A Bloody Paralyser Of An Aircraft

I realised the other day that although I have two Tumbling Dice 1/600th scale Handley-Page O/100 bombers, I'd never actually used them in a game. Since I have been pondering how best to do bombing scenarios for the game I thought that this afternoon would be a great chance to try them out. |

Here they are, heading off to bomb some German infrastructure. I put two targets towards the end of a 3' long table (which was also 3' wide). Each bomber had two lots of bombs, and the aim was to try and get bobs on both targets if possible. 

Because I haven't used them much I gave the German defenders three Hannover CLIIIs. I'm not sure if they were really used as interceptors, but it looks like two-seaters of some kind may have been, as well as single-seater scouts. Anyway, for this game that's what I was going to use. They'd be interesting because although they lack the twin forward guns of the scouts (just a single one instead), they have an observer in the back with a rear-facing gun, so get more shooting opportunities. 

The defenders would appear in dribs and drabs. At the start of each turn I rolled a D6 and on a 5+ a defending aircraft would appear. If one didn't appear then on subsequent turns the roll would be at +1 until one did. Then the appearance would reset to 5+ for the next defender. I used the clock-face placing method from THIS POST to determine where the aircraft appeared, and set the distance at 2D6 + 1D3. Frankly this didn't work for me so in future games I'll use 2D6+3. 

I used the spotting rules, so even after a defender appeared they had to spot the bombers. 

The first defending plane appeared in front of the bombers at close range.

They flew past each other and the German plane turned to pursue. The bombers opened up with their rear guns. Both sides took some damage. 

A second Hannover appeared, also in front of the bombers and also at close range. 

The Handley Page is actually quite quick; in game terms it has the same speed as the Hannover. With enemy planes in sight they piled on the speed towards the target. The first Hannover was already behind them and kept up, but the second would have to turn and was moving to intercept the bombers after they'd reached the target. 

Within 6" of the target all planes are subject to anti-aircraft fire. German planes are attacked by 1 dice whilst the attackers are hit by 2 dice. A score of  '6' hits and criticals are tested as normal. The rear bomber took a near-direct hit that tore a large hole in the fuselage. The Hannover was lightly damaged. 

Both bombers flew over one of the targets. I set the chance of getting a stick of bombs on target as 4+ on a D6, with a -1 for each of being at a speed greater than 3, not ending your move over the target and not having flown straight with no turns or sideslips. One bomber got a hit. The damaged bomber flew fast, trying to avoid being shot at by the Hannover, and consequently didn't get any bombs on target. 

The second Hannover was moving to intercept, but took some damage from AA fire. 

The Hannovers kept ending up in this position, which is not good for them. The bombers can fire their rear gun, whilst the Hannovers can't shoot into their 2 o'clock or 10 o'clock arcs. Needless to say having maintained a close pursuit of the bombers the first Hannover was not looking good and had suffered some serious damage. At this point its pilot was wounded as well. 

The Germans' reinforcement die rolls had been terrible, and their third plane didn't appear until now. Meanwhile one bomber was lining up on the second target, whilst the other was looking to do a wide swing around it and head for home, having taken so much damage that it couldn't risk another anti-aircraft gun hit. 

All of the planes in action. The damaged bomber kept up a steady fire, damaging the Hannovers.

A stray anti-aircraft burst finished off the damaged Hannover as it tried to head for home.

But the damaged bomber was shot down by the second Hannover. Meanwhile the other bomber managed to bomb the second target. 

It would now be a race to see if the defenders could shoot down the bomber before it could get home. The green Hannover got in a long-range shot, but scored no damage. 

Unable to catch the bomber it broke off and headed for home. 

This left the yellow Hannover to finish off the British plane. It dropped into its rear, keeping up a steady fire. But the rear-gunner on the bomber did a great job, scoring a steady stream of hits back.  

The bomber managed to get the Hannover into the position again. The bomber's rear-gunner kept on firing. 

Damaged, but still flying, the bomber escaped. The Hannover was badly shot up and was lucky to survive. 

I created some provisional Victory Points. I awarded the British 2VP for each of the first two hits by bombs on the targets. In addition they scored 1VP for each plane the Germans lost. The Germans scored 4VP for each bomber shot down. So in this game the British had a narrow win, with 4VP for bombs on target and 1VP for a shot down Hannover against the Germans' 4VP for the downed bomber. I'll need to see how these points pan out in some other games. I feel that maybe the Germans should get a VP for each target the British don't attempt to bomb, to stop the British hitting one target and then just running for home. 

