Woah…. Sorry about all that nattering yesterday… Did anyone read through it all!?
Anyway, looking back at my original Game Plan for 2009, I’d say I’ve pretty much stayed right on track. I have a number of 28mm Hordes of the Things Fantasy Armies and DBA Historical Armies ready to go and I’m still interested in building more. I’d still like to do some WW2 skirmish gaming and I’d like to get back into some modern gaming, on both a skirmish and battalion/brigade/divisional level - but I’m not still totally stuck on Cold War Commander. I’m not completely abandoning it or anything, but I’d like to give Modern HOTT a try. I’d also still like to resurrect something of my Quebec 1759 plan…. Now, how to do that all!?
PAINTING PRIORITIES
This Week
- Paint 6-9 British Cavalrymen for Great War HOTT
- Finish painting “Libby” Hero for Amanda’s “HOTT Chick” army
This Month
- Cavalry Unit for John
- Descent minis for Other John
- Magician and Riders (if they show up) for Amanda’s “HOTT Chick” army
- 6 Uruk-hai pikes (I just stumbled into 6 more of the orcs with their pikes upright – I can paint those up and rebase the me with the other upright ones and ditch the ones that are “at the ready”!)
Rest of the Year…?
I’ll have to work on sorting that out… But right now I think the priorities would be:
- Finish rest of cavalry units for John (haw many did I agree to paint? 4 or 5…?)
- Enough Seven Years War British to play a game of DBA 1500-1900
- Enough 1914 British to finish a Brigade
- Finish ALL the 28mm WW2 stuff that I have
- 6 stands of “regular” Dwarf warriors (Blade)
After that…?
- Finish MY Norman DBA Army
- Anglo-Danish DBA Army for CVT
- Pict DBA Army
- Middle Earth HOTT Armies – Rohan, Isengard, Mordor… (and some Heroes!)
- Other Dark Age DBA Armies – Scotts, Welsh, Irish…
- Other Ancient DBA Armies – 2x Romans, 2x Early Successors…
- A few more elements for the Seven Years War in North American – Indians, More French and British Line troops, French Militia and colonial Troops, British Rangers…
-Narnian DBA Armies
Other Stuff – some of this requires BUYING stuff. Others are dependant on whether people show any interest. Others still feend on how muchof the other stuff gets done and/or my particular mood in the moment.
- Build 2x Mi-8 and 1x MiL24 Hind helicopters. I have these kits and they’re 1/72 they’re WAY too big for use with my other “20mm” stuff – I use 1/100 to 1/144 for aircraft with those – and if you look close they might look a bit small for 28mm figures… but they’re going to be BIG models – and take up plenty enough room on the tabletop if they land, so I don’t think I’d really want anything BIGGER. Like something that actually matches the scale of the 28mm figures… Anyway, I have some 28mm modern skirmishing figures – including some Soviet VDV Air Assault troops… it would be fun to run a scenario where they fly in and do an actual Air assault complete with gunship support and everything!!!
- Highland Dwarves – I’d like to build a separate army/command of Highland Dwarves. I have enough for 6 stands of Blade (or warband…? Depending on my mood!). I’d like to pick up two packs of the Westwind Highland Dwarf Infantry – as that would make three more stands of foot (blade or warband) – and two packs of “Rammock’s Raiders” for some Riders…
- Other Dwarves – If I had another 18 metal Dwarf (either more Ghost Miniatures or West Wind) and could find some artillery piece made of metal to replace the GW plastic elements of my army I could have an entire army made of metal… I could then make a THIRD Dwarf Army made entirely of GW platstic figures….
- If there was interest I might try and crank out enough Seven Years War stuff to play out the battle at Quebec for the 250th Anniversary… again I’d have to look and see what I have and what I’d need to finish up.
-BERBERS!? What the….!? Bob gave me enough Berbers to make two stands…. And they’re kind of cool looking and would be totally easy to paint. Now, I don’t have any historical opponents… and I have no desire to BUILD any armies of their historical opponents… But I thought I could use them in HOTT as a generic Nomadic Desert Dwelling folk… they could fight my “Tomb King” undead army - if I ever got that finished.. anyway… just and idea – WAY down on the list of priorities…
- Modern 20mm – As I mentioned I’d like to try out Modern HOTT. If that went over well enough I might launch (yet another) massive Re-basing Project to get all of my 20mm stuff on bases with 60mm frontages. Most of the AFVs are already on a base that’s close (I think they’re 2.5” so they could probably just be shaved down a touch rather than totally rebased…)
I guess the Eldar and the Imperial Guard should be taken off the back burner and metaphorically be bagged up and put into the freezer for now. I just don’t think I’m going to get to that at all anytime soon…
BIG PROJECTS
Well with the success of the HOTT campaign I am already starting to think about what “Big Project” event or campaign to do next…
Obviously another HOTT Fantasy campaign would be really easy to do – I could just add additional armies and some new element options to the existing ones.
An Historical Dark Age DBA Campaign – I have the armies for Normans, Vikings, Anglo-Danish, Scotts, Irish, Welsh… In fact if Chris brought HIS Normans one could be the Normans, and another could be the other West Franks. I have enough for two Viking armies so one could be the Norweigans, and another could be Danes or Some other group of Norse…
In addition to this I was thinking about an event for possibly Mayday – or maybe just an invitational event here ‘toon – a three stage Big Battle 1066 mini-campaign. I should mention that I stole this idea from my friend Curt…) We would play the big three battles of 1066 – Fulford Gate, Stamford Bridge and Hastings. As I mentioned I have enough for at least two Viking armies (and Gary’s starting on one of his own…) and between CVT, Cory and Myself we have (or WILL have) three Anglo-Danish armies, and both CVT and I have Norman Armies… so the first battle could be two or three Viking commands against two Anglo-Danish. The winners of that battle (presumably the Vikings) will fight against Harold at Stamford Bridge with whatever they have left… so the first battle shouldn’t really be winnable for he Anglos – it’s just to whittle down the Vikings a bit… however Stamford Bridge should have the potential to be a bit more of a pitched battle – because the winner of that one will fight William the Bastard and his army at Hastings in round three! Wouldn’t it bee cool it if was Harald Hardrada instead of Godwinson defending England at Hastings…!? Anyway…just an idea…
Another possibility would be a HOTT or DBA campaign using the 1500-1900 rules and armies of the Tricorne/Horse and Musket era (somewhere between Marburian/War of the Spanish Succession and the Seven Years War). As John and I have made masters and can cast our own – it could be pretty easy to come up with 12 or so stands for a half dozen “Imagi-nations”…
Still another possibility would be a Great War Era “HITT” campaign with forces based on the armies of 1890-ish to 1910-ish. We could use a map of Europe or another completely fictional land of “imagi-nations”
Anybody out there have any particular preferences…?
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Well… NOW what?!
Well now that the HOTT Campaign/Gaming Weekend is over It’s time to ponder about what exactly I’m going to do next…
When I’ve worked on a big project like this in the past, by the time the big event rolls around I’m usually SICK of what I’m doing and it takes every shred of self-control to stay focused and pull it off. Indeed in January I fully expected to be sick of Hordes of the Things and ready to move on!
While there have been things I thought might be fun to work on I had very little trouble staying focused. In fact I’m still totally fired up about HOTT – probably more so than I was a week or two ago!! There’s so many things I’d still like to do; forces to finish, additional things to add to current forces, new ones that might be fun… There’s so much in the game we haven’t even tried out yet!?
I’d like to try out some battles on 48”x48” playing surfaces – like it was suggested in my original HOTT and DBA books. I’d also like to try out some bigger battles – with up to ~36AP per side. I recently picked up a book of generic wargame scenarios I’d like to try tweaking them for use with my HOTT armies to give some ovjective other than simply smashing the opponent…
And that’s just in the fantasy milieu… I’ve become enamoured with the whole DBx thing and am keen to try it out for other periods or settings. Primarily I’d like to try out some Great War HOTT rules I came across. Conveniently I have Russian Civil War/”Back of Beyond” forces appropriately based and ready to go! I’ve also got some early war Germans and British I’m working on - painting some, rebasing others… I’m also keen to try the DBA 1500-1900 rules with my Seven Years War forces (also conveniently based on 60mm frontage bases…). I’ve even stumbled across WW2 and modern adaptations of HOTT I’d like to have a go at. (already thinking about how to rebase all those 20mm modern figures…).
Occasionally I even take a peep at the drawers full of ECW and Ancients (Romans… Successors… etc…)
Beyond all that HOTT/DBx madness I’d like to get back into some Savage Worlds skirmish gaming. I’ve had a hankering to play some Pulp Adventure and/or World War Two (or WEIRD War Two!?) games. I know some of the others would be keen to play some Victorian Horror/Sci-fi or Rippers…
Over the last few months I’ve been acquiring a number of old Eldar and Imperial Guard Catachan figures. I have no desire to play Warhammer 40K, but I like the figures and it brings back fond memoried of all the Rogue Trader skirmishing we did way back with whatever we happen to have… I though I might put together some forces for some Savage Worlds Sci-fi Skirmishing…
So maybe it’s time to come up with a new “Game Plan” so I can focus a bit instead of scattering off in all directions and accomplish nothing….
To summarize, here’s what I’d like to work on:
HOTT/DBX:
Fantasy
Ancients
Great War Era
Seven years War
World War Two
Modern
Savage Worlds:
Victoriana (“Rippers”/Horror and/or Space 1889/VSF)
Pulp Adventure
World War Two (Historical and/or Weird War)
Sci-fi
FANTASY - HOTT
I have a number of forces I’ve acquired stuff for and would like to get going on. I would also like to expand upon some forces… here’s a list of what I have and what needs to be done (or rather what I’d LIKE to get done…)
Generic Armies
Dwarves
I need to start by painting three stands of blades to replace the Dwarven Shieldmaidens that have left permanently for the Saphistic League of Unity and Togetherness (Amanda’s “HOTT Chick“ army). Easily done as I HAVE enough unpainted dwarves to make TEN more stands of blades – not to mention another artillery piece, four stand of shooters (handgunners) and three stands of miners (more blade…?). I really only need to paint six blade – three to replace the Sheildmaidens and then three to replace the Highlanders that will also at some point strike off to form their own army.
I have three more stands worth of unpainted Ghost Minis Dwarf Highlanders… I thought I’d pick up two packs of Westwinds Dwarf Was Dwarf Highlanders (10/pack = 20 = 3 stands of 6 plus two spares for skirmishing) and two packs of the Dwarf Highlander “Rammock Riders” (Dwarf Highlanders of bighorn sheep! 3/pack = 6 = 3 stands of two “riders”).
Not sure what I’ll do with the rest – the additional three blades, the miners (more blade?) and four shooters… Another command or army…? All I’d need is another Hero stand…!
Elves
I have no need to paint any Elves any time soon. I have 13 stands of rank and file 2AP type units (two Knights, two Riders, three blades, SIX shooters) and three magicians and two lurkers. Forty army points worth of stuff!! At some point I might paint up some more of the stuff I have to make two commands or two separate armies – one more of a “High Elf” army and another that’s more of a “Wood Elf” army… I have enough for another SIX Shooters, six Spear, three Blades (great swords), and two Knights… None but three of the stands of shooters look all that “Wood Elfy”…? Hmmmm…
Orcs
Nothing I really need to do with this one right this second… I have ~29 Army points of options right now (Hero, Artillery, three Behemoths, one Warband, six Hordes, Three Beasts, one shooter, and two lurkers….). The next things l’s like to add would be more Orc Warbands and Riders. I have about five to seven stands worth of Riders to be painted (depending on how many I put on a base), and anther seven or eight stands worth of Warband (again, depending…). If that weren’t enough I also have another three horde and two more behemoths!? (and that’s not even counting all the old stuff that could be stripped and repainted!?) Oh and I also have a couple of bizarre shaman types to paint which cold be clerics or magicians… gosh that’s getting awful close to 72AP worth of stuff if I got it all done… How cool would THAT be…!?
Centaurs
It’s always been a dream to have an army of Centaurs – moelled after some nomadic steppe peoples (Scythians or Mongols..). Right now I only have one stand painted. They could be an allied contingent in a human or elf army perhaps. I have another 4-6 stands worth to paint (depending…). I think I’d call them all Heroes or Riders… Knights just haven’t worked out in HOTT.
