The Shadow in the Sun / One Page Dungeon Contest

Lina (15), Hendrik (13) and Joaquín (11) wrote a dungeon for the One Page Dungeon Contest.

You suddenly wake up in a huge, pretentious hall filled with diamonds and furniture that was all colored in bright yellowy gold. A being, which you can't recognize because it's shining so bright, sitting on a throne starts talking:

“You have been chosen to save the sun from the shadow trying to take us over! The shadow beings have been waiting a long time to defeat the light beings, which make the sunshine, so the sun is forever dark. They are in the center of the sun, waiting until tonight, so they can eliminate us, leading to the sun never rising again. Will you help us?”

You agree to help them.

The sun ruler explains to you what awaits you in the dungeon:

The first step is to go to the weapon dealer to get weapons for the mission. The difficulty is that the dealer is very sketchy, and because you don’t come from the sun, he’ll try to scam you to get more money or give you weapons that don’t work. If you try to defend yourself, he might end up killing you, so what you need to do is be as careful as possible. From him, you'll need to buy Darkvision and the weapons or enchantments of your choice but be careful; shadow beings are immune to weapons using fire. The most effective weapons are metal, wood, or light-related weapons.

The second step is finding the secret passageway inside the weapon shop to the inside of the sun. There, you’ll find a room (1) full of traps designed to kill you. You’ll need to find the traps and then find a way to get around them. The traps are not only on the floor tiles but on the walls too. The traps include the floor disappearing, the walls crumbling, or highly venomous lizards being thrown at you. All the traps could instantly kill you, but luckily the room isn’t that big.

Once you’ve escaped, the next room (2) awaits you. There, you’ll have to fight your first group of three shadow beings, which will protect the next rooms at all costs, even at the cost of death. The downside for you is that the room is incredibly dark, so you’ll need to have Darkvision to even have a chance of making it out. The shadow beings have very powerful weapons, which can each kill you with three hits. Their problem is that the sun beings have gifted you very powerful shields, so not every attack reaches you, but you’ll still need to be careful and kill them as fast as you can.

In the next room (3), there’s venomous fog, which can kill you fast, but the door to the next room is closed, so you have to find a key for the door. The difficulty is that the room is filled with a lot of things, ranging from antique teacups to fluffy pillows, making it hard to find the right key. The time until the rise of the shadow beings to the surface of the planet is getting shorter every minute, and once they’ve gotten to the surface, nothing can stop them.

In the penultimate room (4), a huge shadow beast is waiting to kill you. It could devour you instantly, but it has one weakness: it is deadly allergic to bread and salt. You can buy bread in the weapon shop, but salt can only be found in the fourth room, so you should not only look for a key but also salt to defeat the monster.

The last room (5) is filled with shadow beings, which you’ll have to kill as fast as possible because there’s only half an hour remaining until their rise. With the right weapons, it’s easier to kill them, so choose wisely.

If all goes well, the sun shall rise; if not, we're doomed, because with the sun, all of our solar system goes down.

Are you up for the challenge?

Fimo Dragon Rampant

A picture from our last game of Dragon Rampant.

The miniatures on the table are two Pokémon monsters made out of Fimo and a couple of Space Marines and Orks from my friend’s collection.

The Fimo monsters won.

Have a great weekend!

Honor Among Thieves

I watched "Honor Among Thieves", the D&D movie, with my family. Then I asked my daughter what she thought about it.

"Although the plot of the movie was predictable, the movie was entertaining. There were various funny jokes and I found the characters to be quite well written. All of the characters had thought out back stories which the audience got to see through their storytelling. The stories also influenced and explained the choices they made. Overall I would recommend the movie."

Dingstown at Mel Bel Con

This summer I went to the gaming convention Mel Bel Con in Welver-Dinker with a friend and my kids. We played the Wild West skirmish game Dingstown by Axel Jansen.

I have already played Dingstown three times at different conventions and actually went to Welver-Dinker to play it again. I’m a Dingstown fan boy.

