Army Showcase - The Hounds Of Hollywood

Those that know me will know I'm not a fan of 'silly' HOTT armies - the ones that are just a random concept translated into HOTT troop types. Fortunately many of them never make it to the table, but from time to time 'Hordes Of The Things I Found In My Pocket' make it onto the table. I grit my teeth, and only play against it if I have to.

My wife, however, does have a tendency to come up with off-the-wall ideas. She has fielded an army based on the nursery rhyme 'Sing A Song of Sixpence' for example. And her Vicars and Tarts force featured edible, jam tart, Hordes. And the cast of 'Father Ted'. I kid you not.

In 2007 the theme for the Burton HOTT competition was 'At The Movies'. I went for an army based around Alex Cox's film 'Walker', Catherine went for something more ... unusual.

She decided to do an 'army' featuring famous (and not so famous) dogs from films.

My contribution was to help her source the figures, as well as advice on painting and doing the bases, but the rest of it was her own work. Oh, I think it was me that built the stronghold.

And the best part of it? She came within a die roll of winning the tournament, winning her first three games and narrowly losing the fourth to an army based on Buster Keaton's 'The General' (all painted in black and white, of course.)

Anyway, here's the army:

1 x Hero General (Rin Tin Tin)
1 x Hero (Lassie)
1 x Paladin (Greyfriars Bobby)
6 x Beasts (Various Hounds Of Hollywood - see below)

The Hero/Paladin combination is a popular and powerful one, although supporting it with six Beasts was fairly high risk as they are a fairly fragile troop type. It's an army that can win big very quickly, or die horribly, bit by bit.

On to the individual elements. Rin Tin Tin is the Hero general:

Lassie is the other Hero. She is from the 2005 film version, and accompanied by Toots. It was a toss-up between Lassie and Rin Tin Tin to be the general, but Rin Tin Tin has greater military experience.

The loyal Greyfriars Bobby is a Paladin.

On to the Beasts. First up are the title stars of  Disney's 'Lady and the Tramp'.

Then Rowf and Snitter from 'The Plague Dogs'

Here's Merlin and Tag from 'The Belstone Fox', plus some other foxhounds.

The Hound of the Baskervilles needs no introduction.

The army would not be complete without Pongo and Perdita from '101 Dalmatians', plus a few puppies, of course.

A cat appears on this element, which features Luath, Bodger and Tao from 'The Incredible Journey'.

On to the stronghold. The stronghold is a hill ...

... with an old mine-shaft.

 But wait, what's that cry?

Oh no! Timmy is trapped in the Old Mine Shaft!

Quick Lassie! Go get help!

WOOF!