Could get a little Hott in Southern Maine in May

My annual trek south to a wargaming convention isn't just about the convention. Its also a chance to visit with co-host Rob Dean  (sharpbrush.blogspot.ca), have some extended chats, some planning sessions and hopefully play a face to face game or two to supplement our occasional  remote games  using either Hangout or Skype. As it happens Rob and sons have been building and playing with some 1/72nd HOTT armies mounted on 60mm wide bases for some time now. Since the rules don't really care what you put on a HOTT base as long as its representative, the 1/72nd figures let your units look slightly more like, well, units. OK so 6 or 8 figures instead of 3 or 4 doesn't sound like much but it works for me.

Since I had a motley crew of painted 1/72 figures, mostly Celtic and fictional Viking types in need of a reason to exist, and since 1/72nd figures are easy to transport and its not hard to find a corner to play HOTT in, I decided to base up a HOTT army and challenge Rob (and Norman, junkyardplanet.blogspot.ca, if he's coming this year.) to a game at Huzzah.

The Cauldron of Rebirth, and a Horde of born again warriors.
Note the glazed stares, the rigid poses and the rising dead warrior.

I was trying to think of what to do with the single wounded Airfix Briton, make him a Sneaker perhaps, playing dead until the enemy passes then rising to try some dastardly attack? Seemed like a lot to put on one lone wounded guy. I moved on to other things and happened to stand a bunch of the Airfix axemen alongside some Orion Vikings and was suddenly struck by the stunned look and wooden movement as they all lofted some weapon and waddled forward, all shieldless and unarmoured. Couldn't help but think "Zombies" !  That made me think again of the wounded guy sitting there, looking like he was about to get back up! Ok, sounded like a Horde stand to me. But what brought them back?

In College I read a Yearling series fantasy tale called the Black Cauldren, I forget the details but the idea has stayed with me. I was already assembling a Cleric team to use up some viking women with dagger and drinking horn and some of the non-combatant Britons and was wondering what to do with an excess Viking chief in Bearskin headdress with sword and arm raised to the sky. Well, I had a vague memory of having a Cauldron somewhere.....and there we were. A Priest supported by acolytes of some sort, a pagan standard bearer, some kneeling guardsmen, and a cauldron with a warrior just emerging from its murky depths.
1 Cleric (3 AP), 1 Horde (1 AP)

Wild barbarian cavalry, tribesmen and archers

The next lot were easy. For nostalgia's sake I had painted up some Ancient Briton's when Hat re-released them. The originals had been included in the earliest Valdurian armies until I went Minifig.
I rebased one stand of Italeri cavalry and here we have the Hillmen allies.
1 Rider, 1 Warband, 1 Shooter (6 AP)

Meg the Mighty, and his little friends too.

I didn't want to go with a straight human army but didn't have much to choose from in 1/72nd. The Revel Saxons included copies of various Elastolin figures such as form my current Gathering of Hosts armies. It amused me to take one of the 40's who is chopping downwards and mount him as a Giant backed by a few normal humans from the same range of Elastolin poses.  (hmm must remember to give him a dark wash and touch up the metal)

Another section of those Orion Vikings were copied from Marx vikings, both the 54mm soft plastic ones and the painted hard plastic ones issued in 60mm as Warriors of the World and in 25mm in the Knights and Vikings set I had (best Christmas present EVER). A couple of archers and running spearmen, copies of my old favourites, backed by an Elastolin copy and voila, Shooters!  

Giant (4AP), Shooter (2AP)

OUT! OUT!

There were several good Chieftain poses in the Orion Viking box but I've always had a soft spot for the Vercingatorix like Airfix "guy".  I had made an armoured viking standard bearer when I painted these guys some 15 years ago so it was just a matter of adding 6 more armoured vikings and I had a General and his Hearthguard. After trying to sort the rest, I gave up, reversed course, and did as thorough a mix of Marx and Elastolin copies and original Revel and Orion figures as I could to make 3 more stands of infantry. They look a little wild so I probably ought to call them Warband, but....... I wanted to use the Airfix guys as the lighter, faster, woods fighting guys and these for the main shieldwall battle line, rather like my earliest Valdurian army. So Blades? or Warband? or both?  Deferred Decision but it would probably be best if they were all the same in any given game.
4 Blades or Warbands (8 AP)

Total: 11 stands, 24 AP

We have met the rules and they are......

