Orcs ahoy...

Beneath the towering cliffs of Escalia sit 'The Reapers', two towering rocky outcrops that stand proud of the ocean's surface by some 60 metres. The Reapers have been the grave of many an over confident sailor, and many a careful sailor too.

It was towards the Reapers that an Orc fleet sailed, seeking out the fleet of the humans, the ships of old Escalia.

This was the first game in the recently re-established games room, set up last week after our shift into our new home. For a laugh we (Andy, Adrian and I) decided we'd have a game of 'Uncharted Seas', a fantasy games system that we hadn't touched for quite a few years.
The ships are terrain are Andy's handiwork.

Approaching fleets. The humans started up wind of the orcs, and it wasn't just because of the orc stench.

Orc cruisers

The Escalian capital ship, fantasy equivalent of a napoleonic first rater

Escalian frigates

And the Orc first rater

Orc 'frigates'

Ramming action

Escalian capital ship sen between 'The Reapers'

Remnants of theOrc fleet escaping

My mismanagement meant the Orc fleet was decimated, with just one cruiser escaping. A damned fine piece of fun to christen the new room.

Glorious 1st of June

In the midst of what at times is a slightly insane work schedule, I grabbed at Keith's invitation to play  a little 'Sails of Glory', it being the Glorious 1st of June and all. Adrian and I commanded four British 3rd raters, while Jon and Keith commanded respectively Spanish and French 3rd raters.

My crowning glory in the midst of my incompetence was raking the lead Spanish 3rd rater with double shot.  No battle report, but just a couple of cool photos.

Spanish and British ships in what might have seemed a slightly ungentlemanly melee. We chose not to board each other, a good call for me as the lead Spanish ship sank.

Just a great opportunity for some laughs and a lot of fun.

Wham bam ...

After our recent house shift (to the more rural Lincoln 'township' or village 15 minutes from Christchurch) four weeks ago, I have been craving some games. Delays in completion and correction of defects has delayed the unpacking, and the set up of the games room. However one advantage of HotT (at 24 points anyway) is that you can play a game on the dining room table (assuming you can find the cloth, rules and armies, which took a little time).

So Andy came round with his new Weird World War 1 German army, and we played two games.

The first was against my 'Lost Worlds' army.

The armies face off ...

Turn 1 I roll a 6, and decide to take the chance and bring the Ape God on early...

However .. you guessed it, next turn.. a '1' .. and the God decides not to favour the humans with his presence

Andy pushes his aerial hero across the Lost Worlds lines

And attacks the magician general form the rear

The game was over in four turns... a victory to the Germans.
Second game - I choose the forces of Chaos (Terry, notice my self control in not choosing the spiders....).

Again we face off ...

My turn 2, I roll a 6 and decide to deploy both dragons on board

Andy again pushes his aerial hero general into my rear. However the Chaos hero general attacks him - Andy wasn't expecting that

The Chaos hero general wins the combat, and  .. game over

Second game over in four turns. Well, we had a great yarn during the evening. A shame neither game developed into anything more interesting, but it doesn't matter.. we had a great evening with a whisky followed with coffee.

Definitely a case of wham bam, thank you....

A new evil arises

Andy unveiled his latest HotT army.. Weird World War 1... a mix of weirdness that is a testimony to imagination. Albatross flyers - fair enough. But .. ghost hordes (the countless dead of WW1 returning again, and again, and again), and zombie blades and shooters: German infantry in gas masks.

And they launched straight into a spider horde. Evil vs evil .. whoaaa. This was a standard 24 point battle.

Spider Hordes flanking a spider behemoth (general) and two heroes)

German ghost hordes advance ahead of blades and hooters

Albatross flyers

And a behemoth flanked the main German line

The forces close

Flyers swoop in behind the spider line (or should that be swarm?)

Sadly Andy forgot that heroes can attack flyers, and that's what the two spider heroes di

One flyer down

Two flyers down, and the hordes clash

The German ghost hordes get the better of the spider hordes

Having disposed of the German flyers, the heroes decide to swing around towards the German flank

Meanwhile the German behemoth smacks into the hordes on the other flank

One horde bites the dust

The spider hordes on the other flank are retreating

German zombie shooters

It's ugly ...

And on the other flank - still ugly

The spider hordes swarm over the behemoth

While the spider heroes bide their time

Spider horde casualties are 'reborn'.. and swarm forward again

The behemoth is overwhelmed

The spider hordes re-assert themselves on the spider left

The spider heroes hit the German zombie shooters

German casualties galore

But it's all over for the Germans - casualties are too great, and victory goes to the spider hordes.

We then played  a second game, again 24 points .. this time I took another unholy piece of evil.. the Undead. Being slightly confused, I took Spiderman as a God with the Undead... oh well ... still  a legal army, just lost the flavour a little,

Spiderman arrived and got into combat with the German behemoth

This time Andy took the DVa as an aerial hero - he smacked into the undead behemoth

The Undead magician (necromancer if you prefer) was desperately trying to cast spells from behind

The battery on my phone died before the battle finished. The germans managed a great victory against the Undead... Spiderman the God disappeared, and the aerial hero carved through the Undead line... nasty stuff.

But two great games with a great new army. I have to say that a British equivalent is on the painting table as I type.