Undead
I have none of it done. NONE. It seems like too much work to even contemplate right now. I know, you’re thinking; “skeletons, they’re totally easy..” Well maybe if their bare bones skeletons, but mine are mostly metal figures that have lots of scraps of clothes and stuff… I think they’ll just stay in the drawers for a later date…
HOTTies
The Saphistic League of Unity and Togetherness – Amanda’s HOTT “Chick Army” is nearing completion… or at least fieldability… I currently have three Blades (Dwarf Shieldmaidens), two shooters (one Elf, one Ngoni), two Warband (Dark Elf Witch Elves), a Lurker (Dryads), and a Sneaker/Lurker (Halfling thieves) – that’s 16-18AP. The Hero General is very nearly done and a Magician could be stolen from the elves…. That would make 24AP. Darrin at the Dragon’s Den assured me that the Shadow Forge Female Centaurs I ordered would be in this week – another two riders… Reaper makes a lot of Angels and Succubus/Deamon types that I was also considering to add as Flyers… There’s a Female Giant made by Reaper I’ve been eyeing up…
Middle Earth Armies
Isengard
My army of Isengard could march to war! I have five Blades, four Spears, two Shooters, Two Warbands, one Beast/Rider, and, of course, one Magician (should Sarumon ever want to come out and play!). I have another three stands worth of Warg Riders – but they’re all broken and some are missing legs (that would need to be made anew out of green/brown stuff…) – which seems like a lot of work, so not really a “priority” right now…
Rohan
I have three stands of Riders done and another six to paint. I also have a Theodred stand (accompanied by the royal standard bearer and a royal guardsman) and an Eomer Stand (also accompanied by two royal guardsman). I had thought of classing them as Knights… but knights don’t seem to be working out so well in HOTT so I might class them as “Heroes”. I also have Theodred and Eowyn (and some more Mounted Royal Guardsmen) to make two more Hero/Knight stands… maybe they could be Paladins…? Hmmmm. Anyway, the idea is to be able to field the Rohirrim – an entirely mounted force!! Now that might not always work out so well so I also have a few foot – currently one stand of Shooters and one of Blade (or maybe “Spear”…) and another sprue of foot comig in the mail to make another stand of Shooters and amother stand or two of Blade and/or Spear… I should get cracking on these I have all I NEED and have an opponent (Isengard) finished!
Mordor
I have four stand of foot finished. I’m not entirely sure if I should class them as Blade or Warband. Probably Warband… I have another four of five stands worth of those to paint up plus a couple stands worth of archers and a troll. Just enough for an army. I would like to add an Aerial Hero (Witch King on Fell Beast!) at some point… Maybe when I finish painting all the Mordor stuff I already HAVE I’ll treat myself to one!
Moria
I have a General stand finished… I think I’d call him a Warband – then I have enough for nine or ten stands of HORDE to paint (not looking forward to that…)! I also have two cave trolls. Due to the large volume of work to be done on this it’s currently a “back burner” army…
Others…
I have a number of other odds and sods for Middle Earth. I have a couple of fellowships… (why have just one!?) I have a Hero stand of Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas on foot partly completed – and if that weren’t enough I have them also on horseback for another Hero stand (just… don’t ask… I thought the mounted versions might look better if I were ever fielding them with the Rohirrim…?). I have Frodo and Sam and Gollum that I thought I’d use as sneakers - when I get them done… I have TWO Gandalf stands finished, both on foot, one grey, one white. I also have a Gandalf on Shadowfax to finish up (again, depending on the army he’s accompanying…).
I also have a handful of LOTR Elves and Dwarves. Like a stand of Elf Archers, and stand of Balin and his guardsmen and a stand of Dwarf Archers – none of which are painted. I really like the GW LOTR Dwarves and Elves. I think at some point I’ll probably pick up a couple boxes of Dwarf Warriors Which would get me four more stands of archers (4/stand) and five stands of Blade (6/stand). If I called Balin a Hero that would be an army right there! The Elves…? Feh! They’re leaving Middle Earth anyway, right? I might pick up a couple boxes of the Wood Elf warriors just to put a little contingent on the table if I wanted to do a Battle of Five Armies. If I did 4/stand for all of them I’d end up with 12 stands from two boxes…
Gondor might be a force to put together at some point in the future, but I should maybe finish up some of these others first. I’d also like to be able to do some of the other “Fallen Realms” – Khand, Mahud, Harad, etc. to do a big Middle Earth Camapign. Part of me wants to just find a suitable historical army and fake it…
Narnian Armies
Narnia
I started reading the Chrinicles of Narnia last fall and got the idea that I could put together two armies to fight the battle at the end of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Some stuff I could pull from other armies: Dwarves, notably, and maybe some critters. I’ve picked up Hasslefree’s Medival Children to use as the Pevensies. Peter and Edmund I thought I’d put on a base with maybe a dwarf and some other critters and call them Heroes. Susan and Lucy I thought I’d put on a shooter stand – or at least Susan… I don’t know where I’d put Lucy… Cleric…? I need to find a big damn Lion fro Aslan – While reaper’s Celestial Lion looks cool – I’ll probably just find an appropriately sized plastic one at a toy store. I’m awfully tempted to order a bunch of Satyrs and Fauns and critters from Splintered light. Though Splintered light makes “15mm” figures the satyrs and fauns are apparently about 18mm tall and the walking talking critters are 12-20mm tall – which would make them about the right size for “28mm” talking beasts of Narnia.
Army of the White Witch
Again I can use Dwarves and Wolves from my other armies. I found a great figure for the White Witch – but it will require a bit of converting… I’ll need to find a bunch of other assorted nasty creatures and monsters.
Other odds and sods…
I have some Giants and Dragons (which we rarely use) and a God of Death. It’d be nice to pick up some stuff to use as flyers and airships and all the other stuff we never use… though I’m not entirely sure which army they might be used for..
ANCIENTS/DARK AGES HISTORICAL - HOTT/DBx
Some of these have blur the line between historical armies and HOTT armies. As fantasy is what most folks around here are interested in most of these will have fantastical elements added for use with HOTT. I’ve separated them from the “HOTT Armies” because they do have the POTENTIAL to be used as a straight-up historical army…
Vikings
I have an army I can field as either a historical Viking DBA army or a HOTT one. I have enough unpainted figures to make a second army… I’d like to find some appropriate fantastical figures to make my army more… well… fantastical when playing HOTT – but I’m not entirely sure what to look for… maybe a great big hairy Norse-looking barbarian for a “Hero”…?
Normans
I have enough stuff to make a historical Norman DBA army. I have a couple Knights done and some spear and a Cleric stand and peasant Horde for when I field it as a HOTT army. Nothing really I need to add to it. I just need to paint it! I can’t say I’m really excited about doing so since we have found Knights aren’t really all that great against most of the other HOTT armies I have.
Anglo-Danish
I have one complete Historical Anglo-Danish DBA army more or less complete – but I hate all my spear stands. They’re almost all stabby-jabby thrusting poses which always makes lining up stands difficult and they’re always getting bent and broken. I think I’m actually going to have to just model an infantryman with a spear held upright and a shiled out in front and cast myself an ass-pile of them!
Welsh
I have enough Welshmen to make a historical Welsh DBA army – less the Cavalry General option… None painted. Nothing fantastical about them. Maybe they need a Dragonfor the HOTT options!?
Scotts
Got ‘em, need to paint them.
Irish
Got ‘em. Need to paint them.
Picts
I’ve painted a couple stands of the Nekkid Warrior fanatics (Warband) and some archers/crossbowmen to use as Psiloi or shooters. I might need some Light Horse/Rider types…
Romans
I easily have enough for two, maybe three Early Imperial Roman DBA armies… not sure who they’d fight against other than themselves…
Alexandrian Successors
Again I think I have enough to put together any two Early Successor or Selucid DBA armies. One of these days…
GREAT WAR ERA – HOTT/DBx
Early War
If a stand is approximately a company and 4 stands makes a battalion I have enough ready to go to make two battalions of British (well… one British, one Scottish) and Two battalions of Germans. I also have two squadron/stands of German Uhlans, and a battery/stand of field artillery and machineguns. I could quite easily crank out an couple squadrons of British Cavalry and have two machineguns ready to go, and could quickly rebase a field gun battery/stand. I’d like to try this out in the next couple weeks and if it turns out to be fun we can churn out as many as we like – I made the british myself and John has more Germans and French that would just need to be rebased, and tonned of Russians, Sebians, Austrians….
Late War
I have made Canadians and Germans. I have a regiment of Germans and two brigades of Canadians ready to go… and can cast more at anytime.
Russian Civil War/”Back of Beyond”
I have White Russians, Bolsheviks and Warlord Chinese all ready to go… what are we waiting for!? I guess I have to read the rules again, clear off the games table which has exploded with all these figures I’m trying to take stock of, and invite some people over to game!
SEVEN YEARS WAR - HOTT/DBx
I easily have enough French to put together a little game to try it out – Five Regiments of Infantry (3 stands each), one regiment of Horse (three stands), and two stands of artillery. Unfortunately for the British I only have two regiments of infantry completed… I suppose I could set up a scenario game where the British are holding some defendable position and the French have to try and take it…?
Anyeay I have no shortage of stuff I can paint up for this as I bought a pile of specialist type things and I can cast all my own rank and file types.
I’ve had this idea that I could try and get the forces for Quebec ready for the 250th anniversary in September… Hmmmmm… I should figure out what I’d need to have done.
WORLD WAR TWO - HOTT/DBx
I think most of my 15mm forces all have a common frontage (2.5”) – with the exception of small guns which have been based facing the short edge… Not sure if they really come into play in HOTT WW2 anyway… This would require no work to try out as I have stuff ready to go in 15mm.
The majority of the forces I have in 20mm haven’t been painted yet so it would be very easy for me to rebased those to a 60mm frontage. The 60mm frontage would first of all match all my other HOTT/DBx stuff (so I wouldn’t have to cut so many different sized bases) and it would also most easily facilitate 20mm tanks.
MODERN - HOTT/DBx
All of my modern stuff is 20mm and the infantry and vehicles are on bases of differing frontages. I’m not sure how big of a deal common base frontage would be for modern gaming…? But like the 20mm WW2 stuff I could rebase stuff to a 60mm frontage – and I could still use it for CWC (because base size does not matter at all for that…).
SAVAGE WORLDS SKIRMISHING
Victoriana (“Rippers”/Horror and/or Space 1889/VSF)
Hmmmm… I have quite a bit of this. Just need to figure out some fun and interesting new ways to use them in scenarios. Some terrain might be nice and some fun vehicles – like ether flyers and steam tanks…
Pulp Adventure
World War Two (Historical and/or Weird War)
There is very little I need to paint for WW2 stuff. I just need to sit down and come up with some scenarios and start playing. I’d like to built a zeppelin and a tramp steamer and some other pulpy vehicles and terrain…
Okay, there are a few things still unpainted – a couple squads of Russians to finish off my under-strength COMPANY(!?), a KV-1, a PzkwIV, A Russian Jeep, Two squads to finish off a second platoon of British Paras (really… when am I ever going to use more than ONE!?), A squad of 8th Army British I just picked up, the better part of two hald-sections of British commandos to finish off my full assault troop, Some Commando support weapons, a handful of partisans/resistance fighters, odd and sundry Germans - some engineers and field police, maybe a fourth squad of them, and a few anti-tank guns and crews – British, Russian, and German! It sounds like a lot, but it isn’t so much.
At some point I’d like to pick up a few more vehicles – just light ones like a Panzer II or some armoured cars, maybe some desert jeeps, etc.
What I really need to work on for the skirmishing is the TERRAIN!! I have a pile of ruins and rubble terrain that’s half-built. If only I could find some time to finish it up…
Sci-fi
I have none of the Eldar or Imperial Guard painted… There’s quite a few of them… I could throw in a Sci-fi skirmish with what I have of other sci-fi stuff from time to time, just to keep me thinking about it… once in a while squeeze a fire team of this or that into the painting queue…
THE PLAN
Well that’s what I’m thinking about these days and some of the stuff I have to work on. Now I just need to make some sense out of it all – decide what the priorities should be and make some sort of prioritized “TO DO” list….
