(Fantasy Miniatures)
Last night was a warm up session of HOTT at Steve Sattler's house. Steve is getting things geared up for his Staff of Power HOTT campaign, and this gave us all a chance to test out the composition of the armies we will be playing. There were five of us, so Steve sat out the first round, and I sat out the second.
Round One
Dave Zecchini's Spartans against my Elves. I defended and set up a couple woods on my left and steep hills on the right. My Ent behemoth was in the center of my battleline of four Spears (one was the general). Two Shooters (Elven archers) guarded either flank, and the two Riders (Elven Cavalry) hung out on the right rear. Zeke's army was very similar to mine. He matched his battleline of four spears and a Cyclops behemoth against mine, their left (my right) guarded by two Shooters (Greek skirmishers) and their right with two Centaur Riders (one the general). The sound of his God Pan's piping could be heard faintly in the breeze, but he was nowhere to be seen.
Our lines advanced, his Centaurs and my Riders both hanging back. The Elven archers on my left curled in and took a shot at his Cyclops, nailing him in his one eye, and sending him crashing to the ground. My archers on the other flank drove back his skirmishers. As our battlelines slammed together, the Ent began to drive back the flank unit of Spartans. They fought bravely, but were outnumbered and eventually flanked and trampled. Meanwhile, one of his Centaur units was shot down by my archers on the left.
Things continued to steadily get worse for Zeke. His pip dice were atrocious, his combat dice subpar and his God forsook him. This was a classic case of where I think neither of us outmanuevered the other, my army simply outfought (read: Outrolled) his.
Elven victory, 12-2.
In the other battle, Joel Sams's Lizardmen invaded the realm of his brother Allen's Orcs. The Lizardmen had a Hero General, a unit of Raptors (Beasts), a Pterodactyl (Flyers), two Spears, two Blades, two Dinosaur Riders, and a Lizard Wizard. A little of this, a little of that...but hey, this was a chance to try things out before we make our permanent army list for the campaign! The Orcs had a Warband General, six Hordes, two units of Ogres (Behemoths), two wolf packs (Beasts) and two troops of Riders on wargs.
Allen and Joel's game was a mirror image of ours, except the invading Lizardmen stomped the Orcs, 12-2. Allen couldn't buy a roll, and the Pterodactyl enveloped the rear of the Orc battleline and things got ugly quickly.
Lizardman victory, 12-2.
Round Two
The others paired up randomly, and Zeke's Spartans invaded Allen's Orc homeland (those Orcs must not be too aggressive). Zeke changed his list to replace the drunken and passed out Pan with two more units of Skirmishers (Shooters). Allen's list remained the same. He placed some gentle hills on the right and a brace of three woods on the right. The woods ended up bottling up and halting the advance of the Cyclops and Centaurs, as the Orc wolfpacks lingered amongst the edge of the trees. The wolves' ridden cousins on the left flank were shot down by Zeke's skirmishers, though. The warband general, with Ogres to either side, was hurled back by the Spartan phalanx, and eventually killed.
Spartan victory, 11-2.
The Lizardmen continued on their path of conquest and invaded the mountainous kingdom of Steve's dwarves. Joel's Lizard list remained the same. Steve fielded four units of hand gunners and crossbowmen (shooters), six dwarf warbands and a hero general. Steve would like to point out that the animal the dwarf hero was mounted on was a BEAR, not a giant Beaver like Joel claimed.
As the battlelines advanced, it looked like it could be a "quick kill," as the warbands were homed in on the lizardman infantry spears and blades. Steve's hero avenged his mount's insulted honor by shooting the Pterodactyl out of the skies. The fall of the winged lizard was an omen for Joel's army as the dwarf warbands crashed through his lines, scattering his spearmen and swordsmen.
Dwarven victory, 12-6.
It was a fun night of HOTT, and I know I'm looking forward to the start of the campaign. Zeke is not actually playing Spartans in the campaign -- he didn't know that is what we were doing for the evening when he drove up from Cincy, and left his Papal army at home. Ptomas was unable to attend, so we were spared his Chaotic incursions.
Seeya!
-- Mike