....ours!

The Director General's Body Guard finally gets another chance to dismount.

sighhh, yes indeed, a startling lack of imagination I'm afraid, or perhaps an unconscious message. I started well. I dug out Richard's one page rules (more like 3/4 than 1/2 but there's big print and lots of space). A lot of it was familiar, a die per 4 figures needing 5,6 to hit, and so on. So it wasn't what was there, its what was missing;.minimal movement restrictions, minimal morale, no command rules, no sequence of play, hmm. Anyway, I decided to do my own version. A few happy hours later I had a set that felt quite right,. I set to playing  and fine tuning and eventually realized that I had essentially recreated the original Morschauser Meets MacDuff from 10 years ago, before it became Hearts of Tin, just without bases though bases can still be used. Oh! That wasn't what I set out to do.

Oh well. That was the rule set that got me all fired up and was responsible for quite a few memorable games. That was of course before I decided to add more detail and historical flavour and try to test more historical incidents to see if the results were right for the right reasons, and to try to add a bit more predictability. Of course, one of the things I used to like was that you just couldn't count on things going as planned.This game felt like the days when I used HofT in preference to all other rules even for some fairly low level skirmishes with a handful of stands per side which it wasn't designed to handle, but did.

The basic combat procedures and movement haven't changed much from the recent HofT, there are just a few less restrictions and potentially drastic results are back as are persistent units. They are once again written for individual figures rather than elements or stands, like the original was written for "Strength Points"  which just happened to coincide with the number of figures. The biggest change from the current version is that I have again dropped the arbitrary Shaken/Disordered thing and that I dropped the Orders rule again and have gone back to the old rolling for initiative with a control test for units beyond command "radius".  I like the potential for the Orders PIPS but I've had trouble with implementing it. I think to get it to work, I would have to remove the brigadiers and get more rigid on units forming proper battle lines. As it is I almost never run short on orders which makes it a fairly pointless exercise. The initiative system has never failed to keep a game interesting.

So my quandary now is whether or not the existing HofT is worth keeping as a separate rule set or whether the differences are too small and the Rattle of the Dice  version so much better as to eclipse it. At the very least that calls for a 1/72nd playtest and then some period unit stats and special rule sheets for the ACW and 18thC. .

Duncan Adams playing in an early Morschauser Meets MacDuff 54mm 1812 game
  down at Lancaster some 9 years ago. Hmm some of the terrain looks a little familiar.

Tomorrow or Thursday I will post a battle report and then its on to getting busy. The table is only temporary right now, some boards laid on bookcases so I need a frame and I need to paint it and start making my OSW hills. I also need to finish painting the room and trim and getting settled into the new configuration. I also need to cast and paint a bunch of figures!

I'll post the new version as a variant for now in case any one wants a look.

Cinneadh na Craoibhne

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Who would have thought that the people of the woods would be the first army ready to go, 48 points, flocked and all. A chaotic, undisciplined, if well meaning, horde of people and animals.  Of course they are close to the heart, 2 big cats, not to mention several scantily clad women of power. What's not to like?

In Hordes of the Things terms the army consists of:

2 Behemoth (8 pts) inc General
1 Sneaker (3 pts)
2 Beasts (4 pts) inc General
3 Riders (6 pts)
2 Shooters (4 pts)
4 Spears (8 pts)
4 Warband (8 pts)
1 Lurker (1 pt)
1 Paladin (4 Pt)


Dara Ban-Righ Johanna agus Molach Mhor. (Behemoth)

Queen Johanna II  (I suggested to the former Queen Johanna of Valdur that she change her name now that she was being reborn as a Queen of another land but she wouldn't hear of it. The Behemoth that she guides into battle started life as a toy Bantha. I tried fitting a howdah full of Pictish archers but that somehow implied mastery or at least domination of the beast which is contrary to the ways of the forest folk so I removed the original saddle and  the escort figures run along side.

