I've played the three games for Season Three of the campaign during the week, so am now able to post them here.
The initiative order came out as follows:
Swiss, Dwarf, Elf, Undead, Orc, Camelot
The Swiss opted to attack the Undead, reasoning that their massed warband could cut through the hordes of their opponent. The Dwarves launched an attack on the Orcs. And that left the Elves attacking Camelot.
Game 1 - Swiss Attacking Undead
The two armies made a fine sight lined up against each other. The Undead opted to advance slightly and hold the hill in the centre of their line, as this gave their returning hordes better access to the fight.
The Swiss simply advanced as rapidly as possible. Their pike attacked up the hill to pin the troops there, whilst the warband smashed into the hordes of the Undead right.
The Undead melted away before the Swiss attack.
The end came quickly, with the necromancer slain by Swiss warband. Don't worry; he'll be back.
The end of the battle. The Swiss won 9g-0, gaining 2 Prestige and taking a resource from the Undead.
Game 2 - Dwarves Attacking Orcs
Both armies faced each other with hills just in front of their deployment zones. They advanced to occupy them and, at that stage, I realised that both could simply sit and wait for the other to attack. So I rolled to see who would crack first and advance on the other, weighting that role in favour of the attacking Dwarves.
The Orcs attacked. Their beasts and riders were on one flank, and on the other they faced weaker (but deadly) warband, so they concentrated their efforts on the Dwarven flanks.
Wolves - ridden and riderless - crash into the Dwarf line.
The Dwarf line held firm as on their right the Orc hordes attacked.
The Orc army failed to break through, and collapsed through losses.
The Dwarves won 12-0, gaining 2 Prestige and taking a Resource from the Orcs.
Game 3 - Elves Attack Camelot
Camelot presented a short line, opting to hold a hero and paladin in reserve against whatever approach the Elves would make.
The Elves opted for the same plan as their previous battle; an attack by their riders and their hero general on the enemy right. Camelot moved some knights, plus Lancelot and Galahad, to block it.
Against such mighty foes the Elves didn't really stand a chance. The riders were contacted and swiftly disperesed.
The Elves advanced their spear-line, and threatened Camelot's left with archers. Camelot advanced to meet them.
With the paladin fighting on the right, there was no protection for Arthur against magical attack. This left him vulnerable to the Elven magician, who took advantage of the fact and ensorcelled Camelot's leader.
However this wasn't enough to break Camelot; the Elves had taken too many casualties themselves, and Galahad the paladin killed the Elven general to give Camelot the victory instead.
Camelot won 10g-4g. Both armies picked up 1 Prestige for killing the opposing general. No Resources changed hands.
At the end of Round Three, the scores are as follows:
Swiss - Prestige 4, Resources 3Dwarves - Prestige 2, Resources 3
Elves - Prestige 3, Resources 4
Orcs - Prestige 2, Resources 2
Camelot - Prestige 5, Resources 4
Undead - Prestige 2, Resources 2
The Orcs and the Undead are at the bottom of the table. Camelot is the clear leader, whilst the Swiss and the Elves are both in second place; the Elves have more Resource, whilst the Swiss are doing well in Prestige.
Thanks for the battle reports, Alan….good to see the campaign unfolding.
ReplyDeleteI play only very little Hott, and none too well (as witnessed by my 9th place/10 at Coventry a couple of weeks ago)….but wondered - when the Elven Mg was destroyed would the Camelot Hero general be desorcelled and reappear instantly, or would his reappearance be deemed to happen at the start of the next turn?? Never seen this situation before, but was wondering how it would affect the final ‘body count’/score line.
The Elf general is the hero, not the magician.
DeleteBut, yes, if the magician who ensorcelled the hero is destroyed then the ensorcelled hero immediately reappears.
Thanks Alan.
ReplyDeleteSorry, got all confusedified…!! So many ways to lose a game, with Hott, isn’t there….and plenty of fun options…refreshing after playing too much DBA.. Looking forward to more reports
Good stuff Alan.
ReplyDeleteHow will the “campaign end” be determined? Is it, say, after a fixed number of seasons? Or perhaps the army with the highest number of prestige/resource points at a certain time?
It just ends when I get bored with it :)
DeleteI have considered calling an end if an army gets to 6 Resources, but I suspect that'll be hard to do, since the more Resource you get the less likely you are to be an attacker. Prestige is simply a tie-breaker or secondary victory condition.
Thanks for the clarification Alan.
ReplyDeleteYou’re just playing these solo, yes? If so, have you ever considered spicing things up a bit with things such as flanking forces, late arriving reinforcements, early arrivals hidden as ambush parties etc? It might make the battles more interesting than simply just lining the armies up opposite each other (that’s not a criticism btw). Cheers,
Geoff
It has crossed my mind for a future campaign. And I've done it for campaigns using my HOTT-based South American Wars of Liberation rules.
DeleteI chose the armies on the assumption they'd give an interesting set of games; each one has its own strengths and weaknesses. It possibly hasn't sparkled as much as I thought it would, though, so maybe a future campaign could use some additions.