Thursday, February 21, 2019

Dragon Rampant Vs Warlords of Erehwon

Two weeks, two games both set in Ancient China.
The first outing an Dragon Rampant game with a scenario lifted from Grant & Asquith's Scenarios For All Ages 
The long term plan is to play them all but at the current rate this could take over a decade...


The scenario saw a column of troops stumbling into an Imperial camp and looking to break through into the cover of the woodland.


The Imperial forces were unprepared and would have to be roused from their tents to block the path of the enemy forces. 24 points a side.


The War Wagon was used to good effect blocking the path of the advancing column, the Crossbow men looking to blunt the Palace Guard who were leading the attack.



The Guard stumbled, halted and finally routed. A poor morale roll saw them get below zero and leave the table.


We manged to get two games in an evening. Swapping sides the Imperial Army once again stood firm against the lost column.



The light cavalry charged and were repulsed there was to be no way through.


Dragon Rampant gives a good quick game but something shiny was on the horizon.

A week later and we switched to Warlords of Erehwon the latest offering from Warlord games. Paul had, had some fun with the force listings - You can check out his thoughts here.
I pulled together 750 points aside for a basic encounter.



The force make ups are similar in size to Dragon Rampant you have no real restrictions in terms of common forces, you have one Warlord which has his band of body guards, which in my case are the other heroes of the Water Margin. Units typically start with 6 foot and 4 Cavalry per unit.


Flicking through the book scenarios last around six turns or when you lose half your army dice to the enemy. In our encounter once your were committed it was mighty hard to back off and regroup.



The random chits are very similar to Sharp Practice which I do like as a mechanism, you have your regular choice of orders Advance, shot, rally.  
I did like the Ambush options which allows you to hold on to your move to see what happens before executing your action or block the enemy charge.



My hero charges in to take on a unit of billmen his tough skill allows you to reroll a failed resistance roll. His two wounds were not enough to see him ultimately cut down.
 


I was pretty impressed with Warlords of Erehwon I like the flexibility around forces and make up and can see a use across several of my odd collections, the book certainly gives you plenty of scope to build armies of your choice including fantasy or regular elements.

The game lasted just under 3 hours so perfect for a club night. I can see me picking up a copy come Hammerhead in a few weeks. So much for no new projects in 2019.

9 comments:

  1. Great to see the Water Margin troops in action again and with Dragon Rampant. The scenario played is a good one and one I've used for SYW games, but never at a skirmish/small action scale.

    I've never heard of the second set of rules, but they sound OK. My plan for no new rules this year went up in smoke with the 'Portable Wargames' stable grabbing my attention!

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    1. Very interesting Steve, the last thing I need is another project at the moment but --- hhhmmm.

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  2. A couple of nice looking games Stu - always good to get two for the price of one!

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  3. I liked the sound of both, whatever keeps us gaming!

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  4. Interesting games.....I need to dig out my copy of the scenario book

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    1. Pretty good for some throw down games Matt.
      Cheers
      Stu

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  5. Lovely games Stu. I love specially the golden lions. Amazing idea.

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