Sealgairean (Beasts), Creigadh, (Beast Army General),

On the left we see two scantly clad Garrison Sword & Sorcery warrior-priestess types with their Lion companions and the usual ghilllies running along behind. On the right we see Creigadh (which in my rusty Scots Gaelic means something akin to Rocky) the Beast Master general riding that odd hybrid creature with the antlers of a Moose and the body of a Caribou. His companion is mounted on a fierce war antelope (which looks oddly like a 54mm  Marx dairy goat but they can be pretty nasty in my experience) until such time as another Moose-ish mount can be found. Once again there are a scattering of ghillies. For those wondering, the kneeling Pictich archer  is an S Range Minifig and amongst my oldest figures. For 30 years they have been without a place. If I knew then.....I'd have ordered 100 or more S range Picts, oh well. The other figure on this base is a PB Scots Irish noble from the earlier barge pole days. These were my very first metal ancient figures. They were originally done as fierce barbarian light infantry for my Valdurian army, (the heavies being weeny converted Airfix) then tidied up and repainted as Late Roman auxiliaries then redone yet again as medieval Scots skirmishers. Its good to have them home.

Mathan Mor (Behemoth)

Another Behemoth. I had  another, slightly smaller bear but I couldn't lay hands on it and after all, if you are going to have a behemoth, it might as well be BIG (even Davy Crocket seemed impressed in the original 54mm Barzso play set and is depicted using a knife rather than grinning). The guiding priestess is an old Ral Partha figure, again from college days. You may sense a theme here, getting the animals to co-operate seems to involve women taking off most or all of their clothes. Not my fault, that's just how it is! Anyway, the men fighting along side them seem to have followed suit.

Fear ceo

   

When I first put this Garrison witch together with the cauldron, I thought "Magician"! But the kind of magic which blasts people like long range artillery just seems out of place with these "in harmony with nature" folk. A Sneaker seemed more likely but you can't really sneak about with a cauldron and anyway, it seems hard to picture this pretty witch doing violance at the other end. She'd mostly likely get someone else to do that. Then I looked at the nearly naked axeman I had guarding her, a Ral Partha figure I think, and a vison of Conan as a thief stealing into the enemy stronghold came to mind. Still no cauldron but suddenly I pictured the scene from the finale of Excalibur when Merlin draws the Dragon's Breath from Morgana to cloak Arthur's approaching army in a mist. Ahha! So the witch, in a safe location, calls up a mist from the cauldron to cloak the warrior-thief-assassin, the Man of the Mist, camouflaged with woad as he stalks off to do or die (or flee 600 paces as appropriate).  

In behind, in the patch of woods, you can just spot my Lurkers. It seemed like just the role for these kneeling Picts with their woad and their cloaks over their heads but 5 stands of Lurkers seemed kinda pointless so I mixed most into the Shooter bases. Then I looked at the Ral Partha Scot waving a big axe and wearing his hood over his head and everything else left to swing in the breeze. Axe murderer and flasher all in one, a perfect Lurker.

There is one more character, a late comer but I don't have a picture. Late last night, the Death Dealer under went a heart felt conversion and with a change of cloak, is now the Green Knight! As a born again Environmentalist and Recycle-Reuser, he of course, counts as a Paladin.

Which brings us to the little folk.

Eachraidh

These are PB minifig Picts, late arrivals to my college army,  1/2 the figures are from my original dreaded Pictish cavalry who trained all summer in special wedge tactics with the sole job of breaking Simon's as yet undefeated Goths, an Irregular B light cavalry unit whose standard was a fly that wondered into a nearly set bit of epoxy putty and was impaled on a pin, a unit which never rolled less than +2 (until they met the Picts...). Nuff said. Now they are just scruffy riders.

Sluagh Beagan

Here are some of the archers and warband. Some of the spearmen can be seen beside the Behemoth Bear. These are a mix of my old Minifigs, Ral Partha Scots, Prince August Barbarians and the lonely Minifig Alexander Nevsky Russian armoured axeman who commands the spearmen. (I have more of the Scots-Irish figures, but these were the later Minifig version with tiny, thin thin javelins, most of which are now broken and which were never as intimidating as the heavy javelins the original version carried)

The other 3 armies are all formed with enough figures for 48 pts each and are on the shelf but I ran out of time and bases so each has a unit or 2 which is waiting for some work, and none are flocked.

