Review: Xenos Rampant- Osprey Games

 

The long awaited book by Daniel Mersey and Richard Cowen has finally come out.  The latest in something referred to as the "Rampant Series" which is a series of games all using the same basic rules as found in the original Lion Rampant. This one takes the action all the way into the not-so and oh-so distant future.  As such, it has two of my favorite elements in a wargame.... model agnostic and base agnostic!  I am so here for this!   

Some of the Rampant series of books

Osprey must have been pretty confident that they had a winner on their hands, as they skipped straight to hard cover with this one.  Unlike the tight, original Rampant sets of rules in their nice 64 page blue book styles, this one is an indulgent 192 pages!  

I am interested to see where this one mimics the Rampant series, and where it treads new ground.  I probably won't go over the entire Rampant system here, but instead cover some of the key changes or updates made for this book from the core rules.  If you are interested in the base rules, you can find that in my  Lion Rampant review.  

So, power up the main hyper drive, set your phasors to maximum carnage, and get ready to blast off into the stars!!!!!!!!!

Things I Liked

Did I mention this game is scale and base agnostic?  Oh, well..... IT IS!  Armies are typically between 30-50 models and are referred to as detachments.  There are some limits on tanks, making this a Unit vs. Unit skirmish style game.  The game uses the Strength Point system found in Dragon Rampant so you can have single model and reduced model sized units.  Typically, a unit is worth 5, 10, or 15 strength points.  

This book is filled with lovely painted minis, and they sourced them from a variety of manufacturers.  Nice to see Osprey spread the love around in this book! The non-mini artwork is pretty fun too.  I have a feeling they commissioned all new art for this one. 

A hallmark of Rampant games is to take a potentially dizzying array of units and condense them down into some basic themes.  They do that here as well, with a variety of infantry units to choose from, some very broad alien types, and basic vehicle types as well.  Each have slightly different profiles and access to abilities.  However, there is also a section where you can add additional unit by unit Xenos Rules to help make your units less "generic" and give them some flavor for a specific feel to them.  These two approaches allow maximum flexibility to make the type of units you want. 

One of the most controversial rules in the Rampant series is the "activation roll" you need to take to activate a unit.  Failure rotates play to the other player.  They handle it in this game by giving units a preferred action or Free action.  The unit can take this action without an activation roll, therefore you can always "do something" if you do not want to risk an activation roll.  However, if you want to act and the Free Action is not useful, too bad; you make an activation test.  This adds "friction" to the game and forces choice.  In addition, they have added "Reactions" that some units can trigger when they are attacked.  This allows for a lot more give and take in the system than previously existed.  Finally, they added a really nice looking "Order of Operations" flow chart for activation.  

One of the Optional rules in the Near Future section of the book includes a Fog of War mechanic that I like.  I would want to incorporate the general idea into more of the rules with thematically appropriate list of random events.   

Things I Did Not Like

They are still using the "random trait" schtick for a player's commander.  I would prefer if they just had a points cost and you could pick.  Especially since you can get traits that do not apply to your commander, or are really not fun.  However, this does add a certain "friction" to the game and allows for the RPG-lite on the table top. 

There are two things that make this a bigger book than the normal Rampant "Blue Book".  The first is that the rules themselves are written in a less concise, more Rick Priestley, and English Gentleman style than the Rampant books.  They were a clinic in less is more, where this is a bit more "homespun".  

The second reason is that they spend more time than most Rampant books with adding setting details.  In a typical Rampant book, there is not enough space to do this type of work.  However, here they have Weird War, Near Future, Judge Dredd style gang/street violence, Post-Apoc, and Space Opera where they go into some detail into the settings, potential factions, and how to build the proper detachments.  A similar book but for Fantasy, Dragon Rampant; does not have the space to be this indulgent.  All though good work, it feels a bit like filler to get this beyond "Blue Book" level.  

I really wish the game would have done something a bit more creative around terrain, or fighting on alien worlds.  Some of this comes in the "setting details" but I think the Rogue Stars warzone and mission tables are one of the coolest things in the Blue Book series, and would have liked to see some cool "Sci-fi" terrain tables here as well, or some details in the setting sections.  

I would also have liked a "Moongrunt/Lunar" setting as well as a Hard sci-fi setting.  However, I think this game was more focused on "cinematic" style games.   

Meh and Other Uncertainties

The book comes with a 11 scenarios, which has been an area where Rampant books have shined in the past.  These ones seem a bit more basic, but a nice wide selection to enhance replayability.  

There are also a couple of pages on campaign play, and the scenarios deal with some campaign elements as well.  For example, they award benefits and restrictions for the next game in the campaign for force selection and the like.  For the most part, your leader can gain abilities and traits as the campaign progresses, a similar element is in Pikeman's Lament.        

The rules expand a bit on the normal terrain rules for such games.  They make terrain a bit more "modular" by assigning a few tags to them.  A small, minor difference.  However, things like hills acting as soft cover when attacked from below a units height add some fun differentiation to terrain. 

There are some basic guidelines for table size, with the standard 24 point detachment of 30-50 models using 4x4 foot tables.  There is also a brief discussion of playing multi-player games.  There is no mention of solo or co-op play, as it is primarily designed to be a Versus system.  However, I am sure you could use a Mr. Babbage process as seen in The Men Who Would Be Kings in a pinch.  

The game allows pre-measuring.  

Final Thoughts

To be truthful, there is not a lot of new things here if you are familiar with how to play a Rampant game system.  That is good and bad.  As I approached this book, I got exactly what I expected out of it and it perfectly fits to type for a "Rampant" book.  On the flip side, that was also a disappointment as well. 

 Therefore, if you are a fan of the Rampant series it does exactly what you would expect it to do, just at a higher glossier price point.  It has a few extra bits here and there to help flesh it out like the addition of the Reaction system and some of the optional rules later in the book. The army creation is also still very flexible, but makes each unit type still feel unique with their selection of options combined with the Xenos rules.

I am happy with the purchase and can see myself using these rules on the table.  Now, if we can get Dan to make a Dux Bellorum and Dragon Rampant mash-up I would be really happy! 

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