I realised after the game that I'd forgotten to apply the large target modifier to the German shooting, so possibly they would have put the bombers under more pressure. Again, I'll have to play this again and see how it works out. 

Anyway, that's the Handley Page bombers blooded. 

The HOTT Literature Championship - THE FINAL

 So here we are at last. Back in December eight armies from the world of literature stepped out onto the battlefields of Cringila to see who was the best. First a pair from Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian series, Alan Garner's novels, Brian Jacques Redwall books and CS Lewis's Narnian series fought each other. This left one team from each series. In the semi finals The Forces of Light defeated the White Witch of Narnia, whilst Helium demolished Cluny's Rat Horde.

So here we are at the final, as John Carter and the army of Helium take on Cadellin Silverbrow and Alderley Edge's Forces of Light.

It's a straight fight with no hydration breaks.

The forces of light defended, and set up in a tight formation in front of their stronghold after being denied the support of terrain on their flanks in the pre-battle manuevers. 

Their army: 1 x Magician General, 1 x Hero, 2 x Knights, 2 x Riders, 1 x Shooter, 1 x Blade, 1 x Sneaker, 1 x Lurker

Their opponents went for a wide deployment. Their army: 1 x Hero General, 6 x Blades, 2 x Airboats, 1 x Flyer

The airboats were deployed on a risky flank sweep, whilst the blades were lined up for and advance on the enemy line. John Carter would hang back to avoid a potential ensorcellment from the enemy magician. Indeed pundits were already predicting that this might be the cause of a sudden end to the clash. 

Both armies advanced. Both armies took possession of a hill. Cadellin decided to stay put and rearrange his forces to meet the potential aerial attacks coming from each flank. The Martians decided to press forward. This would leave their blades fighting enemy mounted uphill, but this wasn't considered too great a disadvantage. The battle had to be won quickly before Cadellin simply fired up enough magic to take out John Carter. 

The Martians charged. 

And Helium's navy closed on the enemy flanks. Their flyer was the first to initiate combat ... 

... destroying some Lios Alfar riders. 

On the other flank Lios Alfar shooters defended against Helium's airboats, but were driven back. 

The main Martian line attacked, and mostly drove their foes back. 

Some knights won their fight, pursued and then were overlapped and destroyed. 

Cadellin dispatched Albanac the hero to cover the army's right against the flyers. The flyers backed off, leaving Albanac struggling against some Martian blades. Meanwhile the ancient magician made a couple of attempts to ensorcell John Carter, but failed. 

Cadellin's Dwarven allies were cut down as the Martians pressed their attack. 

John Carter saw an opportunity and went for it. Cadellin was exposed. Red Martian warriors surged forward in an attack, supported on theflank by Helium's navy. It was too much for the wizard, who was defeated, breaking his army. 

The final positions.

Helium won 10g-0. They'd pursued a vigorous aggressive strategy, whilst The Forces of Light struggled to gain an opening they could exploit. The first combat against the flyer was critical; had the Lios Alfar won it they would have controlled that flank and been in a position to roll up the Martian line.  However aerials on both flanks left the Forces of Light struggling to move troops to deal with them whilst also dealing with a frontal assault. The blades did well against the mounted, winning their first few combats against the odds and from then on being able to counter the enemy's uphill advantage with overlaps. Cadellin managed two magical attacks against John Carter, but both failed. Either one would have been a battle-winner had they succeeded. 

So Helium are the HOTT Literature Champions!

The final table:

More Thursday HOTT

I played a single game of HOTT at the club last night. This was because I was teaching June, so we took it fairly slowly. June has played once before, but not for a couple of years, so it was very much a learning exercise for her. 

As I usually do when teaching someone I offered her the High Elves. They have a core of shooters, spears and riders (indeed they can make up the entire army), with the option of a hero, magician and/or magician. The latter is a bit much for a novice, but she went for the hero and behemoth so fielded 3 x Shooters, 3 x Spears, 2 x Riders, 1 x Hero and 1 x Behemoth. One of teh spears was the general.

