Fishmen vs Orcs

Because we're still isolating I couldn't go to wargaming this evening, so I played a quick game of HOTT instead. The Orcs were still hanging around from the other week, and I opposed them with my Fishmen.

The Fishmen defended with 4 x Spears (including the general), 4 x Shooters, 1 x Lurker, 1 x Artillery and 2 x Warband.

The attacking Orcs consisted of 1 x Knight, 3 x Riders, 2 x Beasts, 1 x Behemoth and 8 x Hordes.

The Fishmen opened up the fight with their lurker attacking some wolves. The lurker was quickly driven off.

The Fishmen had a bit of a gap on their left which the Orcs moved rapidly to exploit, sending wolves (ridden and unridden) to overwhelm the shooters there and turn the enemy line. The rest of the Orc army advanced slowly to pin down the centre.

Once they got into artillery range the hordes suffered badly; the Fishman artillery shot well all game, only missing its target once and destroying a few hordes.

The Fishmen had shuffled their line to the left to plug the gap, and had just got organised when the first attack went in.

They lost a shooter, and had to drag some spears over from the centre to fill the gap. The Orcs tried to exploit their advantage, but both sides suffered terrible PIPs at this stage and the fighting slowed a little.

The Orcs kept up the attack as best they could, and the Fishman flank began to look a little vulnerable.

The Orcs turned the flank, but couldn't finish off the shooter there.

An overview of the battle. In the rear of the Fishman army the warband were slowly moving across to reinforce the flank. The Orc centre was not advancing much, with most of their command attention being focused on the flank attack.

On the other flank the Fishmen had shooters in the bad going who were keeping up a steady fire on the slowly advancing hordes. The Orcs lost more hordes to this fire.

A troop of trolls threatened the artillery.

And the warband arrived to bolster the flank just as the beleaguered shooters were destroyed. The Orc wolf-riders found themselves backed up against the edge of the battlefield, in a very dangerous position. However the Orc's commander had joined the fight, smashing through one of the Fishman spear elements.

The artillery forced the trolls to flee.

Both armies were taking heavy casualties. The Orcs stabilised their flank attack, destroying one of the warband, and their commander made a run for the Fishman stronghold. The Fishmen turned their artillery to take the Orcs under fire before they could get there.

The artillery didn't slow the charging Orcs, but their first attack failed.

The Fishmen went on the offensive on the other flank; steady losses to the hordes, on top of a few casualties elsewhere, were pushing the Orcs just as close to their breaking point as the Fishmen were getting. The battle could still go either way.

But, of course, horde losses are never forever. With a couple of spare PIPs in hand the Orcs brought themselves back from the brink.

The Fishmen now had a way to go, but all the Orcs had to do was either take the stronghold or destroy one more enemy element. They failed in the former, again, but swamped the second warband to achieve the latter and win the battle.

The end of the fight. The Orcs had won 12-8.

The Fishmen are always a tough nut to crack, but have a problem that most of their elements are slow, so it's difficult for them to move things around rapidly to plug gaps or act as a reserve. The Orcs are, of course, a deceptive army. At first glance one would think it's a plodding horde army, but in fact 2/3 of its strength is fast, mobile mounted troops. And it was those that won the battle for them.