Andrej was new to HOTT so he had first pick. I tried to convince him to take the Army of the Witch Queen as there were only two troop types to keep track of (10 Blade, and one magician…). He was interested in the elves, which I tried to convince him would be very hard to play for his first game as there were wildly different troop types… in the end he went with the Dwarves and their allies (as he was playing one in out recent Savage Worlds game). Darrin then decided to take the Orcs as he thought the hordes might be fun to play. I thought they might be fun to play too – or at least something new to try out. Amanda then took the elves and I was left with the Witch Queen and her Norsemen.
FORCES OF GOOD
The Army of the Elf Queen Amandalyll (Amanda)
1x Blade General
2x Blade
1x Magician
2x Knights
2x Riders
3x Shooters
The Army of the Dwarf King Torte (Andrej)
1x Blade General (Dwarves)
3x Blade (Dwarves)
1x Artillery (Dwarves)
3x Warband (Halflings)
3x Blades (Humans)
1x Lurkers
FORCES OF EVIL
The Army of the Witch Queen Maevella (tim)
1xBlade General
1x Magician (Witch Queen Maevella)
9x Blade (Norse Mercenaries)
The Army of Uruk Kreuger (Darrin)
1x Warband General (Orcs)
2x Behemoth (Trolls and Giants)
1x Artillery (Orc Catapult)
3x Hordes (Goblins)
2x Warband (Wildmen Fantatics)
1x Shooter (Wildmen Archers)
1x Beasts (wolves)
THE GAME
Dicing for who was attacker we tied a couple times before it was decided that the Forces of EVIL would be invading the peaceful countries of the goodies.
(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)
Amanda looking unimpressed about something. Or perhaps she it is her complete and utter lack of concern about the immanent arrive of evil-baddies, now being a veteran HOTT Warrior-General! This was her initial initial deployment. She reorganized her line at least two or three more times. At least once after she said she was DONE and listened to me explaining to Darrin how he might best take advantage of her deployment (“you could run the wolves through the woods and chew on those archers flanks….” – watch where those archers end up….).
Cheeky Amanda with her final initial deployment. Archer now at the other end of the line with their flank to the river and a clear view of the open approaches to their position…
Andrej with his initial deployment. His too was changed a couple times from when he first plunked them down on the table – that was because I suggested that there was no benefit to them being doubled up in two ranks.
The initial set up of the Forces of EVIL!!! (Evil, like the froo-it of the dehveel!)
I don’t often use columns, but for once I formed up 4 stands of blade in a column along the road hoping I could run them across the bridge and form a line before the dwarves could rush to the banks of the river!
The Orcich baddies surge forward. Amanda was once again plagued by bad rolls all game. Her riders are heading for the woods for another clever flanking maneuver.
207My column surges actoss the bridge. I really need to make a new bridge that’s slightly wider so my stand can fin on it!
My gamble paid off… a bit… The Dwarves didn’t surge to the river to defend the banks. This wasn’t for lack of PIPs – Andrej was just playing a little timidly, having never played before. He’s a clever fellow though and picked up the game pretty quick. I won’t be able to count on him making that mistake again!
I had thought about putting more in the column to rush across but then figured (correctly) that they would never be able to deploy. The rest would just have to infiltrate across the river. That, I hoped, would encourage him to keep his men in line and not try to flank my bridgehead – lest they themselves be flanked.
In a rash moment of panic, Amanda wheeled her knights out of line to engage the beasts bearing down on her archers – thinking them helpless and doomed. This turned out to be quite unnecessary and messed up her line terribly.
First contact! Wolves charge the elvish archers (against whom they have a quick-kill)
BOING! The Wolves are repulsed…. Amanda briefly considered charging Knights across the front of the orcs and ride down the wolves, until it was pointed out to her that she simple couldn’t – the orc line being far too close now.
So she charged the knights in against the Warband General and a horde…
…which didn’t work out so well!! One unit of elves were destroyed and the other recoiled from the Hordes of Goblins!?
CRUNCH! The right of the orcish line contacts the Elvish foot!
Meanwhile, The Norse were slowly making their way across the river and a big shoving match ensued.
Elvish knight s finally destroyed a horde and the Elvish Riders came out of the woods and attacked the wildmen archers. She had two PIPs the turn she did this and could have deployed the riders so there was an overlap, but for some reason didn’t… she rolled poorly, Darrin got lucky and just doubled her roll – good-bye one stand of riders…
A turn or two later the second stand rode in and wiped out the archers.
The Knights that were blocking one stand of archers galloped through a gap in the line and the three combined archer stands darkened the skies above one of the hordes and rained death on goblins below!
While the orc and elf battle seemed quite fluid and decisive – the Dwarf-Human shoving match was just that as big shoving match on the slippery banks of the river…
A little back and forth over on the elf-orc side.
Darrin wiped out one blade by keeping them busy to the front with a behemoth and then flanking them with the wildmen warband. Then another... This worked so well he then did it to the Elvish Blade General…
…POOF! And that was truly the end of things right then and there.
On her next bound all but the stand of riders broke and ran.
Andrej got lucky – strangely enough just as I finally got the last of my troops across which theoretically put me at less of a disadvantage as I had been for most of the game. In one or two turns he knocked out a unit of blade and destroyed the Witch Queen’s stand.
The game ended because Amanda couldn’t keep her final stand on the table. Rolled one PIP, needed two to keep the riders on the table.
Though the Dwarves had not lost any units, and despite their recent success fighting the Norse swarming across the river… with their Elf allies gone they knew it was only a matter of time and retired from the field.
Final dispositions.
Amanda was quite sleepy and plagued by awful PIP rolls all game. I think she only made ONE magical attack all game!?
We could have played on to see if the orcs could get across to help out the Norse in time before the Dwarves pushed them all back into the river… but it was getting a bit late.
Andrej seems quite interested in the game and I may have a recruit for the future campaigns! As I said he picked it up quite quickly and I think he’ll be a general to be reckoned with. It’ll be interesting to see how he fairs in his next game.
I really need to make some more terrain tiles so I can vary the terrain a bit more!!!
Losses
Elves – these are the combat losses – the command was demoralized and the remainder fled the field.
1x Blade General
2x Blade
1x Knight
1x Rider
Queen Maevella
1x Blade
1x Magician
Orcs
1x Behemoth (Trolls)
2x Hordes (Goblins – both replaced, though)
1x Shooter (Wildmen Archers)
1x Beasts (wolves)
Dwarves and allies – NONE!!!
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