Dragon Rampant - Fishmen vs Elves

This afternoon I used a couple of my HOTT armies to put together a pair of Dragon Rampant warbands. Each unit was roughly a 40mm x 40mm square; basically two elements for most units. The number of figures was irrelevant. I used markers to show hits.

The Fishman warband consisted of:

3 x Heavy Foot @ 4pts (Including the Leader)
1 x Heavy Missiles with Weighty Projectiles @ 3pts
1 x Greater Warbeast (Sea Troll) with Venomous @ 9pts

The Elves had:

1 x Light Foot with Spellcaster and Enchanted Weapons (Elven Sorceress Leader) @ 8pts
2 x Offensive Light Foot @ 5pts
1 x Light Missile Sharpshooters @ 6pts

I used a variant rule from the Dux Rampant forums for Enchanted Weapons, to reduce their rather all-or-nothing abilities in the book. A unit can choose whether to use them or not in a combat. If you do choose to use them, roll a D6 after the combat; on anything other than a '6' the weapons no longer work. Blessed Weapons work the same, but are retained on a 5 or 6.

After rolling for leader abilities I randomly generated terrain, then randomly generated a scenario, attacker and defender. I got Death Chase, with the Fishmen attempting to cross the board from one side to the other, whilst the Elves tried to stop them. I used a 2' x 2' board, but converted all distances from inches to centimetres. This gave the equivalent of a 5' x 5' table.

Here's a closeup of the Fishmen. I randomly generated quests for both sides. The Elves vowed that none of their units would be destroyed/routed by missile fire. This wasn't much of a challenge, since the Fishmen only had one missile unit anyway. The Fishmen went wild, vowing that they would destroy half of the enemy's units, destroy two enemy units in the same turn and would also cause three strength points of damage in one turn. With the Troll in their force, none of these were outside the realms of possibility.

Here's the Troll. He's a 3D print from Dutchmogul's collection. You can find the model HERE.

The Fishmen started their long slow plod across the table. They were aided in this by their leader's ability to goad, effectively allowing a free move for one it each turn. The Elves moved into ambush positions.

The Elven sorceress established herself on a hill, where she would have a good field of fire for her sorcery. This was the first time I'd used magic in a game of Dragon Rampant. It was simple and straightforward.

The Elven archers set to work, accurately shooting down the Fishmen as they advanced.

Eventually the Fishman commander led his unit into close-combat, but was driven back by a combination of bad die rolls on his part and good ones on the part of the Elves.

On the other flank the troll had advanced to a point where it could see and reach enemy units.

More melee on the Fishman left flank saw equal casualties and no breakthrough.

The troll charged into combat, shattering one of the Elven foot units with a ridiculous number of hits scored. Venomous is expensive, but well worth the points.

However the sorceress befuddled him.

The Fishmen pushed forward again and again, but the Elven archers stood their ground and steadily shot them down. The leader routed.

The troll managed to charge up the hill, and engage the sorceress, who fell back.

More Fishmen routed from archery.

Others hid behind the crest of a hill.

The troll attacked again. The sorceress responded with her enchanted weaponry, driving the troll back ...

... and before he could recover she finished him off with a sorcerous attack.

The loss of the troll broke the Fishman warband, the rest of whom failed morale tests and began to flee.

The Elves lost their two light foot units, whereas the Fishman force was utterly destroyed. This gave the Elves 10VP, plus 1VP for achieving their single quest. The Fishmen achieved one quest, but failed two, for a net -1VP. So this was a decisive win for the Elves.

The Fishmen were probably on a no-starter in this scenario, with the Elves able to dominate the battle with their archers and, to a lesser extent, the sorceress. The troll was the best hope they had to score enough damage to break through the, admittedly thin, Elven line, but it couldn't be everywhere at once.