In terms of what games to play it would make sense to try out some Great War era HOTT (or “HITT” – Hordes in the Trenches) as I HAVE a pile of stuff for it ready to go! If it works out maybe build on those forces…
I should work on another regiment or two of Seven Years War British, or maybe one regiment and a couple stands of British artillery. That way we could try out a small game of DBA 1500-1900 with about 12 stands on each side. Again, if it was fun and to everyone’s liking I have no shortage of more stuff I could paint up for it.
I’ve been kind of tired of WW2 stuff – well at larger than skirmish scale. But I have a lot of stuff that could easily be pressed into action for HOTT WW2… and it looks pretty similar to Modern HOTT… so… Or I could just re-base 12 stands of two of my 20mm Modern forces for a quick try of that variant – as I’m more interested in it anyway….
Of course there’s lots of things to try out with plain old fantasy HOTT and DBA…
I think I’d like to bring back Savage Saturdays – I’m somewhat reluctant to do so in the summer as I’d like to be able to get up early on Sunday’s and go for a bike ride… But if I kept it to skirmish games – and small, reasonable skirmishes with clear objective and a turn time limit… we could potentially finish up at a reasonable enough hour…
Hmmmm… I need to paint a couple units of cavalry for one John and a couple Descent figures for the other John…
I guess priority number one for this week should be to paint up six British Cavalry men for a little 1914 action and clear off the table! Maybe get painting some of the stuff for the Johns to get that out of the way!
When I’ve worked on a big project like this in the past, by the time the big event rolls around I’m usually SICK of what I’m doing and it takes every shred of self-control to stay focused and pull it off. Indeed in January I fully expected to be sick of Hordes of the Things and ready to move on!
While there have been things I thought might be fun to work on I had very little trouble staying focused. In fact I’m still totally fired up about HOTT – probably more so than I was a week or two ago!! There’s so many things I’d still like to do; forces to finish, additional things to add to current forces, new ones that might be fun… There’s so much in the game we haven’t even tried out yet!?
I’d like to try out some battles on 48”x48” playing surfaces – like it was suggested in my original HOTT and DBA books. I’d also like to try out some bigger battles – with up to ~36AP per side. I recently picked up a book of generic wargame scenarios I’d like to try tweaking them for use with my HOTT armies to give some ovjective other than simply smashing the opponent…
And that’s just in the fantasy milieu… I’ve become enamoured with the whole DBx thing and am keen to try it out for other periods or settings. Primarily I’d like to try out some Great War HOTT rules I came across. Conveniently I have Russian Civil War/”Back of Beyond” forces appropriately based and ready to go! I’ve also got some early war Germans and British I’m working on - painting some, rebasing others… I’m also keen to try the DBA 1500-1900 rules with my Seven Years War forces (also conveniently based on 60mm frontage bases…). I’ve even stumbled across WW2 and modern adaptations of HOTT I’d like to have a go at. (already thinking about how to rebase all those 20mm modern figures…).
Occasionally I even take a peep at the drawers full of ECW and Ancients (Romans… Successors… etc…)
Beyond all that HOTT/DBx madness I’d like to get back into some Savage Worlds skirmish gaming. I’ve had a hankering to play some Pulp Adventure and/or World War Two (or WEIRD War Two!?) games. I know some of the others would be keen to play some Victorian Horror/Sci-fi or Rippers…
Over the last few months I’ve been acquiring a number of old Eldar and Imperial Guard Catachan figures. I have no desire to play Warhammer 40K, but I like the figures and it brings back fond memoried of all the Rogue Trader skirmishing we did way back with whatever we happen to have… I though I might put together some forces for some Savage Worlds Sci-fi Skirmishing…
So maybe it’s time to come up with a new “Game Plan” so I can focus a bit instead of scattering off in all directions and accomplish nothing….
To summarize, here’s what I’d like to work on:
HOTT/DBX:
Fantasy
Ancients
Great War Era
Seven years War
World War Two
Modern
Savage Worlds:
Victoriana (“Rippers”/Horror and/or Space 1889/VSF)
Pulp Adventure
World War Two (Historical and/or Weird War)
Sci-fi
FANTASY - HOTT
I have a number of forces I’ve acquired stuff for and would like to get going on. I would also like to expand upon some forces… here’s a list of what I have and what needs to be done (or rather what I’d LIKE to get done…)
Generic Armies
Dwarves
I need to start by painting three stands of blades to replace the Dwarven Shieldmaidens that have left permanently for the Saphistic League of Unity and Togetherness (Amanda’s “HOTT Chick“ army). Easily done as I HAVE enough unpainted dwarves to make TEN more stands of blades – not to mention another artillery piece, four stand of shooters (handgunners) and three stands of miners (more blade…?). I really only need to paint six blade – three to replace the Sheildmaidens and then three to replace the Highlanders that will also at some point strike off to form their own army.
I have three more stands worth of unpainted Ghost Minis Dwarf Highlanders… I thought I’d pick up two packs of Westwinds Dwarf Was Dwarf Highlanders (10/pack = 20 = 3 stands of 6 plus two spares for skirmishing) and two packs of the Dwarf Highlander “Rammock Riders” (Dwarf Highlanders of bighorn sheep! 3/pack = 6 = 3 stands of two “riders”).
Not sure what I’ll do with the rest – the additional three blades, the miners (more blade?) and four shooters… Another command or army…? All I’d need is another Hero stand…!
Elves
I have no need to paint any Elves any time soon. I have 13 stands of rank and file 2AP type units (two Knights, two Riders, three blades, SIX shooters) and three magicians and two lurkers. Forty army points worth of stuff!! At some point I might paint up some more of the stuff I have to make two commands or two separate armies – one more of a “High Elf” army and another that’s more of a “Wood Elf” army… I have enough for another SIX Shooters, six Spear, three Blades (great swords), and two Knights… None but three of the stands of shooters look all that “Wood Elfy”…? Hmmmm…
Orcs
Nothing I really need to do with this one right this second… I have ~29 Army points of options right now (Hero, Artillery, three Behemoths, one Warband, six Hordes, Three Beasts, one shooter, and two lurkers….). The next things l’s like to add would be more Orc Warbands and Riders. I have about five to seven stands worth of Riders to be painted (depending on how many I put on a base), and anther seven or eight stands worth of Warband (again, depending…). If that weren’t enough I also have another three horde and two more behemoths!? (and that’s not even counting all the old stuff that could be stripped and repainted!?) Oh and I also have a couple of bizarre shaman types to paint which cold be clerics or magicians… gosh that’s getting awful close to 72AP worth of stuff if I got it all done… How cool would THAT be…!?
Centaurs
It’s always been a dream to have an army of Centaurs – moelled after some nomadic steppe peoples (Scythians or Mongols..). Right now I only have one stand painted. They could be an allied contingent in a human or elf army perhaps. I have another 4-6 stands worth to paint (depending…). I think I’d call them all Heroes or Riders… Knights just haven’t worked out in HOTT.
Undead
I have none of it done. NONE. It seems like too much work to even contemplate right now. I know, you’re thinking; “skeletons, they’re totally easy..” Well maybe if their bare bones skeletons, but mine are mostly metal figures that have lots of scraps of clothes and stuff… I think they’ll just stay in the drawers for a later date…
HOTTies
The Saphistic League of Unity and Togetherness – Amanda’s HOTT “Chick Army” is nearing completion… or at least fieldability… I currently have three Blades (Dwarf Shieldmaidens), two shooters (one Elf, one Ngoni), two Warband (Dark Elf Witch Elves), a Lurker (Dryads), and a Sneaker/Lurker (Halfling thieves) – that’s 16-18AP. The Hero General is very nearly done and a Magician could be stolen from the elves…. That would make 24AP. Darrin at the Dragon’s Den assured me that the Shadow Forge Female Centaurs I ordered would be in this week – another two riders… Reaper makes a lot of Angels and Succubus/Deamon types that I was also considering to add as Flyers… There’s a Female Giant made by Reaper I’ve been eyeing up…
Middle Earth Armies
Isengard
My army of Isengard could march to war! I have five Blades, four Spears, two Shooters, Two Warbands, one Beast/Rider, and, of course, one Magician (should Sarumon ever want to come out and play!). I have another three stands worth of Warg Riders – but they’re all broken and some are missing legs (that would need to be made anew out of green/brown stuff…) – which seems like a lot of work, so not really a “priority” right now…
Rohan
I have three stands of Riders done and another six to paint. I also have a Theodred stand (accompanied by the royal standard bearer and a royal guardsman) and an Eomer Stand (also accompanied by two royal guardsman). I had thought of classing them as Knights… but knights don’t seem to be working out so well in HOTT so I might class them as “Heroes”. I also have Theodred and Eowyn (and some more Mounted Royal Guardsmen) to make two more Hero/Knight stands… maybe they could be Paladins…? Hmmmm. Anyway, the idea is to be able to field the Rohirrim – an entirely mounted force!! Now that might not always work out so well so I also have a few foot – currently one stand of Shooters and one of Blade (or maybe “Spear”…) and another sprue of foot comig in the mail to make another stand of Shooters and amother stand or two of Blade and/or Spear… I should get cracking on these I have all I NEED and have an opponent (Isengard) finished!
Mordor
I have four stand of foot finished. I’m not entirely sure if I should class them as Blade or Warband. Probably Warband… I have another four of five stands worth of those to paint up plus a couple stands worth of archers and a troll. Just enough for an army. I would like to add an Aerial Hero (Witch King on Fell Beast!) at some point… Maybe when I finish painting all the Mordor stuff I already HAVE I’ll treat myself to one!
Moria
I have a General stand finished… I think I’d call him a Warband – then I have enough for nine or ten stands of HORDE to paint (not looking forward to that…)! I also have two cave trolls. Due to the large volume of work to be done on this it’s currently a “back burner” army…
Others…
I have a number of other odds and sods for Middle Earth. I have a couple of fellowships… (why have just one!?) I have a Hero stand of Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas on foot partly completed – and if that weren’t enough I have them also on horseback for another Hero stand (just… don’t ask… I thought the mounted versions might look better if I were ever fielding them with the Rohirrim…?). I have Frodo and Sam and Gollum that I thought I’d use as sneakers - when I get them done… I have TWO Gandalf stands finished, both on foot, one grey, one white. I also have a Gandalf on Shadowfax to finish up (again, depending on the army he’s accompanying…).
I also have a handful of LOTR Elves and Dwarves. Like a stand of Elf Archers, and stand of Balin and his guardsmen and a stand of Dwarf Archers – none of which are painted. I really like the GW LOTR Dwarves and Elves. I think at some point I’ll probably pick up a couple boxes of Dwarf Warriors Which would get me four more stands of archers (4/stand) and five stands of Blade (6/stand). If I called Balin a Hero that would be an army right there! The Elves…? Feh! They’re leaving Middle Earth anyway, right? I might pick up a couple boxes of the Wood Elf warriors just to put a little contingent on the table if I wanted to do a Battle of Five Armies. If I did 4/stand for all of them I’d end up with 12 stands from two boxes…
Gondor might be a force to put together at some point in the future, but I should maybe finish up some of these others first. I’d also like to be able to do some of the other “Fallen Realms” – Khand, Mahud, Harad, etc. to do a big Middle Earth Camapign. Part of me wants to just find a suitable historical army and fake it…
Narnian Armies
Narnia
I started reading the Chrinicles of Narnia last fall and got the idea that I could put together two armies to fight the battle at the end of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Some stuff I could pull from other armies: Dwarves, notably, and maybe some critters. I’ve picked up Hasslefree’s Medival Children to use as the Pevensies. Peter and Edmund I thought I’d put on a base with maybe a dwarf and some other critters and call them Heroes. Susan and Lucy I thought I’d put on a shooter stand – or at least Susan… I don’t know where I’d put Lucy… Cleric…? I need to find a big damn Lion fro Aslan – While reaper’s Celestial Lion looks cool – I’ll probably just find an appropriately sized plastic one at a toy store. I’m awfully tempted to order a bunch of Satyrs and Fauns and critters from Splintered light. Though Splintered light makes “15mm” figures the satyrs and fauns are apparently about 18mm tall and the walking talking critters are 12-20mm tall – which would make them about the right size for “28mm” talking beasts of Narnia.
