Elves and Irish

The boy and I were playing HOTT again today. Junior decided he wanted to play something he hadn’t played before – The Elves - despite the fact that I’ve told him they’re “tricky” to play (this is probably because I beat him soundly with them last time we played). I was anxious to try out my new Norse Irish - not that playing them in HOTT wold give me a really good feel for them as the army is almost entirely Auxilia and Psiloi – neither of which are used in HOTT. I ended up classifying all the Irish as “warband”.

SITUATION

Paddy mac Cumhaill, the less-well-known, younger brother of Fionn mac Cumhaill, lived on the border of faerieland and was jealous of the Sídhe (Elves) that lived within – certain that they possessed much gold and would not share it. So he gathered up his followers and decided to invade and take some of that gold for himself.

SCENARIO

The Irish under Paddy mac Cumhaill attacking The Sidhe (Elves) of Faerieland.

FORCES

The Irish
1x Warband General (Paddy mac Cumhaill)
10x Warband (Irish Warriors)
1x Beasts (Irish wolfhounds)

The Sídhe
1x Blade General
2x Blade (Elves with axes)
3x Shooters (Elf Archers)
3x Magicians (Efl Wizards)

THE GAME


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


Young Finn and the Sidhe (Elves) of Faerieland


The Wily Irish under Paddy mac Cumhaill advance into the land of the Sidhe lusting for their gold.


On The elves first turn they advanced. On my first turn I rolled only one PIP so I sent some lads over on the flank sneaking off around the far side of the woods.


The Elves sent a Magician to try and block them from flanking the Elvish line.


The rest of the elvish line continues to advance on the Irish…


The Irish line begins to advance as well…


The next turn the elves only rolled 1 PIP – unable to move the whole line (because of the magicians – which require and exta PIP just to move) Finnegan moved up his archers to loose a volley at the Irish line!


The Elvish arrows made a chink in the line – driving back a band of Irish warriors.


On the Irish bound the flanking warriors and the beast surrounded the Elvish magician…


…and destroyed him! (or, as I assured Finnegan, realizing he was in danger, he likely teleported off to safety far from the field of battle...).



With only 2 PIPs the Elves were only able to move up the rest of the line to meet the archers. The volleys from the archers drove back another batch of irish warriors.


On the following bound the Irish line rushed the Elves!


One band of warriors simple disappeared before one of the powerful Elvish magicians!?


The overall result of the clash was the right of the Irish line in utter chaos – some having surged forward following retreating elves, others fallen back. On the left of the line the general and the other warriors at his side fell back more or less in good order…


The Elvosh blade followed them up on the following bound …


… And utterly crushed the Irish – destroying Paddy mac Cumhaill’s personal guard and a great many other Irish warriors besides.


Other Irish warriors were surrounded by archers and pin-cushioned in a deadly hail of close accurate archery.


… and that was the game; Irish lost their general and three others, Elves lost a magician.

Fun times.

I’d like to try the Irish out in DBA soon, however…

In other news I’ve wrapped up the Savage Saturday Gladiator Campaign on Saturday. Next week we’ll be starting a new fantasy campaign.

Thinking a little more seriously about some weekend HOTT and/or DBA campaigns next year – probably both – one in February and maybe one in June… The DBA one will be a Dark Ages campaign (Vikings, Anglos, Normans, Welsh, Irish, Scots… maybe an additional Viking – if I get it done… maybe West Franks and an additional Anglo-saxon/Danish kingdom if I can convince CVT to come out and bring his toys…).

I need to get making some new terrain squares - I need some more bad-going for the wily Irish to hide in!