HOTT Gaming with Rick and Jackson

For the last three Fridays (and I think a Wednesday in there too…) Rick and Jackson Lowell have been coming over to play Hordes of the Things. Because I’ve been insanely busy preparing for the HOTT Campaign weekend – along with the multitude of other spring activities I just haven’thad time to write up proper battle reports… Below are a few pictures of the games I’ve taken.

In all of these games Rick played the Elves and Jackson played orcs. They have been trying out different combinations of available options for their campaign armies.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


This was a game Rick and Jackson played against each other. Rick was also trying out the new mountain stronghold as I hadn’t finished the Elf “stronghold” yet.


Jackson’s set up.


Rick sends forth the Triple-Wizard-Combo in an attempt to ensorcell Jackson’s hero General and harass the Behemoth.


The Orcs General (not liking the looks of those wizards!) and beasts peel off to flank around (or through) the woods in the center of the table.


Sparks and loud bangs scare away the Giants!


The Hero General and Wolves made it all the way behind the elves who were forced to redeploy to defend their stronghold.


I can’t remember who won… was it the Orcs taking the stronghold…? Or did the elfies get the Orc general…? I think it was the former…


The rest of the evenings I’ve been playing various armies against their forces – here I am playing the Normans against the Elves.


Slowly cantering towards their utter destruction… An army of mostly knights against an army of mostly shooters and magicians – all of which get a quick-kill against the Knights on the first turn they move into contact… lovely…


On the plus side I had more stuff and turn the ir flank and ate some blades… but that only delayed the inevitable a turn or two…


I know Rick won… I can’t remember the details of the Normans utter destruction…


That same evening I played the Vikings against Jackson’s Orcs. He had a Hero General, a Behemoth and a Cleric – I took all regular 2AP troops and so outnumbered him some and was able to use that to my advantage.


Jackson really, really wanted to try and outflank wm with his beasts… the problem is it’s not easy to outflank an opponent that outnumbers you… one beast was killed as soon as they came out of the woods (like I was going to go in their and get them…!?). The other did tie down two stands of Blade for a few turns.


The lines meet, my warband moves into the woods to draw out the lurker…


Another shot of that initial contact. The hero General and Behemoth punched a hole in the center of my line and Jackson thought he had the game… then I filled the hole with my extra guys… there was a bit of back-and-forth…


What’s wrong with this picture…?

A: the Behemoth is in a position where if it loses the combat and recoils it with crush BOTH armies Generals!? Which was a sacrifice I was willing to make as his general was a Hero (4AP) and mine was just a blade (2AP) and I think he had already lost more than me so that would have ended the game and I would have won.


WelL I didn’t push behemoth back.. in fact the trolls pushed my guys all the way back to the woods – where my Warband caught them and took them down.


I think this is a shot of what was left of his army at the end of the game… Hero General, Cleric and a shooter…?


The Next week I started off with the Saxons army against the elves. This time Allie was helping Rick command the Elves.


I took down some riders and Knights at either end of the line…


… then just started turning flanks and working my way in!


Elvish Knight about to die there…


Then Jackson and I played a little Orc on Orc action.


He killed my Blade General but had lost more stuff so we carried on – me being slightly less maneuverable..


Somehow I think I still managed to pull a victory out of my ass… Once again I think it had to do with numbers – I had all 2AP troops and therefore started with 12 stand, Jackson had 9 or 10 stands


The sole picture form last nights games… I wanted to try an orc army out… It was kind of designed to deal with a mostly blade army (who don’t fight in the woods so good), but then I ended up playing it against Rick’s elves – who, this week, had five stands of shooters (who have no trouble in the woods)… compounding this was me having a brain fart and for the duration of the battle believing for some reason that shooters quick-killed beasts and so I avoided contact with them – when in actuality it’s the other way around and I could have been eating them from the get-go out in the woods… ah well…

In the second game I played Dwarves (mostly Blades, two Shooters, Hero General) against Jackson's Orcs (Hero General, TWO Behemoths, two Warband, a Beast, a Shooter, and a pile of Hordes). He had this idea to stick close to his base line and defend - being close to his base line he figured he'd be able to replace hordes pretty quickly. Fair enough... but then he left most of the table open ground so I formed up with one great line marched across and laid a beating on them - the hordes on either side of the behemoths vapourised and I was able to turn both their flanks and delete them for the game. While the hordes just kept on coming back, they didn't do much else... So I tried to concentrate on taking out stuff that WOULDN'T come back and eventually got a warband and the beasts... I think... I only lost two blade...

We all learned a lot from the games and I know I’m a bit more prepared for the weekend because of it! I'm going to have a rumble with Mr. Miller's army on Monday. Then one week from today we will be in the middle of the campaign weekend! HUZZAH!! Stay tuned for the new and improved Campaign Map ...