure as they can.
THE RETINUES
The game was set on an 8' x 4' table. There were three players per side. On one side were the Anglo-Saxons and on the other were the Welsh with some Viking allies. Each player had an identical retinue comprising one Elite foot, one heavy foot, one light foot with short range missiles and one unit of skirmishers. Each side had one player controlling the warlord as part of an Elite foot, while the two other players had a leader as part of their Elite foot.
A leader would give a +1 to a courage test for any unit in his retinue that was within 12" of the Leader figure, while the Warlord, who had the Commanding trait, would also give a +1 for a courage test and once per turn could reroll a failed activation of any unit within 12" of his figure.
THE TREASURE
The treasure was represented by blue glass beads. Each had a points value on the bottom of it. The value of the treasure would only become known when a player moved a figure from a unit into contact with it.
The Taxman cometh scenario under the Special Rules section on page 156 covers the acquisition and handling of the treasure. Because of the size of our game, I added some extra treasure beads and so there were four beads worth one point, three beads each worth two points and one bead worth three points. The beads were all placed in plain view on the table. The one point beads were placed in fairly accessible locations at either end of the table. The two point beads were mid way into the centre of the table and the three point bead was placed dead centre of the table. Only the two and three point beads were "guarded" by something unexpected.
OBJECT OF THE GAME
The winning side was the one who successfully acquired the most points in treasure and safely removed it via the table edge they had entered on.
THE NPCs (NASTIES)
The NPCs comprised two units of Skeleton Light foot with mixed weapons; one unit of Skeleton Elite foot; one Elite foot reduced model unit a very large green orc type (casualties tracked using a micro die) and just in case he was needed, an Elite unit Lich summoner (reduced model unit) who could fire lightning bolts (remember one such lightning bolt killed one of the woodsmen at the start of our story).
These NPCs were intended to act as speed bumps for the retinues trying to acquire the treasure. They were definitely not meant to be game changers. I did change the attack value of the light foot Skeletons from a five to a four, after all they were there to aggressively defend the treasure.
Skeletons do not test for courage as such (they are already dead, so what have they got to worry about!), but they do test after taking casualties and if they achieve a zero or less they are reduced to an inanimate pile of bones. Skeletons are also brittle, and so casualties are rounded up. So for example three hits on their light foot (armour 2) would actually cause two casualties instead of the usual one.
ACTIVATING THE NPCs
Each time a human unit moved close enough to be able to reach a treasure bead on their next activation, the NPC unit would appear and block their path. They did not activate immediately. Instead, in the next turn the human unit and the NPC would dice off to see who activated first and then the winner would shoot, melee, or move and then the losing unit of the dice off would activate (if they were still there).
The NPCs were not limited in the number of activations per turn, but they could only respond if threatened with attack or shooting from different units and each time there would be dice off to decide who would go first. Once destroyed, an NPC unit would not reappear, after all there's only so much a Lich Summoner can cope with.
DANGEROUS TERRAIN
There were three areas of dangerous terrain on the table. Two of them were what appeared to be small groups of trees, but if a unit got too close, massive thorny tendrils would shoot out and grab the unwary and drag them screaming into the centre of the "copse" to be devoured. Roll 1 d6 and the unit loses half that number of strength points rounded down. The third area was a very well maintained "vegetable" patch containing some of the most toxic plants known to man. Toxic pollen and thorns. Roll 1 d6 as above when any unit enters the terrain.
ACTIVATION MARKERS
Because there were a lot of units on the table, we used miniature pumpkin tokens and placed them beside a unit once it had been activated that turn. Well, they looked fun and kept the Halloween vibe going. I particularly enjoyed the shouts of "they've been pumpkin'd" and "remove all the pumpkins" at the end of each turn.
GAME OUTCOME
Effectively, both sides were identical in their makeup. At times there was some co-operation to remove NPC units, but in the end it was the Anglo-Saxons who made off with the most booty, due perhaps to superior tactics, but also the Welsh had some shocking dice rolls at times.
My thanks go out to Matt, Mike R, Colin, Flaky Dave, Ian and Paul who played like true gentlemen and were all more than a match for the nasties they encountered.
If there's anything I've missed (there's always something) and you'd like to know more, by all means message me or catchup with me at the club. And happy gaming to you all.
Mike
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