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Saturday, 30 May 2020

Dragon Rampant - The Crystal Gale

It's been a while since I played Dragon Rampant, so I modified the two HOTT armies from the other day - Fishmen and Ophidians - into warbands. I set up a random terrain, and randomly got the Crystal Gale scenario.

Both forces were built to 30 points. 

Fishmen

Leader - Heavy Foot
2 x Heavy Foot
1 x Offensive Heavy Foort (Troll)
2 x Heavy Missiles
1 x Bellicose Foot



Ophidians

Leader - Heavy Foot with Spellcaster
2 x Offensive Light Foot with Enchanted Weapons
1 x Light Missile
1 x Greater Warbeast


The Quests were as follows. They were randomly determined; I normally randomly select four and drop one, plus drop or change any that don't make sense:

Ophidians - No more than one Battered unit, and no use of magic (3 Glory each). Cause 3 Strength Points of damage in a singe turn (1 Glory).

Fishmen - At least three enemy units Battered at one time (3 Glory). Destroy two enemy units in one turn (2 Glory). Have opponent make first failed Courage check (1 Glory).

This is a scenario where the Quests are important, since both sides will generally acquire roughly equal numbers of crystals. The scenario ends when the last crystal is collected, so one side may be looking to deny the enemy access to last crystal or two whilst they set about trying to achieve their Quests.

The Ophidians had the edge on Quests; they could probably avoid having multiple Battered units, and with a small unit count were unlikely to have three Battered units in play at one time, making the Fishmen's Quest difficult to achieve. Their spellcaster was wasted points, but could be used in an emergency. But on the assumption that both sides would collect roughly equal numbers of crystals, the 3 Glory for not using magic was, in fact, quite worthwhile.


The Ophidians got off to a slow start, whilst the Fishmen advanced and grabbed up a pile of crystals. The Fishmen went for an aggressive attack on their left, but were up against the Ophidian's assault troops. Needless to say the fighting was bloody. The Fishman bellicose foot routed from the first combat.


With a few Quests to achieve, the Fishmen covered one of the crystals in order to stop the Ophidians from collecting it. A crystal is only collected if a unit moves over it; a charge doesn't count. So by sitting near the crystal, the Fishmen forced the Ophidians to drive them away from it before they could collect it. And this would expose the Ophidians to morale tests which in turn could see their units battered or destroyed, thus giving Glory to the Fishmen.


The Ophidians failed to move forward on their left. The Fishmen moved some missile troops into the bad going there in order to contest the collection of the crystal in it.


Eventually the dinosaur and the archers started moving.


The Ophidian assault troops attacked the troll, wounding it, but also taking casualties.


The troll held the first attack, but ran from the second. The Ophdians lost a unit, which was bad for the Fishmen as well, since a dead unit can't go battered, and they needed three battered enemy units on table at the same time.


The Fishmen moved forward in order to try and damage Ophidian units - their missile troops in the brush opened fire on the dinosaur, hoping to goad it into a charge, whilst some of their heavy foot advanced towards the archers.


On the other flank their heavy foot formed a wall of spears, forcing the Ophidians to assault them in an attempt to drive them away from the crystal.


The second unit of assault troops was lost; the Ophidians were now down to three units, but were still ahead on Glory despite having fewer crystals. In the background you can see the second unit of Fishman missile troops occupying the temple, where they collected another crystal.


The dinosaur charged. The Fishman missile troops hadn't really slowed it as it closed, and suffered accordingly.


The Ophidians kept up the attack on the Fishman phalanx.


In the centre another unit of Fishman heavy foot had contacted the Ophidian archers, but the archers held firm, and drove the attackers back.


The dinosaur routed the Fishman missile troops, whilst the archers drove back the heavy foot with shooting. Battering three Ophidian units was looking increasingly unlikely.


Indeed another volley of arrows routed the Fishman heavy foot.


From their position in the temple the Fishmen opened fire on the Ophidian leader.


Meanwhile the Fishman leader approached the dinosaur, hoping to goad it into an attack, but the brush slowed its advance and made an impetuous charge difficult. The dinosaur collected the ninth crystal though, leaving just the one on the Fishman left.


Things were looking bad for the Fishmen; their heavy foot covering the crystal failed a morale test, and routed ...


... but under fire from the temple the Ophidian leader - the only unit which could collect the crystal - also went battered, and couldn't move until it rallied. The archers went battered as well, thus failing the Quest to have only one Battered unit on the table.


It failed to rally, and routed.


With their leader lost all of the Ophidians had to take a morale test, and the archers, who had also taken casualties from the missile troops in the temple, routed as well.

(I wasn't sure if this counted as two units destroyed in one turn, but assumed it did - the Fishmen achieved that Quest for 2 Glory).


At that point I did some calculations, and called the game. The Fishmen couldn't win, but had pulled it back to a margin of 1 Glory from what looked like a whitewash early on. I assumed they'd collect the last crystal.


The Fishmen collected six crystals (6 Glory), achieved one Quest for 2 Glory and failed two other Quests (-2 Glory). This was a total of 6 Glory.

The Ophidians collected four crystals (4 Glory), but achieved Quests worth 4 Glory (no use of magic and causing 3 Strength of damage in one turn). They failed one Quest (-1 Glory). This was a total of 7 Glory.

So a close game, and very much dominated by attempts to achieve Quests and pick up, or deny the enemy, Glory.

(Ironically I gave the Ophidians a spellcaster because I haven't used them that much and wanted to give magic a try. But the setup of the scenario made the No Magic quest very attractive indeed.)

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