At one point my friend Krüger made such a complicated move that the author of the game had to consult his own rule book.

We had a very patient game master.

Mel Bel Con is the first gaming convention I have been to after two years. It was great fun. 🤠

Squirrel Planet / Entry for the One Page Dungeon Contest 2022

Once upon a time a group of friends came across a black squirrel. Since they had nothing else to do, they decided to follow it. After 20 minutes the squirrel disappeared. The group witnessed it going into a tree and because they were curious, they tried entering the tree, which surprisingly worked.

When they opened their eyes, they found themselves on a weird planet, ruled by squirrels. They were soon noticed and brought to the king of the planet. He explained to them that they had to go into a dungeon to either stay on the planet as squirrels or go back to earth with no memory of the planet, if they managed to get out. Otherwise they would all die.

Space Chicken Fighter (1) In this room the group encounters a space chicken fighter whose special weapon is his dangerous lightsaber which can easily be deadly.

Roboteeth Pony (2) In this room the friends encounter a pony whose roboteeth can do a lot of damage, but the pony can only use them every third round.

Turkey-Platypus (3) A turkey-platypus with dangerously long nails awaits the group in this room. One scratch robs you of half your health points, but the turkey-platypus cannot scratch that easily, because his nails are really slim.

Mutant Space Squirrel (4) This three headed space squirrel is the end boss. It has the ability to teleportate itself, read and control minds and control hair. It’s weakness is that it can’t breath without its helmet.

If you finish the dungeon every character who died will be resurrected and you have the choice between going back to earth without memories of this planet or live on the squirrel planet as a squirrel.

[Note] This is a dungeon written by Lina (14), Hendrik (12) and Joaquín (10) for the One Page Dungeon Contest 2022. After reading it, I told them that I thought it was too linear, not giving the players too many options. That it felt more like a film, not like a game.

I suggested a room, room 0, with a large machine looking like a retro arcade, that would show low resolution pictures of the four monsters and had four buttons and could teleport the adventure party to the four rooms. And maybe there could be some spray cans lying around.

My daughter got angry and screamed that they had put a lot of work into this and didn’t want to change anything. I repeated that the jury might find the dungeon too linear. She replied that she didn’t even care about the prizes. Well, I said, but maybe you want to play it with your D&D group and make the dungeon more interesting. Ok, then add a room, if you must, she said.

Another Game of Dragon Rampant

During the last school holidays I went to Krüger’s house with my two sons to play Dragon Rampant. This is my main gaming group at the moment.

Krüger used to play a lot of GW games. I think you could call him a GW fan boy. He has several armies for Warhammer and 40K, all presented in a glass cupboard in his living room.

What we usually do when we go to his house is this: we bring some things, like toy trees and Fimo monsters, and are allowed to choose units from his collection. I like this kind of improvised, relaxed gaming.

Krüger recently bought a Deep Cut Studio gaming mat, a swamp, which looks a bit gloomy and goes well with his grey hill and his undead army.

This inspired my sons to play a necromancer, two units of skeletons, a giant shark like creature on legs and a group of little sharks. They played the army with this list:

1 greater warbeast (leader), 1 lesser warbeasts, 1 light missiles (summoner, no feelings), 1 heavy foot (no feelings), 1 light foot (no feelings)

Krüger and I played as a team. He played orcs & goblins, his most used tabletop army.

I played a giant Fimo newt, a warband and a group of human scouts. We used this army list:

1 bellicose foot (leader), 1 bellicose foot, 1 greater warbeast, 1 heavy riders, 1 light riders, 1 scouts

We played for objectives, using a scenario we had adapted from the classical D3+2 objectives 40K scenario a couple of years ago.

The necromancer was able to summon both skeleton units at the beginning of the game which made Hendrik happy and there was a long fight between the two greater warbeasts, which went on forever, a bit like the recent chess tournament between Magnus Carlsen and Jan Nepomnjaschtschi.