Army of the White Witch
Again I can use Dwarves and Wolves from my other armies. I found a great figure for the White Witch – but it will require a bit of converting… I’ll need to find a bunch of other assorted nasty creatures and monsters.
Other odds and sods…
I have some Giants and Dragons (which we rarely use) and a God of Death. It’d be nice to pick up some stuff to use as flyers and airships and all the other stuff we never use… though I’m not entirely sure which army they might be used for..
ANCIENTS/DARK AGES HISTORICAL - HOTT/DBx
Some of these have blur the line between historical armies and HOTT armies. As fantasy is what most folks around here are interested in most of these will have fantastical elements added for use with HOTT. I’ve separated them from the “HOTT Armies” because they do have the POTENTIAL to be used as a straight-up historical army…
Vikings
I have an army I can field as either a historical Viking DBA army or a HOTT one. I have enough unpainted figures to make a second army… I’d like to find some appropriate fantastical figures to make my army more… well… fantastical when playing HOTT – but I’m not entirely sure what to look for… maybe a great big hairy Norse-looking barbarian for a “Hero”…?
Normans
I have enough stuff to make a historical Norman DBA army. I have a couple Knights done and some spear and a Cleric stand and peasant Horde for when I field it as a HOTT army. Nothing really I need to add to it. I just need to paint it! I can’t say I’m really excited about doing so since we have found Knights aren’t really all that great against most of the other HOTT armies I have.
Anglo-Danish
I have one complete Historical Anglo-Danish DBA army more or less complete – but I hate all my spear stands. They’re almost all stabby-jabby thrusting poses which always makes lining up stands difficult and they’re always getting bent and broken. I think I’m actually going to have to just model an infantryman with a spear held upright and a shiled out in front and cast myself an ass-pile of them!
Welsh
I have enough Welshmen to make a historical Welsh DBA army – less the Cavalry General option… None painted. Nothing fantastical about them. Maybe they need a Dragonfor the HOTT options!?
Scotts
Got ‘em, need to paint them.
Irish
Got ‘em. Need to paint them.
Picts
I’ve painted a couple stands of the Nekkid Warrior fanatics (Warband) and some archers/crossbowmen to use as Psiloi or shooters. I might need some Light Horse/Rider types…
Romans
I easily have enough for two, maybe three Early Imperial Roman DBA armies… not sure who they’d fight against other than themselves…
Alexandrian Successors
Again I think I have enough to put together any two Early Successor or Selucid DBA armies. One of these days…
GREAT WAR ERA – HOTT/DBx
Early War
If a stand is approximately a company and 4 stands makes a battalion I have enough ready to go to make two battalions of British (well… one British, one Scottish) and Two battalions of Germans. I also have two squadron/stands of German Uhlans, and a battery/stand of field artillery and machineguns. I could quite easily crank out an couple squadrons of British Cavalry and have two machineguns ready to go, and could quickly rebase a field gun battery/stand. I’d like to try this out in the next couple weeks and if it turns out to be fun we can churn out as many as we like – I made the british myself and John has more Germans and French that would just need to be rebased, and tonned of Russians, Sebians, Austrians….
Late War
I have made Canadians and Germans. I have a regiment of Germans and two brigades of Canadians ready to go… and can cast more at anytime.
Russian Civil War/”Back of Beyond”
I have White Russians, Bolsheviks and Warlord Chinese all ready to go… what are we waiting for!? I guess I have to read the rules again, clear off the games table which has exploded with all these figures I’m trying to take stock of, and invite some people over to game!
SEVEN YEARS WAR - HOTT/DBx
I easily have enough French to put together a little game to try it out – Five Regiments of Infantry (3 stands each), one regiment of Horse (three stands), and two stands of artillery. Unfortunately for the British I only have two regiments of infantry completed… I suppose I could set up a scenario game where the British are holding some defendable position and the French have to try and take it…?
Anyeay I have no shortage of stuff I can paint up for this as I bought a pile of specialist type things and I can cast all my own rank and file types.
I’ve had this idea that I could try and get the forces for Quebec ready for the 250th anniversary in September… Hmmmmm… I should figure out what I’d need to have done.
WORLD WAR TWO - HOTT/DBx
I think most of my 15mm forces all have a common frontage (2.5”) – with the exception of small guns which have been based facing the short edge… Not sure if they really come into play in HOTT WW2 anyway… This would require no work to try out as I have stuff ready to go in 15mm.
The majority of the forces I have in 20mm haven’t been painted yet so it would be very easy for me to rebased those to a 60mm frontage. The 60mm frontage would first of all match all my other HOTT/DBx stuff (so I wouldn’t have to cut so many different sized bases) and it would also most easily facilitate 20mm tanks.
MODERN - HOTT/DBx
All of my modern stuff is 20mm and the infantry and vehicles are on bases of differing frontages. I’m not sure how big of a deal common base frontage would be for modern gaming…? But like the 20mm WW2 stuff I could rebase stuff to a 60mm frontage – and I could still use it for CWC (because base size does not matter at all for that…).
SAVAGE WORLDS SKIRMISHING
Victoriana (“Rippers”/Horror and/or Space 1889/VSF)
Hmmmm… I have quite a bit of this. Just need to figure out some fun and interesting new ways to use them in scenarios. Some terrain might be nice and some fun vehicles – like ether flyers and steam tanks…
Pulp Adventure
World War Two (Historical and/or Weird War)
There is very little I need to paint for WW2 stuff. I just need to sit down and come up with some scenarios and start playing. I’d like to built a zeppelin and a tramp steamer and some other pulpy vehicles and terrain…
Okay, there are a few things still unpainted – a couple squads of Russians to finish off my under-strength COMPANY(!?), a KV-1, a PzkwIV, A Russian Jeep, Two squads to finish off a second platoon of British Paras (really… when am I ever going to use more than ONE!?), A squad of 8th Army British I just picked up, the better part of two hald-sections of British commandos to finish off my full assault troop, Some Commando support weapons, a handful of partisans/resistance fighters, odd and sundry Germans - some engineers and field police, maybe a fourth squad of them, and a few anti-tank guns and crews – British, Russian, and German! It sounds like a lot, but it isn’t so much.
At some point I’d like to pick up a few more vehicles – just light ones like a Panzer II or some armoured cars, maybe some desert jeeps, etc.
What I really need to work on for the skirmishing is the TERRAIN!! I have a pile of ruins and rubble terrain that’s half-built. If only I could find some time to finish it up…
Sci-fi
I have none of the Eldar or Imperial Guard painted… There’s quite a few of them… I could throw in a Sci-fi skirmish with what I have of other sci-fi stuff from time to time, just to keep me thinking about it… once in a while squeeze a fire team of this or that into the painting queue…
THE PLAN
Well that’s what I’m thinking about these days and some of the stuff I have to work on. Now I just need to make some sense out of it all – decide what the priorities should be and make some sort of prioritized “TO DO” list….
In terms of what games to play it would make sense to try out some Great War era HOTT (or “HITT” – Hordes in the Trenches) as I HAVE a pile of stuff for it ready to go! If it works out maybe build on those forces…
I should work on another regiment or two of Seven Years War British, or maybe one regiment and a couple stands of British artillery. That way we could try out a small game of DBA 1500-1900 with about 12 stands on each side. Again, if it was fun and to everyone’s liking I have no shortage of more stuff I could paint up for it.
I’ve been kind of tired of WW2 stuff – well at larger than skirmish scale. But I have a lot of stuff that could easily be pressed into action for HOTT WW2… and it looks pretty similar to Modern HOTT… so… Or I could just re-base 12 stands of two of my 20mm Modern forces for a quick try of that variant – as I’m more interested in it anyway….
Of course there’s lots of things to try out with plain old fantasy HOTT and DBA…
I think I’d like to bring back Savage Saturdays – I’m somewhat reluctant to do so in the summer as I’d like to be able to get up early on Sunday’s and go for a bike ride… But if I kept it to skirmish games – and small, reasonable skirmishes with clear objective and a turn time limit… we could potentially finish up at a reasonable enough hour…
Hmmmm… I need to paint a couple units of cavalry for one John and a couple Descent figures for the other John…
I guess priority number one for this week should be to paint up six British Cavalry men for a little 1914 action and clear off the table! Maybe get painting some of the stuff for the Johns to get that out of the way!
More HOTTies…
I’ve been working on a few more stands for Amanda’s “HOTT Chick” army – The Saphistic League of Unity and Togetherness.
(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)
Another stand of older GW Dark Elf Witch Elves. These will be classed as “Warband”.
I also had a couple extra I based individually for skimishin’! Not sure when I’d ever make use of them… I think they’d more likely show up in a Ski-fi skirmish than in a fantasy one…
These are Ngoni Archers from Copplestone Castings. They will be some more “Shooters”… Though I guess they could also be used as “Lurkers” – an ambushing party waiting in the woods…? It’s been a while since I painted any Coppelstone figures. They’re so much fun to paint…
This is a work in progress. The figure is from Hasslefree Miniatures. It will be a “Hero” – possibly a “Hero General” – for the army.
I’m kind of stuck at this point because I’m unsure how to paint the cat. Part of my wants to do a single colour – golden brown or black – but part of me wants to make it stripy like a tiger. I think stripy could potentially look better… but if not done right it could look not-so-hot… Also What colours…? I could do it in a standard orange with black stripes… but then I could paint it like a white tiger…? Or something even crazier like green with purple stripes or blue with orange stripes!? On one hand I thought maybe I should ask Amanda what she would like… on the other hand it’d be nice to just have it done when she gets back from Ontario as a surprise.
Any suggestions…?
(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)
Another stand of older GW Dark Elf Witch Elves. These will be classed as “Warband”.
I also had a couple extra I based individually for skimishin’! Not sure when I’d ever make use of them… I think they’d more likely show up in a Ski-fi skirmish than in a fantasy one…
These are Ngoni Archers from Copplestone Castings. They will be some more “Shooters”… Though I guess they could also be used as “Lurkers” – an ambushing party waiting in the woods…? It’s been a while since I painted any Coppelstone figures. They’re so much fun to paint…
This is a work in progress. The figure is from Hasslefree Miniatures. It will be a “Hero” – possibly a “Hero General” – for the army.
I’m kind of stuck at this point because I’m unsure how to paint the cat. Part of my wants to do a single colour – golden brown or black – but part of me wants to make it stripy like a tiger. I think stripy could potentially look better… but if not done right it could look not-so-hot… Also What colours…? I could do it in a standard orange with black stripes… but then I could paint it like a white tiger…? Or something even crazier like green with purple stripes or blue with orange stripes!? On one hand I thought maybe I should ask Amanda what she would like… on the other hand it’d be nice to just have it done when she gets back from Ontario as a surprise.
Any suggestions…?
Monday, June 8, 2009
The Campaign for Hottsk – Year Three
…and so we come to the conclusion of this epic tale of adventure, betrayal, and warfare in miniature. If you havent’ read the first two parts I’s highly recommend you read Year One and Year Two first.
After a fine supper at Amigo’s Cantina we launched into the third and final year of our campaign…
YEAR THREE
Spring
T’was the season of unsuccessful sieges…?
Having overwintered in Buttercupford, King Aethelbert the Almost Ready decided to carve himself out an empire by his own sword – at the expense of the newly founded Elvish Empire... So he marched north to the former orc territory of the Broken Tusks. There he spent most of the spring fighting off ambushing parties of elvish archers and doing little of any real affect.
The Elves, for their part, marched on Buttercupford and tried to bring it back into the fold of their empire but the garrison left behind were sturdy folk and not willing to give up easily. The siege dragged on into the summer.
Over the winter the Orcs and Wildmen of Mørke negotiated a peace with Aarkland and submitted to their overlordship. Together the Army of Mørke (if you could call it an “army”) and Aarkland marched on Argha and besieged it once more. Knowing what happened to the last garrison that gave up the town the halfbads fought on ferociously through the spring!
