Playing Dragon Rampant with the Kids

In Berlin children get a week off from school in February, to go skiing, I suppose.

I had to take my children to Dortmund during their winter vacation, because my mother passed away some months ago and we have to find out what to do with all of her things now. That's a gloomy activity for children, of course.

We wanted to have some fun nevertheless, so I went to Krüger's house with Joaquín and Hendrik to play Dragon Rampant. (My daughter preferred to stay at home and practice K-Pop choreographies.)

We played elves vs. orcs, using our scenario D3+2 objectives.

Joaquín and Hendrik played the elves:

Light Foot (Leader + Spellcaster) / Elite Riders / Heavy Riders / Heavy Missiles / Light Missiles / Scouts

Krüger and I played the orcs:

Bellicose Foot (Leader), Heavy Riders (Chariot), Greater Warbeast, Lesser Warbeasts, 2 Scouts

We used toy frogs as objectives. On the elven side one frog was placed in a forest and one on top of a large hill.

Two frogs were placed in forests on the orc side and the fifth frog was put in the centre of the table.

On our left flank Krüger moved a large ogre (greater warbeast) forward to take the objective hidden in the forest in front of it. This scared Joaquín so much that he moved his heavy riders all the way from his right flank to his left flank. He even made the horses ride backwards.

There the elven elite riders, a splendid looking unit, had been lurked into the woods by a unit of orc scouts. The elves lost the fight and were routed by six wolves (lesser warbeasts) waiting for them outside the forest.

The same thing happened to Joaquín's heavy riders, when they arrived at the forest.

Hendrik loves to play wizards in Dragon Rampant and his favourite spell is Power Bolt!

With some assistance of a bolt thrower, scouts and light missiles Hendrik used his power bolt magic to destroy the ogre and our general (a unit of bellicose foot).

We are always surprised how lucky Hendrik is rolling to see if spells work.

After we lost our general I was able to destroy the elven light missiles with a chariot and then place it next to the objective in the centre of the gaming table.

When the game ended, both armies held the two objectives on their side and in addition to that the orcs held the objective in the centre.

This map shows how the gaming table looked like at the end of the last turn.

It was a close, balanced game, but a victory for the orcs.

The game was so much fun that we are planning a little Dragon Rampant campaign during the summer. Orcs vs. elves fighting for magical ingredients in an enchanted forest or something like that …