The game was undecided till the end and ended in a tie. It’s how I like to play Dragon Rampant.

Happy Halloween

My son made a skeleton man with a power sword out of Fimo.

I put it on a 40 mm base and painted it using mainly Foundry paints.

Playing Das Schwarze Auge after 37 Years

For some time I have been locking for a set of RPG rules to play with my children and simple enough, so they could play it by themselves.

I prepared a GURPS adventure for them during our last vacation in Greece, but got lost in the complexity of the rule system. I still have a notebook filled with monster stats and stains of Greek coffee. Who else would sit next to a swimming pool writing down advantages, disadvantages, skills and attributes for a troll and a slime monster? Nevertheless GURPS is still my favourite system and I hope to play the adventure one day.

My daughter started to play D&D with her friends at school, the 5th edition, but their GM disappeared and she can’t be bothered to read the basic rules (180 pages).

So I remembered Das Schwarze Auge, the first German role playing game, published in 1984. It is also the first RPG I ever played. DSA1 is similar to Tunnels & Trolls and basic D&D (the red box).

The rules and some adventures have been re-released recently, both as printed versions and PDFs available through DriveThroughRPG.

The game is well written and has a lot of charm. It has the level of complexity I was looking for. It is a great game to play with children and I think my children would also be able to play it on their own.

I was looking for a simple dungeon to do a test run, but finally decided to write one myself as I couldn’t find anything simple enough.

We played our first game on a Sunday morning during the second Covid-19 lockdown while it was snowing outside. It was a beautiful bright day.

Character creation in DSA1 is random. Lina, Hendrik and Joaquín ended up with two adventurers and an elf. Spells have funny names like BALSAMSALBUNDE-Heile, Wunde! and FLIM-FLAM-FUNKEL-Bring Licht ins Dunkel! and elves are magical creatures who know seven spells from the start.

I told the adventure party that they were walking around the streets of Havena, the classic DSA city, when a pickpocket the size of a child stole their money and ran away. They followed him down a cellar.

To my great surprise they attacked three sleeping pirates in room 2, wanted to talk to a rat in room 4 and when they finally found the goblin thief under a bed in room 6, who tried to defend himself with a kitchen knife, they negotiated with him, so that he could keep their money and they could leave the dungeon unharmed.

This was my best role playing session ever. I haven’t had so much fun in a long time.

Fimo Monster Rampant

The moment I finished painting Joaquín’s Fimo monster, I was eager to use it in a tabletop game. So last time I was in Dortmund before the second lockdown, I went to Krüger’s house with Joaquín and Hendrik to play Dragon Rampant.

My sons played an elven army.

Heavy Riders (Leader) / 2 Heavy Foot / Heavy Foot (Wizardling) / Heavy Missiles / Scouts

Krüger played Orcs & Goblins. I played the Fimo monster as a greater warbeast.

Bellicose Foot (Leader + Terrifically Shiny Armour) / Bellicose Foot / Light Riders / Light Missiles / Greater Warbeast

The map shows the initial deployment of the two armies. We used toy ladybugs as objectives.

The Fimo monster moved forward quickly and attacked the elven scouts, destroyed them and then destroyed a unit of spears with the help of some goblin wolf riders.

This made the elven warlock angry. He cast a fire ball and "neutralised" the greater warbeast, as my son expressed himself. (I don’t know where he picked up this verb.)

Well. I was so much focussed on playing the Fimo monster that I can’t say much else about the game.

Fortunately Hendrik also wrote a battle report:

Wir haben Elfen gegen Orks gespielt. Der Magier hat überlebt. Der Magier hat den Molch besiegt und die Wölfe vertrieben. Die Speerträger wurden zwei Mal in die Schildkrötenformation gestellt. Die Pferdereiter haben die Pfeilundbogenorks eliminiert. Zum Schluss wurde es Gleichstand.

The game ended in a tie.

