Gloranthan Army Lists for 'Hordes of the Things'

Here's another old file from The Stronghold, dragged out of the archives because Jane asked nicely.

Gloranthan Army Lists for 'Hordes of the Things'

By David L. Pulver

The following are a series of army lists and campaign notes for gaming the Hero Wars using the WRG's excellent DBA-derived HORDES OF THE THINGS miniature rules, designed for quick play while emphasizing command and control. HOTT armies are organized into 1-4 figure "elements"(stands) representing an individual and bodyguard, or a regiment of troops. A typical army is formed from a dozen or so elements (circa 50 figures) using an Army Point (AP) system to establish balanced 24 AP armies. A battle is played on a 2' x 3'area and takes about an hour to play.The main reference for these lists is the board game DRAGON PASS, published by CHAOSIUM. The format used is: suggested number of elements in a 24 AP army, troop type (name of element) and the point cost in APs.

LUNAR EMPIRE

1 x Hero General (Beat-Pot Alewrin) @ 4 AP
1 x Paladin (Jar-eel the Razeress) @ 4 AP
1 x Magicians (Crater Makers, Blue Moon School, Major or Minor Classes, Comet Seers or Spell archers) @ 4 AP
1 x Knights (Hell Sisters, Bloodspillers, Mother's Guard, Steadfast, Red or Hadrian's Dragoons) @ 2 AP
1 x Blades (Household Foot, Grim Soldiers, Feathered Axe or Steel Sword Legion)@ 2 AP
2 x Riders (Cavalry Corps or Furthest Corps horse) @ 2 AP
1 x Spears (Granite, Marble or Jasper Phalanx, or hired Sun Dome Templars) @ 2AP
1 x Shooters (Thunder Delta Slingers) @ 2 AP

Alternatives: Magician General (Red Emperor) @ 4 AP, Hero (Full Moon Corps,Twin Stars), Dragon (CrimsonBat) @ 4 AP, Hordes (lesser foot regiments) @ 1 AP; Beasts (Tusk Ridermercs) @ 2 AP.

SARTAR

1 x Magician General (Prince Argrath) @ 4 AP
1 x Hero (Gunda the Guilty) @ 4 AP
1 x Paladin (Harrek the Berserk) @ 4 AP
2 x Hordes (Sartar Foot Militia) @ 1 AP
1 x Knights (Twin Spears, Sword Brothers or Bullocks) @ 2 AP
2 x Riders (Pavis Royal Guard, Mounted Militia or Bush Children or Praxian barbarians) @ 2 AP
2 x Warbands (Dragontooth Runners, Baron Sanual's Men, Headhunters,Candledancers, Guildsmen, Freemen,Antlercase, Colymar, Tworidge Farm or Thieves' Arm) @ 2 AP
1 x Flyers (Sylphs, Wasps or Wind Children) @ 2 AP

Alternatives: Beasts (Wolf Runners or Tusk Rider mercs) @ 2 AP; WaterLurkers (Ducks) @ 1 AP; Aerial Hero(Stormwalkers) @ 6 AP; Magicians (Egglord Warlocks, Snakepipe Dancers, Sir Narib's Company, EaglebrownWarlocks, Warm Sisters, Free Philosophers, Tosti Runefriend, Earth Twins) @4 AP; Spears (Sun DomeTemplars) @ 4 AP; Dragon @ 4 AP.

TARSH REBELS (Exiles, Halfbeasts and Grazelanders)

1 x Hero General (Ironhoof or Feathered Horse Queen) @ 4 AP
1 x Paladin (Androgenous) @ 4 AP
1 x Artillery (The Dwarf with cannon cult) @ 3 AP
3 x Riders (Grazelanders, Centaurs, Exile Cavalry) @ 2 AP
1 x Warbands (Exile Infantry) @ 2 AP
1 x Bows (Exile Archers) @ 2 AP
1 x Beasts (Minotaurs and Manticores, or Tusk Rider mercenaries) @ 2 AP
1 x Lurkers (Satyrs) @ 1 AP

Alternatives: Behemoth (Stone Men) @ 4 AP, Hero (Twins) @ 4 AP, Magicians(Moon Haters, Earth Shaker'sCult, Baron's Friends or Old School) @ 4 AP, Knights (Beaked Dragonewts) @2 AP, Spears (hired Sun DomeTemplars) @ 2 AP.

