Next projects

Having finished sufficient goblins I want to get some mounted elements done. I’ve started two Cv commands (one Pre-Feudal Scots and the other Welsh), along with these is a PFS LH. That would complete the Pre-feudal Scots army and a Southern Welsh one too (the Northerners need more spearmen painted).

After that I really want to get a few more Kn elements done, Feudal Casting, Outpost and Essex. I may also do the 3 armoured centaurs as a command element to go with the 2 elements of archer centaurs that are already done.

I may also try to paint some of Ieuan’s lizardmen. He didn’t like the colour he started on, but I think if he had the assurance that they looked OK once the magic wash was put on he might paint the rest.

I’ve got stacks of fantasy figures to paint, Dwarves, Halflings, Elves, but before I do them, I may try to finish all the remaining Feudal Casting figures I got over two years ago, Vikings, Welsh spear and a few more Scots spear and Galwegians. I’ve also got a lot of dismounted knights to paint.

Goblins vs. Vikings

• The first battle

I got to try out the goblins in a pair of battles yesterday. The battles were played by friends of my son at his birthday party, though they acted largely on my advice.

In the first battle the Goblins were:

2 x Wb (1 = cmd)
8 x Hd
1 x Bh (Trolls)
2 x Rd
2 x Sh

They faced a semi-Viking army:

6 x Bd (1 = cmd)
2 x Bs (Bears)
2 x Fl (Hippogriff Riders)
1 x Mg (Wizard and his dog)

The bears deployed on the Vikings right flank

The goblins deployed with the archers on the left wing and the riders flanking the trolls on the right wing. The hordes were in the centre with the commander to their rear.

The Vikings deployed with the bears facing the archers. The blades formed the centre with the wizard and riders to their rear. Terrain was on the wings, and besides making the hordes form up mostly two deep had little effect. The archers were in a wood. It also hinder the fliers who were reluctant to face the riders on the goblin right flank, as they may have had to recoil into a wood.

The wizard caused the trolls to flee on one occasion. On his second attempt he nearly ensorcelled himself.

The fliers advanced into the front of the hordes and then ran out of PIPs. Nothing of consequence happened until the blades advanced into range of the hordes. This was partly due to low PIPs on both sides. The wizard did cause the trolls to flee once, and the fliers went after one of the flanking riders, destroying it, However, the blades slaughtered the hordes in record time. Their only casualty was a blade killed by the trolls supported by the riders. On their left flank the archers had rashly advanced out of the woods and one of them was killed by bears, The other retreated into the woods and avoided a number of attempts to be killed by the bears, who had them flanked. The coup de grace was delivered on the trolls, who were without flank support. A unit of blades faced them, fliers flanked them and the wizard, reluctant to use magic after rolling a 1 provided overlap support. The goblin leader had finally got the PIPs to deploy from behind an obstinate horde, the only one that refused to die! However, he failed to defeat the opposing general in a desperate bid to turn the tide.

Overall, the hordes were pretty dismal. That said, there was a lack of any real plan to win on either flank. The fliers neutralized the mounted flank, and the shooters were on the wrong flank to be effective against the fliers-the cost of being the defender.

From the opposite perspective it was a glorious sight to see those blades cut the hordes to ribbons. a possible strategy with the hordes is to offer themselves for such a spectacle-a distraction while you win elsewhere. It’s a bit like offering the hunters in Fury of Dracula Szgany to kill-lots of fun for the hunters, which might keep them distracted from the more important task of hunting for vampires.

• The second battle

The second battle saw the Vikings substitute the bears and the wizard for 2 centaurs (Rd) and a giant (Bh). The goblins dropped two Hd and a Sh for a Dr.

The terrain was unchanged and the setup was similar, except the Vikings put the giant flanked by the centaurs on their right flank. The goblins put their commander in the line of battle with the other Wb behind him.

The hippogriff riders flew up to just short of the hordes and stopped. Although, as I understand it, they don’t have a ZOC, it’s awkward for the slow moving hordes to pass underneath them.

The battle came to a quick result when the giant charged into the battleline. I don’t think he killed anything, but he may have impetuously pursued a recoiling horde and had the ignominy of facing the horde at equal odds the next turn (2-2). He managed to survive this. He lost one flank support when the goblin general flanked the centaurs, who were destroyed. This proved a rash move, as the general was then contacted by some blades that destroyed it.

Strictly at this point the game was over, but the kids wanted to keep going. The dragon came on and went for the enemy general. He wasn’t successful, and was soon flanked by a hippogriff rider. He fended such an attack off twice, but eventually went down. Lack of a general really made movement difficult, so it was generally just the dragon moving, and his threat was sufficient to keep the enemy fully occupied.

The Hippogriff rider's flanking of the dragon was instrumental in its destruction

This was the first time the dragon has been killed, or even run away. He has a fairly chequered career. His first two games or more he didn’t show at all, and I think there’s only been one game that he’s done anything decisive.

Hippogriff Riders

I managed to get a pair of Hippogriff riders as part of an Elven army sold on the Fanaticus website:

http://www.fanaticus.org/discussion/showthread.php?t=8052

These are OOP figures by Ral Partha, although I’ve now found a supply of them at Fox Miniatures.

I’ve painted two of them up as part of the mostly unfinished Elven army, or perhaps some sort of Woodland alliance.

The hippogriffs are splendid. The hind quarters are in scale to 15mm horses, but the front half is somewhat bigger, making the model quite large; it dwarfs the Chariot Valkyrie figures. Its wings are moulded separately, but fit very securely into the slots provided.

The rider is quite voluptuous, and apparently more concerned with her hair than the small matter of a quiver, although the saddle has both a sword and a bedroll on it! The torso is moulded separately from the legs, which are moulded with the mount. This allows you to decide where you want the figure to be shooting.

More on Goblins

I’ve added a page on my Goblin army:

https://hesperiana.wordpress.com/goblins/

Hesperia

One of the big attractions of DBA/HOTT is the opportunity to play campaigns. I’ve seen a few blogs recording these, and they’ve encouraged me to persevere with designing a campaign world and organize the armies to fight in it. I have two possible campaigns, a DBA one that would be set in the British Isles not long after a 1066 that Harald Hardrada won. I’ve almost got the armies finished for this, but the campaign world that is more interesting at the moment is the one I’ve called Hesperia, an HOTT world that allows my DBA armies with suitable HOTT additions to encounter more fantastic armies. The kernel of it is the idea of peoples being sucked through into an alternate world, the one who give the world its name are Trojans from Virgil’s Aeneid. These would in time evolve into a loosely Byzantine culture, but more later.

Starting off with goblins

Well, I finally finished the batch of goblins that I started last month. I now have a complete Goblin army, one that has a good core of 8 hordes. I spent a bit of time taking photos the other night, experimenting with lighting and the tripod. I now have enough to at last get this blog started.

This is a blog devoted to HOTT and DBA gaming. I may spend some time later the attraction of these rules over others, but one of the main ones is the ability to create armies out of relatively few 15mm figures. For price and ease of painting and storage, I’ve gone with 15mm. Since starting some two years ago I’ve gained a lot of satisfaction finding and painting a number of armies for DBA, and now also HOTT, and had a lot of fun using them in games with friends, as well as in the odd solo battle or with my son.