Don't Mess with Knights on a Hill...

Ahiahi marie, Good afternoon,

And welcome to the first match of last night's event...

Last night I popped round to Robins for a couple of 20mm HOTT games. I firstly rocked out my Sarmatians...

• 1 Knight General
• 9 Knights
• 1 Dragon

...where as Robin broke out his Chaos army...

• 1 Hero General
• 3 Knights
• 3 Blades
• 2 Flyers
• 1 Dragon

As I was the defender, I set out a long ridge, sat upon it, and let Robin come to me.

Which he did with his flyers. Nasty, sneaky, tricksy flyers...

I dispatched a couple of Éored to face them off...

...which they completely ignored, flew off, away, and over.

All while Robin's Dragon appeared. Gulp.

Seeing as everyone was now in charge distance, the Sarmatians, well, charged.

With some considerable success.

While I kept the flyers pinned down. if not in combat.

More crunchy crunchy on my right...

 ...and Kablooee!

No Dragons were harmed in the making of this battle report.

Thanks Robin, that was fun!

Nick

HOTT WInter's Day, Game 3

Good evening,

My, it's been a while since these games, eh? A teacher's job is never done.

Anyhow, Game 3. Vs Robin's cool VSF Turks, replete with minaret Behemoth!

I myself took my Sarmatians. It's got a bit of a soft spot in my heart...and a poor battle record! Going up against Shooters and a Behemoth, well...I didn't think much was going to change on that front.

My Dragon arrived early. Horrah!

Charge!

One Magician done!

Which opened up a bit of a hole in Robin's line...

...and that was the end of his artillery...Hero General, I think...

...and as the round concluded, so did the game.

Thanks for the win Robin!

Nick

DBA 3 - Early Hoplite Greeks vs Sarmatians

...or how to lose with Spears...

Good afternoon,

Sooo...after Mark had shown me how not to use my Sarmatians, we swapped out armies, and sides, to try again. This time I took my Book I/List 52f Later Athenian Hoplite Greeks...

• Hoplite General Spear
• 7 x Hoplite Spears
• 1 x Thessalian Light Horse
• 1 x Archers
• 1 x Psiloi

...against my Later Sarmatians...

• Knight General
• 10 Knights
• 1 Light Horse

...this time under more...competent...leadership.

As I was the defender, I set out an Edifice (that's Mars and his temple surrounds!), and two woods which Mark decided to deploy in front of.

Early on, Mark zips his Light Horse behind my line...

...my response to which was to send back my own mounted element. Note singular terms.

I also realised that my right was now rather exposed so try to rush over my Auxilia in a vain effort to protect my flank.

In the meantime..."Here they come!"

My bows, which had worked so well for Mark last time, let loose...

...and fail!

Arghh!

Whilst, and at the same time, the two Light Horse elements just stare each other out. Even though these steppe archers were looking the other way.

My bound, so...

..."I have you now!"

Oh, come on!

My Spear's at factor 4 vs. factor 3, overlapped 2...and Mark quick kills it!

Rats!

It got worse. Even odds...

Drats!

Well at least my General managed to push back.

But...well...3 to he, 2 to me...

...well, yeah. No real surprise there then.

Stink!

Same odds...

...different result.

But again, too little, too late. In fact, nothing at all, too late!

Still, 'twas a quick game, so we had time for one more...

Cheers Mark,

Nick

DBA 3 - Later Sarmatians vs Early Imperial Romans

...or how to lose with Knights...

Good afternoon,

Last night Mark O invited me around to his place for some 20mm DBA using my painted armies. So I brought all eight of them!

Good grief, I've been playing this for 25 years and I've only got eight armies done? Mind you, two of those are triple sized, so...

Anyhow, first up an historical match up - Later Sarmatians against Early Imperial Romans.

Since my entire army was mounted, and all of the terrain (a [28mm] hamlet and some woods) ended up on one side of the table, I chose that side rather than have Mark hide his infantry in it.

Hmmm...it did kind of mean I was bunched up in the space between them...

Mark took his EIRs with a heavy horsie flavour - Cavalry General, Cav, Knight and Light Horse.

In we close...

...front row first...

Dratted archers!

Mark tries sneaking through the terrain around my flanks.

Oh, come on!

Dratted archers!

But at least my lancers were able to push back his Auxilia.

Huzzah...?

Dratted die!

I'm sure I saw far more 1s than anything else on the dratted thing.

See what I mean?

Dratted archers!

Things were looking a bit dicey for the horsemen from the steppes.

Ha! Dicey! Gettit?!

Huzzah! That'll learn you!

Unfortunately...

...'twas too little, too late. Although I took out an Auxilia in the rough on my left, and Auxila in the rough on my right served the coup de grace, with the aide of some support from a cohort of Legionaries.

And that was the end of that.

Still, 'twas great to see my toys on the table, and being commanded with skill to which they are unaccustomed!

Thanks Mark,

Nick