Thoughts on the game.

 Well I'm sorry for the lact of photos, I thought I had taken more. There were whole parts of the battle just not documented. I take it as a sign how much I was enjoying myself with the camera just forgotten about.

It was nice to include my wife in this game too ( her first wargame) and I was delighted when she started to really enjoy It. Although she was losing interest at the start of the game after failing to activate her companies three times in a row. The poor old Elves got off to a really slow start, time and time again both players failed to activate. The Goblins were having It all their own way at the beginning.

 However, once the did pass their activation test, It was a different story. The unit of Trolls (heavy Infantry, Offensive) seemed to become instant fire magnets, with everything sharp wizzing their way. They soaked up a lot but finally broke under the onslaught.
This did give my units of Goblins (light Infantry) a chance to dodge the rain of death and actually make contact with the fair folk. The Elves were Light shooters with the sharpshooter bonus added. This made them deadly at range, needing a 4 on a D6 to kill. That extra 1 point on the dice really does make a difference with each unit rolling 12 Dice attacks.

 The Goblins did manage to sting the Elves and push them back once in the game, being a light archer unit type made the Elves quite weak against a melee attack.

Going forward this is the only thing I will tweak with the rules. Units of the same type are basically equal and I like to think that a unit of Elves would be better than the that of Goblins or Orcs. I have got around this by giving the Elven archer units an armour upgrade. The Mystical armour option gives them a saving throw of 6 on any wound taken. For me it represents the high quality Elven mail worn and the skill of arms of the Elves to deflect blows. However, with the sharpshooter bonus already added, the armour bonus brings them up to 8pts a unit, twice that of a Goblin one. This I think is Okay and fits much better with the quality of the different warrior types.

 The Great eagle was a Greater War Beast with the flying option added. My wife really started to enjoy herself when the thing started to tear my companies apart. The eagles are coming...the eagles are coming, no shit.

 I think the main thing about the game is It has left me wanting more...normally after a big game I feel washed out and can quite happily leave it for a while. Dragon Rampant has got me creating new unit types and trying to even up the armies by painting faster moving units (Wolves and Wargs).
Trying to add options that really sum up the unit you're trying to recreate. For example, the Trolls I have given them the fear option and the venomous bite option (every 6 rolled on an attack counts as two kills). This represents the great lumbering beasts causing fear in the units they attack and the added damage caused by their great strength.

Dwarves again are something I'm having fun creating. I would love a rule that represents a shieldwall. The Pevise rule from Lion Rampant might be the solution, giving an armour rating of 4 from archery and a 3 from melee.Together with the 'Offensive' option this would bring them up to 8pts, again double that of a standard Orc unit. Cool with me.
I have to add here that I plan to up the game points on our friendly games as we just want more units on the board. I would be very interested to see a small battle line of well equipped and skilled elves hold out against masses of Orc units.

So there you are some thoughts on the subject of Dragon Rampant, at £12 go a get a copy you won't regret it. Simple and fun, I think It may be the rule set I was after all this time to play my LOTR games.