My wife picked me up the Dragon Rampant (DR) rulebook a couple of years ago and I think it is the perfect ruleset to allow for some flexible fantasy gaming without needing ridiculous numbers of models - spot on for my preferred way of gaming!
I'd ummed and aahed since then over what army (or armies) to go for. I didn't want to just co-opt GW minis (I have plenty of their older stuff already in the Mordheim collection/queue and I'm not a fan of the OTT newer stuff) and while Mantic was a consideration for a while I just didn't connect with any of their armies enough to pull the trigger. So DR sat back on the shelf, with some slow-burn half-baked plans to write up suggested lists for my Darklands armies.
Fast forward a couple of years and TTCombat held their campaign to get a range of Halflings released. Well, of course this grabbed my attention - Halflings are one of those fun little (pun totally intended) fantasy races that I love. I've got a few Halflings in the Mordheim Hireling Agency of course, but something seemed to click and I again looked at DR.
So, I tried to come up with some lists based on what TTCombat had planned. And sadly I just couldn't get the 'normal' halfling deals to work out financially - there'd be way too much left over to make it worth it. Admittedly, this was primarily due to DR using 6 or 12 model units in the main - TTCombat, like most companies, has gone with units of 20 for their infantry and 10 for cavalry. I can't fault their logic for other systems of course, but it did mean I couldn't get a DR army without a lot of extra stuff I wouldn't use.
Then they revealed the Shieldmaiden bundle. This was it, this was the perfect army - tough Norse female Halflings! I mean, what's not to love about that concept?!
The deal gave two characters, two infantry units, a war machine and a unit of warbears (yes, warbears!!). Lots of lovely variety without too much left over. A quick tot up of a list give me a nice 30 point army (so a little extra beyond a 'standard' DR force):
Queen Skeggjöld
Elite Foot
Sigrdrifr
Light Missile, Wizardling
Hrist’s Shieldmaidens
Heavy Foot, Offensive
Kára’s Crossbows
Light Missile
Veðr
Heavy Missile (bolt thrower)
The Birnir
Lesser Warbeasts (warbears!)
30 points army, clocking in at 32 miniatures (plus an artillery piece)
Well, with a group of Halfling Valkyries all set I knew I needed an 'evil' army to take them on. So I looked around, considered and discounted various options before looking at the Halfling Undead options as part of the TTCombat campaign.
I checked out their basic Undead bundle and looked at what it could make in DR - I actually used the Graveyard Dwellers sample list in the DR book for this as it fitted quite nicely. And again I found I was able to quite easily make a 30 point force:
Heini Kemmler
Heavy Missile, Summoner (necromancer)
The Count
Elite Foot, Fly (vampire)
The Ravenous Ones
Bellicose Foot, Hatred (ghouls)
The Restless Dead
Scout, Fear (spirits)
The Haunters
Scout, Fear (spirits)
The Shamblers
Horde (zombies)
The Shufflers
Horde (zombies)
30 points, coming in at 50 miniatures
I've also added a couple of the scenery options - some Halfling houses, a windmill and some resin scatter terrain to provide for a nicely themed battlefield for these two armies to duke it out across.
Now to wait for that sweet resin (and MDF) to arrive!
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