Sometimes a Fantasy

[Yes, more than a month after the event, I'm finally publishing the post about it—replete with misrememberings of plays and sequences only foggily understood when fresh in my mind. If this AAR bears any resemblance to actual events, it's purely by accident.]

On Jan. 13 , we held our Dragon Rampant game day at the Gig Harbor Public Library. There were 12 of us playing on 6 tables. We arrived at 11:30 and most of us stayed until about 5:00, getting in two games.

This was my opportunity to test the centaur warband I've been painting for the last four months. Overall, the ladies (and one man in game 1) acquitted themselves well.

Game 1

I played the first game against Dean Motoyama and his Men of the (Pacific North) West warband. He made up his splendid little army using a lot of classic Games Workshop Warhammer minis.

Dean's griffin-mounted general - nasty business with wings

Dean's army had several shooty elements. There was one unit of heavy missiles, for which Dean used a formidable Games Workshop death ray on a wagon-looking model. He took the unit as having a weighty projectile, which gives it only a 12" range, but let him shave off 1 point from his warband cost. He also had a unit of Elite Foot with missiles, some very natty-looking pistoleros, a unit of Scouts, and a unit of Light Riders with missiles.

Shooty heavy horsemen

I deployed my scouts to my left. Right of them, the Bellicose Foot (feminotaurs). Right of them, my Spellcaster. Right of them, one unit of Light Riders backed up by my Elite Riders (my general's unit). On my far right and across the river, the other unit of Light Riders.

The field of battle

Except for the Spellcaster and Terrifically Shiny Armor for the Bellicose Foot, my units could have passed for stock Lion Rampant units—except for being sythyrs, feminotaurs, and centauresses.

Since I have three different spellcaster figures painted, I had to decide which to use. For game 1, I went with  ...Tim?

What manner of man are you that can summon up fire without flint or tinder?

Early on, Dean's and my Bellicose Foot clashed.

Cow-ladies against wild two-hand swordsmen

The initial combat went in Dean's favor and I retreated back to lick my wounds.

Bloodied, battered, but unbowed: Feminotaurs at bay

I managed to rally on my turn, but Dean came right back at me. This time, however, the worn turned in my favor. As our Bellicose foot smashed away at each other, I started moving the weight of my forces to my left to counter what I feared was Dean's advantage there. I also engaged my Scouts against Dean's fearsome Weighty-Missiled War Machine of Doom to my advantage. I was in the cover of the buildings, which gave me better armor defense against Dean's weighty projectiles.

Feminotaurs reengaged and a shift to my left

My feminotaurs eventually beat Dean's Imperial sword-wielding madmen only to get shot up by his pistoleros and rout away. This brought on my Gorgeous Ladies of Doom (GLoD) to counter the pistolero threat. Already hit by a Befuddle Thee! spell from Tim the Spellcaster and shot up (a bit) from my scounts, the pistoleros were easily routed by the GLoD.

In position, ready to charge

My Spellcaster got late into play. I intended to move him to a forward position in some scrub where he'd benefit from the cover, but Dean pretty much kept his distance from the magic man. I had to move him up a bit more, and out of cover, to get him into the action. Once in, he performed well.

I mostly used his Powerbolt! spell to shoot. It's the same shot as heavy missiles: 7+ to activate, 4+/18" shooting. Although, the best effect came from using the Befuddle Thee! spell as noted above.

Beating the pistoleros brought the GLoD into conflict with Dean's general. It was a tough fight, but Dean prevailed. The GLoD got beat up and failed morale. Soon, however, it was Dean's turn. The fight between our generals was nearly a repeat of the Kilkenny cats:

There once were two cats of Kilkenny
Each thought there was one cat too many
So they fought and they fit
And they scratched and they bit
Till (excepting their nails
And the tips of their tails)
Instead of two cats there weren't any!

Except that Dean's general had just a bit more than his tail left and I had no tail at all (nor the rest of me), but he was hurting bad. The Gorgeous Ladies had done their bit. A little shooting and a spells finally caused Dean's general to fade away after a failed courage test.

Over on my right, my lone unit of centauresses faced Dean's Light Riders and a Scout unit. I ended up getting the better of the shooting exchange and chased Dean's Light Riders away after a few shots.

