HoTT- Rohan vs Orcs

Finn and I had a couple of games of HotT last night, the result was one win a piece. It had been quite a while since we'd played but with the weather being drizzly the last couple of days he was keen.

After playing Impetus for so long I was rather underwhelmed by the rules and so I think next time we will use the fantasy version of Impetus which should make for a much more dynamic and interesting game.

Game 1

Don't charge shooters in bad going with trolls (behemoths)

Game 2

This time the trolls do much better.

 

 Win to the Orcs.

10mm HoTT

This morning we had a game of Big Battle HoTT at TAGCON- 3x undead commands vs 3x Goblins. The game featured 3x 8 year old generals, a 15 yar old and Tony, Stephen and me as the old hands.

i'd like to report a glorious victory to the undead but we were well and truly crushed- 2 of our wizards became ensorcelled and another hero general fell to a dragon.

The undead figures are all Warmaster 10mm and the Goblins, which belong to Tony or Dave, are mainly Kalistra (I think)













The game was a lot of fun and the kids enjoyed themselves- which is the main point after all!

40K @ TAGCON
Not a fan of 40k or other sci-fi games, they just don't interest me at all. However a couple of the 40k tables at TAGCON really impressed me. One is by one of our local players, Richard and features a Warp gate and cool temple like setting. The other was from some of the Christchurch gamers (I think).









Craig

HoTT: Urak Hai

The initial force Urak Hai force is now re-based:

• 1x Orc Hero General
• 2x trolls (behemoths)
• 2x warg riders (riders)
• 3x Urak Hai Scouts (warband)
• 1x Urak Hai crossbows (shooters)

Eventually I'll add another warband and a second unit of crossbows and get rid of the hero.





I also based up 2x bases of Rohan and 3x Rangers so can field a more varied Rohanesque force.

The initial Rohan force will be:

• 1x Hero General
• 4x riders
• 2x shooters
• 4x Blades

Finn is keen to use the Urak Hai/Isengard army so hopefully we'll get a chance in the next few days

Craig

Work in Progress for HoTT

Finn is fired up about Boris the Beastman and is talking about gettng his own minis and learning to paint. I've plenty of crappy GW figures I picked up when I was starting to collect WoTR forces late last year which might be donated to his cause. However, he has has inspired me to do some work on the HoTT War of the Rings armies- that and I'm about painted out in historics at present and need to do something a bit different.

I've a lot of minis to rebase. I haven't really done anything with Rohan infantry yet as I figured that I can use my Vikings as generic human infantry to boost numbers. But last night I started to work on rebasing a few bits and pieces- a couple of stands of Warg Riders, 2x trolls (Finn's favourites) as well as 3 x bases of Rangers. I love the ranger models, the only thing that annoys me is that they are giants compared to the Rohan figures. I am also going to rebase the Orc scouts (my favourites in the orc range) as I've decided that all infantry for HoTT are going to be on 8cm x 6cm bases and cav/monsters on 8cm x 7cm ones. I'ma lso going to stick with 6 figs per base for the HoTT/fantasy forces.

One thing that I have been considering is doing like Mark Davies and using DBA rather than HoTT! The main areas that would be improved would be in that the rangers could count as auxillia as could my wood elves (when I ger round to painting them). It seems strange to me that wood elf spears are at a disadvantage fighting in their natural terrain (woods) and so auxilia might be more appropriate for them than warband as I'd originally considered. Monsters such as trolls would be considered to be elephants. Not sue what to do about beasts, maybe light horse.

Tonight's mission is to finish off the bases while most of the weekend will be taken up with DBA and TAGCON.





Craig

HoTT Battle Report

Boris the Beastman vs Rohan

Finn and I had a game of HoTT this morning, the seemingly invincible army of Boris the Beastmen vs the rag tag humans of Rohan (and viking allies). Could Boris' incursions into the human lands be curtailed?

Boris- hero general
2x behmoths
4x warband
1x beasts
1x flyer

Human General
2x knights
4x blades
2x shooters

Finn set up terrain and I defended.


The first turn as the two armies advance.


Inconclusive skirmish between the knights the flyer.


Here they come. Steady...


The beasts are recoiled by archery.


But the warband start carving up the shooters and blades (2-0) This is not looking good!


The other flank starts to crumble too as the blades are cut down by a behemoth...


Flank? What flank?


The human general held off the Ogre Warbands but the rest of his army crumbled. 5-0 to Boris and his behemoths!


Bring out ya dead! The human casualties.