This map shows how the battlefield looked at the end.

Mountain Dungeon / One Page Dungeon Contest

Lina, Hendrik and Joaquín wrote a dungeon for the One Page Dungeon Contest. It's called Mountain Dungeon and it's probably influenced by our corona lockdown which lasted two months.

Please keep in mind that they are 12, 10 and 8 years old and that English isn't their native language.

Once upon a time there was a family lost in the woods. This family found a haunted mountain and after they entered no one found them. Then some explorers went to the mountain. The explorers are you. Try to get out of the mountain dungeon.

1 If you stand on one of the traps the wall will go away and the arrows will shoot at you.

2 You come in and have to go on the rotating plate where you have to fight with the chicken monster.

3 In this room you have to fight with a big slime monster.

4 You have to try to escape of this room fast because the walls slide together.

5 There are traps with portals where you disappear. There is a giant monster too.

6 There are fireblasters that shoot at you.

7 This room has a pool full of piranhas and you have to cross it on a rope.

8 There are monster plants that would love to eat you.

9 The witch tells you to go into a door, you don't know which is the right one.

SoBH Covid-19

I had all kinds of hobby plans for spring and summer before Corona forced my family and me into isolation for two months.

I wanted to paint some trolls, orcs and dinosaurs for Dragon Rampant or late Romans and Goths. I was still undecided about that. I thought about playing a pirate campaign with Krüger, taking place on the Ivory Coast. And I wanted to play a couple of skirmish games with Alex, a friend from Wesel.

Then the lockdown came.

Apart from homeschooling my three kids, I used the time to continue cleaning up my mother's flat and did some gardening. After a couple of weeks I was already quite exhausted.

Then I found some plastic knights in an old box full of toys and decided to give Song of Blades and Heroes another try.

The first time I played the game many years ago, I didn't understand what it was all about. I was too much into competitive gaming and didn't see the possibilities Song of Blades and Heroes has.

The last two months I have played the game several times with my two sons. I enjoy that it's a real skirmish game which can be played with ten miniatures on each side or less.

The combat system is elegant and has mechanisms used by games like DBA or HotT. No bookkeeping is required and few markers.

There is a long list of special rules allowing the players to give each miniature its own character, thus adding a role playing element to the game.

I'm not sure if Songs of Blades and Heroes allows for competitive gaming, but it makes it easy to write your own scenarios and play games with a focus on the narration. This can be lots of fun.

Another aspect I like about the game is that it's generic. It's easy to create stats for your own monsters and characters and there are many supplements in different settings, using the core rules.

Song of Blades and Heroes is available through Ganesha Games as a PDF download or print on demand platforms like LULU. The customer service is great, by the way. I had a problem downloading the rules and Andrea Sfiligoi responded quickly.

So, thank you, Andrea Sfiligoi, for having written this accessible game which has provided my family and me with some home entertainment at the beginning of the corona crisis.

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 …

Joaquín's Killa Kan

During our Christmas break, which was otherwise quite stressful, we played Warhammer 40K with Hendrik and Joaquín at Krüger’s house. It was their second tabletop game. They played Space Marines. Krüger and I played Orks.

The scenario was Seize Ground which means we played for objectives. Three, I think. Hendrik and Joaquín were not very lucky and some of their troops arrived late in the game: a terminator squad and a tactical squad in a drop pod. This was an advantage for the Orks. Nevertheless the game was undecided until the end. Then the Orks won.

What I like about playing in this group is that the focus is more on playing the game and not so much on winning or loosing. That's very relaxing. Also there is some basic trust that nobody is cheating. Unfortunately when I play with adults that's not always the case.

Last weekend Joaquín made a figure out of Fimo. He says it's an Ork in a robot. A Killa Kan, I imagine.

Warhammer

On the 8th of October, coming out of our tax advisor's office, two weeks after my mother’s death, I noticed that the shop which used to be called GAMES WORKSHOP was now called WARHAMMER. I was curious, walked over to take a closer look, found out that the shop was closed and studied the painted miniatures behind the window.

