Another HOTT Knockout - Part Two

The first three seasons had followed the previous campaign, with the attackers losing every fight and the national boundaries remaining the same. They had also seen one army in all three games - the Elephantmen.

Season 4

The rolls were as follows (numbers in brackets are rerolls for ties):

Alexander - 6-2=4
Squidmen - 3 (3)
Elephantmen - 6+1=7
Knights of Simba - 3 (3)
Ophidians - 2+1=3 (4)

So although Alexander was still looking strong as an aggressor, it was the Elephantmen who went on the march, looking to shore up their eastern borders by attacking the Squidmen. And, in doing so, play their fourth game of the campaign.

The Squidmen tried to close down the terrain as much as possible with woods, and got most of them where they wanted them (I use a variant of the DBA terrain placement for HOTT). The Elephantmen managed to get a hill of their side of the battlefield, which would help their blades defend against the warband attacks of the Squidmen

Since they don't appear here very often, here's a shot of the Squidmen, looking weird and colourful.

The Elephantmen advanced cavalry backed up with soldiers on their left flank. The Squidmen reacted by detaching their right flank to meet them closer to the woods.

First contact saw an inconclusive result.

Leaving a couple of elements to deal with the Elephantman flanking attack (which was slowed by lack of PIPs) the Squidmen advanced into the woods, threatening the left flank of the Elephantmen army.

The Elephantmen advanced some blades into the woods to slow them. Maybe not the best of ideas as they were quickly destroyed.

Squidmen erupted from the woods on the Elephantmen left, as the main Squidman forced arrived to their front.

This was a good time for a god to come to the aid of the Elephantmen.

Squidmen attacked the Elephantmen general, but were driven back.

On teh flank the Elephantman cavalry destroyed an element of Squidmen.

Kali rushed to the aid of the Elephantmen general, but the Squidmen had found a second wind and rolled a blinder to destroy him

So the Squidmen won the battle 6g-2

So I was now four battles into the campaign and still no territory had changed hands.

Season 5

The rolls were as follows (numbers in brackets are rerolls for ties):

Alexander - 4-2=2
Squidmen - 5+1 = 6
Elephantmen - 5
Knights of Simba - 5
Ophidians - 4

So decent rolls for everyone but Alexander. But the Squidmen were on a roll and switching to the offensive. And their target? The Ophidians to the south. 

This would be a fight between two armies based around warband (or, at least, partially based in the case of the Ophidians). The Squidmen had the numbers, but the Ophidians had their powerful core of magicians.

The Ophidians adopted a defensive posture, with their right anchored on some scrub. The Squidmen simply charged.

Ophidian magic caused the walktapus behemoth to flee.

The Squidmen crashed into the Ophidian line ...

Results were mixed, but the magician's in the centre of teh Ophidian line were pushed back.

One of them took umbrage and fired up a spell targetted at the Squidmen's general. it was very effective.

With their general destroyed and it being the only casualty of the battle so far, the Squidman army broke.

So the Ophidians quickly won 2g-0

Five seasons into the campaign and no territory has changed hands yet.