Forward to the foe

I also brought my other unit of centauresses to counter Dean's Scouts. They took a bit of a beating, but survived the game (and Dean's Scouts didn't).

Worse for wear, but still hanging in

The far right centauresses managed to get all the way back into Dean's flank and put the coup de grâce to Dean's pistoleros, who'd retreated back to the edge of the marsh away from the GLoD.

The bitter end for the pistoleros

This was pretty much the end of the game. Dean's forces were all but non-existent. I was pretty beat up, too, but had much more at hand comparatively.


Game 2

For out second game we played doubles. Ron Beery and I teamed up against Dean and Scott Abbott. Ron and Dean faced off to my left and I faced Scott. Dean's and my warbands remained unchanged, except that Dean switched in a different Warhammer tanky thing for his heavy missiles. The switch did not contribute to its survival.

Dean's tanky-shooty machine version 2.0

I also switched out Tim for Ursula, the Shadowforge tribal shaman figure, who was my original Spellcaster. The WITCH! never got to play. Next game.

Ursula

Scott's warband was only four units: A single model unit for his general, which was Elite Riders with a Wizardling attribute, a single model unit for a Great Warbeast with the Venomous attribute, a unit of Bellicose Foot (also Venomous), and a unit of Scouts with Magical Weapons (which failed to activate for the game).

I decided to use my units with the Ranger special rule (the feminotaurs and syhtyrs) to run up the river (rough terrain, which they ignore) to get to the heart of Scott's position. That sorta-kinda worked. The feminotaurs managed to attack and wipe out Scott's Scouts. However, they then ran afoul of Scott's Venomous Bellicose Foot, who put them out of action.

Ranger types advance up the river

My sythyrs responded by shooting away at Scott's Bellicose Foot, managing at least one evade, and eventually causing them to spectacularly fail morale and go away. They'd already taken some losses while wiping out my feminotaurs and the shooting losses put them over. Bellicose Foot (like all the wild thangs kind of units in the "Rampant" rules) are really a one-shot deal. If you can get more out of them, good for you, but normally they get so beat up they fail morale soon after they start fighting. Like me, Scott took Terrifically Shiny Armor for his Bellicose Foot. That gave them a bit more staying power, but you know they're bound to fail a courage test as losses mount.

Feminotaurs second death in two games

At this point, Scott had only his general and the nasty scorpion Great Warbeast. He'd originally run his Warbeast up into a wood, but pulled it back into some scrub near his baseline. I advanced my sythyrs towards it, but got too close. He charged out, I failed to evade, and got slaughtered. At that point, Scott started to move his Warbeast down the river opposite the direction I had run up with my now eliminated Ranger troops.

Centauresses vs. General Doom

On my left, Ron and Dean were banging away at each other, mostly around the stone walls that enclosed a few fields. Dean was using tried and true WW2 squad tactics to seek defilade and cover from Ron's missile troops.

Skirmish among the ruins

With Scott's Warbeast coming down the river at me (though already with 2 of 6 hit points lost), I interposed my Spellcaster, who managed a Powerbolt! shot before getting smacked into by monstrous, hexapodal, insectoid death with a nasty stinging tail. I didn't win, but I didn't lose too badly. My Spellcaster is heavy foot, so I had a 4+ defensive combat value and 3 armor. The Warbeast hit hard at 3+. I lost three strength points and got pushed back, but passed my courage test. I gave back pretty good and knocked the Warbeast down to half strength.

The warbeast cometh

On my turn, I took another Powerbolt! shot with my Spellcaster and sent in the Gorgeous Ladies of Doom for their first combat of the game. Warbeasts are nasty, but their defensive combat value is unimpressive. I hit on 3+, Scott hit on 6—but because the Warbeast is venomous, every 6 counts double. Nevertheless, I whacked the nasty thing good and suffered no ill effect. Scott failed his courage test and the evil scorpion monster was gone.

This left only Scott's general, who proved hard to kill. Scott's general was an Elite Rider with Wizardling powers. I had my Gorgeous Ladies of Doom, Ursula the Spellcaster, and one unit of centauresses left.

GLoD move up

It came to a battle of Powerbolts! and arrows. Scott focused a lot on the centauresses because, being in 12" range, he got 4+ shooting at them. He kept knocking them down to half strength and I kept propping them back up to four figures using the Heal Thee! spell from Ursula.

