Vikings renovation

 I think I mentioned recently that I was overhauling my viking collection. Out with the old and in with the new. I sold my old figures some time ago and have been slowly painting up their replacements. The figures available now are far nicer than in the past and life is just too short for crummy figures, that's my reasoning at any rate. 

Here's the first batch of "new"recruits. Only the front rank are truly new. The two on the left are by V&V Miniatures, while the ale quaffing figure is by Mierce Miniatures. These are my two favourite makes of Norse/viking minis, top quality all round. The rear rank are by Drabant Miniatures. At one time these were the best vikings available on the market, but they have been superseded. Still, it was worth spending a little time touching up a few highlights and rebasing them to match the new guys.

It's good to finally get some minis painted for myself. I think my mojo must have melted in the heat of the summer, but finally it seems to be returning. Partly this was due to being able to game face to face again after a trip round to Matt's dungeon (which is now more a palatial barn, I'm sure he will blog this at some point). I fielded a confederation of bearded warriors (vikings and dwarf allies) against his marauding beastmen. Unfortunately the photos I snapped on my phone were pretty poor so hopefully Matt's blog will come to the rescue. 

One of the units I fielded was this block of berserkers. We were playing Dragon Rampant so I fielded them as bellicose foot. This contains a good representative sample of my collection as it stands today. There are resin V&V, metal Mierce and plastic Victrix all mixed together here. And for the most part I reckon they work well together. Hopefully my enthusiasm for painting them continues, I would love to pit them against a small force of these brutes.

Small is perhaps the wrong word to use in this context. Vikings fending off trolls, coming soon. Some time this decade at any rate. 

Remote Wargaming

Now you really can become an armchair general. If you are confined to barracks but would love to wargame, try this. You need two (or more) gamers. The main player sets up a battlefield in their location, with a camera/phone/ipad to view the action. They use the zoom app to create a conference call, inviting other gamer(s). The main player takes all the moves, rolls dice for themselves, removes casualties, etc. The secondary player(s) talk to them, directing them - move the second unit forward eight inches, shoot at those cavalry, etc. The secondary players can roll their own dice if they choose.

I tried it last night with gaming buddy Matt. He set up the battlefield in his gaming dungeon. I simply had to get some dice, I had them on a tray in my chair. I also had the rulebook to hand, and an ipad to view the game. We stuck to the simple to play Dragon Rampant, about half a dozen units each on a 4x4 tabletop. It worked well, after I learned how to hold the ipad without covering the microphone - I blame the wine.

Here's my view in game. After some input from a technical expert, I propped the ipad up on a cushion, leaving me hands free to expertly shout out my orders, point at the screen (not that Matt could see where I was pointing), and roll some dice, usually badly. A good way to spend an evening if you crave a wargame. Not as good as the real thing obviously, but it works, it's free (if there's just two of you), and it's easy if you are the secondary player.

I won't attempt to describe the ingame action, I'm sure Matt will produce a battle report at some stage (edit - he sure did). Suffice to say that the uruk hai are well fed now, Samwise will be taking part in the trilogy no more, and we'll get you next time Frodo, you slippery little hobbit.

Rohan In Flames

Orcs bearing the red eye have been seen wandering the furthest fringes of the Eastfold. How they managed to cross the river undetected is a mystery, but they must be stopped, driven back and destroyed. A couple of remote farms have already been pillaged and now they are making their way westward to bigger settlements. A small contingent of Rohan troops have set up defences to try to hold them back, a messenger rushing west to raise the alarm and muster reinforcements. 

This was a clash we played in Matt's dungeon using Dragon Rampant rules, which is designed for smaller games than ours, so we add a few tweaks to make it workable. When a unit fails to activate, the player turn usually ends, but we allow three failures before passing over to the opponent. This allows the ten or so units per side to be involved in most turns, turning a scrappy stop-start skirmish into something a little bit more epic.

Orcs trample crops as they press forward

They close in on the hastily erected defences

The bulk of the orcs push forward on the right

Reinforcements arrive for Rohan

The troll slaughters the archers in his path and lumbers on, orcs pouring into the gap in the defences

Fierce fighting in the farmstead sees the brave Rohan defenders slowly pushed back

The troll is peppered with arrows from all directions and staggers around in confusion

Orcs torch a farm building and are then thrown into the conflagration by enraged defenders!

