The Army of Vymorna - Core Units

“The people know Vymorna must fall, but they fight on, hoping in their hearts that they will buy time for the other cities to prepare their own defences against the sieges to come”. 

For my campaign between the city of Vymorna and the armies of the Lizardman Empire I had decided that each army would consist of a series of core units which could then be complimented by units of allies and auxiliaries. There would be six core units for each army and these would always be available to each player as the campaign progressed whilst the availability of allies and auxiliaries would be dependent on the territory controlled and the coffers in the war chest. 

I began first by assembling the core Vymornan units but for these I had little visual material to which I could refer.  In fact, the only illustration I could find of any Vymornan was that of Queen Perriel on the city ramparts in the Titan source book. To me, Queen Perriel looked almost like a Greek/Amazonian warrior whilst the two soldiers on the wall next to her were long haired, cloaked, bearded and wearing Northern European style helmets and armour. 

I mused over where I could go with this. Initially I considered the excellent Byzantine range from Crusader Miniatures where there were plenty of cloaked, chain mailed, spearmen and would be a nod towards the Greek look of Perriel. Eventually, however, I opted for the Oathmark human boxed sets available from Northstar here. Firstly, they had the "Northern European but not quite Viking" look that I was looking for, secondly, they are excellent value for money, and thirdly, they had boxed sets for infantry and cavalry so I use them for the entire army. 

For the first of the core units I decided on two units of Spearmen. In my mind these spearmen were Vymornan regulars, well drilled and solid in defence. In the Dragon Rampant rules these would be Light Foot. Light Foot are relatively cheap, better in defence than they are in attack, and have the special 'Wall of Spears' ability that improves their armour by one point whilst they remain stationary. Behind this armoured wall, these troops would bear the brunt of the Lizardman onslaught. I kitted them out in an imagined Vymornan livery of blue and white. 

The second set of core Vymornan troops were two units of Archers. These were to be a levy of farmers and fishermen from the Vymornan hinterland rather than regular troops and so I painted them in a mixture of clothing but gave them a Vymornan regular leader. In the Dragon Rampant rules these would Light Missiles. Well rounded units that, if placed in defensive positions could be difficult to dislodge and cause considerable damage. 

For the final two units I decided on two units of cavalry. One was to be a force of Vymornan Guards, decked out in the livery of their city and well armed and armoured, these would be Elite Riders. Elite Riders are one of the most powerful units in Dragon Rampant and come with Wild Charge (must take a check at the beginning of each turn to prevent them charging any enemy in range) and Counter Charge meaning that they get the chance to charge any unit that charges them in order to use their superior attack value in the combat rather than their less impressive defence value. This unit would also include the Vymornan King Alexandros III who, at the start of the campaign is leading his army in the field. According to Titan, at the time of the siege of Vymorna, Alexandros has fallen in battle and leadership of the army, and the defence of the city, has fallen to Queen Perriel. To reflect this I added a rule for this unit; When, or if, the Vymornan Guard are routed in any battle then Alexandros is deemed to have been killed and, in the next battle, leadership of the army passes to his wife, Queen Perriel, who will join one of the Vymornan Spearman regiments. More on this in a future post! 

The second unit was a group of lighty armoured cavalry armed with bows. These would be Light Riders who are more mobile than their elite comrades and have the Skirmish ability, which allows them to either move half distance and shoot or shoot and move half distance, as well as Evade which allows them to attempt to retreat half distance when charged. I envisaged these as horsemen recruited from the villages dotting the Axehead plains north of the city, and so, as with the archers, I painted them in a mixture of clothing but with Vymornan liveried shields. 

Six units done and the core Vymornan army is ready to begin the campaign! I finished the whole process by downloading some excellent unit cards from the resource section of the Dragon Rampant Facebook group. I printed them and the took the opportunity to deploy my LAMINATOR! And spent the rest of the day resisting the temptation go around laminating everything: