Dragon Rampant Introductory game

Introduction
This is to prove that I am not just a solo player!  My mate Andy and I arranged to play a game of Dragon Rampant.  He had already played a couple of games but it was new to me.  I do not have a lot of painted fantasy figures but Andy had just enough to deploy two Lord of the Rings based warbands.

Troops

Uruk-Hai (me)

The forces for good (the Uruk-Hai)

1 Offensive Heavy Foot with Leader and enchanted weapon...but not enchanted enough as it was not enchanted for this game.
1 Offensive Heavy Foot
1 Heavy Foot (spearmen)
1 Light Foot
1 Scouts

The Men of Gondor (Andy)

The other side - Gondor

1 Heavy Riders with leader
1 Heavy Riders
2 Heavy Foot
1 Heavy Missiles

Deployment
We threw down some terrain, decided what was rough and what was cover.  We then put the units on the table for the first scenario - a straight up "line then up and advance at each other until dead".

Overview of the table, Uruk-Hai to the bottom. Uruk-Hai scouts off picture to the right.  

Uruk-Hai plan is to send the Light Foot into the cover on the left flank, advance the two heavy foot in the centre to quickly advance, and hold the right flank with the Scouts and Heavy foot. Not to spoil the game report, but only the first bit worked - moving the Light Foot into cover!

Gondor plan was to hold their right flank with heavy foot and missiles and use the two cavalry units to destroy the opposing flank, and then sweep up the centre.

Battle mat is FAT Mats from Frontline Gaming. (this sentence updated 13 Nov 2016 - original entry erroneously ascribed the battle mat to Tiny Wargames).  I am very tempted to get one as I love the rubber backed mats.

Game
First move is done Gondor. No failed activations.  Uruk-Hai move, also no failed activations.. Gondor move and 1 activation - the Heavy Cavalry on their furthermost left flank.

After moves on both sides.  Picture from the Gondor side this time.

Uruk-Hai moves everything in response.  The Gondor Heavy Missiles have an opportunity to fire and a figure is lost from a Uruk-Hai Heavy Foot (with the leader)

Gondor bowmen at a Uruk-Hai Heavy Foot unit

The Gondor heavy cavalry approach to very near the Uruk-Hai Scouts.

On the Uruk-Hai far right flank the Scouts are about to be a speed bump for the Gondor Heavy Cavalry.

Gondor missile unit fires, this time at the Heavy foot spearmen immediately to its front - 1 figure lost.

More Gondor arrows, this time at the Heavy foot that is advancing towards them (never got there due to lack of activation rolls).

Then a unit of Gondor Offensive Heavy Foot attacks the Uruk-Hai Offensive Heavy foot with the leader.

The first melee - Heavy foot on both sides clash in the centre. Uruk-Hai lost this one (this was the beginning of a pattern!)

Uruk-Hai lose two figures, Gondor one.  Uruk-Hai loses the courage test and are battered. So now the Gondor Heavy Cavalry rub it in and charge the battered Uruk-Hai unt.  Both suffer one lost figure (Uruk-Hai were lucky with 3 6’s from 12 dice) and the cavalry retreat.

After the Uruk-Hai retreated, the centre Gondor cavalry charged in.  Note that the lead cavalry figure is the only unpainted unit in the game.

The other Gondor Heavy Cavalry charge the Uruk-Hai Scouts that are just...gone.  7 hits and they are only 1 armour.

The last picture of the Uruk-Hai Scouts before routing after combat with  the Gondor cavalry. 

The Uruk-Hai heavy foot with the leader successfully rallies. and then the Uruk-Hai fails their first activation

Ready for the Gondor heavy cavalry to charge back into the heavy foot unit. Both inflict 2 losses and the Humans retreat (as the attacker); both fail the courage test and both are battered.  Note the Uruk-Hai leader heavy foot unit is now down to 6 figs.