DRAGONEWTS

1 x Magician General (Inhuman King) @ 4 AP
2 x Magicians (Priests) @ 4 AP
2 x Knights (Beaked Dragonewts) @ 2 AP
2 x Riders (Mounted Crested Dragonewts) @ 2 AP
2 x Shooters (Crested Dragonewts) @ 2 AP

Alternatives: Behemoths (Brontosauri or Triceratops) @ 4 AP, Magicians(Trachodons) @ 4 AP, Flyers(Pteranodons) @ 2 AP

CRAGSPIDER AND HER ALLIES

1 x Magician General (Cragspider) @ 4 AP
1 x Dragon (Cragspider's Dragon) @ 4 AP
4 x Warbands (Dark Trolls) @ 2 AP
1 x Magicians (Dark Troll Priestesses) @ 4 AP
4 x Hordes (Trollkin) @ 1 AP

THE BARBARIAN HORDE

1 x Hero General (Jaldon Toothmaker) @ 4 AP
1 x Magicians (Flash Jak, And-ja or Krise) @ 4 AP
8 x Riders (Pol-Joni, Amber, Potor or Ansil Clans) @ 2 AP

SIR ETHILRIST AND HIS BLACK HORSE TROOP

1 x Hero General (Sir Ethilrist) @ 4 AP
1 x Dragon (Hell Hound) @ 4 AP
2 x Sneakers (Goblins, Keener Than) @ 3 AP
4 x Knights (Black Horse Troops) @ 2 AP
1 x Spears (Black Horse Auxiliaries) @ 2 AP


ODDS AND ENDS

Zombie Whale. A Behemoth

These don't really fit into any army, but could be added in place of other troops:

1 x Magician General (Delecti) @ 4 AP
3 x Hordes (Delecti's Zombies) @ 1 AP
1 x The Hydra or Giants (Behemoth) @ 4 AP

NOTES

An element in this case represents a few thousand men, or a single hero and an associated body guard, or one really powerful critter. Superheroes were classed as Paladins, heroes as Heroes unless they had a spirit listed, in which case they figured as Magicians. Actually, I was tempted to class the Superheroes as Gods, given their well known unreliability. However, Paladins worked well because of their effect on nearby magic in Hordes of Things approximates their ability to grant magic resistance to stacked units in Dragon Pass. Classing the Hell Hound and Crimson Bat both as Dragons seemed to fit best with Hordes of the Things.

CAMPAIGN GAMES

See HOTT. A suggested game is to pick three to six of the following: Lunar Empire, Sartar, Tarsh Rebels, Cragspider, Dragonewts, Barbarian Hordes, Sir Ethilherst. Assume the others are sitting out the war or rebuilding.

GLORANTHAN OPTIONAL RULES

These rules are optional, but will enable HORDES OF THE THINGS to better simulate the Hero Wars:

The Red Moon and the Glow Line: Add +1 to PIP of the Lunars if the red moon is full, full half, within the glowline, -1 if dying or black. The Red Moon is always full within the Glow Line. In a campaign game, the Glow Line covers all provinces the Lunar Empire actually controls (but not tributaries).

Dragon Tooth Runners: If Prince Argrath is in play, one Sartar warband can be designated the Dragon Tooth Runners. They need not be deployed at the start of the game. If so, they can later appear adjacent to Prince Argath on the board as a tactical move costing 1 PIP.

Crimson Bat: While the Bat is on the battlefield, the Red Moon is always considered full. If an enemy recoils,the Bat must pursue as if it were an element of Knights.

Dragons: Thanks to their mastery of the Infinity Rune, true dragons (but not the Hellhound or the Crimson Bat) have the same effect on magic that a Paladin does.

Kong vs The Uruk Hai

Catherine and I played another game of BattleSworn this afternoon. It moved a lot faster than the previous one, as we barely had to look anything up. We originally limited the game to ten bidding rounds, with the winner being the one who had inflicted the most casualties at the end of that time, but decided half-way through to go for a random end - at the end of the tenth round, and each round thereafter, we would roll a D6, and on a 4+ the game would end. This prevented the famous 'last turn' syndrome, where people do silly things because they know that there's nothing to lose.

We tried some  troop classes we hadn't used before in this game - a Healer and some Arquebusiers. We still don't quite feel confident enough to try magic yet. We may slip a Warmage into the next game, though.

I had a force of Uruk Hai:

4 Uruk Hai with pikes (Fighters)
2 Uruk Hai with crossbow (Arquebusiers)
1 Berserker (Tank/Brute)
4 Armoured Uruk Hai (Tanks)

Catherine used my Politically Incorrect Pygmies (old Citadel figures), assisted by the King of Skull Island, Kong.