Another building goes up in flames before the orcs are finally pushed back

A most enjoyable battle, Dragon Rampant really works well in games like this. The orcs made most progress on the right flank, the troll punched through the light defences easily enough, but then was the sole target for a lot of Rohan archers. More orcs tried to follow through but were hampered by rough terrain and harassing archery. In the centre, a single unit of Rohan defenders did well to hold out for so long, finally falling back as the orc leader and his troops rushed over the barricades. With the central farm undefended, it was soon roaring in flames. On the left flank, a unit of warg riders and a couple of light orc units struggled to push back a fairly meagre force of Rohan archers. As their numbers depleted, the orcs finally lost impetus and pulled back from the attack.

Two out of five building were destroyed, so technically it was probably the forces of  Rohan that won the day. But the orcs are many and slunk back into the marshlands, no doubt planning to return and wreak havoc again another day. It might be interesting to fight the next battle using a different ruleset, to see how they compare, maybe Erehwon or perhaps Saga. It would certainly be interesting to continue the tale.

Coming Soon? The Orcs Strike Back

Mordor Marches Out

Finally. After a very long summer and numerous other distractions -  ten weeks after the last game - dice have been rolling again in Matt's dungeon. I wanted to play with my newly painted Mordor orcs, so we decided on a nice and easy game of Dragon Rampant. The game is really designed for smaller forces than we were using, so we added a few tweaks to accommodate the larger number of units - allowing a commander to fail three activation tests before ending his turn. We also relaxed the three inch rule for friendly units. And we just lined up our armies for a good old pitched battle rather than play one of the wacky scenarios from the booklet. Sometimes, especially as a Mordor orc, you just want to get stuck in and smash some bones. This photo shows most of my force deployed for the battle, just out of frame were a unit of six cowardly warg riders who behaved so badly in game they do not deserve to appear in this post!

Across the table were Faramir's brave men of Gondor. A lot less bodies than the orcs, though as you might expect, considerably more skilled in combat. And with both forces lined up and ready, we started playing. Dragon Rampant is a nice system for quick and easy games. Our tweaks worked well and we found that in most turns both players were able to activate most of their units. It wouldn't be Dragon Rampant without those infuriating (at times) activation fails, but the three fail rule cushioned the blow for the most part and it felt more like a conventional wargame to me.

Most of the fighting took place in the centre of the table, with the orcs rushing forward to a more conservative Gondor force. I made a deployment error, the troll hidden in the woods seemed like a good idea when I saw all the archers across the board, but three consecutive activation fails and then a slow slog through the woods meant he was wasted in game terms. Only towards the end of the game did the troll manage to finally smash some Gondor skulls.

The rest of the battle ebbed and flowed nicely, first one side seeming to have the upper hand, then the other seeming to take control. Pictures speak volumes, so here's a few to give a flavour of the action.

By the end of the battle, both sides had taken a considerable beating and fought to a stalemate. I think in terms of a "result" it was most likely a draw. But gaming is not about winning or losing, it's about getting your lovingly painted toys out of their box for a couple of hours to run round on some nice terrain.

I posted a couple of pictures on facebook and got a lot of compliments (and questions) on the terrain, which is nice but totally undeserved as it's all Matt's. The "board" is a faux fur fleece throw or blanket, oversprayed in part with cheap aerosol paints. The terrain is a mix of scratch-built and some items from Thomarillion.

More games to come in the future I hope. I am already thinking about how to beef up my orcs in some way and would like to add some black orcs. And with ONLY 99 DAYS to go until xmas, I may well be adding considerable reinforcements at that time. Faramir, what's that in the sky?

Farewell to Middle Earth...

....for the time being at least. After painting up a fair number of dwarves over the past few weeks, it was nice to get them on to the battlefield. Round at the wargaming dungeon, they faced their hated enemy, the orcs of Sauron. I would have liked to have tried Strategy Battle Game, but we could not remember the rules so settled on the much simpler Dragon Rampant. It's not my favourite ruleset for a number of reasons, but it's always useful to have an easy to play system.

I didn't manage to get too many decent photos, which is just as well because the dwarves suffered from some poor dice rolling, which (to my mind or maybe it's my imagination) always seems far more punishing in this ruleset. One or two failed activations can really swing a game in a drastic fashion. Suffice to say, there was few things to celebrate in the hold that night. This pint was only half drunk! Still, it was good to get the dwarves showing off their freshly painted kilts and stretching their little legs for a change.