Endgame: Closing in on General Doom

While this was going on, Ron was working at finishing off Dean, who was down to one unit. This put us in a strange situation. The scenario rules stipulate that if the unit bearing the Ring of Power is the last defender unit, then it kills everyone and the game is a draw. We weren't sure whether the last unit was Dean's Elite Foot or Scott's general.

I moved the Gorgeous Ladies of Doom into position and charged Scott's general, who countercharged. I failed to break him, but managed to push him back.

Before I could take out Scott's general, Ron killed off Dean's Elite Foot, who had the ring. Game over.


Post mortem

I like Dragon Rampant. It's a very fun, very wild 'n' woolly version of the "Rampant" genre. All the basic mechanics are there plus a few extras—not a lot of extras, but enough to change the flavor of the game. Units can have a lot more bells and whistles, which allows creating a much more idiosyncratic warband. It makes for some nasty surprises, too, but adding those bells and whistles drives up points cost tremendously.

Spellcasters are way cool. I wasn't sure what to expect. I bought the full meal deal version at +4 points. I had pondered buying just a Wizardling at +2 points, which would allow me to pick any three spells, but I opted for the full smorgasbord of spells. Even though I think I used just three in both games (Powerbolt!, Befuddle Thee!, and Heal Thee!). Heal Thee! was a surprisingly good spell. I didn't hit on using it until game 2, but I was able to keep one of my Light Rider units in play for several more turns by bringing lost figures back from the dead. If I'd used the spell in game 1, I might not have lost my feminotaurs.

The drawback to Spellcasters/Wizardlings is that the spells are almost all 7+ or 8+ to cast. It's a bit dicey to have to rely on it as an initial activation, even though setting up disaster for your foe by using a Beffudle Thee! spell and then attacking the befuddled (i.e., battered) unit is a neat trick.

I've really enjoyed this foray into fantasy gaming. Even though the basic mechanics are the same as Lion Rampant, there are enough nuances in Dragon Rampant to give it the feel of a whole new game. I still have some idea of doing a Lion Rampant retinue using the Grenadier minis available from Milrliton. I can order from Noble Knight Games in the US and avoid the nasty, nasty postage charges from Italy. The fantasy range has great figures for Late Medieval, but also a few truly fantasy type things (like dragon-riding knights) that can be mixed in/swapped out to reuse much of the same units for DR and LR.

I'm still a devoted historical miniatures gamer and not likely to go off and start playing D&D. However, Dragon Rampant hits a spot. It's just a fantasy, as Billy Joel sang, but sometimes a fantasy is all you need.

Centaur Rampant

Two years ago, when Dragon Rampant was released, I bought my copy of the rules with little intent to follow through with building a warband. I'd heard good things about them and wanted a copy just to have it. But then fate took a hand, sort of.

When I was growing up, I used to read a syndicated columnist in the San Jose Mercury News who would sometimes write a column that was just about interesting things he found while looking up something else. That kind of serendipity is always welcome. I think I know more as a result of the secondary results of research (i.e., discovering things I wasn't looking for) than I ever learned from the primary results—but that may just mean that I'm pathetic at actual research. With the Interwebs now an integral part of our lives, I'm finding all kinds of things that I didn't intend. Sometimes I find bad things—I'd use some clever word for the experience here, but Horace Walpole, who coined the word "serendipity," never provided its antonym (contraserendipity?)—but mostly not. One truly serendipitous thing I found was Shadowforge minis.

I was looking up something (I forget what) and found an image of sythyr (i.e., female satyr) figures from Shadowforge's 28mm fantasy range. I don't think I ever thought about satyrs having a distaff side. I thought satyrs went with nymphs, but I suppose baby satyrs have to come from somewhere.

Mother of satyrs

The minis looked interesting, so  I went to their site (Eureka, actually) and started browsing. The Shadowforge fantasy range is very cool and extensive. Part of the range included centaurs, and not merely centaurs, but lady centaurs. (All of the Shadowforge ranges comprise only female figures.) The lady centaurs are very nice figures. They remind me a bit of the centaurettes from Fantasia only, ya know, way deadlier.