The movements of the Halfbad Army and the Dwarves stank of some sort of secret negotiations between orcs and dwarves that at least one party – if not both then reneged on!? The Army of halfbad marched first to Grog and then on to Glurg… The Dwarven Army, which, for the most part, had overwintered in Glurg marched straight on to Halfbad’s capitol of Drek! Neither were successful at winkling out the defenders.
The Army of Florin was the only aggressor in this campaign that did not lay siege to an areas this spring. They instead remained in their capitol of Rugenville plotting their next move…
Summer
Furious with the Treacherous Dwarves Skimpi the Sneak stormed back to his capitol of Drek and launched themselves upon the dwarves siege lines! The battle was another frantic melee. The Dwarves sold themselves dearly but eventually were overwhelmed by the goblins that seemed to come at them from all directions out of the wilderness!
Bjorn Bjarnetson, High King of the Dwarves (Bob) arrays his forces for battle against Skimpi the Sneak (“other Tim”) of Halfbad.
The Dwarves forces were split by a forest running down the center of the battle field.
South of the forest there was a fierce action between some Dwarven foot (Blades and Shooters) and the Goblin Hero, riders, and Spear General.
After they were taken care of the Goblins concentrated on the force lined up north of the forest.
That battle was also fierce with abit of back and forth.
Ultimately the Dwarven line was broken and they retired to Glurg.
Meanwhile, on the other end of the continent, The Anglanders succeeded in subduing the Land of the Broken Tusks and cleared out all the Elvish immigrants. The Elves were not so successful in their continued siege of Buttercupford, which lingered on through the summer.
The armies of Aarkland and Mørke continued their siege of Argha but the desperate defenders held on! Conveniently, being Orcs, they had no trouble at all eating their fallen comrades – of which there were many!
Through the summer King Humperdinck was rarely seen outside his bedchambers, though many messengers came and went (not to mention a number of fine ladies… and the occasional effeminate young man….).
Everyone’s positions at the end of summer/beginning of fall.
Autumn
In the last season of the campaign Anni-frid became a tributary of Aarkland – pretty much assuring Aarkland;s victory in the campaign… I’m not entirely sure why….? Anyway, being now the overlord of the Dwarves, the Aarkalnders retired from the Siege of Argha to Glurg where the Dwarves had retired to after their Defeat at Drek (of course they could have done that simply with the permission of the Dwarves…). The two armies sat in Glurg waiting for the Orcs to come out and play. The Orcs didn’t oblige them. They sat in their capitol and waited for the Dwarves and Aarklanders to come to him…
The Army of Mørke stayed on at Argha to continue the siege, but was unable to take back the city…
King Aethelbert the Almost Ready led his army back to Buttercupford to relieve the siege. In yet another treacherous back-stabbing move the Army of Florin marched out of Rugenville to aid in the relief of Buttercupford…. Would they make it in time…!?
Surprise! The Elvish Mounted Column flanked the main line, dispatched the single stand of Blade actind as a picket, and….
…captured the stronghold!! Wow! No ne saw that coming…!? At least it seems Aethelbert didn’t… maybe that’s why he’s the “Almost Ready”…?
THE END
AND SO… that brought us to the end of our campaign. We were actually done at a decent hour and I don’t think anyone really felt the urge to carry on. I tallied up all the statistics and presented some awards…
The overall winner was Terry with a whopping 72 Prestige points!? Half of that coming from tributaries! Congratulations Terry! Terry got to take home the map I painted and I had picked up a gift certificate from the Dragon’s Den for him.
I gave out three other prizes – they were sort of like trophies but double as “barker markers” (for 28mm figures) – You can see them Here.
The Lord of Battle Award went to the player who won the most battles – that would be the “other” Tim, who won five!!
The Future Necromancer Award went to the player who lost the most stands over the course of the campaign – that would be Jackson, who lost NINETEEN!?
Finally the Bloody Daggar Award went to the most treacherous player who – Chris was voted so!
Once again it was an awesome campaign, thanks again to all the fine gentlemen who came out and made it so!!
It has been brought to my attention that I referred to King Skimpi the Sneak of Halfbad as being a “hero” in the Year One report – Skimpi the Sneak was in fact a Spear General… The Hero in the Army of Half bad was some other nameless Orc goon
Here are the statistics:
Player: Bob
Race: Dwarves
Country: Anni-Frid – tributary of Aarkland
Head of State/Army: Bjorn Bjarnetson, High King of the Dwarves
Cities: Agnetha, Faltskog, Ulvaeus, Lyngstad, Glurg,
Battle Prestige: 0
Prestige from Cities: 30
Prestige from Tributaries Cities: 0
Total Prestige: 30
Battles Won: 0
Stands Lost: 12
Player: Rick
Race: Elves
Country: Seroza
Head of State/Army: General Venerable Bede
Cities: Horta, Lajes, Pico, Morgond, Black Rock, Buttercupford
Battle Prestige: 20
Prestige from Cities: 36
Prestige from Tributaries Cities: 0
Total Prestige: 56
Battles Won: 4
Stands Lost: 3
Player: Cory
Race: Anglo-Saxon-ish
Country: Angland
Head of State/Army: King Aethelbert the Almost Ready
Cities: Galordon, Scael, Broken Tusks
Battle Prestige: 12
Prestige from Cities: 18
Prestige from Tributaries Cities: 0
Total Prestige: 30
Battles Won: 1
Stands Lost: 7
Player: Chris
Race: Norman-ish
Country: Florin
Head of State/Army: King Humperdinck
Cities: Rugenville, West-Leigh,
Battle Prestige: 0
Prestige from Cities: 12
Prestige from Tributaries Cities: 0
Total Prestige: 12
Battles Won: 0
Stands Lost: 8
Player: Terry Silverthorn
Race: Norsemen
Country: Aarkland
Tributaries: Angland, Anni-frid, Mørke
Head of State: King Häggis
Head of Army: General Lutefisk
Cities: Harag, Drelt, Svaug Gnurl
Battle Prestige: 12
Prestige from Cities: 24
Prestige from Tributaries Cities: 36
Total Prestige: 72
Battles Won: 2
Stands Lost: 5
Player: Jackson
Race: Orcs
Country: Mørke
Head of State/Army: Hannurbull
Cities: Waruk
Battle Prestige: 0
Prestige from Cities: 6
Prestige from Tributaries Cities: 0
Total Prestige: 6
Battles Won: 0
Stands Lost: 19
Player: Tim
Race: Orcs
Country: Halfbad
Head of State/Army: Skimpi the Sneak
Cities: Drek, Grog, Argha
Battle Prestige: 35
Prestige from Cities: 18
Prestige from Tributaries Cities: 0
Total Prestige: 53
Battles Won: 5
Stands Lost: 10
Player: Christian
Race: Orc
Country: Land of the Bloody Suns
Head of State/Army: Warlord Bork Redtooth of the Bloody Suns Tribe
Cities: None
Battle Prestige: 0
Prestige from Cities: 0
Prestige from Tributaries Cities: 0
Total Prestige: 0
Battles Won: 0
Stands Lost: 4
After a fine supper at Amigo’s Cantina we launched into the third and final year of our campaign…
YEAR THREE
Spring
T’was the season of unsuccessful sieges…?
Having overwintered in Buttercupford, King Aethelbert the Almost Ready decided to carve himself out an empire by his own sword – at the expense of the newly founded Elvish Empire... So he marched north to the former orc territory of the Broken Tusks. There he spent most of the spring fighting off ambushing parties of elvish archers and doing little of any real affect.
The Elves, for their part, marched on Buttercupford and tried to bring it back into the fold of their empire but the garrison left behind were sturdy folk and not willing to give up easily. The siege dragged on into the summer.
Over the winter the Orcs and Wildmen of Mørke negotiated a peace with Aarkland and submitted to their overlordship. Together the Army of Mørke (if you could call it an “army”) and Aarkland marched on Argha and besieged it once more. Knowing what happened to the last garrison that gave up the town the halfbads fought on ferociously through the spring!
The movements of the Halfbad Army and the Dwarves stank of some sort of secret negotiations between orcs and dwarves that at least one party – if not both then reneged on!? The Army of halfbad marched first to Grog and then on to Glurg… The Dwarven Army, which, for the most part, had overwintered in Glurg marched straight on to Halfbad’s capitol of Drek! Neither were successful at winkling out the defenders.
The Army of Florin was the only aggressor in this campaign that did not lay siege to an areas this spring. They instead remained in their capitol of Rugenville plotting their next move…
Summer
Furious with the Treacherous Dwarves Skimpi the Sneak stormed back to his capitol of Drek and launched themselves upon the dwarves siege lines! The battle was another frantic melee. The Dwarves sold themselves dearly but eventually were overwhelmed by the goblins that seemed to come at them from all directions out of the wilderness!
Bjorn Bjarnetson, High King of the Dwarves (Bob) arrays his forces for battle against Skimpi the Sneak (“other Tim”) of Halfbad.
The Dwarves forces were split by a forest running down the center of the battle field.
South of the forest there was a fierce action between some Dwarven foot (Blades and Shooters) and the Goblin Hero, riders, and Spear General.
After they were taken care of the Goblins concentrated on the force lined up north of the forest.
That battle was also fierce with abit of back and forth.
Ultimately the Dwarven line was broken and they retired to Glurg.
Meanwhile, on the other end of the continent, The Anglanders succeeded in subduing the Land of the Broken Tusks and cleared out all the Elvish immigrants. The Elves were not so successful in their continued siege of Buttercupford, which lingered on through the summer.
The armies of Aarkland and Mørke continued their siege of Argha but the desperate defenders held on! Conveniently, being Orcs, they had no trouble at all eating their fallen comrades – of which there were many!
Through the summer King Humperdinck was rarely seen outside his bedchambers, though many messengers came and went (not to mention a number of fine ladies… and the occasional effeminate young man….).
Everyone’s positions at the end of summer/beginning of fall.
Autumn
In the last season of the campaign Anni-frid became a tributary of Aarkland – pretty much assuring Aarkland;s victory in the campaign… I’m not entirely sure why….? Anyway, being now the overlord of the Dwarves, the Aarkalnders retired from the Siege of Argha to Glurg where the Dwarves had retired to after their Defeat at Drek (of course they could have done that simply with the permission of the Dwarves…). The two armies sat in Glurg waiting for the Orcs to come out and play. The Orcs didn’t oblige them. They sat in their capitol and waited for the Dwarves and Aarklanders to come to him…
The Army of Mørke stayed on at Argha to continue the siege, but was unable to take back the city…
King Aethelbert the Almost Ready led his army back to Buttercupford to relieve the siege. In yet another treacherous back-stabbing move the Army of Florin marched out of Rugenville to aid in the relief of Buttercupford…. Would they make it in time…!?
Surprise! The Elvish Mounted Column flanked the main line, dispatched the single stand of Blade actind as a picket, and….
…captured the stronghold!! Wow! No ne saw that coming…!? At least it seems Aethelbert didn’t… maybe that’s why he’s the “Almost Ready”…?
THE END
AND SO… that brought us to the end of our campaign. We were actually done at a decent hour and I don’t think anyone really felt the urge to carry on. I tallied up all the statistics and presented some awards…
The overall winner was Terry with a whopping 72 Prestige points!? Half of that coming from tributaries! Congratulations Terry! Terry got to take home the map I painted and I had picked up a gift certificate from the Dragon’s Den for him.
I gave out three other prizes – they were sort of like trophies but double as “barker markers” (for 28mm figures) – You can see them Here.
The Lord of Battle Award went to the player who won the most battles – that would be the “other” Tim, who won five!!
The Future Necromancer Award went to the player who lost the most stands over the course of the campaign – that would be Jackson, who lost NINETEEN!?
Finally the Bloody Daggar Award went to the most treacherous player who – Chris was voted so!
Once again it was an awesome campaign, thanks again to all the fine gentlemen who came out and made it so!!
