Too Much Lead

Hordes makes a lot of a small table, with incredibly short movement and shooting  ranges, but it does work.  You have time to maneuver and strategise, you have room to retreat and reorganise.  Our advance nonetheless took time.

The Undead approach in a great mass

For those unfamiliar, HOTT uses a simple commander system, based on DBMM and DBA.  Being from the Phil Barker canon this is no surprise.  Indeed I always thought HOTT the best of the Barker rules.  Anyway, at the start of a turn you roll 1D6 and that indicates your command points.  Moving a single element costing 1 point, but units in a group all move together for a single point, there are few exceptions, such as Wizards, but for the most part it is a simple scheme.  

Ray Harryhausen Approved

I attempted to draw the undead towards what I considered a strong position with spears flanked by missle troops in strong ground.  My cavalry to threaten the enemy flank.  

"You shall not pass"

For his part, James advanced en-masse, with his own strong flanking force to threaten my right.

Coming on Strong

Battle opened truly with highly effective Elven shooting, then close combat.  As with all the DBX family HOTT uses a simple opposed D6 roll once for each element to resolve combat.  Generally you need to double an opponents result to destroy the, other wise merely beating them will make them withdraw a base depth, but again exceptions apply.

The Elves began strongly, and the Skeletons were soon being smashed in great number.  But James was able to get his Werewolves and Vampires into my Right, where they became a thorn in my side.  

The too and Fro of HOTT combat

ON my left however, Half my cavalry had survived long enough to be joined in combat with the enemy General and his allies, by a selection of foot troops.  The Elves were able to push the Sorcerer and his minions back, but not finish them.

The Crux

At about the same time, James was able to sneak an attack in on my Wizard General with his Vampires, but the assault failed and the sneaky daylight dodgers were sent running.  My centre line was finally in a position to advance, covered by my Archers attempting to contain the Werewolf menace.  James committed his Ghouls to try to finish off my Behemoth - a Tree Ent - but to no avail...

Victory!

Whilst both out Generals survived, I had destroyed more than half of the enemy army - in points value - for the loss of only one element of Knights and one of Archers.  On this day, the forces of good Triumphed.

Also, I've had the time to go through the stash of unbuilt plastic, and assemble a lot of models, like well over a hundred!  One of the most interesting for me was being able to assemble a bunch more French dismounted Dragoons for the Penisular War.

Easy to spot the conversions

These will be painted to match the dismounted skirmishers I already have, but will be regimentally mounted, to represent the many times Dragoons were obliged to fight as regular infantry, such as at Talavera for example.  I'm looking for some Napoleonics quick-wins for the second half of this year, so these may hit the painting table soon.

Anyway, that's enough for today; but more to come soon.

So I buckled and set up a simple 15mm Napoleonics game, to christen my Bavarians, and give my Austrians only their second run out.

Well I didn't want to fuss much so these old bones settled on the ground, and I laid out a 5x3 foot gaming cloth I made a while back.  Onto this I set up two roughly equal forces, though with different compositions.

I've never had a problem with being 'both sides' in a game, though it of course tends to mean each side plays equally smart/dumb, unless you go in with some form of written orders to work to.  But that sort of thing is easy to do.  Any way, I don't want to get too embroiled in that.  Lets get to the action.  

The Austrian advance struggled to get going, and soon advance elements were becoming isolated.

Meanwhile the Bavarians had to do little, the onus being on the Austrians to attack.. Already however the Austrian left was turned by the Bavarian cavalry.  Oddly the Austrians found themselves with the interior lines early in the battle.

On the Austrian right, some confusion led to Austrian cavalry attempting to charge the Bavarian Guns, without any real support.  It went as badly as one might imagine.  In the centre, Bavarian Light Infantry had advanced through the woodland in the centre, but savage fire from several Austrian battalions met them.  They soon broke.

The Austrians began to form a more ordered line, and were able to repel the Bavarian threat to their Left.

With support moving through the woods, the Austrians advanced on the Bavarian choke point.

Here the battle came to a head, with a smaller but determined force of Austrians facing the Bavarian foe.

With initial success.

But the Austrians were suffering losses too and sustaining the momentum was becoming difficult.

Bavarian Artillery was able to smash the centre of the Austrian attack saving the rest of its line from the pressure.  And by this point the Austrian forces were exhausted.

They had held off counters from the Bavarian cavalry attacks on each flank, and did their utmost to force the centre but with two Brigades spent they admitted defeat and began an orderly withdrawal.

A nice little game; not only solo, but with a set of one-page rules I wrote on the day as well.  Essentially a stripped down blend of Black Powder and Rebels and Patriots, based on treating base elements as the core of operations.  When I get round to it I'll write them up properly and put them out in the ether.

A pleasure to shove some models around, but if I can minimise the need for solo games, that's alright by me.