A young man came over, holding a little box in his hands.

"Damn. It’s closed", he said.

"Yes", I said. "Strange."

"I was looking for somebody to play 40K with", he said.

"What army do you play?"

"Space Marines. Salamanders."

"Those are the Space Marines that live in the jungle?"

„In the jungle? I don’t know. They are all equipped with flame throwers. I have them here in my box.“

"I sometimes play 40K with a friend. He used to live in Berlin, but unfortunately he moved to Dortmund recently. Are the rules very important to you? We play the 5th edition. It was written by Alessio Cavatore. It’s my favourite."

"The new edition is very beginner-friendly. I like that."

"If you would like to play with us, please contact me. I have a blog. It’s called Herr Zinnlings Arbeitszimmer. I have some 40K battle reports on it. So you can see how we play. It’s a bit old school, though."

"Damn. I’m angry that the shop is closed. I came all the way from Aplerbeck to play 40K."

"Yes. I mean. Really. Please contact me if you want to play with us. There’s a contact form on my blog."

"Schlimmling? What kind of name is that?"

"Äh. No. Zinnling. Herr Zinnling’s Arbeitszimmer."

"But you live in Berlin?"

"Yes. But I’m in Dortmund often. My mother died two weeks ago."

"I’m reall pissed off about this. I came all the way from Aplerbeck and now the shop is closed."

Ok. This didn’t work. He probably thought I was some kind of human spam bot, lurking in front of GW shops, ähh … AoS shops, to advertise my blog.

Instead I went to Krüger’s house with my two sons and we played 40K. We had a great time. We played Space Marines vs Orks. Both sides were able to secure one objective, if I remember well, and the game ended in a tie. It was the boys' first game of 40K.

Some help needed writing an RPG adventure for 3 kids

I'm on a small island in the Aegean sea. It's a volcano and looks like this cookie. We are here for three weeks because of my wife's work. She is teaching screenwriters how to pitch their scripts.

Between 1 PM and 5 PM it's so hot, you shouldn't go outside. After that I go to a pool with the kids. It's next to a cliff, ten meters above the sea. There's not much there to protect you from falling down, besides a cable and a rusty shower. On the other side: a wall, a fence, some beautiful flowers, red and pink. Behind that: the noisy street and a hotel.

The water is heated by the volcano and leaves thick orange stains on clothes and googles. The music is loud and cheap, but somehow relaxing. While my children are swimming in the pool or floating around in safety buoys, I'm drinking some kind of mocha - έναν ελληνικό γλυκό παρακαλώ - which the waiter prepares with great care, and look at another island which is slowly but entirely being removed with excavators, trucks and ships. This fills me with melancholy because I’m conservative at heart.

I'm sitting next to the pool and read Principia Apocrypha and Gurps Light. (I forgot how complicated role playing games are, if you are out of practice.) I want to write a simple cavern adventure, taking place in ancient Greece, so we have something to do while we hide from the sun.

Maybe you have some ideas?

(For encounters, treasures, traps, etc.)

I will post the adventure later on this blog.

I can also send a bottle of Soumada or a little minotaur from the tourist shop to the first person who figures out which island we are on.

To make it easier for you: Here is a model of the island which I found on a cupboard in the local primary school.

Pentomino Dungeon / One Page Dungeon Contest

Last year my daughter participated in a math competition at school, the Kangaroo Contest, and brought home a colorful Pentomino game and a book with math problems for children.

When I asked Lina (10), Hendrik (8) and Joaquín (6) to draw a dungeon for the One Page Dungeon Contest this year, they made a dungeon out of 12 Pentomino shapes instead, which I turned into a map.

Hendrik had the idea that adventurers entering the dungeon should have to solve math problems, but are distracted all the time. (Maybe he came up with this, because he has a little brother who is full of energy and always wants his attention to play with him.)

