Dinosaurs On The Dneiper

In the immediate aftermath of the fatal battle of Poltava in 1709, Swedish troops were routed and scattered across the Ukrainian countryside. One company evaded the Russians hunting them, and found themselves in a remote and forbidding landscape. They entered a valley through what appeared to be an ancient ruined gateway and, exhausted, camped for the night.

Near dawn the musketeers on guard heard movement in the undergrowth around them ...

A terrible lizard rushed the camp!

And another!

The guards shouted and raised the alarm, and the other Swedish troops tumbled out of their tents and prepared for battle.

One monster appeared on the hill above the camp, but a band of cavalry charged it and slew it.

But another rushed into the centre of the camp and devoured some infantry before being driven back.

Other reptiles appeared on the hill, and the two groups of cavalry on that side of the camp bravely charged again and again.

The Swedish company was now fully formed up, and was holding their own.

One reptile tore through a section of the camp, utterly destroying it.

On the other side, what appeared to be the leader of the giant lizard pack appeared, ripping through one of the groups of cavalry and wiping them out.

The monsters closed in on the camp again.

One advanced on some infantry sheltering in the ruins of the gateway.

They fired a volley at it, and it fell back reeling.

A charge by pikemen led by the company commander finished off the giant reptile.

The pack-leader scattered the other group of cavalry, which fell back to reform.

It then turned on the surviving camp guards who were forced to fight with sword and bayonet, having not had time to unleash a volley of musketry.

Amazingly they survived, and as they reformed, the company commander ordered all of his pikemen into the attack, coming in on both flanks of the monster. They failed to wound it, but it was enough; the surviving monsters withdrew back into the valley, leaving the Swedes to count their casualties and see to their ransacked camp.

This was a game of 'Dragon Rampant', using 24pt warbands. The scenario was actually the Beating Up Quarters one from 'The Pikeman's Lament' though.

The warbands were as follows:

Swedes
2 x Heavy Foot, 2 x Heavy Missiles with Weighty Projectiles and Enchanted Shooting Weapons 2 x Heavy Riders
Leader could order one automatic Attack each turn

Dinosaurs Of The Lost Valley
1 x Greater Warbeast with Fear, 4 x Lesser Warbeasts
Leader could reroll one Attack dice per combat

The Swede's Enchanted Shooting represents their first volley.

The playing area was 2' x 2' and I changed all distances from inches to centimetres.

I played with a few changes to the rules:

(i) I used the unit spacing rules from 'The Pikeman's Lament'.

(ii) I used my own rules for Enchanted Weapons. I allow the unit to automatically have them, but each time they are used the unit must roll a D6 and needs a score or 6 to keep them. (Blessed Weapons are kept on a 5 or 6). This allows the unit to always get at least one use of them, rather than how it works in the original rules where there's only a 1 in 6 chance of them being used, but they are deadly for the whole game if you do get them.

(iii) I also used the Wild Charge rules from 'The Pikeman's Lament', where a unit which fails to charge is allowed to make an activation roll to move in the normal part of their turn.

(iv) In terms of the scenario, I allowed any unit that was in contact with a camp to ignore Wild Charge. The scenario requires a unit to move into contact with a section of camp, and then make an activation roll in the next turn to try and destroy it. This is tough if the units have Wild Charge, as they never get a chance to destroy things. I guess if they can use Wild Charges to destroy the enemy force altogether then the camp is theirs to ransack as they wish, but that didn't seem as interesting.

This game was one of those random ideas that came to me when I was daydreaming at work. But I enjoyed it so much I think I'm going to have another go.