I used my Undead with 1 x Magician General, 12 x Hordes, 2 x Riders and 2 x Knights. Ordinarily I'd field a sneaker and/or flier, but I wanted to keep things simple. 

I defended and managed to get a nice hill in front of my army and a lake to cover my right flank. 

June advanced as I sat on the hill. She had archers on each flank and they drove back the hordes facing them. 

She then advanced up the hill, and my front rank of hordes just disappeared!

Over on my right a got a double overlap with an uphill horde on June's hero- and rolled a 6 - 1 to destroy him!

This didn't stop most of my hordes from getting destroyed though; generally I couldn't get a break in the combats. I was now 8AP down.

Time for something bold. The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse (knights) charged June's shooters. Anyone who has played HOTT will know this is a risky venture. 

The first round was a draw, which was good for me, as I could no longer be  quick-killed. June swung a spear onto their flank though and took out one element.

But, unphotographed, the other element of knights rode down the shooters in front of it, then turned and rode down the other shooters as well. 

This photo shows the blue banner horde element. It recoiled the first time it was shot at, but from then on held its ground from both shooting and close combat. True heroes of the undead. Medals all round. 

Anyway, I brought back some hordes to even things up a bit. But my magician general was now in combat and, foolishly, I'd not left enough room behind him so he recoiled into my stronghold and was lost. That was it for my army. 

June also polished off some more hordes (including the blue banner element) and score 14g to my 8. So a fairly convincing win. 

I never really got to use my magician, thanks to a run of low mid-game PIPs when his magical attack might have been useful. But the knight charge was dramatic, and very lucky! In case you're wondering, June's behemoth had been moved out of the way early on to prevent it blocking recoils, and it never got back into the fight. 

Ten Years Ago - July 2016

Ten years ago I hadn't discovered Blood, Sweat & Cheers, and Victor and I were still tweaking and developing our own set of gladiator rules 'Munera Sine Missione'. You can still download the most recent (and final) version from the Free Stuff section on this blog.

Anyway here's one of my favourite activities at that time - running a single gladiator for a series of bouts and seeing how long they would last. 

Ellenikos

(Looks like it's been three years since Ellenikos last had an outing!)

Prester John vs Ceidonia

I bought a new folding table yesterday, so I can set up games in my office and avoid having to annex the dining table instead. In the afternoon I gave it a first outing, and what better way to do that than a game of HOTT?

The Ceidonians defended against Prester John's attacker. They are both medieval style armies with a core of knights, plus archers, spears and blades. 

Both armies advanced but Prester John halted about halfway to take advantage of a hill. His warband charged the Ceidonian levy on that flank and destroyed them. 

Then the two lines met, with the Ceidonians boldly attacking up the hill. 

The attack was hurled back, and the Ceidonians took some heavy losses. Their left flank was practically destroyed. 

Prester John's army pressed forward to exploit the advantage. 

The Ceidonian steam-tank crushed some of Prester John's knights. 

And now the two might behemoths - the tank and the elephant  - faced each other in the centre. This was a critical combat for the Ceidonians as losing it would see their general crushed under the tank's wheels, and lose them the battle. 

They won the fight and Prester John's elephant was pushed back towards his victorious right flank. 

It broke an element of blades and soon threated the native warbands as well. 

Meanwhile the Ceidonian rally continued on the other flank as Prester John's army became fragmented. Ceidonian swordsmen cut down the archers facing them.

More succcess for Prester John as he personally accounted for some Ceidonian blades. 

Meanwhile on the other flank he warband had avoided disaster and the elephant pushed back the Ceidonian tank into some of its own knights. 

Losses were heavy on both sides and fairly even, Prester John was attacked and driven into some of his own troops, destroying him. However his losses were lower than those of the Ceidonians so the army kept fighting. 

Both armies were looking very sparse in terms of elements now. 

The key turn arrived. A win for Prester John's troops here would destroy the tank and push the Ceidonians over their 12AP break point. 

The fight was a draw. And the Ceidonians overlapped some knights to push Prester John's losses over theirs.  

So it was a narrow 11g-10 win for the Ceidonian. Had their tank been destroyed then even the loss of those final knights wouldn't have prevented a 14-11g win for Prester John. Definitely a game won and lost on a key combat. 

I pronounce my new table well and truly christened.