Joaquín made several drawings of the big monster in room 4 and described it vividly.

The riddles are from the book Lina got at the Kangaroo Contest. I changed them a bit to avoid copyright issues and to adapt them to the stories, the children came up with.

For a year, Joaquín has been carrying little pieces of paper with German words in his school bag to learn the letters ä, ö and ü. Those are the items in room 5.

Now my introduction to our entry is already as long as the entry itself ...

1 In the first room there is a wizard. He is wearing a colourful crown, blue gloves and only has one tooth. He says: 

"This is what we are going to do. If you make it out of my dungeon, I will grant you a wish. Each room has a riddle written on the floor. You need the solution to unlock the doors. The riddles are not too difficult, but don’t be fooled. There are things in the rooms to distract you from thinking. I will stay here and also start sending things after you. The first problem is easy. I am 80 years old. My brother is 20 years younger than me. My sister, the witch, is 20 years older than me. How old are we all together? Good luck."

random monsters, summoned by the wizard in room 1:

1. a funny man with an axe and a shield
2. a very sharp triangle ruler
3. a man made of fire
4. a man who looks at you so sweet, it is hypnotizing
5. a ball with arms and legs that explodes when it gets too loud

2 Five Goblins, three with knives, two with spears.

There is a riddle written on the floor: The goblin king has 5 sons, every son has two sisters. How many children does the goblin king have?

3 A man who says blablabla.

The riddle is: How many numbers, bigger than 10 and smaller than 60, can be built, combining two different digits, using 0, 1, 2, 5 and 7?

4 A naked giant with green skin, wearing a baseball cap, a bow in one hand, an arrow in the other hand. The monster has spiky feet and leaves violet marks on the floor when moving. It can spit poison. Flames come out of his eyes and little creatures crawl out of his hair. It makes a noise like hhhhh …

The riddle is: Which is the biggest?
2+0+1+3 or 2×0×1×3 or 2×0+1×3 or 20+13 or 20×13? 

5 A goose, four hats, nine glasses, sixteen cooks. How many books?

Lina (9), Hendrik (7) and Joaquín (5) Wrote Another Dungeon for the One Page Dungeon Contest

1 You fall through a hole into this room. For example, if you go for a walk in Berlin and don’t respect certain signposts around construction sites or while watering flowers in your garden.

2 Eerie black and white photographs hang on the walls. A man with a hat. Four children. A doll. When it is dark, the pictures look like ghosts. In a corner of the room is a rocking chair.

3 An empty room with trap doors.

4 A window is painted on the wall. You can see a street and a field. If you stand there and look out of the window, it gives you the creeps. Because of the street. And the noises.

5 A monster with two heads. It destroys everything that comes close. Stones are scattered on the floor. The monster throws them at you.

6 A little animal with green fur. It looks harmless, but if you try to feed it, it bites and you might catch the rabies and die a couple of months later.

7 A mirror maze. It’s hard to get out without banging against the glass. If you take the wrong door, you return to room 1.

8 There are goblins and ghosts in this room who destroy furniture with knives and try to summon a giant by piling up the pieces. You have to prevent this.

9 Schleimi is evil. He can turn you into slime. Because he has slime powers.

10 There is a hole in the ceiling. A rope lies on the floor. A book shelf stands next to the wall.

The Battle for Hexagon 21 / Dragon Rampant Battle Report

Last year in May, while Borussia Dortmund played against Eintracht Frankfurt in the Olympiastadion in Berlin, Krüger and I were standing at a table in my small flat in Kreuzberg and fought for hexagon 21 on our campaign map. We used the ruleset Dragon Rampant to play out the battle between the Greeks under the command of Foibos and Gurkbatz’ Orcs. It was the 27th of May.

We started a bit late, around 9 PM, and had two visitors, Hendrik and Joaquín, who watched us set up the terrain. It consisted of five pieces of jungle, two swamps, a couple of rocks and a large red mushroom. Hendrik and Joaquín had a lot of questions, like "Are the rocks real?" and "Can the little stones under the model trees be coconuts?"

