More Historical HOTT - Vikings vs Norse Irish

This was a quick game of HOTT I played using my 6mm ancient/dark ages armies, in this case the Vikings and the Norse-Irish.

Vikings (Defenders)

10 x Blades (including the general)
1 x Shooters (Bondi Archers)
1 x Warband (Beserks)

Norse-Irish

9 x Warband (including the general)
2 x Lurkers (Ambushers)
2 x Blades (Ostmen Allies)

The Vikings went for a couple of fields (to break up the Irish attack) and a couple of hills (to defend on). The ended up fighting long the hills, and the Irish avoided the fields:

The Vikings (in the foreground) spread out to protect their village. The archers and beserks were on their right, and a small reserve as well, to protect against any breakthroughs. The Irish clumped their Warband in a big blob on one flank, and put the Ostmen on the other just to keep the Vikings occupied.

Here are the Vikings:

And the Irish:

The initial advances. The Vikings sent a force to attack the Ostmen, whilst the Irish rushed forward towards the Viking line.

The first Irish assault went in, but was repulsed, the Irish losing three of their nine Warbands in one round. Things weren't looking good for them.

A swirling melee developed, with the Vikings pushing the Irish back again and again, but the Irish coming back for more.

The Irish started making kills.

On the other flank the two elements of Ostmen were hard pressed against four elements of Viking Blades..

One was destroyed, and the other fell back.

Irish persistence paid off on the other flank. They slowly whittled down the Vikings, destroying the archers and the beserks. This left the Blades dangerously unsupported, and by use of double-ranks and overlaps the Irish Warband soon finished them off.

The end - a Viking Blade falls to give the Irish their victory.

The Viking losses were four Blades, the Shooter and the Warband. But it was a close battle - the Irish lost four Warband and a Blade, so were only one element off breaking themselves.

These figures were painted nearly 25 years ago, and were dull to start with. I am looking at ways of touching up the paint-work to make them stand out a little more - my eyesight isn't what it was when I first put them together ...

Somewhere That's Not Earth - 2525AD

The date and location of last night's battle was ascertained by Ralph after carefully questioning our referee, Geoff. Apparently it made a difference to his battle plans.

Anyway, we played Future War Commander again, with 4000pts a side. The game moved along quite smoothly, even with a novice player, one who had a hazy grasp of the basics and a referee who'd read the book.

Here's some pictures.

This week the burning tanks are mine.

Arty macro pictures.

Ralph's mighty armoured formation.

The Gamer On Holiday

We Will Pass Through This Portal ...

The Family Kobold are going away for a few days next week. We're not going far, but we will be, relatively speaking, in the middle of nowhere, renting a holiday cottage. Our plans include walking, exploring the local area to see if there's anything to do aside from walking, and Mrs Kobold may indulge in a bit of fishing. I'll probably take a few photos.

A fairly outdoors sort of holiday, really.

Except that the weather forecast suggests rain.

This could leave us trapped in our cottage, with the rain lashing against the window. What do do?

Oh well, I'll do what I always do when I go on holiday. Pack a load of games. The children can play 'Fluxx' forever, so that will be in. I may stick in 'Battle Cry'. It's certainly a chance for me to try out some more games of 'Clobberin' Time' in an undisturbed environment. I shall make other choices closer to the time.

Wet holidays hold no terrors for us.

If I get chance I will set this blog up to post stuff for me, so you'll barely notice I've gone.

Once Upon A Time In Nubia

Egypt - 100AD. Those dastardly Kushites have been raiding from the south again, so Rome sends one of its famous punitive expeditions down the Nile to punish them.

The following is a game of HOTT using historical armies - Early Imperial Romans vs Meroitic Kushite. The lists are based loosely on the DBA ones, and are as follows.

Romans

1 x Blade General
4 x Blades (Legionarii)
4 x Warband (Auxiliary Infantry)
2 x Riders (Auxiliary Cavalry)
1 x Shooter (Ballista)

(The Legion's artillery was designed to be light and portable enough to move with the troops, so in HOTT terms works better as Shooters than it does Artillery. It also solves the awkward problem of what to do with the leftover 1AP the Artillery would leave in the army.)

Meroitic Kushite

1 x Rider General
1 x Rider (Kushite Cavalry)
2 x Shooters (Royal Archers)
6 x Spears (Tribal Warriors)
1 x Behemoth (Elephants)

The Kushites defended and set up a terrain with a long ridge on one side of the board and bad going on the other half. The armies ended up fighting along the ridge with the bad going on their flanks.

The Kushite general and his cavalry. The Kushite plan was a strike against the Roman right, hoping to use the elephants to overwhelm it.

The Kushite tribal warriors and archers were to remain back and cover the stronghold.

The Roman Legionarii, ready to advance.

On their right the cavalry and the bolt-shooters. Would they be enough to halt the Kushite attack?

The Roman plan was also an attack by their left, using their auxiliary infantry to overwhelm the Kushite archers and turn the flank of the tribal warriors.

The position after the first few bounds - both sides are advancing their left flanks

The Kushites strike first. Despite the edge their general gives them, they are driven back.

The Romans attack the Kushite archers ...

... destroying some.

However the Romans are in trouble as the elephants overwhelm their bolt-shooters and turn onto the flank of the cavalry.

This has predictable results.

 However the auxiliary infantry soon finish off the last of the Kushite archers.

The legionarii advance.

But the elephants move into their rear.

The advance continues, with one group of legionarii left behind and in a lot of trouble.

Meanwhile Roman infantry advances on the village.

Legionarii in big, big trouble.

The Kushite tribal infantry were looking a little disorganised by this stage, though, as the auxiliaries swarmed all over them.

The elephants continue to pursue the Romans, and the Kushite cavalry returns to the fray as well, having finished off the last of their Roman counterparts.

The Romans fail to take the village.

The elephants attack again.

As do the Roman infantry.

But it's too late. Despite their seemingly strong position the Roman morale is wavering. Auxiliary infantry are lost attacking tribal warriors up a hill, and more legionarii fall to the elephants. With half of their elements lost, the Romans rout.

The Kushite losses - two elements of Shooters and two of Spears. All lost to the Roman Auxilia.

Roman losses - two Riders, two Blades, two Warband and a Shooter. Half of them were lost to the elephants.

The final position. There is still a solid line of Roman infantry in the centre, and their auxilia threaten the stronghold, but it's not enough.

And, yes, those are 6mm figures (Heroics & Ros) on 40mm frontages.

Superheroes To The South-West, Sir! Thousands Of Them!

In the comments to my post about the draft version of Clobberin' Time, Pete linked to a whole heap of files with stand-up paper figures. These cover superheroes and villains from Marvel, DC and independent comics (including Hellboy!), but also characters for a whole range of RPG genres and from various TV programmes. There's too much good stuff in there to even begin to list specifics, although the civilians, cops and various henchmen might prove useful - I'm short of those in my Heroclix collection and, whilst they might not be as nice as 3D figures, they will help fill the gap.

Anyway HERE'S THE LINK. Enjoy. And thanks to Pete for telling me about them.