HOTT On Holiday

We have just come back from a long-weekend camping out at Bungonia National Park near Goulburn. The weather was extremely hot, with some brisk winds, but that didn't stop us having a nice and mostly relaxing time. Here's our camp; ours is the tent to the left and the silver trailer in the centre. The setup to the right is that of our friends. It's a lot more sophisticated, but it's designed for extended road-trips (several months).

Anyway, when I go camping I usually take a pile of games, if we have the space. And, if possible, I take figures and try to fit in a miniatures game at some stage. So on Sunday afternoon, whilst everyone else was dozing or reading, I set up a couple of games of HOTT.

I'd packed three armies - Mound Builders, Maya and Hawaiians.

In the first game the Mound Builders attacked the Maya. 

Mound Builders - Blade General, 1 x Blade, 1 x Behemoth, 1 x Dragon, 2 x Hordes, 5 x Shooters
Maya - 1 x Hero General, 2 x Shooters, 8 x Warband

The Maya got the best of the defensive terrain and were content to sit tight.

The Mound Builders massed their shooters on their right looking to overwhelm their Mayan equivalents by sheer weight of numbers.

The Mound Builders were lucky and got their dragon (a shaman-summoned Thunderbird) on early.

The Mayans had been reorganising their right flank in response to the advancing behemoth, so were badly positioned to fend off a dragon attack.

The Thunderbird attacked some warband and drove it back.

The Thunderbird kept up the pressure, destroying a warband. The Mound Builders were advancing steadily.

A first exchange of archery on the other flank saw both sides with elements driven back.

The Maya took the initiative and charged.

Their hero led the way, pushing back the Mount Builders' giant.

In fact the Maya were very successful all down the line, pushing back or destroying an number of enemy elements.

The Mound Builders tried to organise an attack on their right, but the woods and a lack of PIPs slowed this.

They brought out the Thunderbird to support their failing centre, and it did help destroy another warband.

More shooting on the right. The Maya had the advantage of the woods which offset the Mound Builder numbers.

The Mound Builders lost some archers.

Meanwhile the Mayan hero brought down the giant with the help of some warband.

The Thunderbird destroys another warband, whilst the archers close to hand-to-hand combat.

On the Maya right their hero attacked the Great Sun on his litter

The Great Sun was destroyed and teh Mound Builder army collapsed.

The Maya won 11g-8. So it was a closer game than it looked.

I kept the Maya on for the second game and this time they fought the Hawaiians. The Hawaiians are an awkward army to play, as they have a lot of elements that start off-table.

They defended, and their on-table forces was: Hero General, 2 x Spears, 3 x Warband

Off-table is: 1 x Dragon (Mo-o), 1 x God (Pele), 2 x Lurkers (Menehune)

The Maya arrayed and ready to go.

The two armies, ready for battle.

The Menehune popped out on a Maya shooter element on a rocky hill on the flank. One element was destroyed and the other driven off.

The Maya advanced quickly. They needed to overwhelm the Hawaiians before their god and/or dragon turned up.

It was quite sunny now. Also 32 degrees C.

The Hawaiians stood firm, and rolled a 6. They opted to bring on Pele.

The Mayans switched their hero to the flank Pele had appeared on to try and hold her up.

Pele was obviously intimidated by this and immediately fled.

This left the Hawaiians in trouble. In a bold move they swung one of their warband onto the flank of the advancing Maya. They were down a point in the combat, but a win would see two Mayan warband destroyed.

The brave Hawaiians were destroyed.

The Mayan army hit the Hawaiian line.

The Hawaiians lost some spears and a warband, and were elsewhere pushed back.

Only their hero general came good, destroying the warband he was fighting.

The Mayans mobbed the Hawaiian general. He drove them off.

But another spear was destroyed, and that broke the army.

The final positions.

The Mayans won 13-4, so it was a crushing defeat for the Hawaiians.

Bringing on their god was probably not a good move that early; the dragon would have probably been a safer bet and equally as likely to have disrupted the Mayan advance. But the Hawaiians have always been a tricky army to use.

So that's another lot of holiday games out of the way.