A couple of days later and I was heading out to a local cafe for a coffee and consolation cake (after England were knocked out of the World Cup the night before). The cafe is positioned above a second hand bookshop and in the main entrance I found a copy of Tolkien's Children of Hurin. A lovely clean hardback copy at a third of the cover price, which was more of a consolation than the cake could provide. Every cloud has a silver lining (this one illustrated by Alan Lee). Some reading to look forward to later in the year - I always think Tolkien is best appreciated in the autumn.

So it's a fond farewell to Middle Earth for the moment. I have moved on to another of my painting projects. I still have more dwarves and orcs to paint, hopefully I will pick them up again later in the year. I am also trying to develop a game system of my own, initially based around these two foes, so they will be out of their boxes a few more times throughout the year. The road goes ever on and on.......

The Search For Faramir

Previously on Ambush in Anorien - "We saw him vanquish the troll, my Lord, then he charged into some orcs and we lost sight of him....."

Orc scouts fire on advancing Gondor search parties

In our last game, orcs have ambushed Boromir and Faramir and their patrol in a swampy, wooded region in the far north of Gondor. Faramir was in the thick of the action, fighting orcs and a mighty troll, while Boromir tried his best to marshal his men to safety. Back at camp, they realised Faramir had not returned, so hastily organised a search party. The Gondorians spread out to search for the fallen captain, but almost immediately were harassed by orcs scouts, shooting from the swamps. Braying horns from the woodlands sounded as more orcs appeared.

We played this game using Dragon rampant rules, with the fugutive scenario borrowed from Lion Rampant. There are six pieces of difficult terrain which the Gondorians must search. The first search is successful on a 6, the second search on a 5+, and so on. Once the fugitive (Faramir) is found, he must be escorted off the table to safety. It's one of those scenarios which can be over very quickly if an early search is successful, or drag on for hours if they have to get across the length of the table to search every last bit of terrain.

"Shoot the filthy horse riders!"

As the orc commander, I had brought plenty of light troops, which are good in terrain and fairly fast on their feet. I wanted to push forward quickly to harass the searches. There was little chance of preventing a rescue in the two swamp areas near to the Gondorian camp, so the scouts raced up to the middle of the battle field and took up positions in the shallow pool and the toppled statue, hoping their heavier armed comrades would join them at some point later. Luckily for me, the first two searches had failed and the Gondorians had to advance into the midst of the orc forces.

The disadvantage of light troops, of course, is that they are not well armed and hardly likely to stand up to a charge from heavy knights. One unit of light foot orcs routed, though the knights paid a toll and were now under half strength. This was the perfect opportunity for the heavy foot orcs, led by the general, to finish them off. Or so I thought......three dead orcs later and a double 1 roll for their courage test, they legged it too. Half of my foot troops lost to a unit of pesky knights! Obviously the battle scribe was positioned in one of these units as no more accounts of the battle survive (camera battery dead).

"The ladz will be along soon, keep shooting"

The orc scouts in the centre of the table did a good job of hampering the searches, aided by a handful of failed activations by the Gondorians. Boromir stepped forward and scattered these pesky archers, but then spent several turns cleaning the blood from his sword. In the pool area, orc scouts doggedly loosed off volley after volley, Gondorian rangers feeling the effects and hampering their search efforts (more failed activations as they flailed around on the slippery banks of the pond). Eventually, the search was successful. Faramir was found floating in the reeds of the pool, luckily face up, and was dragged to safety by his loyal rangers. Horns sounded to signal the retreat to camp, but this only attracted the orcs to join the chase.

Sadly for the orcs, their force depleted, there was only a unit of warg riders and a heavy foot left to take up the chase. The warg riders raced round to cut off escape on one flank, but the foot orcs were too slow to make up ground on the other flank. Faramir stumbled and limped his way to safety, though Boromir had fallen as a result of his many brave charges into combat and being peppered with scout arrows! A victory for the Gondorians, of sorts. The fate of Bormir we will have to determine in another encounter.