The Cavalry army has remained untouched but having 2 balanced armies just didn't feel right and so some shuffling has allowed me to follow the original idea and field a 48 point Scots army but this time as the People of the Loch. Sixteen stands of Spears at the heart of it. They have managed to steal the Sky Boat off the slips, a causa belli for sure, but other than that they nicely form a Double DBA Scots army.  Actually, a light went on part way through the process and all of the armies are now arranged so as to be able to field armies using HotT, DBA, Armati or Gathering of Hosts or other rules. If I draw on all the armies then I can still field an historical Scots army for any of these rules, including a Triple DBA or an Armati one. I still need archers and cavalry if I am ever to fight Scots vs English at home but I'm not tempted. If Ron's English don't come out, I'll fight fantasy.

A new 5 foot shelf is now up and all 4 armies fit comfortably with room to grow. In the corner are enough spare figures for 4 DBA armies to go on Ebay once they are refurbished, 2 medieval Scottish, 1 Dark Age British/Welsh/Strathclyde, 1 Scots Irish. Best of all, on the old shelves is now enough space for my planned 40mm 19thC armies.

An Embarrassment of Riches

The hobby plan for this weekend had been to spend time putting my room in order and then set up and play a semi-skirmish MacDuff game.

Hmm, no, that doesn't look like your typical MacDuff game to me either. 

On the plus side, I now have 1 of my HotT armies sorted and based. I will do a separate post detailing the armies of Cinneadh na Craoibhne later with detailed pictures.

My original thoughts for this  sudden mini-project was that it would allow me to keep some favorite old figures but still free up some shelf space and make it easier to start getting those that are going, organized and sale-able. Well plan A & C are coming along nicely, B is a little shaky.   The plan as we saw in the last post was for 4 armies, each of which was to be able to provide a standard 24 point army with a limited choice. If I were to play a double size game such as we played at Rob's, then 2 alliances  would see all 4 armies in play.

Once the word got out that any figures included in a HotT army would be spare the auction block, my recruiting teams were immediately swamped with figures seeking sanctuary. The refusal of some old character figures to serve under or in some cases, even beside other old characters was an unexpected wrinkle. In no time at all, I was looking at five 48 point armies, or more.

This, of course, made nonsense of the original plan so I put it all aside for a bit and gave some thought to things. The first thing I decided was to spend a bit more time and effort on picturing who each army was and what made it different as well as what I would ask from such a project if I was starting fresh.

One of the strengths of HotT is its flexible, generic troop types that allow you to easily slot almost anything in to the simple system. Ironically this is also its biggest weakness, if an elephant is the same as a giant or a pair of trolls or a Steam Tank, why have one vs the other?    The answer is to look beyond the details of the individual stand and look at the character of the army as a whole. So its not how your behemoth looks, its how it fits in to the army (in purely game terms, looks are important for setting the scene and getting the feel for each army). An army with 3 behemoths supported by shooters and some cavalry will have to act differently from an army with 1 of each type.

Given the number of troops at my disposal and my preference to have figures of a similar size and style, I started to get a bit more ruthless about sorting things out. I also decided to try to use dress to make each army distinct in addition to  having a different make up. Lastly I decided to try and have space for at least 1 of each troop type and to try to have each army have at least 1 unique unit type, and to limit each army to as close to 30 points as possible without being too mean. This will leave a little room for expansion in future.

My old early, mostly minifigs, Valdurian army had naturally clumped together with the Moose Knight (nee Alexander Nevsky), Queen Joanna, my Pictish archers (S range), Dalridian tribesmen (Irish) and Valdurian light cavalry (Ancient Britains and Gauls led by Vercingatorix).  Well enough, but the nearly naked woad covered Picts were more what I had in mind and the 2 male general/hero characters  just were not going to work together. (the Moose Knight, one of my most successful ever, having  replaced the other, one of my least successful ever, never mind the clash in style). I had quickly made uo the City army from plate armoured and late medieval types and had planned to do another army from my Flodden Scots (actually Heritage fantasy figures but drawn precisely, pose and all from the Almark book on Flodden) but I also had enough earlier Scots to confuse things. I was soon in danger of having 3 too similar armies of men. I also had not allowed room for my historical-ish  Arthurian troops.