Sure they're cute, buy give 'em bows, arrows, and swords then look out!

I was hooked and ordered three packs of three figures: Dionysian Centaur Archers #1, Dionysian Centaur Archers #2, and Dionysian Centaur Archer Command. They arrove from Australia (whence Eureka/Shadowforge hail) after several weeks. Oz is a long way away and upside down to boot. But I wasn't disappointed. The figures are very nicely detailed and beautifully cast. There are six distict figures for the archers and three for the command, which includes a musician with a big curvy, horn-like thingummy reminiscent of something in a Dr. Seuss book, a standard bearer with an elaborate standard, and a leader who is rearing up brandishing her bow.

I started them right away, but then they got set aside for other projects (or just because I'm lazy like that). And so they sat glaring at me from a shelf over my painting table, censuring me for my infidelity at every brush-stroke given to their rivals.

They might have sat there longer. I even considered selling them or giving them away partially done to anyone who wanted them—not because I didn't want them myself; I just couldn't endure their unremitting obloquy and didn't have a reason to finish painting them other than that I thought the minis were cool.

And then this summer I got the Dragon Rampant bug. After our successful Lion Rampant game day in September, the cry went 'round to do it again with Dragon Rampant. So, we have an upcoming Dragon Rampant game day in January, which will allow 30-point warbands. That gives us a bit more points to work with for adding magicky stuff without reducing the number of units in the warband.

I started figuring a list for a warband built around my sadly neglected centaurs and I made a new order to Eureka/Shadowforge, which arrived sooner than I expected. Oz is still a long way away and upside down, but it's the jet age after all.

I mostly set aside other projects and knuckled down to get these figures painted. I played around with a few warband lists and finally came up with the following. It's 30 points for our upcoming game day. I'd have to make some hard decisions to get it down to 24.


Centauress swords - Gorgeous Ladies of Doom (G.L.O.D.)

Unit Name: Elite Riders		Points: 6
Attack	5+	Attack Value	3+
Move	7+	Defence Value	4+
Shoot	-	Shoot Value	-
Courage	3+	Max. Movement	10"
Armor	4	Strength points	6
Special rules	Wild charge, counter charge

This unit provides the oomph in the strike ability of the warband. They're basically Lion Rampant mounted men at arms. I thought about spending points for some of the upgrades or magicky things that make them deadlier, harder to kill, or tamer, but decided to use the points for other units.

They're Shadowforge Dark Temple Swords figures. The Dionysian range has centaurs with spears, but they're a bit under-armored to pass as Elite Riders. They're not as frilly as the centaur archers, but I came to really like these figures as I painted them. They're festooned with skulls. If I had better painting skills I might have given them some wicked tattoos so they'd look like bad biker chicks, only with four legs and no bike. Even without the tats, they look pretty intimidating.

Centauress archers - Galloping firepower

Unit Name: Light Riders		Points: 4
Attack	7+	Attack Value	5+
Move	5+	Defence Value	6
Shoot	6+	Shoot Value	5+/12"
Courage	5+	Max. Movement	12"
Armor	3	Strength points	6
Special rules	Skirmish, evade

I have two of these units in the warband. They provide mobile firepower and hopefully won't get caught on a failed evade and destroyed. Horse archers are pretty dicey. The unit type did well for me when I used Mike Garcia's borrowed Mongols in our Lion Rampant game day, so I have high hopes.

These minis are the original Shadowforge order, plus another three to give me 12 figures overall. I'm seriously tempted to add a third unit, but we'll see how these do. I'd have to redefine or remove something else to add a third unit.

Feminotaurs - Killer butterface on the hoof

Unit Name: Bellicose Foot		Points: 6 (4 + 2)
Attack	5+	Attack Value	3+
Move	6+	Defence Value	6
Shoot	-	Shoot Value	-
Courage	4+	Max. Movement	8"
Armor	3	Strength points	12
Special rules	Ranger, wild charge, counter charge vs. foot, fleet-footed

• Plus Terrifically shiny armour @ 2 pts. (ups the armor value from 2 to 3)

I'm a little wary of the wild foot kind of unit. They're pretty much fire-and-forget and, therefore, expendable. I like that their Ranger special rule allows them to pretty much ignore rough terrain. I don't like that their defence value is 6. They're all bad when on a rampage, but someone rampages on them and they go all wimpy. At least with the Terrifically Shiny Armour upgrade—even though the figures have, in fact, no armor at all—they'll be a bit more resilient in combat. 

