HOTT Summer 2012 Part Three: Year Two of the Campaign

Everything back to where it was at the beginning… except I think I was down a couple stands to start with… and I replaced my Sneakers with a Cleric (as we were allowing such substitutions). I think everyone else waas back up to full strength, but John also decided that Magicians weren’t so useful in a Horde army and so took a Hero to replace his lost Wizard.

FORCES

Player: Bob

Army: Centaurs

Country: Petroland

Cities: Pavet, Mynet, Logit

Starting Army:

1x Magician General (Centaur Shamen)

1x Knight (Armoured Centaurs)

2x Shooters (Satyrs)

7x Riders (Centaurs)

Player: Tim

Army: Japanese

Country: Manga

Cities: Shojo, Gekiga, Kodomo

Starting Army:

1x Knight General (Mounted Samurai)

1x Cleric (Priests)

4x Shooters (Ashigaru Archers)

3x Spear (Ashigaru Spearmen)

Player: David

Army: English Civil War

Country: New Angland

Cities: Kong Hong, Haiwei, Sintien

Starting Army:

1x Cleric General

2x Shooters (Musketeers)

4x Spear (Pikemen)

1x Knight (Cuirassier)

1x Airboat (

1x Dragon (um… pretty self-explanitory)

Player: John

Army: Ratlings

Country: Myomorpha

Cities: Monsei, Leithia, Hamelin, Hangshai,

Starting Army:

1x Hero (Verminlord)

2x Shooters (Jezails)

10x Hordes (Rats, sir, fousands of ‘em)

3x Blade (big , bad, nasty rats)

THE GAME

Year Two Declarations

This time I declared war on no one, waiting to see who might declare war on me… New Angland declared war on me, as well as Myomorpha. Myomorpha declared war on New Angland, and Petroland declared war on Myomorpha.

So… Manga was at war with New Angland, who was also at war with Myomorpha, who was also at war with Petroland… make sense…?

Spring Deployment

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

Once again the army of Manga deployed in Kodomo, though there was less wondering about where exactly I might lead my troops. The army of New Angland played it safe starting in Kong Hong – expecting the Rats might start in Hangshai and march on his capitol in the Spring. The Rats didn’t however, they must have felt that hangshai was enough of a buffer – and that New Angland would have to worry about Manga from the east – and so looked to their Norhtern border with Petroland who had one place to go… thus the Rats deployed in Hamelin and the Centaurs opposite them in Logit.

Spring

The Rats got off to an earlier start and were at the borders of Logit before the Centaurs could move out. The Army of New Angland marched north to Hangshai to remove the Ratling administration by parading through the streets throwing rat poison down all the drains and gutters…

The Battle of Logit.

A rather open, scenic vista on the banks of the Pulpwaste River….

John, David, and Bob

This was an exceedingly short game. On Bob’s first bound he ensorcelled the Hero General and the Rats fled in panic.

Summer

Having returned Hangshai to New Angland, the Army pressed on into Myomorpha and laid siege to Leithia. Unfortunately just as the Army marched out of view, The sails of an invading fleet from Manga arrived and laid siege to Hangshai. Neither armies were successful in their sieges, which then carried on into autumn.

The Centaurs, however, pursued the fleeing rats acrtoss the border into Myomorpha and the Rats stopped their flight and gave battle at Hamelin.

The Battle of Hamelin.

John gives battle on the banks of the Ratpiss Water (a tributary of the Pulpwaste River).

Turn one and already the Lurkers are harrying the Rats rear.

The lines thundered forward and engaged.

The whole mess quickly denigrated into a confused brawl between furries.

Then the Airboat Allies arrived… and but it was pretty much all over… The rats were on the run once again…

Autumn

The armies of New Angland and Manga continued their respective sieges. The Anglish were successful in reducing Leithia. Manga, not-so-much….

The Centaurs, hot on the heels of the rats (do rats have heels…?), pursued them to their capitol of Monsei.

The Battle of Monsei.

The battle straddled the banks of the Ratpiss Water.

Most of the fighting took place in a corridor between a swamp and the Ratpiss – though some brave centaurs galloped downt eh other side of the river and crossed it to attack the stronghold.

I’m not entirely sure what caused the end… lost general? Lost Stronghold? Lost army… but the rats went down and had to accept the horsiemen as their furry overlords.

The situation at the end of year two.

New Angland had taken Leithia, and Petroland had captured Hamelin and Monsei (though the latter two were returned to his vassal, along with the previously ensorcelled Hero, went the rats accepted the Centaurs as their overlord).

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

 The War rages on with YEAR THREE of the campaign!

