Lion Rampant - first game.

[Ochoin]

Last night we successfully played our first Lion Rampant game.
Four of us fought to a conclusion one of the scenario battles , "Hammer & Anvil" in 2 hours.
Although everyone had read the rules, this was not bad for a first game. Rumaging through the rule book for clarifications was at a minimum.



I think the overall impression was very positive. You did not need to spend your time grappling with complex rules but mostly concentrated on tactics.
Probably the chief structural aspect was unit activation. This could be very hit & miss (particularly if you misread your dice, thinking a '6' was a '1') & you had to factor this in to your plan. Another aspect was that the individually mounted figures needed to be moved one at a time - very HG Wells.



With under 100 figures it clearly lacks some visual appeal but it really showcases what wargaming is about. Fun.



donald

[steve_pickstock]

We have been playing Rampant for a couple of years and TBH I think it's brilliant. You can meld anything into the system - scale, figures, models, anything!

The second edition of Lion Rampant offered some alternate rules. The main one we adopted - which addresses the activation issue - is that activations don't end your turn. You just go on activating units until you have attempted all your units, whether they work or not. You're not going to get everything and sometimes you get nothing, but it does make the game flow better.

Lion Rampant 2 also suggested reducing the compulsory 3" gap between units so that you can have a 1" gap between friendly units - this isn't so important to me but we adopted that as well.

Glad you enjoyed it.

[PaulRPetri]

It is a very user friendly rules system Donald. I have been playing Lion Rampant since it came out. You can throw a game on the board quickly and get right into playing. As Steve mentioned the second edition states in writing what most people were doing already about 3" gaps and unit activations.
Four of us have been meeting up weekly at the Last local gaming shop in our area for the last month and half playing the ScFi version of these rules Xeno Rampant. They just came out. They are also a fun game.

[Ochoin]

Thanks for the head's up on activation, Steve. I think my pals would welcome this change.

You may remember we do an annual 2 day game at a local Train & Hobby show. It's always aimed to be something spectacular with many hundreds of figures. We have been talking of doing a departure to this - maybe a Late Antiquity Big Battle on the Saturday & possibly a Lion Rampant game on the Sunday.

Even if we all (5 of us) brought a retinue & had a "spare" one for Joe Public to use, that'd be about 300-360 figures: not spectacular. However, it is such a good, quick game and very indicative of what wargaming is.
Very few of the public at this show have even heard of wargaming.

Anyway - that's 10 months away so still lots of discussions to have.

donald