HOTT 52 - Week 22 - Fishmen vs Ophidians

I hadn't really felt up to putting together anything special for our regular Thursday evening game this week, so I grabbed a couple of boxes HOTT armies, because HOTT is a zero-prep game par excellence. And, in a two birds with one stone kind of way this gave me my HOTT 52 game for the week as well.

Anyway, Catherine and I ended up with the Fishmen and the Ophidians on the table. She opted for the Fishmen as they looked easiest to use: six spears (including the general), four shooters and a behemoth.

I got the Ophidians which, as long-time fans of this blog will know, are three magicians (including the general), four warband and two shooters.

Here we are, set up and ready to go. Catherine had positioned her behemoth in her centre where it was going to hit my warband but I reasoned I could zap it with magic before it became a danger. Meanwhile her spears were facing off against warband as well, so I decided that if I could grab the forward slope of the hill I was deployed behind I could break up her phalanxes as they attacked.

Catherine's plan was to just bulldoze forward and see what happened.

On my left I advanced my archers and took up position along the edge of a wood, hoping the cover would offset Catherine's 2:1 avantage in missile weapons.

The behemoth is a 3D print of a sea-troll.

I should do an army showcase for this lot really.

We both advanced, and I got the hilltop position I needed. My magicians slithered about on the right flank waiting for a chance to drive off the troll.

Here comes the troll ...

... and I completely failed to impress it with magic. Catherine was amused.

And then her army was upon me!

In the distance she held her shooters back, too much of an old HOTT pro to get into a shooting match with archers in cover. In fect it worked well for her; my archers were too far back to cover their army's left flank, and if I advanced to do that her shooters would cut me down with their superior numbers.

The Fishman phalanx pushed up the hill.

The sea-troll smashed its way through the Ophidians opposing it.

And the rest of the Fishmen drove back or destroyed their opponents.

I sent some Ophidian sorcerers to attack the Fishman flank, but they held and drove off their attackers.

The troll attacked some more Ophidians, but was forced back.

I piled on the pressure on the Fishman left flank, but the phalanx held firm.

An overview. The troll had been driven back to the point where it was now pinned by the frontal zone of the Ophidian archers. This left it unable to advance towards the centre, and Catherine spent the rest of the game retiring it (under fire) and then bringing it around the back of her line in order to return it to where it was needed.

The Fishmen reorganised, ready for another attack. The Ophidians were looking thin on the ground, having now lost three of their four warband.

A very confident Fishman line.

On my right the sorcerers had been steadily pushed back by the phalanx there, and were in danger of being recoiled off the board. In fact they held their ground and were slaughtered to a ... snake.

The Fishmen attacked again ...

... and as the remaining sorcerers moved in to try and outflank them again they cut down the surviving warband, to give them a win.

And not just a win, but a total whitewash - Catherine didn't lose a single element.

With hindsight I should have opted for more bad going, and made use of the fact that my shooters and warband are at home in such terrain. The Ophidians are too small an army to fight a straight open battle such as I opted for; Catherine had the advantage of numbers, and used it.

To be fair attacking warband uphill with spears is pretty risky; I only had to win to kill two elements, but at no stage was I able to translate any positional advantage to the actual kill I needed for an opening.