HOTT Summer 2012 Part Two: Year One of the Campaign

Saturday morning saw the start of the actual campaign. There were some minor change-ups to the armies: John decided that calling the Jezails “artillery” didn’t work out and thought they’d be much m ore useful as “shooters”. I replaced the Magicians with some spear and shooters that I’d just finished up. And David showed up in the morning with an Aitboat model that he’d just finished up… Now, my first instinct was to say “um… no”. I see there as sort of being some natural balance in my armies – there aren’t a lot a really gimmicky things, no one army has things that the other armies can’t really deal  with… but it was such a neat model… and I thought “how bad can Airboats be…?” Well…

FORCES

Player: Bob

Army: Centaurs

Country: Petroland

Cities: Pavet, Mynet, Pavet

Starting Army:

1x Magician General (Centaur Shamen)

1x Knight (Armoured Centaurs)

2x Shooters (Satyrs)

7x Riders (Centaurs)

Player: Tim

Army: Japanese

Country: Manga

Cities: Shojo, Gekiga, Kodomo

Starting Army:

1x Knight General (Mounted Samurai)

1x Artillery (Cannon!)

1x Sneaker (Ninjas!)

4x Shooters (Ashigaru Archers)

3x Spear (Ashigaru Spearmen)

1x Rider (More Samurai…)

Player: David

Army: English Civil War

Country: New Angland

Cities: Kong Hong, Hangshai, Haiwei, Sintien

Starting Army:

1x Cleric General

2x Shooters (Musketeers)

4x Spear (Pikemen)

1x Knight (Cuirassier)

1x Airboat (

1x Dragon (um… pretty self-explanitory)

Player: John

Army: Ratlings

Country: Myomorpha

Cities: Monsei, Leithia, Hamelin

Starting Army:

1x Magician (Ratling Wizard)

2x Shooters (Jezails)

10x Hordes (Rats, sir, fousands of ‘em)

3x Blade (big , bad, nasty rats)

THE GAME

Year One Declaractions

Myomorpha declared war on New Angland. New Angland declared war on Myomorpha. Pertoland declared war on Myomprpha and New Angland. And Manga declared war on EVERYONE!? So… I think everyone was at war with everyone…

Spring Deployment

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

Manga deployed in Kodomo, just to keep everyone guessing. New Angland deployed in Hangshai. Petroland deployed in Logit. Myomorpha deployed in Leithia.

Spring Moves

Manga sailed across the straights of oil – losing two elements in the process to besiege the Petroland fortress (corral?) at Mynet – but was unable to breach their defences (losing another element). The Centaur Herd galloped into New Angland and besieged Sintien, but was likewise unable to bring the New Anglanders to give up their land.

The New Anglanders, not knowing where they might be attacked from held in Hangshai. The attack came from the west and the vermin hordes stormed in from Leithia.

The Battle of Hangshai

The Rats try to cross the river into Hangshai.

John and David.

David moved his troops up to the river and then mostly just hung out while his Airboat sailed around and destroyed things on the flanks…

There’s a pic of his model. Not really to scale with the rest of the minis… but still very pretty.

The Dragon DID show up…

But I think it went straight for the Ratlings wizard general which scared it off with a shower of sparks and loud banging firecrackers!?

The battle raged on.

A column of rats made it across the river and made a break for the stronghold.

I think this ended with the New Anglander’s Cleric General being beaten down by the big bat rats (or maybe the wizard in a general on general throwdown…?) I can’t remember, but the Rats won, took Hangshai and the New Anglanders retired to Kong Hong.

(while this was going on Bob and I played a fun game… during which I was totally distracted, trying to listen to what David and John were up to – as neither have played the game a lot… probably should have just spectated, ah well… )

Summer

(dagnabbit! I totally forgot to keep up with the taking pictures of the map moves…)

In the summer the Centaurs of Petroland gave up their siege of Sintien and galloped across the plains to relieve the siege of Mynet. The Rats pursued the New Anglanders to Kong Hong.

The Battle of Kong Hong

Giant Rat Horde in column to pass between the rock and the hard place David had thrown out for him.

The New Anglanders deployed at their very base line hoping that would buy them time for their Dragon to arrive and save the day!

It did and it did, chewing through the Ratty column along side the Airboat.

The Battle of Mynet

The Centaurs relieve the Corral of Mynet along the River Effluent.

Riders Charge down the Cannon on my right, while the rest of the line reorganizes.

With the artillerymen driven off the Centaurs turned to ride up my flank.

I did actually get the sneakers into contact with the General!? But they didn’t prove to be all that useful…

I can’t remember the details of the rest of the battle… and apparently didn’t take any other pics…? But it ended badly for me and we were forced to give up our foothold on the mainland and retire back to manga.

Autumn

(Again with no picture of the map moves... drat!) 

In their hasty retreat back across the straights, the army of Manga suffered further losses and decided it would be best to just continue retiring all the way to the capitol and rest and rebuild for the following year.

The Rats retired back to Leithia, and the Army of New Angland marched on Hangshai to lay siege to it… but failed to exterminate the rats within....

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

 The War rages on with YEAR TWO of the campaign!

