The Book Of (Chinese) Invasions

A recent comment suggested that there wasn't enough HOTT on this blog, so I decided to celebrate its first birthday with a game.

I used two armies which haven't seen much use in recent years - the Chinese and the Tuatha De Danann. These used to get a lot of use about 10-12 years ago when I had a regular Saturday night gaming session with our neighbour's grandson (who was about 12-13 at the time). He liked using the Chinese, despite its considerable flaws, and also dabbled in the Tuatha De Danann as well. So the game is a sort of tribute to an early, regular, opponent. We did play an awful lot of HOTT together over the years, and he even played in a couple of tournaments as well. He's a policeman now, apparently.

Anyway, back to the game. The Chinese defended:

The had a Knight general (in a chariot), another Knight, two Spears, two Shooters, a Magician and two Dragons. Here's the Knight general with his parasol:

The Tuatha De Danann had a Hero general (Lugh), another Hero (Nuada Silverhand), a Magician, a couple of Knights a couple of Blades and four Hordes. Here they are:

And here are the Heroes, plus the Magician:

The armies advanced:

The Chinese Magician attempted to ensorcell Nuada Silverhand, but failed, rolling a '1':

In a bold move he closed into combat, and ensorcelled the Irish Hero at close range:

The Hero was imprisoned in the Chinese stronghold:

The armies get closer, with the Chinese trying to catch the Irish before they cleared the fields:

A clash of chariots:

The impetuous Chinese push into the Irish line:

Unfortunately that's when things started to go wrong. A Chinese chariot falls to Lugh the Hero:

The Chinese crossbowmen were shooting down Irish Hordes on the flank:

But a Chinese Spear element fell to an Irish chariot:

Finally the Chinese general was killed by another Irish Knight:

All was not lost, though - troop losses on both sides were equal, so the game continued. However all the Irish had to do on their next bound was bring back one Horde, and they would secure the victory. The Chinese needed a kill on their turn. So they went for a risky bespelling attack on the Irish Magician - and it worked:

The Irish had now lost 10AP to the Chinese 6AP - the game continued. The Irish attacked, looking to get some easy kills:

But failed to impress the Chinese. Now Lugh, the Irish general, was in danger, backed up against one of his own Knights and under fire from Chinese crossbowmen:

The Chinese rolled a '6' and deployed the Dragons:

The crossbowmen failed to force Lugh to retreat:

The Irish tried again, blocking the recoil of the remaining Chinese Spear element. It didn't work:

The Dragons attack, but the Irish chariot Knight held them to a draw:

Lugh kills the Chinese Shooter element. The Chinese are now 8AP down - their losses are equal to those of the Irish:

The Iiish roll a '6', and Lugh returns:

His attempt to capture the Chinese stronghold fails, but his reappearance now means that the Chinese are down 8AP to 4AP - with their general gone, that means they lose.

Although things looked bad for the Chinese in most of the game, a couple of lucky rolls meant that they were in with a chance of a win a couple of times. So it was a good, close game.