I'm taking these as a reduced figure unit of six, but they're 12 strength points.

The figures are Dionysian lady minotaurs. They look pretty buff and have clubs, nasty sharp cutty-thrusty things, and scalloped shields. They also have bulls heads, so no matter how femacious the body, the butterface is a real downer.

Worst blind date ever

Spellcaster - Wibbly wobbly magicky wagicky stuff

Unit Name: Heavy Foot + Spellcaster		Points: 8 (4 + 4)
Attack	6+	Attack Value	5+
Move	5+	Defence Value	4+
Shoot	-	Shoot Value	-
Courage	3+	Max. Movement	6"
Armor	3	Strength points	12
Special rules	Fantastical rules (Spellcaster)

• Plus Spellcaster @ 4 pts.

I had to have some kind of magic user in the warband because it makes no sense to me to play a fantasy game without something on the fantastical side—apart from centauresses, feminotaurs, and sythyrs, that is. Spellcasters have a bag o' tricks that makes them a pretty powerful unit, though pricey.

I took this as a single-figure unit of Heavy Foot. If I had another 2 points to spend, I'd have made it Elite Foot. However, to do that I'd have to give up something else, which I don't want to do. Also, I think 3 armour for 12 strength points and 4 armour for 6 strength points are kind of a wash. The only benefit for being Elite Foot, then, is the Ranger special rule, which requires rough terrain (preferably woods) to fight in.

The Dionysians in the Shadowforge fantasy range don't have any suitable figure to use as a Spellcaster, so I went from four legs to two and used a shaman figure from the Tribals in the fantasy range. It's clearly magic that gives her the 3 armour protection.

I had some other ideas for a figure as well. One option would be a character whom some call ...Tim?

This figure is from the Studio Miniatures Medieval Mayhem range, which comprises 28mm figures from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It was a Kickstarter some years back and the whole range is now available on their site (including the Trojan Rabbit, but, sadly, no Zoot/Dingo). You could actually make a pretty nice Dragon Rampant warband using just them. I'll add that to the idea file...

Adding Tim the Enchanter as my Spellcaster, however, puts a bit of uncharacteristic testosterone in the mix. So I have a third figure option which keeps out the Y chromosomes but still adds the Monty Python factor. She doesn't look like much; others dressed her up to look the part and the nose is false (even if she does have a wart). But appearances can be deceiving. She turned John Cleese into a newt (he got better) and, more importantly, she weighs the same as a duck and therefore... A WITCH!

Even if I don't use this figure, she's good to have. If I'm facing a river crossing, I can build a bridge out of her.

Sythyr Archers - Prancing, dancing firepower (sort of)

Unit Name: Scouts		Points: 2
Attack	7+	Attack Value	6
Move	5+	Defence Value	6
Shoot	7+	Shoot Value	5+/12"
Courage	5+	Max. Movement	8"
Armor	1	Strength points	6
Special rules	Evade, fleet-footed, skirmish, hard-to-kill

I could easily rationalize using these points instead to upgrade my Spellcaster to Elite Foot, but I kind of like the idea of a skirmish unit that can annoy and harass and run away into the woods. It pads the number of units in the warband and, if used well, can have an asymmetrical effect against better, costlier, opposing units. Also, if my Spellcaster is in situations that require brute strength, I'm using her wrong. It's just nice to have the 4 armour and Ranger special rule.

The figures for this unit are the Shadowforge Sythyr archers that I first found on the Interwebs two years ago. I actually got 12 figures in case I want to change the warband a bit and give myself a unit of Light Missiles in a different incarnation of the warband.

Tactics 'n' stuff

The warband is, hopefully, balanced between skirmishy/shooty types and a solid strike force, albeit a wild, undisciplined strike force.

The centauress archers are mounted yeomen with bows in Lion Rampant terms, i.e., horse archers. I like horse archers almost as much as I like slingers (or Lithuanian bat-dung hurlers). They have a nasty sting, even though they can only shoot 12", and their 12" move and skirmish ability make them hard to pin down and kill. But the fact that their 3 armour goes down to 1 if they fail an evade or get contacted while evading means that they can be very brittle. I imagine using these as fire support for the centauress swords, the Gorgeous Ladies of Doom.

