Dwarves, Elves and Malians

I played a couple of games of HOTT over the weekend.

The first saw my Wild Elves attacking Dwarves. The Dwarves had a strong position between two woods. The Elves massed for an attack on the Dwarf right; their army is smaller (thanks to two magicians), and since it's mostly warband  stands a better chance if attacking in a double rank.

The Elves close, but their rapid advance has left their archers behind.

They smash into the Dwarven line ...

... and are repulsed.

The unengaged Dwarven left flank swung onto the Elven right, destroying one of the magicians.

At the other end of the line, two Elven warband were cut down by Dwarf archers.

The Elven king now faces the Dwarven steam-tank.

He forced it to flee, but more Elven warriors fell in the centre, and the Elven army was crushed 0-12

The winning Dwarves stayed on and defended against Sundiata's Malians.

Cavalry rode out on Sundiata's right. But Sundiata supported his with archers.

At the other end of the line the Malians pulled back their knights from the Dwarven missile troops.

Fighting all along the line.

Sundiata destroyed some Dwarven foot.

But his griot is surrounded and killed.

The Dwarves had now smashed through Sundiata's centre, destroying three elements there and gaining a commanding lead. But Sundiata destroyed another element of blades.

The steam-tank turned towards the knights, aiming to increase the margin of victory. Meanwhile Sundiata rode straight for the Dwarven general.

The tank smashed through the first element of knights.

The cavalry fight on the other flank had been stalemated for a while, which suited the Dwarves as they were tying up Sundiata's most mobile troops. But the Malian cavalry surrounded one group of Dwarven horse, and destroyed it.

The steam-tank destroyed the other element of knights. Sundiata's army was now one point away from breaking. Sundiata himself was surrounded, but held off the attack in true hero style.

A second element of Dwarven cavalry were destroyed. The Malian cavalry were now free to come to the aid of Sundiata in the centre.

Sundiata attacked the Dwarven king, and killed him, leaving the Dwarves leaderless. But having only lost 10AP to Sundiata's 11AP they would still fight on.

The steam-tank attacked the stronghold, but failed to capture it.

Cavalry to the rescue!

They crashed into the surviving Dwarven blade - a kill here would give Sundiata the win.

The blades held them off! 

The steam-tank attacked the stronghold again. Disaster! a 6-1 saw it destroyed.

So Sundiata had come back from near disaster to win the battle 14g-11. A Pyrrhic victory for sure, but a victory nevertheless.