Blast from the Past: HOTT at Historicon 2016!

 Back in 2016 Ren and I played in a Hordes of the Things (HotT) tournament on Sunday at the conclusion of Historicon 2016. It was a lot of fun, and I took plenty of pictures.

These days, Hordes of the Things is being replaced by De Bellis Fantasiae (DBF) from the same folks. I really liked HOTT, it was a generic fantasy system that played very fast games and required few figures, it really encouraged imaginative and inventive army designs. I have high hopes that DBF will hit that same itch. 

This was a 25mm tournament, which for HotT meant 60mm wide bases. I decided to really test how flexible HotT was, and I wanted to encourage Ren to give it a try, at the time he preferred historical games. So I put together two matching army lists for World War I armies, one German the other one British. I think it went great!

This game was run by David Schlanger with NASAMW. If anyone has contact with him please drop me a line. :)

The "Krazy Krauts", my HotT Army, WWI Germans.
The pillbox in the center was the stronghold. 
These were plastic 1/72 scale figures, primarily WW I Germans from HäT. The Taube I bought used, I don't know the manufacturer.
I called them the "Krazy Krauts" because on my high school swim team
some teammates called me the "Krazy Kraut."

"The Division", Ren's HotT army, WWI Brits. 
Again plastic 1/72 scale. The figures are primarily WW I British from HäT. The tanks are Battleground Flames of War, and the Sopwith Camel is Revell Germany.

I considered playing this army, the "Black Thunder Company." Some of my old AD&D players may recall it from the Mercs campaign. I was planning to run it originally, it is a more traditional "fantasy" list, but since Ren decded to play I thought matching armies would be better. These figures are primarily Revell Set 02567 Swedish Cavalry and Revell Set 02566 Imperial Artillery. This is definitely an army I will convert soon to DBF!

The opening match ups. A six player tournament!

Ren's first game was against the "Evil Army of Malevolent Horror!"
(I loaned this player my castle as a base). 

Ren begins to advance "The Division" against his foe. 

Ren's tank turn his foe's right flank. 

Casualties mount as "the Division"
faces down the "Malevolent Horror"

Ren's British World War I force is victorious in his first game!

For my first battle, my "Krazy Krauts" faced off against 
"Her Majesty's Mechanical Marvels." 

My "Krazy Krauts" advanced. I loved this game, our armies were 
very on theme with each other. And my opponents miniatures and models
were simply superb. As a long time Victorian sci-fi fanI was loving this . 

Perhaps I was too star-struck. Or perhaps I needed tanks of my own. 
Regardless I was soundly defeated. 

Ren's second game was against "Magicians' Union, Local 666."
His opponent had a very cleverly designed and built army with lots of magical fires.

Ren ended up getting burned!
The "Magicians' Union" defeated his British list.

My second game was against the "Good Army of Valourous Hope!"
Happily for me, I crushed their hopes and handily defeated this army. 

With one win and one loss each, for the final round
Ren and I were paired against each other.
Brits versus Germans!

Ren smiles as his tanks crush their way through my lines.
He won a convincing victory!

As you can see, Ren pulled a strong second place showing out of the tournament.
In contrast, I pulled a distant last place. Ah, well. :)

This remains a great memory and a fun Sunday tournament. It was quick and collegial, perfect for Sunday morning and a wonderful way to end Historicon 2016.

I miss the days when Historicon was being held in Fredericksburg. For us, it is far more expensive, and not as fun, up in Lexington, Pennsylvania. 

Piracy on the High Seas!

 

Last Friday we played another game of Blood & Plunder.  Eric finished his Dutch fluyt, christened it the Zon and shipped the crew. James had already finished his own sloop, the Sea Witch. I determined to field Rob's beautifully painted brigantine crewed with the original Unaligned Nationality Starter Set as my own Warriors & Weapons barks were not really as pretty.

We went with a simple scenario since this was a friendly, "learning" game. 300 points for the fluyt, 200 points for James & I, and whoever controlled the fluyt at the end of the scenario won the game. 

The game went much faster then it has in the past as we are getting a handle on the rules. Artillery was also FAR more deadly then it has been. In our previous game James managed a stern raking shot that decimated my ship. This game showed that wasn't a fluke. 

This is a strength of the game, in my opinion. Ship handling in the face of adverse wind conditions is a key component of the game. I can easily imagine this going very different if the wind had favored us. Of course, james and I probably didn't handle our ships optimally in this scenario, we are still learning!

