Gathol vs Manator

As I said in my previous post, gaming has taken a bit of a hit recently with me preparing for our recent burlesque show. But it's all done now, and I've survived the glitter-crash, so I thought I'd better get some figures out on the table. And HOTT is always a quick and simple way to do that.

I've had a yearning to get out some of my Barsoomian armies again, so that's what I did last night. On the left is the city of Gathol, whilst on the right are the attackers, from Manator. Gathol has an aerial navy, and Manator has archers, but otherwise both armies are have a core of blades supported by riders.

Gathol's navy- two airboats and a flier.

The Manatorian Jed.

Gathol advanced their aerial units, looking to pass over the Manatorian line. But a PIP drought and some nifty archery from the Manatorians saw this move stalled for quite a while.

Both sides advanced, although Gathol only went far enough to occupy the end of a ridge.

On the furthest flank, riders from both sides skirmished. There was a fair bit of inconclusive activity here early in the battle, but as the main action developed this became an irrelevant sideshow

Manator's bowmen shot down the Gatholian flier.

The warriors of both sides clashed in the centre, and a blade vs blade scrum developed. Both armies fed riders into the fight, hoping to use the lower relative factors in the combats to score a breakthrough.

After a lot of effort, Gathol finally got their airboats into position behind the Manatorians, and set up to block some recoils. The Manatorians responded by simply refusing to lose most of their combats. Both sides had now lost a couple of elements, though.

The Manatorian Jed fought his Gatholian counterpart on the hill, but couldn't dislodge him.

One of the airboats slipped in behind the Jed of Manator, blocking his recoil as he fought the ruler of Gathol.

A typical Manatorian response - he won the combat so convincingly that he killed teh Gatholian commander.

(Looking at the photos now, the Gatholian airboat should have moved onto the flank of the Manatoorian general; the odds would have been better for their side, and the potentially fatal combat results the same.)

Now the battle swung towards the Manatorians. Exploiting the loss of the enemy general, they turned on the enemy flank, and the battle was quickly over.

The Manatorians lost three blades, mostly to the airboats, either directly or indirectly. Gathol lost two blades, a flier and a rider general.

Manator's archers did a sterling job, holding off the aerial troops early in the game until the main battle developed and Gathol had to make serious decisions about where to spend PIPs. But, obviously, the battle was won by that lucky roll in the general vs general combat.