We played the same army lists like last time. I had to deploy first and did so in the following order, as seen from my side of the table:

Light Riders (Short Range Missiles) / Heavy Foot / Elite Foot (Leader + Enchanted Weapon) / Scouts / Light Missiles / Heavy Foot

Krüger then deployed his orcs like this, seen from my perspective, and moved first:

Bellicose Foot / Light Foot / Elite Foot (Leader) / Bellicose Foot / Light Riders (Short Range Missiles) / Heavy Riders

When I started to write this battle report, I looked at my notes and got lost. Dragon Rampant looks simple, but I still need time to master it, I guess.

So I asked Krüger: Do you remember what happened? I can’t see the wood for the trees.

Krüger sent me a very detailed battle report. Please skip it, if you don’t speak German.

Die Griechen machten sich bereit für den Angriff der Orks. Ihre rechte Flanke wurde von einer Einheit Hopliten beschützt, direkt neben diesen machten sich die Schleuderer bereit. Das Zentrum hielt der General mit seiner Einheit, unterstützt von den Scouts und einer weiteren Einheit Hopliten. Die leichte Kavalerie sicherte die linke Flanke.

Die Orks konzentrierten ihre schnellen Einheiten auf ihrer linken Flanke, mit den Wildschweinreitern und den Wolfsreitern. Das Zentrum besetzte eine Einheit Ork Krieger, der Orkboss und die Nachtgoblins. Die rechte Flanke wurde von einer weiteren Einheit Orks abgesichert.

Beide Armeen rückten zunächst vor, die Orks etwas schneller und begieriger auf den Kampf und sich mehr auf die linke Flanke konzentrierend.

Dann begannen die Orks den Angriff mit den Wildschweinreitern. Diese stürzten sich auf die Hopliten, welche sich aber schon mit einem Schildwall geschützt hatten. Im darauf folgenden Gefecht schlugen die Hopliten die Wildschweinreiter mit Leichtigkeit zurück, welche daraufhin erst einmal ihre Wunden leckten.

Während die Wolfsreiter sich in Position brachten, wurde der Vormarsch der Orks im Zentrum erst einmal von den Schleuderern gestoppt, welche die Orks mit ihrem Beschuss kurzzeitig zur Flucht zwangen.

Doch auch die Schleuderer waren nicht vor Furcht gefeit und flohen vor dem Beschuss der Wolfsreiter, sammelten sich wieder und wurden doch letztlich vom Schlachtfeld vertrieben!

In der Zwischenzeit rückten endlich auch die Orks auf der rechten Flanke vor und griffen die leichte Kavallerie der Griechen an. Diese erlitt schwere Verluste und zog sich erst einmal von der Flanke zurück.

Um die Orks nun von der Flanke abzuhalten, brachten sich die Hopliten aus dem Zentrum in Position und nahmen die Schildwall Formation an.

Die Orkkrieger prallten zunächst vom Schildwall ab, schafften es aber mit viel Glück im zweiten Anlauf die Hopliten zu vernichten.

Inzwischen war allerdings die Ork Einheit in der Mitte durch den Beschuss der Scouts vom Schlachtfeld vertrieben worden. Foibos und seine Einheit griffen die Goblins an, welche sich durch einen Schildwall schützten und nur geringe Verluste erlitten, aber zurück gedrängt wurden.

Auf der linken Flanke sah es nun so aus, als ob die Orks sie komplett vernichten würden. Die Wolfsreiter brachen die Hopliten, und die Wildschweinreiter mussten nur noch angreifen und sie vernichten! Doch ausgerechnet in diesem Moment stritten diese untereinander und verpassten ihre Gelegenheit! Durch dieses Vorkommen konnten sich auch die Goblins nicht mehr zu einem Schildwall umformieren und wurden daraufhin von Foibos und seinen Mannen vernichtet.

