Flash And The Black Pirates

I played another game of HOTT last night with my Flash Gordon and Black Pirate armies. This time the Black Pirates defended, setting a tighter terrain to limit the mobility of the Hawkmen fliers whilst still allowing the Pirate airboats a chance to attack en masse.

Both sides sent the majority of the aerials down one flank, quickly bringing in extra fliers as they did so.

First contact saw the Hawkmen pushed back and the Mongo rocket-ship destroyed.

Flash and Vultan came to the rescue, hitting the flank of the Black Pirate fleet, and cutting a swathe through the small Martian flyers.

But the Black Pirates had an airboat in reserve, which was able to draw Flash away from the fight.

The Hawkmen were fighting a losing battle against the Black Pirate warships.

The Pirates turned, a slow maneuver in HOTT and expensive in PIPs. But the Mongo troops had little with which to poose it - Flash was still tied down by the fourth warship, now supported by some Black Pirate warriors on foot, and Vultan was but one Hawkman.

Another group of Hawkmen were lost, leaving Vultan the sole survivor. 

The Lion-Men formed up in support of Vultan.

But elsewhere things were looking better for Flash. He finally took down the Black Pirate warship opposing him, as well as the supporting foot, whilst his reserve, consisting of the Frigians, accompanied by Dale and Zarkov, attacked the flank of the remaining Black Pirate foot.

Flash was now threatening the Black Pirate stronghold.

The climax of the game; the Black Pirate fleet pushing forward against Vultan and the Lion-Men, Flash moving towards the Black Pirate citadel and the Frigians charging into the Black Pirate warriors.

Vultan fell!

Flash attacked the stronghold but was repulsed by the defences.

And the beleaguered Black Pirate foot fought like demons to rout the Frigians. 

And that was enough to break the Mongo force. They lost 13AP whilst the Pirates lost 9AP.

In fact the Frigians were lost on the same bound that Flash attacked the stronghold. Had Flash won, the game would have ended in a tie, since at the end of a bound the Black Pirates would have lost their stronghold whilst Mongo would have lost half of their army. Remember that in HOTT the rules don't tell you how an army wins. They only describe the ways it can lose.