The G.L.O.D. are basically mounted men/ladies at arms. I didn't want to spend the points to make them Level-headed and lose the Wild Charge special rule. That means that they may sally forth against my desires, especially problematic when their target is inopportune or in terrain that will mess me up. Just stay away from rough terrain.

The feminotaurs are another wild and powerful charging unit and the upgrade to Terrifically Shiny Armour gives me fewer qualms about crying havoc and letting slip the cow-headed ladies of war. I imagine either using these in conjunction with the centauress swords or separately, being supported by the prancing, dancing, arrow-shooting sythyrs. The latter combo would be great in rough terrain since both have Ranger and Fleet-footed special rules, and both are fast at 8".

The sythyrs themselves can be used as noted above supporting the feminotaurs or on their own harassing the enemy from rough terrain.

The spellcaster is a unique tactical problem. Do I keep it back to support my forward units with its magic? Do I keep it forward to use its magic to mess up the enemy? The Heavy Foot armor value makes it more suitable in the latter case. It's Powerbolt! spell is as a good a shot (4+/18") as Heavy Missiles (a.k.a. crossbows in Lion Rampant terms).

I've always favored aggressive tactics, sometimes (or often) to my own destruction. As a defensive force, the warband is pretty useless. The spellcaster is the slowest unit at 6", but with an 18" magic range, I don't expect to be moving her/him/her to any extent.

The test of battle will determine whether I made the right warband. Our game day is just 3 weeks away at this writing. I hope to get a game in before then, just to get the feel of it. But even if it turns out I made a huge mistake and the warband will never win (of course, that could be just me), I don't have time to paint new units.

The Year of Living Rampantly

The year isn't over yet, but looking back at this point, it's clearly been the Year of Living Rampantly. I tend to be pretty eclectic in my gaming, but 2017 (and going back into 2016) has been predominantly devoted to playing—and painting minis for—the various flavors and variants of Dan Mersey's Lion Rampant rules.

That this should be so is a testament to the enjoyability and versatility of the system. Lion Rampant offers players tactical choices and challenges that don't require arcane rules, but instead focus on the excitement of the game. That may be a complimentary way to say that they abstract a lot of detail, but abstraction is crucial to any playable system. Many miniatures rules forget this and we soon forget them. (Who plays Empire anymore? Or, sadly, WRG Ancients.)

With Lion Rampant, you're free to focus on building retinues, terrain, and scenarios. The system is simple enough to accommodate tweaks and additions without breaking anything—though some regression testing is required (I, for example, can break anything). The retinue lists are pretty free-form, allowing you to try multiple combinations of unit types to build the retinue that best matches your style of play. In Lion Rampant and Dragon Rampant, you can't have more that 12 points or four units of the same type (whichever is less). On the other hand, The Pikeman's Lament doesn't have that restriction. You could, for example, create a 24-point company that consisted of three units of veteran Forlorn Hope at 8 points each. You're only limited to one regimental gun per company and you have to have between 3 and 10 units. Within those rather broad confines, you're free to create whatever force your research or imagination takes you.

Because units require few figures (all units are 6 or 12 figures), you can easily build well beyond a 24-point retinue and provide many more options. My eventually-to-be-completed El Cid Spanish have a pretty full compliment of units, really enough for 2+ retinues, so I can have a lot of variety.

It's rare that a set of rules comes along that strikes a chord with so many players. It's rare, too, that a system opens itself to so many variants that keep the simplicity of the rules and yet express the character of the variant period covered.

The "Rampant" family of rules fall into what I've described elsewhere as "false skirmish" rules. That's not a pejorative, but a means of comparison with what I call "true skirmish" rules in which each figure moves, shoots, fights, runs away, etc. as a single entity. Even though the "Rampant" rules use a 1:1 figure scale, the way they work doesn't really require that scale. The basic maneuver element (that thing that moves, shoots, fights, runs away, etc.) is a multi-figure unit.

It's pretty easy to "bathtub" larger battles with the "Rampant" rules. A unit that ostensibly represents 6 or 12 men, could stand in for a troop, squadron, company, or regiment.


