Hello all. I know that there is a reasonable amount of chatter concerning new / alternative fantasy games (well, since AoS dropped, really).

Anyway, one game I have been thinking about since it was published (around Christmas) was Osprey Publishing's Dragon Rampant. This is a fantasy re-take on their well-received and fairly popular mediaeval skirmish game Lion Rampant. I got the book for my birthday a few days ago, read it quickly, and had an initial game last night. As I've got a morning off (well, I should be doing the ironing and other household jobs, but whatever...), I thought I'd post a review up.

This is the first time I've done a review proper, so hopefully we'll be OK!

If I had to sum up Dragon Rampant in a sentence, I'd say they are simple and fast-paced skirmish rules which allow you to use pretty much any models very easily in a fantasy wargame.

Firstly, the book is really inexpensive. The RRP is £11.99, and I bought it for £6.65 (here: http://www.booksetc.co.uk/books/view/dragon-rampant-9781472815712).Basically, I'd say it is worth a punt even if you're only vaguely interested in trying it out. The production values of the book are excellent, as one would expect with Osprey Publishing - full colour throughout, clearly presented, excellent photos, and several full page painted battle scenes, which I really liked.

The quality of the miniatures photographed is a bit hit and miss (a lot of the miniatures are from the author's collection, or from what I guess are his friends),with some lovely gems of vintage lead, some quite cool models from companies I hadn't heard of, and some great paintjobs, and then some pretty average models with poor paintjobs. I thought this added to the charm - the photos of miniatures are generally there to illustrate rules (which they do pretty well), and really emphasise the sense that these rules will support play with any models you'd care to use, and give it a more friendly, casual feeling. However, some people may want to see pictures of wonderfully painted models, and nothing but, and that isn't the case here.

I do think the paintings are a highlight - I'm a big fan. Here's a selection:

In terms of the game, the basic premise is that it is a light-hearted skirmish game where you can use any models (plus your imagination) to fight out virtually any fantasy conflict.

The tone is fairly light. Though not constant, there are a fair few little jokes, of which this is a typical example:

I think it's pretty cute, and sets the tone for a light-hearted, not very tactical game.

The way you pick your forces is that there are a wide variety of unit archetypes ('heavy foot', 'lesser warbeasts' etc.), and you choose the archetype that best suits the fantasy unit you want to represent (so in the game I played last night, I used hammerers as 'elite foot', slayers as 'bellicose foot', etc., the goblin infantry they were up against were 'light foot' etc).

To choose your warband you agree a points total (24 is standard), and choose units up to that total. Units can be as low as 1 point, and as high as 10 (this is a cap - you could go higher if you loaded on the upgrades), 4 is for average troops, 6 for elites. Simple.

Every unit has either 12 or 6 models, depending on type, and the exact same rules depending on race.

The way most bigger than man-sized monsters and heroes are represented are through 'reduced / single' model units. For instance, a unit of trolls would be in game terms a unit of heavy infantry with the 'offensive' upgrade, but you'd use 3-4 models, rather than 12; for my dwarf king model in my game last night, I represented him as a unit of elite foot, but used only one model rather than 6.

To customise your units each unit has some universal choices, and then there's a chapter of 'fantastical rules' later on, which allows you to add extra things (e.g. magic users, undead, flying, etc.).

I did feel the writer of the book dropped the ball a bit here, as I'd have liked more fantastical rules. I'd have liked a couple of standard upgrades / downgrades for the most common fantasy races - dwarves and elves particularly (so elves are faster and better at shooting, but have less armour, whilst dwarves are slower, tougher and braver than average). It wouldn't be difficult to make up my own rules for these, but given that the rules explicitly support dragons, undead, wizards, etc., not giving rules for dwarves and elves was an unfortunate omission in my opinion (I think orcs and goblins are adequately represented by the normal troop type options).

There are some suggested warbands at the back of the book, but I'm sure everyone can make up their own. I view these as merely a suggestion of what can be done - they're very much a starting point. Personally, I'd rather have had more 'fantastical rules' than these little army lists, as I'm not sure how valuable the army lists are, particularly as the target audience of the game is (I assume) older, perhaps retro-inclined, gamers, and will have their own setting in mind, so shouldn't have any problem in coming up with their own warbands unaided. Certainly, I converted night goblins into a Dragon Rampant warband very easily indeed.

