The HOTT Literature Championships - Draw And Game 1

 A couple of weeks ago Geoff and I played a small three round knockout HOTT tournament using two literary matched pairs from my collection. I quite enjoyed the concept and thought that it would be fun to expand it, even as a solo effort.

So I printed off a bracket for an eight army tournament - four matched pairs. 

On the Ace we have Redwall vs Cluny's Rat Hordes. On the Two are the Barsoomian pair of the Red men of Helium vs the Green Men of Warhoon. The Three is the Alan Garner pair - the Forces of Light vs The Morthbrood. And finally the Four represents the Narnians vs the White Witch

The second set of four cards is shuffled and ready for the draw. games will be played in order from left to right, top to bottom. The winner of Game 1 will play the winner of Game 3 and the winner of Game 2 will play the winner of Game 4.

Game 1 - The card was a Three, so it would be The Forces of Light vs The Morthbrood.

The live feed was interrupted for the draw for Game 2, but I can report that the card was an Ace, so it will be Redwall vs Cluny's Rat Hordes.

Game 3 - The card was a Four, so this match would be the Narnians against the White Witch

Game 4 - Only the Two was left, so the final game of the first round would be Helium vs Warhoon

At this point the draw was interrupted by the announcement that I had been awarded the prestigious FIFA Greatest HOTT Player In The World award! This award is totally real, and not at all made up. 

It's such an honour. 

After all that excitement it was time to set up the opening game! The Forces of Light would play the Morthbrood.

The Forces of Light defended and tried to close down the terrain, if only to limit the Morthbrood's aerial element.

The first combat of the tournament - Lios Alfar ambushers attacked the palug cats moving through the village, but were driven off.

The Morthbrood advance was slowed by terrain and bad PIPs, and some of their elements got left behind. The Forces of Light saw an opportunity to bring numbers to bear, and advanced rapidly to meet the enemy.

The armies meet.

Initial combats went against the Morthbrood for the most part. But the Mara pushed ahead on the Morthbrood's right, and a retaliation by the Morrigan ensorcelled Albanac, the hero of the Forces of Light.

The Mara drove back the Lios Alfar cavalry.

The Einheriar of the Herlathing cut through the Svart Alfar hordes. The Morthbrood line was now looking pretty thin.

The loss of Albanac forced Cadellin Silverbrow to step into the front line, scattering Svart Alfar as he went.

The Morthbrood hordes were all but wiped out.

But reinforcements were on the way, and the Morthbrood's breakpoint was a little way off yet.

The Mara finally destroyed the Lios Alfar riders, to even the score.

But the Brollachan was ridden down and fled, leaving the table.

And now the Morrigan was surrounded ...

... and cut down by Dward warriors.

This was enough to give the Forces of Light the win.

The score was 12G-6 to the Forces of Light.

The Morthbrood suffered from PIP starvation at a couple of key moments, that meant that they couldn't bring a couple of key elements to bear when they needed to. They did manage to bring back most of their hordes though. 

The Forces of Light will go into the semi-final where they will play the winner of the Narnian game.