Basing (Again)

Well I've decided to update my "new" basing system. I have painted up four stands of Norse-Irish auxilia this week and wasn't completely happy with the look of 6 figures on the 8cm x 5cm deep base; they looked a tad too crowded. So last night I re-based them on 8cm x 6 deep bases and preferred the look. This also just happens to be the depth that my Ogres (Warband) in Boris the Behemoth's HoTT army were based- so think I'll modify my new conventions slightly. I will keep blade (4), spear (4), psiloi and similar on 5cm deep bases and have 6 cm deep bases for warband, auxillia, bow, Heroes (HoTT) and 7cm deep bases for cavalry.

The main reason to do this is I can't be naffed rebasing the just completed Anglo-Danes and blades for the Irish-Norse and Pre-Feudal Scots armies to a 6cm deep convention. I will however have to re-base the Celts (only 6 bases) and possibly my light horse and Cav for the Scots- but as the difference is only 1 cm I'm in no hurry to do this and instead will continue to concentrate on getting the Norse- Irish and Pre-Feudal Scots done.

So bascially the basin convention is simply DBA base depths +3 cm- for HoTT I will keep to similar depths, as I don't really want to go beyond 7cm deep bases as they start to get to unwieldy to move on the table amongst terrain.

Anglo- Irish Update
4 stands of Auxilia done and based, only have to paint and flock the bases before I get some photos of them.

Alsas I have run out of Gripping Beast Figures so next project is to complete the 2x elements of Norse-Irish Ostmen for the blades component of the army.

These auxilia bases can also sub in as the spear component of the Pre-Feudal Scots until the figures for that army arrive. Once botha re done I'll only need to do another 3-4 stands to be able to morph the Welsh, Norse-Irish and Pre-Feudal Scots out of the core units (I will need a total of 15 spear/auxilia elements between them for when the Scots and the Weleh fight)

HoTT, Beasts of War Army

I am meant to be having a doubles game of HoTT tomorrow night (or is that very HoTT?) in 28mm at TAG but only had one army of Orcs done so had a rummage round to see what I could find to make a new army.

I bought the GW minotaurs about 10 years ago and the ogres were from a mate and destined for D&D games 4 or 5 years back but decided they'd make for a great HoTT force. My theme was going to be "Behemoths" and have an army of behemoths but checking the rules you can only take 12 pts of 4pt units in a 24 pt army so the Ogres are relegated to Warband. However, if they become allies of my planned Misty Mountain Goblin horde they will be reinstated to their rightful behemoth status. Not sure what brand the Ogres are but am guessing that they are probably old GW.

All I've done is rebased the miniatures. One day I'll get round to repainting the ogres but they'll do for now.

"Boris the Behemoth" General (or possibly a hero)


2x Behemoths- and Boris stealing the limelight again


4x Ogre Warbands & 2x Fliers


I've a few old GW harpies lying around that may become the flying component instead of the bats- if I remember correctly the bats were ear marked for a HoTT goblin force I was planning years ago.

The Beasts of War assembled

HoTT: Isengard vs Humans

Finn and I had a quick game of HoTT today

Isengard
Hero Gen
2x Behemoths
3x warband
3x riders

Humans
2x Heroes (1x Gen)
4x Spear
2x blade
2x beasts


The Human army assembles for battle.


Trolls and Warg riders advance.


The human line stands firm.

The sneaky spears try to "close the door" on a troll but the humans are recoiled and the trolls follow up.

The beasts have dealt with the riders and now the Urak Hai general is isolated and outflanked- he is about to roll a "1" and die.

Meanwhile the trolls force the human further back but without a decisive victory.

Result:
Win to the humans. Finn needed to move his warband up to prevent his riders and general being outflanked but he's getting the basics down and likes smashing things with trolls!

28mm HoTT Human Army

Well, I've finished basing the Pre-Feudal Scots and added 2x stands of GW wolves (beasts) that had been lying around so that I can convert them into a HoTT human army. Eventually I'll replace the GW wolves with a couple of stands of Warlord Games wardogs.

HoTT human army

1x Hero General
1x Hero
2x warband
2x blades
2x beasts
1x sneaker (Psiloi)


My Anglo-Danish General prepares for action.


The Warband assemble

The General and hero


The beasts

I'm very happy with the way the bases have turned out- next task to complete the Anglo-Danes bases.

So how has the army fared? The army, including 2x blade and 4x spear (no warband or sneakers) got trounced by the Urak Hai commanded by an 8 year old!