Lion Rampant (LR)

I first played Lion Rampant right after it was released in 2014. Kevin Smyth was eager to get right to it and give 'em a try with his massive collection of 100 Years War figures. Kevin, Dave Schueler, and I played a game at Meeples Games in West Seattle. We played subsequent games at other venues and I was pretty much hooked, but I didn't have painted figures for a retinue.

First game and I'm already facing death by arrows

Back in 2000, Kevin and I were hot to trot about the 100 Years War using a Late Medieval variant I wrote for Todd Kershner's Pig Wars, which which Todd has added into the Pig Wars 4th edition that's available as a PDF from Wargame Vault. The precursor to that project was buying a lot of Old Glory 28mm Medieval minis. I had a lot of them still unpainted when Lion Rampant came on the scene 14 years later (who could've predicted that?). They're still unpainted three years later.

I almost nearly triumphed in a Lion Rampant tournament last year—except that I didn't attend because I didn't finish painting my retinue (the aforementioned Spanish) because of Grendel's sickness and death. I'd blame him out of habit, but de mortuis nihil nisi bonum and all that. The retinue had been going along pretty well with the handy Miracle Dip method. It never got started again, however, and I played in a Lion Rampant game day this summer with a borrowed retinue.

Chasing away the oiks

Note to self: Finish the freaking' Spanish!

Postscript to note to self: Then get on with the 100 Years War figures!

The Pikeman's Lament (TPL)

These rules came out in January this year. They're a collaboration with Michael Leck of the excellent Dalauppror blog. I'd been waiting eagerly—OK, impatiently—for them since their publication was announced a year earlier. Reading several posts on Michael's blog about them, kept whetting my desire. I think I'd rather be surprised by the serendipitous release of a rules set than to endure a year of anticipation, but once they were in my hot little hands, I wasn't disappointed.

I wrote my review of them earlier this year. I include a link to a nifty Quick Reference Sheet in PDF (8.5 x 11").

I played my first game of TPL at our Drumbeat game day in February. I even had figures painted for it! (Although most of the figures in the game were Bill Stewart's, freshly rebased to the 3-2-1 system.)

Pikemen cross the bridge of doom (Bills minis)

I've been a sucker for pike 'n' shot gaming since the 1970s when I played SPI's Musket & Pike, WRG's War Games Rules Sixteenth and early Seventeenth Century (1490-1660), and Bill Protz' Wargamer's Guide to the English Civil War.

My first project for these rules was to be English Civil War and I have a pile of Renegade (who appear to be on haitus again until 2018) and Bicorne minis for the era--enough to make multiple companies for Roundheads, Royalists, and Scots. However, the ECW got sidetracked by The Irish Project, which is going so well that I may run out of minis to paint for it. It's interesting that the only two projects for which I've painted (or will potentially paint) every single figure involve Jim Bowen figures. The other project is my prehistoricalistic Europeanoids (more of these are en route to me as I type this, so I'll have unpainted minis soon).

Irish pike ca. 1600

English pikes (better commissary)

Dragon Rampant (DR)

I bought my copy of Dragon Rampant as soon as it came out in 2015. I'm not really a fantasy gamer, but I couldn't resist. I have more to say about these (and my project with them) in an upcoming blog post. It's coming soon-ish, but don't hold your breath. I can be suddenly and unexpectedly lackadaisical about posting.

This variant primarily adds magical/fantastical options that change the complexion of the game without being overwhelming. Basically, you can add dragons, were-beasts, unicorns, leprechauns—whatever—to your game. This makes for gaming scenarios that come from the vast realm of fantasy fiction, like Robert E. Howard's world of Conan the Barbarian, etc. I have FGU's venerable rules Royal Armies of the Hyborean Age (another blast from the 70s, but still available as a PDF.). Dragon Rampant addresses the battles of that world better, I think, than RAOTHA—at least they play faster and require fewer minis and Thugra Khotan can still do nasty magic things to hapless Khorajan noble cavalry.

I haven't played Dragon Rampant yet, but I have started a warband for it...