It has been brought to my attention that I referred to King Skimpi the Sneak of Halfbad as being a “hero” in the Year One report – Skimpi the Sneak was in fact a Spear General… The Hero in the Army of Half bad was some other nameless Orc goon
Here are the statistics:
Player: Bob
Race: Dwarves
Country: Anni-Frid – tributary of Aarkland
Head of State/Army: Bjorn Bjarnetson, High King of the Dwarves
Cities: Agnetha, Faltskog, Ulvaeus, Lyngstad, Glurg,
Battle Prestige: 0
Prestige from Cities: 30
Prestige from Tributaries Cities: 0
Total Prestige: 30
Battles Won: 0
Stands Lost: 12
Player: Rick
Race: Elves
Country: Seroza
Head of State/Army: General Venerable Bede
Cities: Horta, Lajes, Pico, Morgond, Black Rock, Buttercupford
Battle Prestige: 20
Prestige from Cities: 36
Prestige from Tributaries Cities: 0
Total Prestige: 56
Battles Won: 4
Stands Lost: 3
Player: Cory
Race: Anglo-Saxon-ish
Country: Angland
Head of State/Army: King Aethelbert the Almost Ready
Cities: Galordon, Scael, Broken Tusks
Battle Prestige: 12
Prestige from Cities: 18
Prestige from Tributaries Cities: 0
Total Prestige: 30
Battles Won: 1
Stands Lost: 7
Player: Chris
Race: Norman-ish
Country: Florin
Head of State/Army: King Humperdinck
Cities: Rugenville, West-Leigh,
Battle Prestige: 0
Prestige from Cities: 12
Prestige from Tributaries Cities: 0
Total Prestige: 12
Battles Won: 0
Stands Lost: 8
Player: Terry Silverthorn
Race: Norsemen
Country: Aarkland
Tributaries: Angland, Anni-frid, Mørke
Head of State: King Häggis
Head of Army: General Lutefisk
Cities: Harag, Drelt, Svaug Gnurl
Battle Prestige: 12
Prestige from Cities: 24
Prestige from Tributaries Cities: 36
Total Prestige: 72
Battles Won: 2
Stands Lost: 5
Player: Jackson
Race: Orcs
Country: Mørke
Head of State/Army: Hannurbull
Cities: Waruk
Battle Prestige: 0
Prestige from Cities: 6
Prestige from Tributaries Cities: 0
Total Prestige: 6
Battles Won: 0
Stands Lost: 19
Player: Tim
Race: Orcs
Country: Halfbad
Head of State/Army: Skimpi the Sneak
Cities: Drek, Grog, Argha
Battle Prestige: 35
Prestige from Cities: 18
Prestige from Tributaries Cities: 0
Total Prestige: 53
Battles Won: 5
Stands Lost: 10
Player: Christian
Race: Orc
Country: Land of the Bloody Suns
Head of State/Army: Warlord Bork Redtooth of the Bloody Suns Tribe
Cities: None
Battle Prestige: 0
Prestige from Cities: 0
Prestige from Tributaries Cities: 0
Total Prestige: 0
Battles Won: 0
Stands Lost: 4
The Campaign for Hottsk - Year Two
(If you haven’t read the report of the first year of this campaign You might want to start there… It can be found HERE).
YEAR TWO
Spring
In the spring of the second year of the Great War for Hottsk Hannurbull, King of Mørke, sat with his army sat in Gnurl waiting to defend against any invaders… Once again The Halfbads invaded from the east. The Army of Mørke once again met them in battle at Argha! Once again the Halfbads beat down the Army of Mørke in battle and claimed Argha to be their own!
The Army of Mørke prepares to meet the Army of Halfbad once again!
The army of Halfbad surges forward through the wilderness.
Orcs and orcs, mixing it up. Why can’t they just get along…!?
This one seemed to degenerate into a wild skirmish in the woods! A mounted contingent of a Hero and two Riders broke through the melee and tried to take the stronghold, but I think in the end it was sheer losses that obliged the Army of Mørke to once again abandon Argha to the Halfbads.
To be sure there was much rape, pillage and murder in Argha that night to avaenge the halfbad Garrison put to the sword in the previous year! But once again after the battle King Skimpi the Sneak was informed that the Dwarves had come down out of the mountains and attacked Glurg – unfortunately this time they had TAKEN it!!
Far off to the Southeast, the Banner of King Humperdinck of Florin was raised at Buttercupford. The army assembled and prepared to march on Seroza. They marched out of The City of Buttercupford and over the first hill only to discover the Army of SEroza on their doorsteps arrayed for battle!? In a pamic, the rash King Humperdinck charged down to meet the elves on the field of battle. After the first charge of the Florin knights into the Elvish lines a messenger caught up to King Humperdinck with grave news. A mounted column of elves had snuck around the flank, scattered the pickets before the city and taken Buttercupford! Another nearly bloodless victory for the Elves!?
King Humperdinck (Chris) arrays the army of Florin before the gates of Buttercupford!
The wiley General Venerable Bede (Rick) prepares to put his cunning and subtle plan into effect!
The Knights of Florin ride out to meet the Elvish line – while the elvish hammer (in the form of their flanking mouted column) is about to fall. Humperdinck’s subordinates try to break up the battle line and send the foot back to defend the city..
…but it is far too late for that!
The Knights of Florin fall upon the Elves in a desperate bid to drive them of and crash through their line!
Alas, the city has already fallen!
Over to the West, two armies were marching north! The Army of Aarkland besieged their old city of Drelt to recapture it from the Goblins. The siege dragged on all through the spring. The Army of Anganld marched into the lands of their new overlards, through their old city of Scael to the Aarkland city of Svaug.
While these battles were taking place Bob and Cory had a little one-off game, just for fun!
The Anglish and The dwarves conduct “Field Excercises”
Summer
After retiring to Gnurl, the Army of Morke marched south to try and lift the siege of Drelt. Much weakened they met the full might of the Aarkland army – if that wasn’t enough a contingent of Anglander’s were there supporting their overlord.
The valiant (or foolhardy!?) Orcs of Mørke attempt to relieve the siege of Drelt!
The battle lines clash.
While the Orcs were initially doing well on the flanks and Hannurbull and the Trolls gave the main line a pounding, the hard hitting steady Aarkanders eventually overwhelmed, surrounded and annihilated the Orcs… Hannurbull only just escaping back to Waruk with his life! (I think all the orcs had left after this battle was the Hero and maybe a stand of warband…? If that…?)
The army of Halfbad marched back to Glurg to find the Dwarvish Army departed and a small garrison of Dwarven engineers hurriedly improving the fortifications. Skimpi the Sneak besieged his own fortress determined to eject these short hairy mountain men from his lands! Scous arrived with news that the Dwarves had marched on the capitol of Drek and were currently Besieging it!? Neither Drek nor Glurg fell to their besiegers.
The army of Florin retired to West Leigh and was pursued by the Elves who laid siege to them there in their fortress. That siege too would drag on through the hot summer months.
King Arthelbert (the Almost ready) led the Army of the Anglanders up into the dwarvish mountains!? They passed though Lyngstad and made their way to Agnetha unopposed!
Autumn
The locations of the various armies after their fall moves.
Hannurbul of Mørke decided field battles weren’t really his thing…. Sieges and sacking seemed to work out much better… So he led the small warband he still commanded back to Argha to try and once again reduce the small garrison left behind by the Halfbads. It seemed a sensible move, surely the Halfbads would be attempting to relieve their capitol. But no sooner did Hannerbull arrive so to did the Skimpi the Sneak and his army of Halfbad on it’s way to Waruk!? Once again they battled over the beleaguered city of Argha
The action was short and violent – while the Wildmen of Mørke Warband mixed it up with some lurkers and beasts in the woods Hannurbull and his personal guard stormed toward the gates of Argha!
They were however overwhelmed and annihilated. Hannurbul escaped, severely wounded and made his way back to Waruk only to find out that the Aarklanders had also invaded and taken Gnurl after a short siege!
In danger of having it’s supply line cut off the Dwarvish army of Anni-frid had given up it’s siege of Drek and retired to Glurg, to find the orcs had given up their siege and wandered off to fight with a weakened lot of their own kind… Orcs…
Strange and treacherous behavior was taking place in the southwest. The Elves gave up their siege of West Leigh… but instead of retiring they marched WITH The Army of Florin into Angland. There they laid siege to and took the city of Morgond!
If that wasn’t strange enough the Anglanders continued their march through Ulvaeus, and down through the passes towards Buttercupford! Unfortunately, as any dwarf can tell you, those passes can be treacherous in the fall and the army was caught in a massive avalanche and all but obliterated (10 of the 12AP in the army was wiped out!?). All that survived was Aethelbert himself and his personal Huscarls! But they forged on through the snowy passes and down through the foothills to the City of Buttercupford. They were of such a surly disposition all they had to do was march to the gates and demand they be opened and the city fell to them!! There they wintered and prepared for renewed campaigns in the spring!
Winter
Once again all armies successfully retired to winter quarters and spent the long, cold months rebuilding and preparing to continue their campaigns in the spring… The Anglanders (as mentioned) overwintered in their new city of Buttercupford.
At this point Halfbad (other Tim) had acquired 27 Prestige points, Seroza (Rick) now had 14, Angland (Cory) still had 12, as did Aarkland (Terry).
Stay tuned for the conclusion of the campaign: YEAR THREE!!!
YEAR TWO
Spring
In the spring of the second year of the Great War for Hottsk Hannurbull, King of Mørke, sat with his army sat in Gnurl waiting to defend against any invaders… Once again The Halfbads invaded from the east. The Army of Mørke once again met them in battle at Argha! Once again the Halfbads beat down the Army of Mørke in battle and claimed Argha to be their own!
The Army of Mørke prepares to meet the Army of Halfbad once again!
The army of Halfbad surges forward through the wilderness.
Orcs and orcs, mixing it up. Why can’t they just get along…!?
This one seemed to degenerate into a wild skirmish in the woods! A mounted contingent of a Hero and two Riders broke through the melee and tried to take the stronghold, but I think in the end it was sheer losses that obliged the Army of Mørke to once again abandon Argha to the Halfbads.
To be sure there was much rape, pillage and murder in Argha that night to avaenge the halfbad Garrison put to the sword in the previous year! But once again after the battle King Skimpi the Sneak was informed that the Dwarves had come down out of the mountains and attacked Glurg – unfortunately this time they had TAKEN it!!
Far off to the Southeast, the Banner of King Humperdinck of Florin was raised at Buttercupford. The army assembled and prepared to march on Seroza. They marched out of The City of Buttercupford and over the first hill only to discover the Army of SEroza on their doorsteps arrayed for battle!? In a pamic, the rash King Humperdinck charged down to meet the elves on the field of battle. After the first charge of the Florin knights into the Elvish lines a messenger caught up to King Humperdinck with grave news. A mounted column of elves had snuck around the flank, scattered the pickets before the city and taken Buttercupford! Another nearly bloodless victory for the Elves!?
King Humperdinck (Chris) arrays the army of Florin before the gates of Buttercupford!
The wiley General Venerable Bede (Rick) prepares to put his cunning and subtle plan into effect!
The Knights of Florin ride out to meet the Elvish line – while the elvish hammer (in the form of their flanking mouted column) is about to fall. Humperdinck’s subordinates try to break up the battle line and send the foot back to defend the city..
…but it is far too late for that!
The Knights of Florin fall upon the Elves in a desperate bid to drive them of and crash through their line!
Alas, the city has already fallen!
Over to the West, two armies were marching north! The Army of Aarkland besieged their old city of Drelt to recapture it from the Goblins. The siege dragged on all through the spring. The Army of Anganld marched into the lands of their new overlards, through their old city of Scael to the Aarkland city of Svaug.
While these battles were taking place Bob and Cory had a little one-off game, just for fun!
The Anglish and The dwarves conduct “Field Excercises”
Summer
After retiring to Gnurl, the Army of Morke marched south to try and lift the siege of Drelt. Much weakened they met the full might of the Aarkland army – if that wasn’t enough a contingent of Anglander’s were there supporting their overlord.
The valiant (or foolhardy!?) Orcs of Mørke attempt to relieve the siege of Drelt!
The battle lines clash.
While the Orcs were initially doing well on the flanks and Hannurbull and the Trolls gave the main line a pounding, the hard hitting steady Aarkanders eventually overwhelmed, surrounded and annihilated the Orcs… Hannurbull only just escaping back to Waruk with his life! (I think all the orcs had left after this battle was the Hero and maybe a stand of warband…? If that…?)