A most enjoyable game, even if technically the orcs "lost". For me, gaming is not necessarily about the end result, the score, but about the whole experience - the lovely terrain, the lovingly painted figures, the tales you tell, maybe a little banter thrown in. If you can get all that, then all of the players have won. Incidentally, if you have been admiring the terrain, it's all part of Matt's gaming dungeon. The game mat is a faux fur throw, with a couple of cans of green spray paint used to supply some colour variation. Full details here.

Eomer and Rohirrim

Spurred on by my recent quick paint job on the Mordor snaga, I had a look through the part-painted projects, hoping to find something that would be easy to complete. You probably know how this goes - you start a project, get a few models/units painted with great enthusiasm, then it tails off and you start something else. Then something else again, and again, until you have several projects in various stages of (non) completion. Eventually, there comes a time to return to that almost finished job. Today it was time for Eomer to finally ride forth!

There were three models to complete here and they were about 90% done. I just had to finish a few details, mostly Eomer's red leather armour, and then tackle the dreaded banner. Having forced myself to practise on freehand recently, the design came quite easily, though matching it on each side of the flag was a challenge. I think it turned out okay in the end. Not bad for an hour's work on a dreary Sunday afternoon.

The Rohan force now contains two units of six knights, ideal for Dragon Rampant. In Saga games they would probably be used as elite units, so three units of four. Along with two/three units of infantry, there's just about enough for gaming with these figures now. Every time I paint some of my Lord of the Rings collection I like them more and more.

Mordor Snaga

Snaga is a term used by orcs for lesser of their own kind, or slaves. They are usually smaller, less able to wield a weapon in combat and often equipped with bows. I wanted some in my Mordor force, but not the standard bow armed orc models. There's not much chance of me getting the old metal models, so I went with some Moria goblins. In Tolkien's world, orcs and goblins are all the same species, there's no real distinction, not even a size thing. So while they are officially goblins, they pass as orc snaga in my eyes.

There's twelve in the unit, so they can be used in both Dragon Rampant and Saga games. Unfortunately there's not much variety in the poses - though arguably all bowmen look the same when loosing their arrows. I didn't want to spend much time on them - I picked up these on ebay already painted and just painted over them. It's cheating I know, but they were very cheap and it saved me some time. More reinforcements for my Mordor force on the way.

Mordor Orcs

The host of Mordor

A few days ago I played a game with this force and thought it was high time I photographed them. It's something I had painted a few years back but have seldom had the opportunity to use on the field of battle. It could be used, of course, in Lord of the Rings strategy battle, or War of the Ring, or even Saga, but for the most recent game we played Dragon Rampant. Units are allocated to one of about a dozen profiles, some can be given upgrades or fantastic traits.

Morannon Orcs - offensive heavy foot

The backbone of the army was two units of Morannon orcs, which I fielded as heavy foot. These are not the best infantry in the game, but are pretty competent. Foot troops tend to be statted in a defensive way in the ruleset, so I gave these units the offensive upgrade, which makes them effective on the charge. I gave each unit a banner to further differentiate them from the common rabble - this is purely a visual thing and has no effect in the game rules. One of the units contained the force leader, Dagalur, seen on the left in the photo below.

Leader's unit

There was also a couple of units of lowly orcs, which I designated as light foot. These troops are reasonable enough, especially if they "form ranks you maggots", or form a shield wall in Dragon Rampant terminology. This makes them a static but very effective defensive unit.

Orc rabble - light foot

"Form ranks, you maggots"

The cheapest unit on the battlefield were these scouts. Useless in combat, they are quite mobile and can be very annoying if they can get themselves into terrain from which they can shower the enemy with arrows. Fun Fact - if you give them the cowardly downgrade, they become zero points!

"stick em with arrers lads"

There's nothing small or cowardly about the Mordor Troll. I fielded him as a greater warbeast with a fear upgrade, though this turned out to be quite poor in truth. For some reason I cannot fathom, greater warbeasts are absolutely rubbish at defending themselves. In future games I would probably go for heavy horse with some upgrades to make him scary and perhaps more effective in combat.

Hammer time

Finally, for some fast moving action I added a unit of warg riders, which I fielded as heavy horse. Again, not the best mounted troops in the game, but not the worst either, which seems about right to me. 

Warg riders - heavy "horse"

Dragon Rampant is a nice, fast game with easy to learn rules and ideal for a relaxed gaming session. The profiles for the most part make sense, with one or two oddities (hello greater warbeast). I reckon it wouldn't take too much effort to conjure up some traits for each race to further differentiate them on the battlefield and add a little more flavour. All in all though, it's a decent little game.

