HOTT Day in December, Game 1

Good evening,

Game one - Early German...

• Warband General
• 1 Hero
• 5 Warband
• 6 Hordes
• 1 Rider

...vs. Gordon's Dwarves.

• Blade General
• Hero
• Magician
• Blade
• Shooter
• 2 Riders
• Behemoth
• Beasts

Ok, so off we go. I thought to lure his mounted in to a restricted position with a bunch of my Hordes. Then I could finish them off with my Hero.


I soon realized that my left was woefully under strength, so, while Gordon took pot shots with his Magician, I moved half of the aforementioned Hordes over to the other flank.


Here they come!


Why'd I bring them out from the wood?

Oh, that's right, Gordon's Magician had rolled his second one while trying to ensorcell my Warband General, and he turned into a frog! So I thought I'd try my luck...


Here we go then!


Well, let's face it, that is not an unexpected result! Except for the bit when the overlapped Horde survived Gordon's Hero. That I didn't expect.


Oh, ok then. That's more like it.

So now he turns the pigs on me!


And things start to line up.


One Warband down. (These chaps don't like fighting mounted troops - they're down one combat factor when facing mounted.)

In we go again.


And so to the big one. Hero vs. Hero. Heroes quick kill each other. I thought, well, I've got an overlapping advantage if I charge in now, so...


Aw crap!

At least the Hordes were holding their own!


Unfortunately, now with his Hero free of any undue interference, Gordon sends him into the action in the centre. Bother it.


And still the Hordes hold their own.


More than hold their own!


However, at the same time, that dratted Hero comes in and crushes my lone warband on the right of the line...


...and soon after this shot, Gordon's Blade General takes out my Warband General, and his supporting Warband. Worse than that, he also rolled a 6 for his PiP die roll, and brought back his Magician!

And that was the end of that.

14 Army points down to me, to no loss for him.

Bother!

Nick

HOTT Day in July 2012 - Battle 3

Raetian Goblins vs. Kevin's 15mm Cavemen!

Good evening,

My next battle was using my Raetian Goblins...

• One Blade General


• 12, yep, count 'em, 10 Hordes


• One Rider (Lizard Riders - if anyone's got any 20mm wolves upon which they could ride, please let me know!)


• One Behemoth (Troll)


• One God (a Storm-ish Gaint)

...against...

• One Hero (the dude riding the Rhino thing)


• One Paladin (the fellow carrying around Stonehenge...)


• Four Warband (including his General...unmarked as such, consequently pretty much overlooked as the General when fighting in close combat the whole game!)


• Two Shooters


• One God (a big lizard)

And so it began.

Early on, both Gods arrived. First his...


...then mine.


Kevin sent his Lizard God straight in behind my line (??) which in turn sent my Gaint in to meet him. Backed up with some support. What was he thinking?

First result was a stand...


...not so much the second.


Not terribly phased, he rolls his line into mine, and, well, my Hordes start dying like, well, Hordes!


Still, it wasn't all bad.


And soon it became really quite good, as, by a very lucky/unlucky roll of the dice, I took out his Paladin and started to roll up his line...



...but not without some casualties being inflicted on my other flank!


Still, it did the biz.



The Hordes won the day. They did what Hordes are supposed - die in droves to give you time to win the battle elsewhere!


After all, you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs!

Nick

Mr Grant's Term 2 Break - Part 1

Good afternoon,

Well, I've finally done it. I've finished another HOTT army! Behold, my Early Germans!

• Warband General


• 3 Warband


• 1 Hero


• 2 Lurkers


• 6 Hordes


• 1 Dragon

The basic idea behind this army is that these dudes are the remains of the Roman revenge over the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, with the Hordes being all the ghosties of the Early Germans that the Romans took revenge on.

The Dragon was just something the Germans found deep in the forest and convinced to fight alongside them!

I've also pulled together a Rider element from bits and bods I had lying around so's to swap out the lurkers.


Specifically, a HaT Gaul, a Revel Gaul, a Revel Anglo Saxon, a Zvezda Persian horse and two HaT Alexander's Companion horses, plus some old Esci Napoleonic cav legs from ages back!

So there you go.






I have another five Warband elements almost completed to make either a DBA II/47(d) Batavi army in 69AD, a II/47(e) Other Batavi or II/47(e) Cherusci armies.

Sweet!

Nick

More Goblins

Hi,

More Raetian Goblins. The Horde...





...classed as Hordes for HOTT, Auxilia for DBA, and Light Infantry Skirmishers for WMA.

As stated previously, the vast majority these started 'life' as Esci Romans (although the more observant of you will spot the odd old Airfix figure), at a time when, well, the Esci Romans and Barbarians (and the occasional box of Revell Praetorians and Celts, if you could get them) was pretty much it when it came to Ancients. 20mm Fantasy? Forget it!

So, upon reading a Practical Wargamer article about Middle Earth HOTT with plastics, where it was suggested to paint Romans green, well, that was what I did.

However, I was conscious that they'd still look like Romans painted green, so I cut out all of their Balteus or Cingulum Militare (you know, those dingle dangle things in front of their groins), and for about half of them I cut off bits and pieces (or in some cases, all) of their Lorica Segmentata.

Their shields are drawing pins, minus the pins (the shield patterns were just some random strokes of the brush!) and the weapons are a selection of chopped down (or not) 15mm pikes and halberds.

I also cut off their bases and stuck them to thin balsa wood, so they'd at least look a little shorter than their EIR counterparts which are based (whole) on 3mm MDF bases.

I also did the same, but more so, to their Bow and Psiloi/Skirmishers.




As for painting these greenskins, well, I chose a limited palette of browns, blues and greys, then doused them in PVA with a little black mixed in. Gave them a good dirty, grimy, un-Romanish look.

10 years work. And there you go.

Nick