So far, I really like this system. the battles feel right for small scale engagements in the Golden Age of Piracy. The models are beautiful, of course, but for me, game play that has a proper historical flavor is always key and this seems to handle it well. More learning games to come!

Ancient Battle! ADLG Assyrians versus Hyksos!

 

A couple weeks ago we finally got to try Eric's Assyrian list (#9) versus my Hyksos list (#13) in an ADLG chariot battle. It was a fun game, but my Hyksos were overmatched from the beginning. That makes sense to some extent. 

The Assyrians were over 700 years after the Hyksos, and were a much more successful army and Empire. Moreover, this specific Assyrian list had a lot of heavy chariots, heavy infantry, 1/2 sword / 1/2 Bow, and cavalry. It was a small, powerful army. 

The Assyrian army list

Still, I didn't do myself any favors with my list organization, my deployment, or my game play. It was a fun game, but for me it was very much a learn from my mistakes game! Fortunately, Eric is a great guy to lose to. 

The Hyksos are dominated by light chariots, medium sword, and javelins (both LMI and LI). That can make for an odd list - the foot like lots of terrain, the chariots prefer a wide open plain.  

The Hyksos army list

I just think my Corps organization was at fault. I think I need to go back to two corps mixing javelinmen and light chariots, and move the bow into the corps with the swordsmen. 

Anyway, on to the game! :)

Happy with how the dunes and the gully came out.

As I mentioned in the last battle report, I needed some more desert terrain, so I refurbished some and created some new dunes, brush, an oasis, and a desert gully. I'm reasonably happy with how they came out. I do need to figure out how to add some texture to the game mat though. 

The Hyksos initial deployment was poor. The corps of archers and javelinmen faced off against the Assyrian cavalry, while the line of medium sword were faced with heavy infantry and chariots. But the light chariot bow were neutered facing the archer/sword combo elements, especially since they started very far away.  

The heavy chariots charge was deadly, destroying half of the
Hyksos medium sword impact elements in one round of fighting.

It was a dominating performance by the Assyrians. Much of that was simply good play by Eric. But I contributed to my own defeat, I never found away to bring my chariots into the fight, and so I was effectively fighting with 2/3s of my army. 

I look forward to facing the Assyrians again. The Hyksos list cannot change much, but with better organization and better play on my part I think I can give the Assyrians a better run for their money. 

Ancient Battle! ADLG Hyksos versus Numidians!

Image from the Egyptian Museum. 

On the Friday of Memorial Day Weekend it was just Rob and I at the club, we played a game of Art de la Guerre. Rob has only played a handful of games of ADLG, and I am somewhat rusty, so we took our time, it was a friendly game. 

This is the second ADLG battle report I've done recently but it won't be the last. I really want to expand these reports to other games like Blood & Plunder or Black Powder. 

I supplied both armies, Rob loves chariots so he played my Hyksos (#13) list (which was previously spotlighted here). I didn't have a perfect match, so I played my Numidians (#56) list. Light chariots with a mass of infantry versus light horse with javelins, some elephants javelinmen. I felt the Numidians were a decent substitute for a tribal attack from the Sahara into Egyptian lands. 

Still, huge chronological distance between these armies, 1236 years. Imagine a modern U.S. Marine force (2025 AD) versus the Islamic warriors of the Abbasid Caliphate (789 AD). These two armies, despite the time difference, are not far apart. The biggest difference being being mounted cavalry versus chariots. The list of differences between a modern force and the Abbasid's is far more extensive!

Please Note: If you click on the images they will expand and the battle report text will be easier to read. 

As I mentioned, Rob's only played a couple games of ADLG. He made a mistake with his deployment I didn't realize until much later. The single palm tree in the gully is an ambush marker, in game it might or might not have units there in ambush. Rob in fact did have 4 light infantry stands there in ambush. That was fine, but those light infantry stands were part of his center corps, the medium swordsmen in front of the dunes. In ADLG you cannot mix up Corps when you deploy. So technically that was an illegal starting position. But it really made no difference to the game and we just payed it as it was. 

So, I managed to pull a victory out in the end. It was a fun, relaxing game. Rob is always a pleasure to game with. 

This was the first game on my new duck cloth desert game mat. I need to do some more work on it, probably make the boundaries more obvious, and also I'd like to break up the color a bit so it looks more like real ground. And I need to get the edges hemmed. 

And I need to make new terrain myself I never realized I have no dune terrain, yet my Hyksos army has desert as a terrain type. 

Comments and suggestions welcome!