Lion Rampant

What is Lion Rampant

Lion Rampant is a medieval wargame by Daniel Mersey, published by Osprey Games. You play a local commander doing the everyday work of medieval war: guarding strategic points, collecting taxes, escorting wagons, patrolling the border. Your army, which the game calls a Warband, is around six units, each a block of 6 to 12 models, so a force usually lands somewhere between 40 and 70 figures.

Mersey calls it “historically themed” rather than a simulation. The goal was simple enough rules that you barely need the book open, with the thinking going into the scenario instead.

The first edition came out in 2014 as a 64-page book in the Osprey Wargames series, and it was an Origins Award nominee. The Second Edition came out in August 2022 as a 208-page hardback, illustrated by Mark Stacey and David Needham. It widens the game from the High Middle Ages to everything from the Fall of Rome to the arrival of gunpowder, so Late Romans, Vikings and Arthurians sit alongside knights and archers. It won the 2023 Origins Award for Best Miniatures Game.

It’s also the root of a family. Dragon Rampant is the fantasy version and Xenos Rampant the sci-fi one.

How it plays

Roll to activate, and failure ends your turn. To give a unit an order (Move, Attack or Shoot) you roll 2d6 and need that unit type’s number. Your first failed roll ends your turn, and anyone you hadn’t got to yet just stands there. So you work out your priorities before you start rolling.
A set turn sequence. First you can challenge an enemy Leader who’s wandered too close to yours, then rally units that failed a Courage test, then check for impetuous units that have to make a Wild Charge whether you want them to or not. Then you activate everything else.
Eleven troop types. Elite, Heavy and Light Cavalry; Elite, Heavy, Warrior, Light and Levied Infantry; Archers, Crossbowmen and Skirmishers. Each is better at some orders than others, and upgrades let you shape them to your army.
12 dice, then 6. A unit above half its starting size rolls 12 dice in combat and 6 once it’s at half or below. Attacker hits on its Attack value, defender on its Defence value, and hits are compared to Armour to find casualties. Models come off one at a time, so a unit’s size shows its state at a glance.
Courage. Losses, rallying, a dead Leader, or losing half your army all force Courage tests, at minus one for every casualty the unit has taken. Fail and the unit becomes Battered or routs.
Scenarios end on objectives. The 16 scenarios run from a straight fight (“Bloodbath”) to a rescue (“The Fugitive”), and most end when someone achieves the goal, not after a set number of turns.

There are no official army lists. The book gives you the troop types and a set of sample Warbands, and Mersey hopes you’ll do a bit of reading to build your own. It’s miniature agnostic: any medieval or Dark Ages figures will do.

What changed in the Second Edition

From Osprey’s what’s new post:

The troop types got period-neutral names. Mounted Men-at-Arms became Elite Cavalry, Fierce Foot became Warrior Infantry, Serfs became Levied Infantry, and so on.
The limits on how many of each unit you can take are gone. A Warband is now 4 to 10 units.
Leaders get the Commanding skill for free and pay for any others. Boasts are now optional.
There are 16 scenarios, a campaign chapter, and an optional rules chapter with shieldwalls, group moves, flanks and multiple Warbands per side.
The points values of the original troop types didn’t change, so first-edition armies still work.

How to start

Get the Second Edition. $21 for the PDF or $30 for the hardback, from Osprey.
Print a Warband sheet. Osprey’s resources page has free Warband sheets, plus an editable version and black-and-white ones.
Use the minis you already have. Start from one of the book’s sample Warbands, or read up on your period and build your own from the troop types.