Combat is fast and simple - each unit fights at full effect if over 50% strength, and this drops to half effect when at/below 50% strength, though its moral suffers (the more casualties a unit has suffered, the more likely it is to run away).

So a unit of 8 heavy infantry (full strength 12) still rolls 12 attack dice, but tests its courage at -4 (as it has lost 4 models). If it was reduced to 6 models or less, it would roll only 6 attack dice.

The rules are nicely laid out and explained.

One element of the rules I really liked, and did add tactical interest (and randomness - which some may like more than others), is how unit activation works.

Each turn there are two compulsory activation phases, and if something does something (or fails to do something) in these phases, they can't do anything else.

The first compulsory phase is the rally phase, and the 2nd is the 'wild charge phase' - some units have to try to charge if they can.

Then you have the normal orders phase. Units can either move, shoot or attack (charge). Each unit profile has a different number for each of these, and you have to equal or beat that score on 2d6 to carry out that order. If you fail to do the order, your turn ends, and you hand over to the other player.

The game works around units, and is pretty free-form. So if any part of a unit is in range of the enemy, the whole unit can shoot or charge, etc. Unit coherence is simple enough - the unit has a nominal leader, and all models have to be within 3" of him.

Attacks are fast and easy - you roll dice (12 if at over 1/2 strength, 6 if not), and each one equalling your attack value scores a hit. Then you compare the number of hits to the armour value of the target - if the target has armour 2, you inflict a casualty for every 2 hits (spares being discounted), for armour 4 you have to inflict 4 hits to remove a casualty, 8 hits to remove 2, etc.

If you're attacking in a melee, you use your attack value, if defending your defend value - many units are much better at one than the other - so bellicose foot (i.e. slayers, savage orcs, barbarians, etc.), hit on 3+ when they attack, and only 6+ when they defend.

Scenery works simply, and as you'd expect - improving protection from shooting, etc.

It is very simple and works well, but isn't overly tactical. There definitely are tactics to use, but a lot of this revolves around the order in which you want to do things, and baiting units that have to try to charge, and so forth.

Each general has a random attribute (or you agree with you opponent to choose a fluffy one), and gives morale boosts to nearby troops.

The game also has scenarios, which is cool:

When I tested the game last night, I think it went very well, and it was very enjoyable.

The rules went smoothly, and beyond about turn 3 there was very little rules-checking, which was great. I do think as a pick-up or intro. game, Dragon Rampant is a great little game. It was a lot of fun, which was the main thing.

It is also good that you can use anything you want to play, basing doesn't really matter, and it is very free form. OK, there might be a minor hindrance that units are either 6 or 12 models large (or explicitly reduced / single model units to represent trolls etc.), but that's not a major problem.

The only niggle I felt was that as the rules are soooo generic and open, the game I had last night didn't feel as characterful as it might have done - so my dwarfs were no braver or better armoured than the goblins they fought, which coming from a Warhammer background didn't feel right. I'd want to house rule that in future, so it isn't a deal breaker for me, but that was the only area where I feel the game didn't 100% deliver.

Also, running away is a big factor. Coming from a Warhammer background (and a dwarf background at that!) I'm used to units fighting to the last, or at least taking horrendous losses before running. However, if a unit starts running, particularly when it has lost about 5-6 models, it rarely will rally. This absolutely isn't a problem, but I didn't imagine that running away would probably remove more models than enemy action. Some may not like that.

As it is, I'd give it strongly recommend it. It is easy to pick up, cheap, fun, quick and light, and can allow you to have a nice little game with the models you have to hand. It isn't a deep game, and I don't see it as a replacement for Warhammer 8th edition. But then it isn't meant to be - and for offering an entertaining evening of gaming where you don't want to think too hard, I think it'll take some beating.

Please feel free to ask any further questions, and I hope the review is of some use.

All best,

David.