Die Hopliten versuchten nun die Wolfsreiter anzugreifen, aber diese nutzten ihre überlegene Geschwindigkeit, um diesen zu entkommen. Nun griffen die Wildschweinreiter doch an, aber viel zu spät. In der Folge brachen sie und flohen vom Schlachtfeld. Die Wolfsreiter schafften es aber nun, die schwer angeschlagenen Hopliten zu vertreiben.

Währenddessen marschierten die beiden Generäle in der Mitte aufeinander zu, und auf der linken Flanke stieß die griechische leichte Kavallerie dazu.

Die Entscheidung stand nun kurz bevor! Auf der linken Flanke beschossen sich die Wolfsreiter, Scouts und leichte Kavallerie, während die Generäle in der Mitte kämpften.

Durch den Kampf abgelenkt, schaffte der Orkboss es nicht, die verbleibende große Einheit Orks in das Zentrum zu befehlen. Während die Wolfsreiter die leichte Kavallerie der Griechen vernichtete, schlugen die Generäle weiter aufeinander ein, und beider Leben hing nur noch an einem seidenen Faden.

Zuletzt jedoch fiel der Orkboss unter Foibos Speer, und die Schlacht war vorbei! Die Griechen hatten es mit letzter Kraft geschafft, die Orks zurückzuschlagen!

So what happened?

My basic strategy was to put the two units of hoplites into a shieldwall formation and position the slingers and scouts where they could shoot at the attacking orcs. 

Shooting worked. My slingers and scouts were able to destroy an orc warband (bellicose foot) in the center early in the game.

Thing is I didn’t know what to do with my light riders.

I ended up using them to bring the orc warband on my left flank close enough to the hoplites, so they had to attack them (wild charge).

Maybe this wasn’t such a bad plan, but unfortunately the orc warband destroyed the hoplites. Then I moved the light riders half-heartedly to my right flank where they were destroyed in the end.

Krüger, on the other hand, used his light riders much better. He combined them with another cavalry unit on my right flank, a unit of boar riders, and attacked early on.

At first Krüger’s boar riders (heavy riders) were stopped by the hoplites in shieldwall formation, but his wolf riders (light riders) managed to destroy my slingers. Then the wolf riders shot at the hoplites. The hoplites suffered some casualties and had to flee, thus loosing their shieldwall formation. They were attacked by the boar riders a second time and both units were battered and destroyed later.

In the center Foibos and his companions (elite foot) attacked a unit of night goblins (light foot) and destroyed them.

Then Gurkbatz (elite foot) attacked Foibos. This fight felt a bit like a penalty shoot-out. It went on for several rounds. First Gurkbatz lost a strength point, then Foibos, then Gurkbatz …

At the end Gurkbatz was slain.

There were only four units left on the battlefield: Foibos (elite foot) and a unit of Thracian scouts on my side. A battered orc warband (bellicose foot) and the goblin wolf riders on Krüger’s side.

The game ended. Now the Greeks from Kalimera occupy hexagon 21 on the campaign map.

By the way, Borussia Dortmund won 2:1, thus winning the DFB Pokal, but a week later Thomas Tuchel, their trainer lost his job.

Maybe this will happen to young Foibos one day … He doesn’t get along too well with his boss, strategos Heracleides.

One Page Dungeon Contest Youth Prize

Some months ago, Lina (9), Hendrik (7) and Joaquín (5) wrote Bubble Guble Super Raum, a dungeon for the One Page Dungeon Contest, and won one of the youth prizes.

They received a parcel from Wayne's Books with three books: "Robbers and Robots" and "Mountain of Mirrors", two D&D Endless Quest Books, and "Rebel Planet", a Fighting Fantasy game book.

Thank you!

They also enjoyed a lot playing with the dungeon business cards that were in the parcel, which I believe were drawn by Dyson Logos.

In one of the books we found a strange card which says "tippy top hat's" and "Keith Hack, can I help you".