Ambush in Anorien

Anorien is a region in the north of Gondor in Middle Earth, just to the south of Rohan. This skirmish took place some time before the epic events related in the Lord of the Rings. Brothers Boromir and Faramir are still young men and were returning from patrol, having heard rumour of orc movements. After several weeks of fruitless search, they were on their way back to Gondor, when they were ambushed crossing a marshy area on the border of  Druadan Forest. A small force of orcs appeared from the trees just as the Gondorians were picking their way through the treacherous marches.

It's been a while since I played a game, so we settled on Dragon Rampant for a nice, relaxed evening of dice rolling. Matt suggested Lord of the Rings and I dusted down my Mordor force. The ambush scenario fitted the bill - the Gondor troops have to traverse down the length of the table, getting as many units off table as possible, while the orcs simply have to stop them by routing them.

The orcs came on in ragged fashion and slowly formed a defensive line between the marsh and the woods. The Gondorians moved up in a more ordered way, but it was a long way to go. On the eastern flank, Faramir rode forward on his horse, a huge troll in his path. The troll charged, Faramir spurred his horse on to meet his doom. Both combatants reeled back injured from the clash. But the odds were always in favour of Faramir and eventually he was able to cut down the mighty beast (note to self, greater warbeasts are not actually that great). In a similar clash, Gondorian knights smashed into orcs, but the orcs were unyielding (hmmm, it's not like this in the film).

On the western flank, orcs again formed ranks to block any Gondorian advance, with orc archers sneaking into the marshes and letting off an occasional volley of black fletched arrows. Howls in the distance heralded the appearance of warg riders from the woods. The Gondorians marched forward slowly, their archers taking a toll on the orcs but unable to force them back.

Knights and orc clashed on the eastern flnk many times. Eventually the Gondorians hacked down their foes, but at great cost. Faramir lay wounded and was carried away by the lone surviving knight, brother Boromir following on behind. He had spent much of the battle commanding the foot troops but then left them to their fate (always had my suspicions about his heroism).

A determined attack from the orcs resulted in the slaughter of one Gondor foot unit and slowly the survivors were cornered in the boggy ground. Picked off by arrow fire, abandoned by their leader, then charged by brutal Morannon orcs, they left only unmarked graves in the marshy ground. It was a sad day for Gondor, one long forgotten by the tale tellers.

It was a hard task for the Gondor force to break through, hampered by marsh lands and a determined defensive line. Knights can be very lethal in combat but difficult to control - they just about managed to punch through on the eastern flank. From my side of the battlefield I had an easier task - form a defensive line and then wait for the enemy to come on to infantry who are much better in defense. I felt that Boromir was far too cautious, blowing his horn to command troops but not once drawing his sword. If he had stood by his men and swung his sword, that may well have been decisive enough to force back the orcs. 

A thoroughly enjoyable evening of dice rolling, hopefully it will not be too long before we can play again. Faramir will no doubt heal his wounds and maybe Boromir will pluck up the courage to hunt down his tormentors and restore his cowardly reputation good name?

Barrow Guardians WIP

A little progress on the Undead force. These are the Barrow Guardians of StoneGrave Moor. They are the elite troops, the one unit that might actually cause some damage on the battlefield. Originally I had intended just eight models for two Saga points, but decided that three points gave me more options and makes sense from a Dragon Rampant viewpoint - units of elites are six strong in that system.

They are built from plastic Army of the Dead figures from the Lord of the Rings range. A few have weapons from the plastic GW skeletons, plastic shields from Gripping Beast Saxons, plus a few other bits here and there. Nothing amazing or ground-breaking, but they do fit the bill nicely.

OakenGuard

The OakenGuard are the personal retinue of the thane of Oakenheim. Only the most skilled warriors who have proven themselves many times in battle are invited to join the Guard. They are provided with the finest armour and equipped with mighty great axes or hammers.

For these elite troops I have used mostly plastic hammerer/longbeards, arming them with great axes. One is simply a longbeard, most have heads from the ironbreaker set of models - I don't want them tripping over their beards in battle!

