It being a Petaudia week, I had a solo game continuing the Kedarian Horse Tribes attacks on the Duchy of Lamria. This time, the Duke of Lamria, fed up with the raids and especially the successful assault on Castle Artho, has led an expedition into the steppe to track down and defeat the Kedarians. The latter promptly evaded all efforts to find them and then, when the weary Lamrians and their Leucadian mercenaries turned back for home, weary and footsore, the Kedarians pounced on the column.

The scenario required the column to cross the table and exit as many units and baggage wagons, mules, etc. off the other side, while beating off the assailants. This is a large Dragon Rampant game, with both sides having equal points. I split the Kedarians into a cavalry wing and infantry wing, attacking from opposite sides. The defenders of the column were in two sections, with various mounted or foot commanders. The Kedarians count as the attackers for the game, so always have the initiative.

I also experimented with some home rules for command, mainly because of the size of the game, and also because I had painted up lots of command bases and wanted them to be more than just Single or Reduced Model Units! I decided that each command base had certain units attached to it and that if they were all within 6" and the command base passed its activation roll to move, then all the units could move together, but had to remain within the 6" distance. It was something like a "group move". It could not be used for Shooting or Attacking.

Another rule was that, since there were now no commanders embedded in units, as is normal for Dragon Rampant, then if a command base attached itself to a unit, that unit used the command bases combat statistics when rolling its dice. However, any other units belonging to that command base who had to take a Courage test could not get the +1 for their commander being within 12". 

The "group move" worked okay, but mainly for the infantry. The commander attached to a unit made the latter rather powerful, as it meant hits on 3+ attack or 4+ defence all the time and Courage of 3+. However, the loss of +1 to other units was also quite significant. It meant weighing up when to attach and when not to attach!

It was worth experimenting and needs a little more refinement, though I think I would only use it with bigger games.

Although a Dragon Rampant game, there were no monsters or magic involved, so could easily be played with Lion Rampant rules. The command bases could then challenge one another!

Anyway, here are some pictures, with captions added at the bottom:

I did have one conundrum arise: what happens when a unit cannot retreat in any direction from a lost mêlée? I had a unit of longbowmen who had been attacked, lost the fight, but could not retreat because there were friendly and hostile units all too close. I decided that they would stay in contact with their opponents, do the Courage test to see if they lost extra Strength Points,  become automatically Battered, and that the combat would continue automatically on the next turn for one more round. If they lost again, any survivors would automatically surrender. Any thoughts?

P.S. Another home rule is units can be within 1" of friendly units; the 3" rule applies only to hostile units, in case you were wondering why units were rather close together for Dragon Rampant!