The army of Halfbad marched back to Glurg to find the Dwarvish Army departed and a small garrison of Dwarven engineers hurriedly improving the fortifications. Skimpi the Sneak besieged his own fortress determined to eject these short hairy mountain men from his lands! Scous arrived with news that the Dwarves had marched on the capitol of Drek and were currently Besieging it!? Neither Drek nor Glurg fell to their besiegers.
The army of Florin retired to West Leigh and was pursued by the Elves who laid siege to them there in their fortress. That siege too would drag on through the hot summer months.
King Arthelbert (the Almost ready) led the Army of the Anglanders up into the dwarvish mountains!? They passed though Lyngstad and made their way to Agnetha unopposed!
Autumn
The locations of the various armies after their fall moves.
Hannurbul of Mørke decided field battles weren’t really his thing…. Sieges and sacking seemed to work out much better… So he led the small warband he still commanded back to Argha to try and once again reduce the small garrison left behind by the Halfbads. It seemed a sensible move, surely the Halfbads would be attempting to relieve their capitol. But no sooner did Hannerbull arrive so to did the Skimpi the Sneak and his army of Halfbad on it’s way to Waruk!? Once again they battled over the beleaguered city of Argha
The action was short and violent – while the Wildmen of Mørke Warband mixed it up with some lurkers and beasts in the woods Hannurbull and his personal guard stormed toward the gates of Argha!
They were however overwhelmed and annihilated. Hannurbul escaped, severely wounded and made his way back to Waruk only to find out that the Aarklanders had also invaded and taken Gnurl after a short siege!
In danger of having it’s supply line cut off the Dwarvish army of Anni-frid had given up it’s siege of Drek and retired to Glurg, to find the orcs had given up their siege and wandered off to fight with a weakened lot of their own kind… Orcs…
Strange and treacherous behavior was taking place in the southwest. The Elves gave up their siege of West Leigh… but instead of retiring they marched WITH The Army of Florin into Angland. There they laid siege to and took the city of Morgond!
If that wasn’t strange enough the Anglanders continued their march through Ulvaeus, and down through the passes towards Buttercupford! Unfortunately, as any dwarf can tell you, those passes can be treacherous in the fall and the army was caught in a massive avalanche and all but obliterated (10 of the 12AP in the army was wiped out!?). All that survived was Aethelbert himself and his personal Huscarls! But they forged on through the snowy passes and down through the foothills to the City of Buttercupford. They were of such a surly disposition all they had to do was march to the gates and demand they be opened and the city fell to them!! There they wintered and prepared for renewed campaigns in the spring!
Winter
Once again all armies successfully retired to winter quarters and spent the long, cold months rebuilding and preparing to continue their campaigns in the spring… The Anglanders (as mentioned) overwintered in their new city of Buttercupford.
At this point Halfbad (other Tim) had acquired 27 Prestige points, Seroza (Rick) now had 14, Angland (Cory) still had 12, as did Aarkland (Terry).
Stay tuned for the conclusion of the campaign: YEAR THREE!!!
The Campaign for Hottsk - Year One
Darkness spreads over the land of Hottsk. Armies of the Orcs gather in the North.
The Dwarf Warlords gather at Agnetha. The hammering of armourers plying their trade sounds through the valleys of Anni-frid.
The Elven Council convenes. It is decided that they must be readied for war. The army must be assembled and Venerable Bede is nominated as General of the Army.
All the while the kingdoms of men quarrel among themselves and are concerned only with their own affairs…
(wait... first a little background…)
This campaign weekend has been a dream of mine for darned near 20 years. Over 20 years, really… From when I very first started miniature wargaming I was interested in playing games as part of a campaign. Indeed I think the very first miniature game system I bought was the first edition of Battlesystem for AD&D. I tried playing it with the counters a couple times, but never really picked up massed armies of figures – oh, I had lots of miniatures for the role-playing game, just not units… I never really got characters in games I ran or played in to the point where they could be leading entire units into battle…
Later I got involved in Warhammer (back when it was a single hardcover book and you could play with any damn thing you wanted!?) because a friend was planning a large campaign – it fizzled before it got started. Laer I tried to get campaigns going first with systems of my own devisisng, then one with Mighty Empires when the first edition came out. Neither made it past the first couple turns.
When I stumbled upon DBA I fell in love with the elegant simplicity of it and saw the potential for some serious campaigning – it even included it’s own campaign system that was also brilliant in it’s simplicity. I immediately set about trying to recruit players for a campaign – We chose the campaigns of Alexander the great. Partly due to the availability of figures (RAFM was easily available through the Wizard’s Corner – our local game store where we all hung out) and also I think Osprey had just started it’s campaign series and one of the first books was The Campaigns of Alexander the Great.
I had the Persians, Cory had the Scythians… I think Mike was supposed to play the Thracians and John the Greeks… I can’t quite remember who was to play the Macedonians or Indians… maybe Jay and Todd…? Anyway, I think John and Mike may have bought a few packs, but I can’t remember if Mike did anything with his. I know John never did anything with his, and they’re probably still sitting in their original packaging in his basement. Cory at least assembled his army and played many battles on his kitchen table against my painted Persians… Cory still has them and they are still, for the most part, unpainted… Another campaign fizzled before it got started.
Shortly thereafter everyone I gamed with went their separate ways moving to Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, etc… and for a decade or so I just dreamed…
To bring a short conclusion to a story that’s already getting way to damn long (is anyone still reading or have you all skipped ahead to the pictures…? I know I would…) – This last winter I abandoned the then current plan of a Wargame Weekend with a focus around the Quebec campaign of 1759 and decided to build myself some DBA and HOTT armies… actually, no that’s not quite true – I was planning on building Warmaster armies in 28mm and though “hey I could play DBA and HOTT with these stands in the interm until I amass enough stuff to play Warmaster…” Well, I stared having so damn much fun playing HOTT I have abandoned all plans of Warmaster (anyone want a copy of Warmaster Ancients and Warmaster Ancient Armies…?) and realized I could easily put together about six HOTT armies with the stuff I had on hand… so I started planning a campaign weekend for sometime in the spring or summer…
This past weekend I hosted that HOTT campaign and it has truly been a DREAM COME TRUE thanks a a group of eight exceptional gentlemen – some of whom drove (or FLEW!) here from Edmonton and Calgary to participate. Thanks to all of you.
I was especially pleased that Mr. Cory Loshney – who initially played Warhammer with me and jumped right on board when I switched to DBA and built that Scythian army – was able to make it.
Here are all the participants gathered around my dining room table ready to begin the first turn:
(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)
From Left to Right: Jackson, Rick, Christian, Other Tim, Cory, Terry, Bob, and Chris
A list of who played what can be found HERE. I’m not going to get into the exact make up of each army as that would make my brain hurt – Most armies changed somewhat over the ears of the campaign as they were allowed to recruit different elements available.
Here is the MAP:
YEAR ONE
Spring
Starting locations at the beginning of Spring
Locations of the armies after marches completed…
In the spring of the first year or the Great War for Hottsk two armies march on the borders of Angland. The horsemen of Florin were massed on the eastern border in early spring and marched on Morgond as soon as the tracks were dry enough to do so. Meanwhile the Army of Aarkland marched from Drelt, in the north, on Scael from the west. King Aethelbert (the almost ready) ordered his standard raised at Galordon and marched east to meet the Florins. When he received news that Scael was besieged he hoped the garrison could hold on until the horsemen were be dealt with.
Ideed the Garrison at Scael did hold through the spring while the Armies of Angland and Florin met on a field just south of Morgond. There, Aetherbert handed a crushing defeat to the Florins, who then fled back across their border in utter disarray.
King Humperdink (Chris) and his invading army of Florins line up for battle opposite the Anglanders.
The Battle of Morgond observed by Terry and Bob (whose armies were engaged in Sieges). Until the previous evening Chris had never before played Hordes of the Things, and had only ever played DBA once or twice with me about four years ago…
The lines meet, retire and ready to charge again….
The Army of Florin defeated. The Army of Angland suffered few casualties (no stands lost to the Florin’s SIX!?)
Meanwhile in the North the Amies of the Goblin King Skimpi the Sneak invaded the neighboring orc lands of Mørke. Hannurbul, King of Mørke, lead his army out to meet the Halfbads at Argha. Skimpi the Sneak captured Argha after routing the Army of Mørke. A garrison was hastily organized there and the army made ready to move again as news arrived that the Dwarves of Anni-frid had marched down out of their snowy passes and laid siege to the fortress of Glurg
The first battle of Argha is under way! Hammurbull (Jackson) advances his forces to meet the invading Halfbads.
The armies about to clash! (Fatal mistake #1 about to take place – Beasts charging Riders and Hero General in the open… it wasn’t pretty…)
Skimpi the Sneak ploughs through the screen of wolves with his spiders and engages the warbands and hordes of Mørke in the woods.
To the East the usually peaceful Elves marched out of their woodland realm and advanced through the land of the Broken Tusks Tribe. There out on the steppes they met Warlord Bork Redtooth of the Bloody Suns Tribe, who had just arrived there from Black Rock. Here the victory was not nearly so decisive.
The Battle line of the Bloody Suns near on of the Broken Tusks fortified camps.
The Elves begin their long advance!
The Elves continue their advance while the Orcs reorganize their line… The rank and file orcs look on nervously as the giants pass in front of them (“boy… I hope nothing spooks them and they trample over us as they flee…”)
The elves themselves do some dancing about sending their mounted column straight across the table (behind the Elvish main line) and through the woods!?
The Elf and Orc lines clash (FINALLY!? – I think by this time both the other battles were over - in fact this was the only battle we had to call on time as it was damn near 11AM and we were only in the spring of the first year – unfortunately for Christian he made some bad rolls on his last turn and lost a couple stands, thus losing the battle…).
Summer
After moves completed for the Summer.
After retiring to their capitol of Waruk the Orcs of Mørke regrouped and marched again on Argha. When they arrived there they found that the Halfbads had vacated their recently acquired lands leaving only a small garrison behind. The Garrison was Quickly reduced and every last one of the Half-bads put to the sword!
The Halfbads had returned to relieve the siege at Glurg. There they met the Dwarves in battle. This was far less decisive and the Orcs and goblins went at it hammer and tongs with the Dwarves for a good long time before the Dwarves were obliged to retire from the field.
Meanwhile, far to the South the Anglanders, fresh from their victory against the Florins marched on Scael to relieve the siege there! They were perhaps a too confident in their abilities and expected the “Northern Barbarians” to flee the field as the horsemen from the east had. The Aarklanders held their ground and in a complete reversal of fortune crushed the Anglanders! The Anglanders, their army defeated and much reduced sued for peace and King Häggis accepted King Aethelbert the Almost ready as his vassal.
King Aethelbert the Almost Ready (Cory, left) leads his army against the accursed Aarklanders, lead by General Lutefisk (Terry, right).
The battle lines clash!!
CRUNCH!!
It was for some time a bit of a shoving match.
Lots of back and forth…
I think the Anglanders flanks disintegrated and the Aarklnaders enveloped them and it was over pretty quickly after that…
The army of the Elves pursued the Bloody Suns to their fortress of Black Rock, but the orcs refused to meet them in battle. Instead the orcs holed up in their fortress and forced the Elves to lay siege. The sige continued through the summer…
We broke for lunch at this point. I had hoped to finish a year in the morning, but it just didn’t work out. Ah well… After lunch the campaign continued…
Autumn
I’m not sure if they got the wrong directions back to their homeland or if they were suddenly afraid elves might invade the lands of the humans…. but the Army of Aarkland marched across the land of their tributary and into Florin making camp at West Leigh. Maybe they were there for the autumn wine tasting…?
The Army of Mørke, now well practiced in reducing garrisons and sacking towns, marched south into Aarkland and sacked the city of Drelt!
The dwarves continued their retreat all the way to their capitol of Agnetha. This left the passes open for the Halfbads to surge up into the mountains and besiege the fortress of Faltskog! The orcs and goblins were unable to break into the mountains and the early snow enticed them to return to their wilderness in the north.
The Anglanders returned to their capitol and released the fyrd from service for the year giving them plenty of time to make it home for the harvest.
The Florins, however, hearing the Army of the Elves were off in the North fighting orcs seized the opportunity to send out a series of raids into the region of Vico. They were unsuccessful in chasing off the Elves that lived there and eventually return to Florin for the harvest.