The figure in the centre of the front rank is a metal model from Russian Alternative with a head swap. Originally I intended this to be the thane of my Oakenheim force, but I have found a different model for that role (more on that another time). Now he is the Captain of the Guard, perhaps a blood relative, certainly a most trusted figure in the thane's life.

There are six warriors here, built from half a box of the hammerers. There will be another six of course, with the key figure in that particular group being the thane's personal banner bearer. Two units of six OakenGuard will serve me nicely in games of Dragon Rampant. In Saga, these two units would be three points of hearthguard (elite) troops.

Dragon Rampant : Rohan vs Isengard

It's been a while since I rolled any dice, but over the weekend I managed to squeeze in two games using the Dragon Rampant rules. I can just about field 4 units plus a leader with my Rohan collection, easily matched by my more numerous orcs collection. This meant around 35 to 45 figures per side, in five units each, which gives a reasonable skirmish size force. In points terms this came to around 25 to 28 points, we were fairly casual when adding up the totals.

I used a few of my dark ages buildings to represent the outskirts of a Rohan settlement, and just a few fields and hedging to complete the setup. Playing on a 5x3 board does have it's limitations, but it panned out pretty well. In both games the Rohan forces were riding to the rescue of the villagers or trying to prevent the orcs escaping. Dragon Rampant is a good fit in this setting - there is a little sameness in the profiles, but if you don't mind warg riders performing in the same way as Rohan horsemen then it's a satisfactory system for a relaxed gaming session. A nice way to spend an afternoon, even if my opponent did complain about the lack of biscuits!

Hobbits Rampant

"Find the halflings!"

Let's play Lord of the Rings games using the Dragon Rampant ruleset. We decided to play a what-if scenario in which the Fellowship are waylaid by orcs on their way to Moria. All nine members of the Fellowship are still alive, pursued by Saruman's orcs. The objective was to get the hobbits from bottom right to the safety of an elven outpost (top left), with orcs arriving to hinder their progress. I jotted down profiles for the main characters - the hobbits were split into pairs and were scouts with invisibility, which meant they could not be shot. The other members of the Fellowship were all single models, mostly elite foot or heavy missile with various fantasy upgrades. I also gave each character a trait or two, to reinforce their heroic deeds. The orcs were mostly light foot, a couple of units of heavy foot and bellicose foot. Give or take a point, it was 50 points per side.

"....three, four, five..."

I was playing the orcs and started the game around turn 4 - I managed to move one unit before rolling three consecutive first turn fails - one of the main frustrations of the games for me. The Fellowship sprinted across to almost halfway while my orcs failed to pick up their scent! Legolas and Gimli started to count their victories, covering the rear.

"I'll not be outdone by some pointy-eared elf"

Elven arrows reduced a unit of heavy foot to a handful of models, while the madly swinging dwarf axe despatched and routed a complete unit. Dwarfs 12, Elves 9. However, all this fighting had tired out Gimli and when another unit of orcs turned up, they found him puffing and panting and.....

"Forget the dwarf, find the halflings"

A lucky blow to the head sent the dwarf reeling, the orcs rushing on to search for their hapless prey. By this time my activation rolls were behaving and the orcs were swarming through the woods, searching for hobbits. Unfortunately, I didn't get too many more photos. Boromir put in the best literary performance, manfully shielding the hobbits from harm, black fletched arrows bringing him to his knees, slowly ebbing his strength. He took the full impact of bow shot from two units before finally staggering to a convenient tree trunk to perform his dying scene. Gandalf blasted then hacked his way through a unit of berserkers, while Aragorn just hacked down his berserkers (but then embarassed himself by tripping on a tree root and falling into a bramble patch). Most of the orcs by now had fled, only the leader and a unit of heavy foot could stop the hobbits - and for a brief moment it looked like the Shire folk would be caught. But then a failed orc activation roll followed by a well aimed arrow from Legolas sent the orc captain reeling. Unable to stem the flow of blood he coughed his last orders to his lads, who promptly legged it in the opposite direction.

"Get the filthy little scum"

The game worked pretty well. It certainly looked the part, with dozens of orcs pursuing a handful of heroes through the wooded terrain. The profiles I chose for the Fellowship worked well, though Legolas was a problem as the game does not really cater for a shooty hero. A couple of tweaks here and there would make for a better game. It's something we will most likely try again. After being disappointed with previous attempts at Warhammer Rampant, this low fantasy setting worked far better.