4 Warriors (Fighters)
1 Brute (Chief)
1 Witchdoctor (Healer)
2 Blowpipe Hunters (Rogue/Shooters)
KONG! (Brute/Tank)

As you can see, both Kong and the Beserker were the same in game terms, despite the figures' radically different on-table footprint.

I'm not really into games where you put screens down the middle of the table, so we came up with an alternative method of deployment, based on HOTT. We both rolled a D6 and the highest roller selected the terrain. The other player numbered two adjacent edges 1-2 and 3-4 and the other two 5 and 6, then diced to see which one they got. Once board edges were determined we alternated setting up figures - we rolled dice, and the lowest roller set up that many figures on their board-edge. We kept doing that until all figures were deployed.

And here's the setup we got:

Catherine got her blowpipe users into a good position in the centre.

I moved up some Uruk Hai to engage them.

When I charged she managed to take one down with one shot.

The other Fighter ended up locked in combat with the pygmy, and soon Kong came up in support.

The Uruk Hai tried to use crossbows to bring down Kong, but to no avail. And soon they were themselves under attack by pygmy warriors.

The Uruk Hai berserker moved up to defy Kong.

Charge!

Splat! Without even breaking a sweat, King smashed him into the ground (Catherine did a six dice attack and rolled five hits).

The Uruk Hai were moving their armoured warriors up on the other flank, but the pygmies held them off. On turn 10 the game ended.

Casualties. The Uruk Hai had lost four figures, whilst the Pygmies had lost only their chief, slain by a crossbowman in the woods.

The Healer never got used. Catherine moved him into position to heal a pygmy on red, but the game ended before she got chance. The Arquebusiers got off one shot each, with no effect, and I never had the initiative to reload. Otherwise everything performed as expected. Catherine had good combat die rolls, and some of mine were truly appalling - more than once I inflicted no hits with five or six dice. The Shooter/Rogues were great; a combination I will have to try myself. And one problem with playing a bidding game against someone to whom you have been married for over 20 years is that you tend to think the same. We had an awful lot of drawn melees through us both selecting the same number. we both need to play someone less predictable in future ...

Monsters, And A Tokusatsu Hero

I ran a brush over a couple of the cheap dragons I picked up the other day, and they look very nice. I did consider washes and dry-brushes, but the two I did really looked OK as they were, certainly in comparison with my other giant monster models. So I merely painted some detail onto them - claws, teeth tongue an eyes, just to give them a little more life and personality.

Here's the winged serpent:

And here's the one with the hooked fore-limbs:

In addition to the dragons I picked up a couple of Ben 10 figures in the Reject Shop, one of which is perfect for an Ultraman-style monster-fighting Tokusatsu hero. The figures came with a strange display stand, so I rebased my hero on an old Heroclix base, and added some rubble to make it more interesting.

In the movies such heroes are the same size as the monsters they fight (since the actors in the suits are, of course, much the same size). My hero is slightly smaller, but not to a level that looks too out of place. Here he is facing the hook-handed horror:

Of course, what they all need now is names. The hero's working title is currently Valiant Monster Fighter (which has the feel of something that's been badly translated from Japanese into English). But I'm open to suggestions.

BattleSworn

Catherine and I played a game of BattleSworn this morning. It's a new fantasy skirmish game from Ganesha Games, which uses a rather nice bidding mechanism to drive movement and combat. Like Songs of Blades and Heroes it uses forces of  about 10-12 figures, with scale being unimportant. Indeed in this game there is no measurement at all*; figures move in a straight line until their movement is stopped by an enemy or a change in terrain, and shooting takes place anywhere within line of sight. So terrain is very important, breaking up lines of fire and movement paths.

Forces are made up of 12 'slots', each sloth being occupied by one of a number of very generic troop types. Most use one slot, some use two and Rabble use half. There are limits on how many of each type a force may have, and all forces must have at least four of the basic troop type, Fighters (although in fact there's no reason to have more than four either). Some figures may have more than one type.

As I said, the game is driven by bidding. Essentially when doing anything which is opposed, both layers bid a number from one to six; the lowest bidder gets to go first, with that many dice (whether it's shooting, dodging or attacking in melee), then the other person goes with the number of dice they bid. So the game is a constant decision of how soon you want to act compared with how potent you want to be when you do it.

Initiative is handled the same way. On a turn both players bid from one to six. The lowest bidder has initiative and may act with figures equal to their bid. The high scorer gets a number of reaction moves equal to the difference.

Anyway, I threw together a couple of forces which I thought would be easy to start with. I avoided magic, as spell-casting adds a whole layer to the game I didn't want to get involved with on a first try.