The Men of Gondor Heavy foot and Uruk-Hai Heavy foot face each other off in the centre.

The Uruk-Hai heavy foot with the leader doesn’t rally and once again the Uruk-Hai failed first activation!!  This gives Gondor the opportunity to rallied their battered unit.

The Gondor missile unit fires at the heavy foot spearmen who lose another 2 figures.  Very annoying.

More Gondor arrows at the non-moving Spearmen.

The Gondor Heavy Cavalry that charged into the scouts now charge into the next unit on that flank - a Uruk-Hai heavy foot unit and inflict 3 hits! (Cavalry take one in response). The Uruk-Hai roll snake-eyes for courage, that is unfortunately a definitely big fail and the leader's heavy foot unit routs.

The Gondor heavy cavalry, flush from destroying the Scouts, turn their attention to the next unit on that flank - a unit of Uruk-Hai Heavy foot...that routs.

There were two Uruk-Hai units on this flank and now there is none.

The Uruk-Hai right flank that had two Uruk-Hai units that have been replaced with two Gondor Heavy cavalry units.

The Uruk-Hai get a turn and the Uruk-Hai heavy foot spearmen attack a Gondor heavy foot but receive two hits while only inflicting one.  They retreat, fail the courage test and are battered.

The Uruk-Hai spearmen get an activation and attack a unit of heavy foot, but are repelled. 

The Gondor archers shoot again for two more hit on the battered spearmen unit that loses another two figures, fails courage, already battered, not looking healthy...

The Gondor bowmen add to the misery and shoot at the spearmen for a few more losses.  4 figures left. (the marker on the right represents battered)

The Gondor Heavy foot charges the battered Uruk-Hai spearmen for 2 more hits to put them out of their misery.  Spearmen rout.

The Gondor Heavy foot charge in and finish the spearmen off.  So far the Uruk-Hai  have lost 3 units and the Gondor none.

A unit of Gondor heavy cavalry is coming round the rough terrain to get ready to attack the Uruk-Hai leaders' heavy foot unit

The Gondor heavy cavalry that finished off the Scouts, and then a unit of heavy foot, is galloping as fast as they can to the last unit of Uruk-Hai heavy foot.

The Human heavy foot on their far left flank charges the Uruk-Hai light foot that, over the last few turns, has been coming out of cover.

Meanwhile, the Uruk-Hai come out of the cover on their left flank to unsuccessfully melee with a unit of Gondor heavy foot.

The Uruk-Hai take 4 hits, the Gondor unit 2;  Uruk-Hai retreat back into cover. The Gondor archers shoot at them but not enough damage rolled to inflict casualties.

The Gondor Cavalry charge into Uruk-Hai's leader unit (what is left of it!) and the end result is the Uruk-Hai's leader unit routs off the table.

The last melee - the Gondor heavy cavalry charge into the last unit of Uruk-Hai heavy foot - with the Uruk-Hai leader - and the latter rout.

The Uruk-Hai's last unit -the light foot - pass one courage test for the entire warband being at ½ lost, and  then failed the leader unit lost test.  A convincing victory for the Men of Gondor!

All the Gondor losses.

All the Uruk-Hai losses.  I leave it to the reader to draw your own conclusions on the scale of the loss.

Verdict
Despite my enormous loss ("bloodbath" and "walked over" spring to mind), I shrug it off by blaming the dice :-)  I also blame having a plan and a deployment that was not going to really work under the rules but hey, that's why it was a learning scenario.  Adding quests and different scenarios would make the game even more interesting.    The rules themselves are very easy and after another game or two I can easily see never having to reference the rulebook.  Definitely a keeper for this level of game (between mass battles and 1:1 skirmish).

Andy and I have played the odd game here and there over the last 3-4 years (Mighty Armies Ancients, Ancient Battlelines Clash, Memoir '44) We both like playing with different rules and both affected by the "oh shiny!" and so we are going to try and meet a more often to play some games.