In the Northern lands of the Bloody Suns Warlord Bork Redtooth sallied out with his Orc horde and met the Elves in battle. The Elves again advance in a main line while General Venerable Bede led a mounted column around the flank. The battle was nearly bloodless – the mounted column swept into the fortress and the orc army broke and ran – thus ending the rule of Warlord Bork Redtooth!! Many fled north onto the plains, some fled west to join the tribe of the Angry Fists, and some probably even made their way into the wilderness of Halfbad.
Many rumours spread about the ultimate demise of Bork Redtooth. Some say he was killed on the field of battle or captured and executed by the elves. Others say he fled into hiding and is biding his time until he can return and evict the elves from the plains of the Bloody Suns… Whatever the case he took no further part in the Camapign for Hottsk…
The elves advance on the Fortress of Black Rock
Rick (left) about to perform the first of his soon-to-be-signature move - a coup de main seizure of a stronghold! I don’t think any stands were even lost in this game…!?
Winter
All armies successfully retired to winter quarters and spent the long, cold months rebuilding and preparing to continue the war in the spring…
At this point Halfbad (other Tim) had acquired 16 Prestige points, Angland (Cory) had 12, and both Aarkland (Terry) and Seroza (Rick) had 10… and the Bloody Suns (Christian) were out of the game!?
Somehow I forgot to take pictures of the armies movements on the map… ah well…
Stay tuned for YEAR TWO!!! I should (hopefully) get them done sometime later today...
The Dwarf Warlords gather at Agnetha. The hammering of armourers plying their trade sounds through the valleys of Anni-frid.
The Elven Council convenes. It is decided that they must be readied for war. The army must be assembled and Venerable Bede is nominated as General of the Army.
All the while the kingdoms of men quarrel among themselves and are concerned only with their own affairs…
(wait... first a little background…)
This campaign weekend has been a dream of mine for darned near 20 years. Over 20 years, really… From when I very first started miniature wargaming I was interested in playing games as part of a campaign. Indeed I think the very first miniature game system I bought was the first edition of Battlesystem for AD&D. I tried playing it with the counters a couple times, but never really picked up massed armies of figures – oh, I had lots of miniatures for the role-playing game, just not units… I never really got characters in games I ran or played in to the point where they could be leading entire units into battle…
Later I got involved in Warhammer (back when it was a single hardcover book and you could play with any damn thing you wanted!?) because a friend was planning a large campaign – it fizzled before it got started. Laer I tried to get campaigns going first with systems of my own devisisng, then one with Mighty Empires when the first edition came out. Neither made it past the first couple turns.
When I stumbled upon DBA I fell in love with the elegant simplicity of it and saw the potential for some serious campaigning – it even included it’s own campaign system that was also brilliant in it’s simplicity. I immediately set about trying to recruit players for a campaign – We chose the campaigns of Alexander the great. Partly due to the availability of figures (RAFM was easily available through the Wizard’s Corner – our local game store where we all hung out) and also I think Osprey had just started it’s campaign series and one of the first books was The Campaigns of Alexander the Great.
I had the Persians, Cory had the Scythians… I think Mike was supposed to play the Thracians and John the Greeks… I can’t quite remember who was to play the Macedonians or Indians… maybe Jay and Todd…? Anyway, I think John and Mike may have bought a few packs, but I can’t remember if Mike did anything with his. I know John never did anything with his, and they’re probably still sitting in their original packaging in his basement. Cory at least assembled his army and played many battles on his kitchen table against my painted Persians… Cory still has them and they are still, for the most part, unpainted… Another campaign fizzled before it got started.
Shortly thereafter everyone I gamed with went their separate ways moving to Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, etc… and for a decade or so I just dreamed…
To bring a short conclusion to a story that’s already getting way to damn long (is anyone still reading or have you all skipped ahead to the pictures…? I know I would…) – This last winter I abandoned the then current plan of a Wargame Weekend with a focus around the Quebec campaign of 1759 and decided to build myself some DBA and HOTT armies… actually, no that’s not quite true – I was planning on building Warmaster armies in 28mm and though “hey I could play DBA and HOTT with these stands in the interm until I amass enough stuff to play Warmaster…” Well, I stared having so damn much fun playing HOTT I have abandoned all plans of Warmaster (anyone want a copy of Warmaster Ancients and Warmaster Ancient Armies…?) and realized I could easily put together about six HOTT armies with the stuff I had on hand… so I started planning a campaign weekend for sometime in the spring or summer…
This past weekend I hosted that HOTT campaign and it has truly been a DREAM COME TRUE thanks a a group of eight exceptional gentlemen – some of whom drove (or FLEW!) here from Edmonton and Calgary to participate. Thanks to all of you.
I was especially pleased that Mr. Cory Loshney – who initially played Warhammer with me and jumped right on board when I switched to DBA and built that Scythian army – was able to make it.
Here are all the participants gathered around my dining room table ready to begin the first turn:
(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)
From Left to Right: Jackson, Rick, Christian, Other Tim, Cory, Terry, Bob, and Chris
A list of who played what can be found HERE. I’m not going to get into the exact make up of each army as that would make my brain hurt – Most armies changed somewhat over the ears of the campaign as they were allowed to recruit different elements available.
Here is the MAP:
YEAR ONE
Spring
Starting locations at the beginning of Spring
Locations of the armies after marches completed…
In the spring of the first year or the Great War for Hottsk two armies march on the borders of Angland. The horsemen of Florin were massed on the eastern border in early spring and marched on Morgond as soon as the tracks were dry enough to do so. Meanwhile the Army of Aarkland marched from Drelt, in the north, on Scael from the west. King Aethelbert (the almost ready) ordered his standard raised at Galordon and marched east to meet the Florins. When he received news that Scael was besieged he hoped the garrison could hold on until the horsemen were be dealt with.
Ideed the Garrison at Scael did hold through the spring while the Armies of Angland and Florin met on a field just south of Morgond. There, Aetherbert handed a crushing defeat to the Florins, who then fled back across their border in utter disarray.
King Humperdink (Chris) and his invading army of Florins line up for battle opposite the Anglanders.
The Battle of Morgond observed by Terry and Bob (whose armies were engaged in Sieges). Until the previous evening Chris had never before played Hordes of the Things, and had only ever played DBA once or twice with me about four years ago…
The lines meet, retire and ready to charge again….
The Army of Florin defeated. The Army of Angland suffered few casualties (no stands lost to the Florin’s SIX!?)
Meanwhile in the North the Amies of the Goblin King Skimpi the Sneak invaded the neighboring orc lands of Mørke. Hannurbul, King of Mørke, lead his army out to meet the Halfbads at Argha. Skimpi the Sneak captured Argha after routing the Army of Mørke. A garrison was hastily organized there and the army made ready to move again as news arrived that the Dwarves of Anni-frid had marched down out of their snowy passes and laid siege to the fortress of Glurg
The first battle of Argha is under way! Hammurbull (Jackson) advances his forces to meet the invading Halfbads.
The armies about to clash! (Fatal mistake #1 about to take place – Beasts charging Riders and Hero General in the open… it wasn’t pretty…)
Skimpi the Sneak ploughs through the screen of wolves with his spiders and engages the warbands and hordes of Mørke in the woods.
To the East the usually peaceful Elves marched out of their woodland realm and advanced through the land of the Broken Tusks Tribe. There out on the steppes they met Warlord Bork Redtooth of the Bloody Suns Tribe, who had just arrived there from Black Rock. Here the victory was not nearly so decisive.
The Battle line of the Bloody Suns near on of the Broken Tusks fortified camps.
The Elves begin their long advance!
The Elves continue their advance while the Orcs reorganize their line… The rank and file orcs look on nervously as the giants pass in front of them (“boy… I hope nothing spooks them and they trample over us as they flee…”)
The elves themselves do some dancing about sending their mounted column straight across the table (behind the Elvish main line) and through the woods!?
The Elf and Orc lines clash (FINALLY!? – I think by this time both the other battles were over - in fact this was the only battle we had to call on time as it was damn near 11AM and we were only in the spring of the first year – unfortunately for Christian he made some bad rolls on his last turn and lost a couple stands, thus losing the battle…).
Summer
After moves completed for the Summer.
After retiring to their capitol of Waruk the Orcs of Mørke regrouped and marched again on Argha. When they arrived there they found that the Halfbads had vacated their recently acquired lands leaving only a small garrison behind. The Garrison was Quickly reduced and every last one of the Half-bads put to the sword!
The Halfbads had returned to relieve the siege at Glurg. There they met the Dwarves in battle. This was far less decisive and the Orcs and goblins went at it hammer and tongs with the Dwarves for a good long time before the Dwarves were obliged to retire from the field.
Meanwhile, far to the South the Anglanders, fresh from their victory against the Florins marched on Scael to relieve the siege there! They were perhaps a too confident in their abilities and expected the “Northern Barbarians” to flee the field as the horsemen from the east had. The Aarklanders held their ground and in a complete reversal of fortune crushed the Anglanders! The Anglanders, their army defeated and much reduced sued for peace and King Häggis accepted King Aethelbert the Almost ready as his vassal.
King Aethelbert the Almost Ready (Cory, left) leads his army against the accursed Aarklanders, lead by General Lutefisk (Terry, right).
The battle lines clash!!
CRUNCH!!
It was for some time a bit of a shoving match.
Lots of back and forth…
I think the Anglanders flanks disintegrated and the Aarklnaders enveloped them and it was over pretty quickly after that…
The army of the Elves pursued the Bloody Suns to their fortress of Black Rock, but the orcs refused to meet them in battle. Instead the orcs holed up in their fortress and forced the Elves to lay siege. The sige continued through the summer…
We broke for lunch at this point. I had hoped to finish a year in the morning, but it just didn’t work out. Ah well… After lunch the campaign continued…
Autumn
I’m not sure if they got the wrong directions back to their homeland or if they were suddenly afraid elves might invade the lands of the humans…. but the Army of Aarkland marched across the land of their tributary and into Florin making camp at West Leigh. Maybe they were there for the autumn wine tasting…?
The Army of Mørke, now well practiced in reducing garrisons and sacking towns, marched south into Aarkland and sacked the city of Drelt!
The dwarves continued their retreat all the way to their capitol of Agnetha. This left the passes open for the Halfbads to surge up into the mountains and besiege the fortress of Faltskog! The orcs and goblins were unable to break into the mountains and the early snow enticed them to return to their wilderness in the north.
The Anglanders returned to their capitol and released the fyrd from service for the year giving them plenty of time to make it home for the harvest.
The Florins, however, hearing the Army of the Elves were off in the North fighting orcs seized the opportunity to send out a series of raids into the region of Vico. They were unsuccessful in chasing off the Elves that lived there and eventually return to Florin for the harvest.
In the Northern lands of the Bloody Suns Warlord Bork Redtooth sallied out with his Orc horde and met the Elves in battle. The Elves again advance in a main line while General Venerable Bede led a mounted column around the flank. The battle was nearly bloodless – the mounted column swept into the fortress and the orc army broke and ran – thus ending the rule of Warlord Bork Redtooth!! Many fled north onto the plains, some fled west to join the tribe of the Angry Fists, and some probably even made their way into the wilderness of Halfbad.
Many rumours spread about the ultimate demise of Bork Redtooth. Some say he was killed on the field of battle or captured and executed by the elves. Others say he fled into hiding and is biding his time until he can return and evict the elves from the plains of the Bloody Suns… Whatever the case he took no further part in the Camapign for Hottsk…
The elves advance on the Fortress of Black Rock
Rick (left) about to perform the first of his soon-to-be-signature move - a coup de main seizure of a stronghold! I don’t think any stands were even lost in this game…!?
Winter
All armies successfully retired to winter quarters and spent the long, cold months rebuilding and preparing to continue the war in the spring…
At this point Halfbad (other Tim) had acquired 16 Prestige points, Angland (Cory) had 12, and both Aarkland (Terry) and Seroza (Rick) had 10… and the Bloody Suns (Christian) were out of the game!?
Somehow I forgot to take pictures of the armies movements on the map… ah well…
Stay tuned for YEAR TWO!!! I should (hopefully) get them done sometime later today...
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