Dragon Rampant Memorial Game 2019

We held our annual Dragon Rampant Memorial Game at Tring Wargames Club on Friday, in tribute to the club members we have sadly lost.

As always it was an example of utter chaos! Voodoo necromancer, experimental scientist and utter nutter, Doctor RR, had stolen all the kingdoms gold and created an army of monsters to protect it. All the various factions have joined together to destroy the recreant and reclaim their cash. However, in any alliance there are underlying tensions, each player was secret assigned a "Blood Enemy" for whom he had a particular loathing.
Victory points were awarded for each treasure token reclaimed, for attacking the blood enemy and for each of Doctor RR's, or your blood enemy's units destroyed as a result of your actions.
I cannot attempt to describe a narrative of the game, suffice to say much confusion and back-stabbing was the order of the day!

 My Damned demon leads my advance, followed by a unit of great swordsmen.

 My elite unit of axemen cover the flank.

 A unit of Doctor RR's beastmen await the advance.

 Bill's wizard and apprentice are screened by his light riders.

 Henry's Necromancer  advances through a magical fog.

 Summoning a unit of skeletal archers.

 Keiron's Badlands Army advance in the centre, his shooters taking to the high ground to get a better view.

 A giant wolf prepares to defend it's master's treasure.

 Bill's spearmen clash with a unit of beastmen.

 Martin's dragon unleashes flame on a giant wolf.

 Losing to Bill's spearmen, the battered beastmen fall back.

 Keiron's ratmen charge forward.

Henry's elite foot martial mummies advance.

Despite having failed to achieve any Victory Points for almost the entire game, I managed to come out on top in the final two moves! I attacked my blood enemy and routed one of his units, killed one of Doctor RR's monstrous creations and grabbed a treasure token at the last minute. 4 VPs was the winning score.

A lot of fun was had by all, our departed friends would have loved it!

Big Dragon Rampant Game

We played our third annual Memorial Fantasy game on Friday. Previously we had been thinking of this as being Chris' Memorial Game, in memory of a club member who died, but sadly we had also lost Colin at the start of the year, so it's now become a memorial game for TWG members who are sadly missed.

In the spirit of Chris, we played a fantasy game using Dragon Rampant. We had nine players plus an umpire and 4 observers. As umpire, Henry did a fine job of (mostly) keeping the action going (it's a bit like herding cats), whilst sticking to his carefully crafted scenario (making things up as we went along). The battle took place around a large village with a church at the centre. All the players were told was that searching buildings they might find coins (Victory Points) and that they were not to attack the church.

It's impossible to make any comprehensible report of the chaos that ensued, so I'll just show you the pictures.

 Part of my army - Devout (from the Chronipia game)

 A Celto-Norman based army

 The cavalry from a bizarre mix of Norse and Saracens.

 Chariots from an undead army

 A unit of ogres from a allied army of assorted races (other units included orcs, ratmen and beastmen)

 A greater warbeast, part of an army comprising of a wizard and his reptilian pets

My Necromancer prepares to bring down magical fire of a unit of 6 boar riders

 And then there was 3!

 Spearmen trigger a trap as mystical smoke starts to envelope the unit.

 Skeleton archers loose at (and miss) their target. 

 Devout axemen smash into a unit of spears.

 The Lost Tribes leader and amazon bodyguard square up to Devout greatswordsmen.

 More of the Wizard's reptilian pets.

 The Norse-Saracen sorcerer blasts a skeleton unit to dust.

 Ratmen rush one of the buildings in search of loot.

As do the ogres!

My unit of Risen swordsmen succeed in setting the church ablaze.

Bearing mind the previously stated objectives, I burnt the church, lost all my money and was the first played to have all their entire army wiped out! In the spirit of Chris, that made me the winner of this year's game! Much fun was had by all.

There were also two Warhammer 40K games being played.

Memorial Evening 2017, another Dragon Rampant Mash-Up

Tring Wargames Club Memorial Evening – to celebrate the memory of members past.

For this year's Memorial Evening, on Friday 6th October, we had a Dragon Rampant Mash-Up similar to last year, but with even more players this time.
We were pleased that Chris's family called in to see the game and have a chat.

The Dragon Rampant game was a simple scenario.

Eleven players took part, each with their own retinue, starting all round the large table.
The objective was to get the treasure from the base of the monument in the centre and exit the table with it.

The players start to assemble.
The monument has yet to appear on the central hill.

The treasure lies beneath the monument.

The retinues were many and varied.

Alan's T.Rex.

Jim's Undead

Various beasties

Graham's Serpent like single model units saved space on a packed table.

