Dragon Rampant

 

Last weekend The Baron invited me to his place for a game of Dragon Rampant Second Edition. This would be my first full game of DR2e, even though I am very familiar with the rules. Lead Addict (who provided these armies) and I commanded the "Faux French" chivalry while The Baron (who provided the other armies and the terrain) and Ryan were Dwarves and "Scandinavian Farmers," respectively. Each player had a thirty-point retinue and each side had a Magic User. The ruins were supposedly terrain objectives but the game was basically winner take all. DR2e is very forgiving of basing in that individually-mounted figures, multiple-figure stands and single-model units are all catered for with the six- and twelve-strength point unit structure. You can see all three styles in the following photos. The Baron also provided the handy Unit Cards.

 

 

We deployed onto the table as we successfully activated (or not!) units in our respective turns. I was on our left flank, facing the Farmers; Lead Addict had our right facing the Dwarves. I sent my Light Mounted and Scouts ahead to screen the advance of the Bowmen, Heavy Infantry and Elite Mounted advance. Lead Addict sent his own Bowmen ahead to draw the fire of the Dwarven Bolt Shooter while advancing his heavy troops behind.

 

 

By the time the Dwarven and Scandinavian lead units reached the center of the field my Scouts had made the cover of the woods on the left and my Light Mounted and Bowmen were positioned in the center to take advantage.

 

 

I may have been too aggressive on my left flank with a 6-strength-point unit of Flying Elite Riders. . .

 . . . while Lead Addict's heavies maneuvered to face the Dwarves.

 

 

When the Dwarven Boar Riders and Scandinavian Infantry charged in the center they were turned back with heavy losses by my Light Mounted and Bowmen. The Scandinavian Infantry routed off the field and the lightly-armored Berserkers next to the wall soon followed due to shooting from both the Bowmen and the Scouts in the woods. The Light Mounted were eventually routed by Magic but they helped to seriously weaken the enemy center.

  

My aggressive Elite Riders on the left did some damage but were eventually Battered and then failed two more rally attempts to rout as well. The Scandinavian units on this flank were never seriously motivated to leave their position on the hill (failed Activations).

 

 

By the time the Scandinavian Warlord with his small but mighty unit of Huscarls waded into the Bowmen in the center there were just too few of them to make a difference. . .

 

 . . . and so The Baron called the battle, win going to the "French."

 

This was one of those rare games we were able to get the right troops into the right positions at the right times.

 

Spaceships. . . Red Alert

 

Red Alert - Commands and Colors "in space" - is a fun game scaled at the "fleet action" level. It is not dog-fighting in space. The game works at the fleet level; I envision it more like a computer display showing the relative positioning of the individual spacecraft while compressing the vast distances in which the actual ships operate. But with cool spaceship models instead of the computer.

 

The two factions in the game are very generic - the Commonwealth and the Confederation. I am buying/building spaceship models in 1/2500 scale from the early Star Trek universe, Star Trek: Enterprise to be more precise, to replace the faction resin models from the game. Pre-Federation, to start, centering on the Earth-Xindi War. The Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites join Earth (Federation, here we come!) when the Romulans are discovered behind the Xindi attacks. Later on we'll get the Klingons involved. Yeah, I'm playing fast and loose with canon.

 

One ship will represent one unit, instead of multiple ships per unit in the game as designed. Losses will be tracked with a D6 - "Moonstone" designs from Chessex that complement the stellar background - (think "shield strength") instead of removing multiple models. The clear model stands from Litko show off the stellar mat (fabric mat from the defunct Cor-Sec Engineering) while also enabling "template movement" a la Star Trek: Attack Wing if a hex-less version of the game is ever warranted. Or any other rules - like Star Trek: Attack Wing - that use individual ship models for that matter.

 

The Earth "Allies" start with the NX-01Enterprise, an AMT model kit I built. It is a Destroyer in the Red Alert world. The "Aztec" decals on the model really add to its appearance. You can see how well the unit markers from the Red Alert game display on the model stand.

 

 

The Vulcans provide the largest Allied fleet.

 

If you didn't want to use the game markers on the ship stands, it's pretty easy to see the difference in size of the various classes: Destroyer on the far left, Cruiser in the middle, Battleship/Dreadnought on the far right and Fighters at the bottom. You can see the NX-01 model at top for size comparison.

 

The Fighters are from Studio Bergstrom. They are inexpensive metal castings with good detail and come in a great variety of design styles.

 

The Surak class Cruiser is an Eaglemoss model I just adapted to fit onto the magnetized flight stands. I actually have 3 of these.

 

The Destroyers started life as Star Trek: Attack Wing models of the D'Kyr class starship; I removed the auxiliary craft docking and repainted. I have three of these, as well. Not canon at all, but the design works. . .

 

 

The actual D'kyr Battleship is a 1/2500-scale Bad-azz resin model I built. It's very large so will need a bigger mat - 5-inch hexes - to live comfortably among other models.

 

 

It is a beautiful model that assembles easily, if one knows how to build resin kits, and was fun to paint. I layered three different colors of spray paint to get the base color I wanted; Deep Red, Cinnamon and Copper. I then hand painted details, the warp ring lights and the raised paneling.

 

Next up is the fleet from Andor, the Planet of Ice. The Cruisers are Eaglemoss models of the Andorian Kumari. The Destroyers are a bit of an experiment using metal castings from Studio Bergstrom. The castings come from a line obviously designed with the Kumari in mind, but without any "Aztec" decals or stencils to exactly match the Eaglemoss "paint" I used decals salvaged from other 1/2500-scale aftermarket decal sheets. The Fighters are again from Studio Bergstrom. 

 

Last up are the Tellarites, from Tellar. The Cruisers are from Eaglemoss and the Fighters from Studio Bergstrom again.

 

There will be more updates as I build more spaceships.