Dragon Rampant in First Age Middle Earth

James and Martin came over for a game of Dragon Rampant using their collections of Elves (James) and Orcs (mostly Martin). I supplied the Soldier Shack.

James has been building up his collection of First Age Elves for Middle Earth gaming for a while and we're going to be putting on a couple of games using the Dragon Rampant rules at Hammerhead in a few weeks time. One large-ish game, or series of games, depicting events in the First Age and then a small game using my Games Workshop collection to show people the rules and entertain younger gamers. So do drop by for a chat and roll some dice if you're at the show.

All this is planned, however we've not played Dragon Rampant for a while, so needed a quick run out to remind ourselves how to play.

James took the Elves and Martin and I assumed the role of Middle Earth's huddled and oppressed masses.

The Orc archers took to the hills.

While their chieftain held his banner high.

Pointy-eared archers made their presence felt.

Along with their spear, brethren.

 Shortly after this picture was shot we decided Elf spears should be Elite, and so reduced the model count by half.

The warg riders protected the evil flank.

The now much smaller Elf spear cohort advanced besides the swamp.

And the mounted archers let forth a cry and moved out.

Wargs. Warging.

Orcs, Orcing about.

Eventually the Orcs and elves clashed.

This, along wth some pretty hefty shooting, went better than expected.

Meanwhile the Orcs closed in on the elf archers.

It's all about the focus

Pushing the archers back, however only unleashed the Elf heavy cavalry.

On the opposite flank the mounted elf archers had been shooting and scooting to great effect. And then their luck ran out.

The orcs on the left did their best but were no match for elven blade.

And the last elite Elf continued to out pace his pursuers.

Finally the cavalry had cleared their right flank

And so they shot their own leader (or does it just look that way?)

The elite elf cavalry crashed into and ran down the last of the Orcs and the game was up for the bad guys!

A win for James and his Elves.
A great fun game with good company.

I know some folk don't like the turnover in Dragon Rampant where it's possible to fluff your first activation and not get to do anything, but the speed of the game means it's not really a problem in my book. You soon get another turn.
Martin described it as being like when you were a kid and had a few mixed units of Asgard and Citadel models and made up your own rules. And we all agreed that's a good thing.