I started by taking all the trousered, Celtic figures from the forest army and moving them to support my Arthurian cavalry and the old Valdurian Royal Horse Guards who had been trying to work their way into my Persian armies rather than face extinction. This gave a new army of the Sky, 7 stands of riders, and 3 of knights supported by a handful of poorly equipped (apart from the foot guard) infantry, a magician and an eagle. The magician had been painted all in black apart from a dark red cloak and had never really fit in anywhere. I decided to bite the bullet and repaint him in sky blue with white cloak then stood him on a tall stone pillar to recite satires on his enemies.   I still need to base these but for now the army is complete. The theme is somewhere between Swords at Sunset and Men Went To Catreath with a touch of magic.

To fill the gaps in the woods army, I dug out the last of my Pictish cavalry, the ones that had been providing recruits for my ECW Scots lancers.  Taking only those with weapons intact, that provided 3 stands of cavalry. The highlanders from my Scots provided enough figures to flush  out the army with all but 3 leaders being barelegged if not bare-arsed.   This army has behemoths, beasts, lurkers and sneakers but no armoured troops. I had enough archers to field an army of shooters but that didn't really sound right. Hordes was what I really wanted with the Song of the Pict playing in my head (actually it was Leslie Fish's original playing in my head but that one's not half bad), especially since I could field 12 figures on 2 bases for the same points cost as 3 warband figures. However, Hordes are pretty useless in woods, and while they aren't likely to spend much time in woods on the table top, it just didn't seem like an appropriate choice for the People of the Trees so a mix  of 4 man warband and shooter stands it is. I wanted to include another old favorite from the Nevsky range, an armoured axeman who has led many a unit. To keep with the lightly armoured look, he now commands 2 stands of nearly naked spearmen, the fulcrom of the army.  

Turning my attention to the City Folk and the pile of Scots pikemen, I decided to sort them into 14th C and earlier and 15thC and later and see where that got me.   The City army now has plate armoured pikemen instead of archers and halbardiers in jacks and after my eye fell on a plastic toy rowboat, has an aerial gunboat manned by handgunners in the slips. Having both a cleric and a wizard seemed less than optimal and after some thought it occurred to me that the effect of the rich merchants bribes are probably more like the effect of a sneaker than a magician, hard to stop but they do little harm unless he gets to the general or buys out the stronghold.  This nicely allows the use of all 4 special units at once in a 24 pt army.

The 13th-4th  C army of bows, blades and spears with a few cavalry seems a little bland even with  paladin but it fills a niche and keeps some troops that I like even if they aren't that old.

This brings me to 4 armies, however, and I still have my Black General, a McEwan model I think, based on the Frazetta Death Dealer painting. He's never really had a place despite his long service but I had been going to give him my Irish and Saxon raiders. Five armies is an interesting number for a campaign. With only 4 you get either an even 2 vs 2 or a lopsided 3 vs 1. With 5, things are never in balance and if all are involved you get 3 vs 2, hard but not impossible. Still, its that much more shelf space needed. Once I started hauling out the chunky Viking and Carolingian of forgotten make,   it became clear that with a bit of hard mindedness, I could incorporate some of the Irish as mercenaries and light troops and dispose of the sea raiders. Perhaps the water people came by sea, farmers from a nearby island or the shores of many lochs?

 The remaining 3 armies, trying hard to sort them selves into 2.

I'm only short 1 or 2 troop types and have more troops than originally planned (with room allowed for a few more). I've decided to be harsh about the many broken figures, the Heritage and Citadel (I think, possibly) figures being especially prone to broken bows. Those that appear to have good metal will be melted down for recasting instead of being repaired, the rest will ceremioniously dumped. What is left is enough for 2 DBA armies to go up on ebay, Medieval Scots and Sub-roman British (assuming that I can find the remaining dozen, clunky, unknown make heavy cavalry again.) and of course a few stragglers.

