It's a (HOTT) Knockout! - Episode Four

Having got the Gaslands demo game out of the way, and a very busy week at work, I picked up my ongoing HOTT knockout campaign again today.

When we left it, the Fishmen had just been knocked out by the Elves, whilst the Swiss had been eliminated by Prester John. This left just three nations in play - Prester John, the Wild Elves and the Inca.

Season Eight

The rolls were:

Elves: 1+1=2
Inca: 4+1=5
Prester John: 4

This left the Inca, not seen in action since Season Two, attacking the Elves. The only region they could reach was the Elves starting point, so that's where they went.

The Inca managed to deprive the Elves of a wood to deploy in or near, but the Elves did end up with a useful hill to defend.

The battle started badly for the Inca. Having got into position on the hill the Elves had PIPs to spare to use magic and despite the presence of a cleric in the Inca ranks, succeeded in ensorcelling the Inca hero element.

You can also see some Elven warband working their way onto the Inca left flank.

The Inca pushed forward with a raid attack.

The Elves attacked the Inca left, sweeping away the first group of Inca warriors they encountered.

The Elves doubled up to attack the next lot of Inca warriors - and were destroyed! So whilst the Inca left was still looking unsafe, it wasn't as under as much threat as before.

The Inca charged!

They lost another element of blades to some warband on the hill, which then swept down to take out the hordes beyond, But the Great Inca broke through the enemy line.

Rather than surge forward he turned and attacked the warband that had punched a hole in his centre. And that was the end of them. The Elves were now running out of warband.

The Elves brought across their sorceress to drive off the Great Inca, but she was driven back.

On the Inca right, their hordes were having difficulty closing with the Elven archers. But they were also holding the Elven archers in place.

The Inca then rolled a '6', and used it to bring back their ensorcelled hero element, the Aucakpussak, who immediately attacked the Elven stronghold. They failed to take it though.

The Elves destroyed the Huaca sacred litter, which now left the Inca vulnerable to their army's magicians.

The sorceress had been driven back, and was now attacked by both the Great Inca and the Aucakpussak. Amazingly she drove them off.

The hordes still failed to close with the archers. In the centre you can see that the Great Inca has fled back to he main battle.

Back in the main action, the Great Inca turned on the last Elf warband, and destroyed it.

And the Aucakpussak defeated the sorceress, to win the battle for the Inca.

The Inca won 16-10, so it was a close battle. At the end it boiled down to whichever side lost an element first. The Elves were lucky to survive an assault on their stronghold as well.

The Elves were now out of the campaign, and this was now the position of the two surviving nations; The Inca controlled a great swathe of land to the north, west and east, whilst Prester John controlled the south and centre. Who would come out on top?

Season Nine

The two nations rolled, although the Inca had a huge aggression bonus of +2

Inca: 5+2=7

Prester John: 4

So the Inca were attacking Prester John's empire, with the possibility of winning the campaign if they were victorious. They opted to attack their foe in the central province, originally controlled by the Swiss.

The Inca got to deploy with their flanks covered by bad going and a hill in their centre. Prester John massed his best troops in the centre and but troops capable of acting in bad going on the flanks. 

This was a tricky action, since it was really to neither side's advantage to attack. I therefore determined a couple of likely tactical options, and diced for it. The Inca would sit tight in their position and Prester John chose to attack on the flanks.

The Inca extended their line into the bad going and fell foul of Prester John's crocodile lurkers.

Meanwhile the Inca occupied the hill, whilst Prester John's whole army advanced.

The Inca hordes held the lurker on the first round, and the Inca were able to counter-lurk with their Amazonian Indian allies. The crocodiles destroyed the hordes this time, though.

The Indians drove off the crocodiles in the next bound, and then moved to help cover the Inca right flank.

With their flanks under threat the Inca opted to attack off their hill. Any recoils would take them back onto it anyway.

Prester John's native allies once again proved their worth, sweeping away the defenders of the bad going, and falling on the flank of the Inca army.

But a mob of hordes destroyed one of the warband!

The other warband fell onto the flanks of the Inca blades, who were beset by the elephant and destroyed.

The elephant then assisted Prester John in destroying the Aucakpussak heroes.

The Inca's only substantial success was that the Great Inca had, once again, punched through the enemy line, and was engaging Prester John's knights, who had been held in reserve. The knights didn't stand a chance.

But Prester John's army was now rolling up the Inca right. There was a brief moment of possible victory in sight for the Inca when they had the possibility of backing Prester John into his own elephant (as they had done in the armies' previous encounter), but it didn't work this time.

An element of blades was totally surrounded, and easily destroyed ...

... giving Prester John the victory

The Inca lost 12-7. The battle felt closer than it seemed, with the Inca having a couple of chances to swing things their way, but never getting the PIPs or combat rolls to exploit them. 

And so the campaign map remained unchanged, and both armies were now at +1 aggression.

Who would be the attacker and therefore potential campaign victor, in the next battle? Find out in the next episode!