A Necromancer In Wonderland

I thought I'd start of my 2024 miniatures gaming with a game of HOTT. My Wonderland army has been on the shelf in my office for a while now, and the Necromancer's hordes of undead were out for a few repairs, so I put them up against each other. The Necromancer attacked. For this game his army consisted of 10 x Hordes, 1 x Magician General, 2 x Riders 2 x Knights and 1 x Flyer. Wonderland, as ever, was 1 x Blade General, 6 x Spears, 2 x Beasts, 2 x Lurkers and 1 x Behemoth.

The Queen of Hearts tried to set up plenty of bad going in order to limit the enemy flier and allow the lurkers to deploy, but one piece was discarded and the rest ended up in one corner. However the army of Wonderland got to deploy on a couple of small hills.

Good PIPs kept the Necromancer's army advancing, despite a wide flank march by the riders and an attempt to get the flyer into the enemy rear. The Necromancer's magic sent Alice scurrying to the rear.

The riders and flyer threatened Wonderland's left and the Queen of Hearts shifted over to over against it; relying on a single beast on a hill wasn't going to cut it.

Both generals were on their army's left flank, which did make for some command difficulties. The Necromancer continued to push his army forward, as Wonderland shifter to maximise use of the hill and avoid unpleasant matchups with the Four Horsethem of the Apocalypse.

The think line of playing cards was contacted by hordes of skeletons.

The Necromancer himself ended up in melee as well, destroying an element of spears.

Wonderland shuffled their right flank as Alice cautiously rejoined the fight. The spears destroyed a few hordes.

The skeleton riders attacked Wonderland's left, but the griffon saw them off.

Things were swinging against Wonderland in the centre though, as the endless mass of hordes began to score a few kills, exposing the flanks of the remaining spears. Sometimes quantity has a quality of its own.

Being a beast the griffon had advanced off the hill and was now more vulnerable. The riders attacked again and that was the griffon gone.

Alice rallied the right flank, leading it in an attack on the Four Horsethem, destroying one (well, two).

Both lines were broken up now and the battle looked set to swing either way.

The skeletal hordes got another kill.

But the horribly isolated Queen of Hearts held off another attack by the skeletal riders.

Things were still looking to go either way on Wonderland's right. Alice survived another magical attack, but failed to finish off the Four Horsethem.

The flyers slipped into Alice's rear and with a friendly overlap the surviving Four Horsethem dealt with her once and for all.

And that broke Wonderland's army - the Necromancer won 12-8. 

It was a pretty close game all round. The Necromancer could have salvaged things by bringing back hordes, but with a magician and a flyer in play, plus being out on a flank, command PIPs were always stretched. Wonderland looked strong in the centre, but the hordes got a couple of lucky kills and that compromised the playing-card phalanx.