Attacks were banned for the first move to get things moving towards the objective. However it wasn't long before petty squabbles broke out between neighbouring retinues after that.

At the edge of table - Colin and Keiron totally ignoring the objective.

...and on Keiron's other side he and Neville come to blows.

Ian's riders round the hill to face Alan's monsters.

Ian R's infantry managed to mount the large hill with the monument.

Ian's infantry get onto the hill and head for the treasure
in the base of the monument.

As they grabbed the gold and try to make their escape, they were befuddled by someone (he he).

Ian's infantry grab the treasure but Colin's Spellcaster unit Befuddles them.
Neville's riders are ready to pounce on any opportunity.

Ian's infantry manage to break away from the hill and head for home with the treasure only to shot up by Keiron's missile troops and they routed leaving the treasure abandoned.
Horsemen and warbeasts battle over the monument hill trying to reach the treasure.

Neville's riders grabbed the treasure and made a bolt back to the table edge.

But they had a tough task doing that being somewhat surrounded, and Henry's Summoner suddenly popping units up as if out of the ground.

The riders with the treasure are at the foot of the hill and surrounded.

At the end of the evening some wandering halflings came across the treasure and wandered off with it, probably not knowing what it was, or perhaps what was round the corner.

Another fun game with everyone involved. Having these Memorial Evenings is a great way to remember missing friends.

Dragon Rampant rules were written by Dan Mersey, published by Osprey, and are widely available.

Lost Tribes vs Stygian Dragon Rampant AAR

We played a couple of games of Dragon Rampant at the club last night with 36 point armies. Henry's Lost Tribes (a mix of Amazons, pygmies and warrior tribesmen) against my Stygian (from the now defunct Chronopia game).  It's amazing how the upgrades just eat points in DR, for my 36 points I just had a wizard, two big heroic beasties and 2 units of light foot. It was also a good excuse for me to dig out my fantasy terrain features that hadn't been used for a while. I've got a couple of burial mounds, a stone circle and stone tabletop tomb which I'd originally collected as strongholds for Hordes of the Things armies.

The first game was the Ringbearer scenario and I had the ring. I gave it to my Guardian (big beastie) but didn't keep him back so Henry assumed that the ring was with my Priestess (General Wizard) who was at the back. It was a fun game, but Henry's deployment let him down. While the bulk of his army attacked across the table, he tried a outflanking march with two units around a wood. Unfortunately he put his heavy foot (slower with better armour) on the flank and his light foot (fast with less armour) in the centre.

While his heavy foot plodded along I cut my way through the rest of the army. The other big beastie, the Embalmed, was particularly effective. Classed as elite foot Manslayer, it just chomped it's way through the pygmy light foot. In one round it scored 12 hits, with an armour of 2 half a unit of pygmies disappeared in one go! The Embalmed eventually died, but not before it had wiped out 3 units. By the time the flank attack arrived, they were all that was left of the army and a combination of shooting and spells weakened both units before closing in for the kill. One tribesman unit made a last ditch attempt to kill the ringbearer, but went for the wrong unit. Fortunately my Wizard was uphill and, although wounded, fought off two charges until help arrived. In the end all Henry's army was dead, I,d lost the Embalmed and a unit of light foot.

Ian joined us for the second game, which was very different, we played the Scared Mole of Ukkert and I had the treasure. I just had to get my stolen loot from one corner of the table to the opposite corner. A really bad leadership roll (three ones!) meant I had to test the loyalty of all my units, on a score of 1 they would desert and I managed to lose the Guardian before the game even started. I gave the loot to one of the faster moving light foot units and tried to rush them across the table. The Embalmed headed off to take on Henry's Pygmies whilst the rest of the army acted as speedbumps against the heavier stuff commanded by Ian. It almost worked but I got caught within a move of the escape point. My light foot got shot up by the pygmy boar riders then charged by a unit of heavy foot and wiped out. Ian then moved the treasure bearers behind a line of units. This time the larger size of the Lost Tribe army came to the fore, as there was just no way I could get to the treasure in time.

Two great games and a lot of fun and laughter. I'd found the magic to be quite effective, especially in the first game. Although Power Bolt appears the most effective spell, I found judicious use of Stronger Shield and Sharper Blades on my best melee units to be devastating in close combat.

 The Embalmed contemplates it's next meal.

 The pygmy boar riders pass a milestone (count the skulls, that's how many leagues to go!)

 Stygian spearmen approach the stone circle

 The Priestess prepares to zap someone

It was a quieter night with only two other games this week. A 15mm ACW Fire and Fury game set in New Mexico, hence the cacti.

And a 40K game on an impressive table (probably requiring a second mortgage)