HOTT Day in July - Battle 1

And so it began...

Game 1.

Gordon, with his 28mm Dwarfs.

• 1 x Knight General, on the chariot


• 2 x Behemoths, those great big nasty looking lizards


• 1 x Rider, Dwarfs on Boars


• 1 x Hero, the Dwarf being carried around on his shield


• 1 x Blade


• 2 x Shooters, crossbow boys, if you will.

Up against my Raetian Goblins, thusly arrayed...

• 1 x Blade General, Goblin war leader and his bodyguard


• 1 x Behemoth, a Storm Giant


• 2 x Riders, Goblins on Lizardback


• 4 x Beasts, Wolves


• 6 x Hordes, Raetian Goblins

I was the invader, Gordon the defender. The field was a bit awkward really - a river ending in a lake from the middle down to the right, and a large steep hill in the left quarter.

I knew my hordes would be at a distinct disadvantage if they got caught crossing the river (like, down -2 to 0!), but I thought the wolves would be good on the hill. Sooo...hold back on the right, advance on the left...



...so I started moving my Giant and General over to the left to support what I was hoping would be Gordon's advance.



In the meantime Gordon saw that I was just going to sit there in the Bad Going and wait for him to come to me, so he started working his Shooters, Blade and Hero around to the right.




And so, I turned my Giant and General back to pretty much where they started! To add additional complications, Gordon flew his whirligig around into my rear. Although I knew that it'd do no good, I sent back one of my riders to bolster my right.




Seeing that he was just going to sit there on the left and slowly work around the right, I decided to bite the bullet. Advancing the Giant...




...so together my left flank could take on his right.


Trouble was, Gordon's flyer had wobbled right behind my army and was now sitting behind my left, waiting to pounce.


And as he charged his pointy line of lizardly deathness into my mounted, pounce he did.


Unbelievably, I managed to recoil his whole line first pop!



So I followed up, hoping that by double overlapping his riders, my riders could, well, ride him down!


Instead, I got a stand...


...and then run over myself! It was at this point where I came to the unpleasant realisation that my doggies get quick killed by opposing mounted. Bother. However, I briefly consoled myself that I had managed to take out one of Gordon's big pointy Behemoths...


...until someone mistakenly expressed the belief that Behemoths couldn't get recoiled by anything other than Behemoths. (Which didn't sound right at the time, and was in fact corrected half way through subsequent battle, but we played this 'rule' for the rest of this game.

He got confused between recoils and push backs - Behemoths can get recoiled by anything, but only pushed back by another recoiling element by really big stuff.)

So that meant that the overlap that I had managed to create by recoiling one of the Behemoths (go doggies!), which in turn meant I could double overlap the second Behemoth and kill it, was reversed. Bother. Had we played this rule correctly at this point, the game could have turned out very differently, seeing as I had just opened up the left flank on his right...ah well...


Still, there was aught else I could do, so I pressed on. My doggies went into the flank of his piggies, who turned to face...



...and were recoiled, while their companions further along the way were run over.



Gordon's next bound, and he ran over the other lizard facing doggies and made some room to manoeuvre to tackle my Giant.


In the meantime, he advanced his Hero across the river to meet my awaiting Hordes...the outcome was never really in doubt!



Back where the main action was, confusion reigned for a bit, while Gordon tried to get one Behemoth out of the way so he could get the other into contact with mine.



It didn't end well for my remaining doggies.


And so began the Clash of the Titans!


With both Behemoths down -2 (the Giant was caught at the edge of the lake, Gordon's was fighting someone in Bad Going), the clash didn't last long. Two bounds, in fact...



And that was the game. Done like a dinner, was I. Still, if we had played the rules correctly I would have at least killed something of his!

My biggest lesson from this game - doggies die quickly to mounted. Also, use the Hordes...

Nick