WIP: Centauress archers (NSFW)

WIP: Heavy centauresses

The fact that I'm painting a warband is really a testament to the system because in 40+ years of miniature gaming, this is the first time I've ever painted fantasy minis. No orcs, goblins, mages, elves, etc. at any point before this. It's kind of an earth-shattering event. My only other foray outside of historical minis has been sci-fi (Silent Death and Beyond the Gates of Antares), which also shattered the earth at the time.

I'm working on a post for this and the warband has come along pretty well so far. I have hopes of completing it by the end of Thanksgiving weekend—but I just picked up a Reaper hydra to use as a Great Warbeast, so my timetable may be extended.

We've got a Dragon Rampant game day scheduled for January. I'll be a bit gobsmacked if I actually have minis to play a game completed well before the event rather than setting them up on the table still reeking of dullcote.

Variants

The Rampant year actually started last year when Kevin Smyth and I collaborated on a variant of Lion Rampant for Cortes' conquest of Mexico (Quetzalcoatl Rampant). We played several playtests leading up to hosting two games of it at our local Enfilade! convention in May.

Rodeleros emerge from the corn

Men in feathers are no match for us!

Dog & pony show - Mexico 1518

Chariots Rampant is a variant for the Bronze Age. I'd given some thought to making a variant for this, but Pat Lowinger (from 'round these parts) published a version in Issue 80 of Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy (WSS).

The (for now) silver spearmen

Soon to be one of Pharaoh's mighty chariots

Also appearing in an issue of WSS (Issue 82) is a variant created by Nathan Ward for the Punic Wars called Eagle Rampant in Sicily. It's focused on the First Punic War in Sicily, but could be adapted to the second or third wars also. This is a promising variant and will give me something to do with the piles of Crusader Carthaginians and Spanish that I collected in an abortive attempt to do Fields of Glory in 28mm scale.

I also have to mention my first variant to these rules, Crepusculum Imperii, covering the Late Roman period. I have, alas, sold my 3rd c. Romans rather than rebase them (I hate rebasing). However, I've got an eye for revisiting the period. I don't know if anyone is actually playing them, but they get a lot of hits on my blog. Also, Nathan Ward gave them a shout-out in his WSS article:

Honorable mention: The Men Who Would Be Kings (TMWWBK)
I give these rules honorable mention because they're not strictly a variant of Lion Rampant, but they are written by Dan Mersey and have many "Rampant" tendencies to them. I've played TMWWBK only once at our game day at Ft. Steilacoom. Kevin Smyth ran a game of "America Rampant" that was a what-if of Spanish and American forces clashing along the Mississippi ca. 1800-ish.

About to be overrun

These rules may be perfect for rescuing my pile of still-unpainted-after-all-these-years Dixon American Civil War figures from undeserved neglect. I bought a lot of these minis back in the 90s with the intention to play I don't recall what. (Truly I don't. I blame age or feline-induced feeble-mindedness.) I think maybe I just liked the figures and thought that something would come together once they were finished. As if.

I talked up using TMWWBK for ACW with Kevin at the game day and the idea met with approbation. Though much more focused than I, Kevin's interest in this project may get sidetracked for something shinier. (Note the comparative adjective "shinier." In my case, I can get sidetracked by anything of equal, or even lesser, lustre. Such is the working of my lizard brain: "Oh look! A shinier  shiny  thing.") In any case, even if I manage some discipline, ACW will be a project I won't start until after our Enfilade! convention is over in May. I'm making admirable progress on The Irish Project and have some smaller "Rampant" projects in the works that consist only of 24-point forces. Points-wise, The Irish Project will require about 4 to 5 24-point TPL companies' worth of minis.

Forward!

Lion Rampant and its spawn have had a revolutionary impact on the hobby, IMO. They've opened up niche periods of gaming that a lot of people eschewed before that. For example, Medieval gaming never had much popularity in my neck of the woods (Kevin notwithstanding) until Lion Rampant. I would never have imagined doing Cortes in Mexico if I didn't have Lion Rampant as a system to create a variant from.

I've done a lot of painting for "Rampant" projects so far and I have a lot of painting yet to do. So many possibilities for new retinues...

I expect that my rampant living will continue throughout 2018. I don't see myself starting any new projects (stop laughing) in the near future—other than the possibilities aforementioned.

I wonder if I can get Sigourney Weaver to play?