HOTT Summer 2012 part One: The Campaign Kickoff

This weekend I got together with a couple friends and played a little HOTT campaign. This campaign differed from the previous ones in two ways; 1) there were considerably less people (four, as opposed to eight or nine for the others I’ve ran) and 2) I PLAYED in it (previously I’ve just run the campaigns).

Things kicked off Friday evening with a big battle Bob and I played against John and David. This was mostly an opportunity to try out our forces as none of us had really ever played with these forces before…. Some adjustments were made to armies before the campaign started the following morning.

I played a Fantasy Feudal Japanese army, Bob had (mostly) Centaurs, David had and English Civil War-ish army and John played his Ratlings…

FORCES

I think this is what we were playing with Friday night…

Fantasy Feudal Japanese – tim (me!)

1x Knight General (Mounted Samurai)

2x Magician (Shukenja)

1x Sneaker (Ninjas!)

1x Horde (mudmen)

2x Shooters (Ashigaru Archers)

2x Spear (Ashigaru Spearmen)

1x Rider (More Samurai…)

Centaurs – Bob

1x Magician General (Centaur Shamen)

1x Knight (Armoured Centaurs)

2x Shooters (Satyrs)

7x Riders (Centaurs)

English (Civil War) – David

1x Cleric General

2x Shooters (Musketeers)

4x Spear (Pikemen)

1x Knight (Cuirassier)

1x Warband (or Horde…? Scottish Highlanders)

1x Rider (Mossers)

1x Dragon (um… pretty self-explanitory)

Ratlings

1x Magician (Rat Pie)

1x Artillery (Rat Pudding)

11x Hordes (Rat Sorbet)

3x Blade (Strawberry Tart – with just a little bit of rat in it…)

THE GAME

Here’s how the game went down…

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

On our side I was on the left and Bob, with his Centaurs, was on the right. Across from Me was David’s ECW army, and across from Bob was John and his Ratlings.

We more or less played two separate games side-by-side with very little interaction… Until the very end when I had so little in front of me I galloped some Riders over to start chewing away at the otherwise unengaged Rat flank.

The Centaurs trying ot cross the river with the rats defending the bank opposite. It was a bit of a slog.

The Pike and Shooter blocks slowly wheel toward each other.

First Blood! Ashigaru Archers darkened the sky and took down some Scottish Shot.

I think this was the Centaurs Knights dying… Honestly, I didn’t pay much attention to what Bob and John were doing.

Things going downhill for the English (which were mostly Scots, actually) The Ashigaru Spearmen drove off some more Scottish Shot and the Heavy Mounted Samurai rode down TWO elements of Pikemen!?

Oop… the Scottish Highanders (whatver they were… Warband? Horde..?) took out a unit of Ashigaru Spear (with the aide of the English Pike…).

Back over on the other side… I’m not sure how it was going. Not good for either, I think. Some of the Centaurs getting across the river but the rats selling themselves dearly – which the Centaurs can’t afford – because there’s ALWAYS MORE RATS!?

I think this around the same time as the last two shots – the dead marker beign the same used for the dead Ashigaru Spear….

Heavy Samurai Charged up the hill and rode down the English Cuirassiers.

The English had apparently made some unholy pact with a Dragon!? Unfortunately it wasn’t the most reliable of sorts… it arrived just in time…

… to see the English Cleric General…

Get ridden down by the Samurai and watch the entire Englsih army teetering one th brink of collapse.

(At this point the English had lost over half their AP AND their General – so the army was demoralized – which requires PIPs be spent just to hold groups or individual stands on the table - and with a lost General everything cost an additional PIP – so two PIPs to hold an individual element or group on the table – three if they want the Dragon to actually MOVE….)

Before the English totally broke and fled The Ashigaru Spear took out the Scottish Highlanders.

Things came aprt for them very raidly thereafter. I think DAvid rolled a 1 for PIPs which meant the rest of his force vacated teh field, which meant things were pretty much over... 

Bob trying to convince John of something. Perhaps they were discussing how things might have played out had the game gone on a bit longer...? 

David and John.

Everyone went home to start plotting and planning. I stayed up until almost 3AM trying tofinish painting the campaign map... and finish up a few more stands.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

HOTT Summer 2012 Part Two – Year One of the Campaign 

Feudal Japanese

I finished up a small handful of Feudal Japanese so I could cobble together an army for a little HOTT campaign I’m running this weekend

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

One Spear and two Bow (or “shooter”) elements. Figures are from Old Glory

I also knocked off some command figures from Perry Miniatures for an army marker

Not feudal Japanese, but something else I finished up yesterday – an army marker for John’s Ratlings. All the figures are from Games Workshop. Two are recently painted (as in yesterday) the other I painted twenty years ago… and didn’t feel it needed repainting….

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Some HOTT battle reports from the weekend’s shenanigans…