Catherine took a force of Elves, led by Elrond. They were:

4 Elves with big swords - Fighters
6 Elves with bow - Shooters
Elrond - Brute/Tank (A Brute is better at hitting things in melee, whilst a Tank is resistant to damage. In reality I'd run Elrond as a Brute/Warmage)

I had some Goblins. They were to have a Cave Troll (of course), but I couldn't find it. So instead my force was:

4 Goblin Warriors - Fighters
4 Goblin Archers - Shooters
2 Scouts - Rogues
1 Wolf - Cavalry

We decided on a terrain by simple co-operation. The hills, wood, boulders and ruins blocked line of sight, the ruins and woods provided cover and the boulders were impassable. The ford allowed you to ignore the river. A figure on a hill was allowed a 1 die melee bonus against a figure that wasn't on a hill. To set up we both rolled a D6 each, and the one who rolled lowest had to set up that many figures on their base edge. We kept going until one of us had all of their figures deployed, then the other deployed the remainder of their force.

Opening moves were on the ruins side of the river. I pushed my Fighters and Rogues forward, but hid behind a hill when Catherine occupied a ridge with Elrond and a couple of archers. On the right of the picture you can see the first hit of the game, when one of my Fighters was nicked by an arrow trying to reach the cover of the boulders.

On the other side of the table, opposing archers skirmished, but the elf came off worse; that red counter is a serious wound.

The fighting intensified on that flank; Catherine brought in some elven Fighters to clear away my archers, and I reacted by moving the wolf in to support them. It all got very bloody.

In the ruins a lone elf held off a couple of goblins

I finally got my act together on the other side of the table (mostly because I started to understand how moves and reactions worked), and went for the elves on the hill. Rather than have one of her archers doubled up by my goblins, Catherine charged Elrond off the hill to intercept my attack.

Of course this caused a massed brawl in the centre.

Elrond fell to a sneaky Rogue attack - Rogues get a bonus dice in combat if there is a least one friend in contact with their opponent.

Casualities had mounted on both sides, and victory would go to the first person to kill six opposing models. However wounded figures also partially counted towards this total, and my injured goblins pushed me over the boundary. This was how the game looked at the end. In fact we made a mistake, assuming that victory was assessed at the end of the turn, not the moment a side reached 50% casualties, so some figures died after hostilities had actually ceased.

We both enjoyed the game, but took a little while to get used to how it worked. Not that the rules are complicated - they aren't - but the actual process of achieving what you want to do isn't immediately obvious. For example, if you want to redeploy in the face of enemy Shooters it may be better not to have initiative, as you can move as a reaction, and such moves aren't open to opportunity fire. Once we understood roughly what we were doing the game flowed very well.

BattleSworn is an interesting game, and it's going to be fun trying out some different force structures and styles.

*Not strictly true - a number of mechanisms revolve around the 'nearest enemy', so it helps to have some way of measuring that.

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea - The Wargame

I found this picture in my Flickr photostream - a game I played one evening back in February 2007. I have posted it here for sheer nostalgia value.

This is the original caption:

"Trying out a scenario for 'Monster Island' that I found on the web. Nemo's Nautilus and three bases of divers take on a single giant octopus. Nemo started off well until the octopus got a good hold on the submarine and, resisting the electrically charged hull, crushed it. With nowhere to run the diver squads were picked off one by one.

Special effects from the Sydney Aquarium gift-shop (Octopus), Games Workshop (the Epic Imperial Guard masquerading as divers) and, of course, Lego (The Nautilus)."

I can't remember who wrote the original scenario. It used the octopus monster in the sample creatures in the 'Monster Island' rules book, against three stands of infantry from 'Escape From Monster Island'. I can't remember what the Nautilus was - I think it may have been based on a UFO from 'Invasion of Monster Island', with flight replaced by swimming and the ranged attack replaced by an electrified hull.

It might be quite fun to try it with 'Giant Monster Rampage', treating the sea-surface as ground movement, but giving everything the Burrow ability to represent diving. There was a note in the comments on the original photo that the scenario included an option for a third player (the US Navy); this would give a player some 1860-70s steam/sail ships - plenty of guns but little protection and no dive capability.

I actually found some more pictures I took at the time, but they aren't really any different to the one posted above. However here's one just for the sheer hell of posting a picture I haven't seen in over six years.

I should note that the Imperial Guard have since been repainted, and are now regularly fighting (and dying) in games of HOTT. The Lego is in a big box (a big, BIG, box), but I think I ditched the octopus as part of the clear-out we had when we emigrated.