I will, however, have to put up another 4 foot shelf to avoid over crowding, luckily there is just room.

Recalled to Life! Its like magic!

Minifig S range hand gunners with a Hinchliffe gun and crew. Painted c 1976.

If I hadn't already pulled some of these figures out, I probably would have put HOTT out of my mind for now but since there they were, I figured I might as well get them organized. Then of course, I figured I might as well base them before I forgot what I was planning.......

Minifig & Heritage Knights (c1976) with Revenge men-at-arms behind them (c1996)
Battle hardened mercenaries I think.

Since the figures that were out consisted of various medieval human types, and without having a context, I started with the  assumption that this was a "good" army despite the profusion of hand guns and cannon. One of the groups temporarily stumped me though, a nobleman in his robes with an entourage with torch bearers and herald. This was originally painted c 1976 partly as a representation of a retired D&D character, and partly in homage to the Black Arrow.

What could his role be? At first I thought perhaps his slightly clerical nature might allow him to stand as a Cleric (sic)  but he just wouldn't look right in the battle line in silks and ermines. It then occured to me that he might be more of a Merchant, a true "Wizard of the Accounts". Not only a merchant, but a wealthy Magistrate, effective ruler of a City of Merchants.

Ahhh, now this was starting to come together. Suddenly a world starts to emerge from the Mists of the Mind. One land, four people.

• The Men of the City (fire) enamored of gold, order and all material things and who seek to own control or consume all, 
• The People of the Forest (earth), men of imagination, freedom and magic, living in harmony with nature,
• The Clans of the Mountains (sky), sturdy men who stick together, farmers and herders who bow down to none  but seek to bend nature to their service,
• The Sea Pirates (water), men who roam the seas, calling on their gods and heroes and seeking to live off the wealth of others.

Magistrate Robert, The Doge of Mount Regal.

By now the army already had more than enough points for a basic army and thus scope for flexibility on troop choice, but there were still a few figures that I wanted in this army and I had an uneven point total due to the artillery piece. What I wanted was a mob or rather "horde" of citizen's   but I had nothing suitable to hand. I did have some pillagers and so a stand of Lurker's was added. Last but not least were the dismounted equivalent of the Minifig WotR knights. These could easily be used as a Blade alternative to a stand of Knights but I still had the Clerical thought in my mind. These aren;t exactly compatible with a Wizard General but they could be a useful alternative. Since the Doge uses the magic of money to influence and distract troops, perhaps auditors who can keep accounts on the straight and narrow would be a natural counter-balance. Thus was born the Society of Auditors led by the Auditor-General.

  Minifg Knights (c 1976) and Revenge Looters (c 1996)

The first army stands ready. Well, almost ready,  I put them all on new bases for consistency but only painted them brown for now. I am toying with the idea of doing the bases as flag stones or cobblestones even though any actual fighting would usually take place on the fields outside the city.

The list then consists of 1 Wizard (the Doge) or 1 Cleric (The Accountant General), 2 knights, 2 riders, 4 shooters, 3 blades, 1 artillery, 1 lurker. A total of 33 points to choose from. Normally either the Doge or the Auditor General will be fielded, not both and normally one or the other must be in charge.

The City Militia. Citadel (possibly?) Halbardiers behind (c1982) with Revenge archers (c 1996)  

Now which army is next? The men of the Mountains will come from my Scots, the Sea from the 6thC Saxon-Irish mercenaries/pirates from my Dark Age armies long with some Prince August figures. The folk from the woods will no doubt have a Celtic air about them but I do have some bears and things around here somewhere. Oh and look, a character I bought about 25 years ago and haven't yet painted, someone very powerful but you don't know when or if he will come or how long he will stay, or even WHO he really is. Sounds like a DBA God to me, although I suppose one could argue for an Aerial magician except that he's not given to harming people but can turn the tables and get by anyone so perhaps  just a Sneaker.

Source material from the back of the closet. Would Saxon or Viking raiders made an alliance with the Dalaks?