Martian invaders halted in their tracks

Further and further the Martians pushed into the dark continent. Some would ask if the invaders knew fear. Others hoped. Whatever the answer, this day was one on which they would confront a foe who would certainly have brought on shivers of fear for humankind.

The Undead army:

1 x Hero
1 x Magician
1 x Dragon
1 x shooter
2 x Blades
2 x Hordes
2 x Beasts

The Martian army:

1 x Behemoth
1 x Hero general
4 x Shooters
4 x Blades

The Undead avoid the bulk of the Martian shooters (on the left of the photo, composing the Martian right flank)

The Beasts get stuck in to the Martian flank

And make short work of the first blade element

A second Martian blade is hit frontally, flanked, with a unit of beasts in the rear, but the 1:5 die roll means the Martian blade survives

... but not for a second turn. And the Undead magician ensorcels the Martian hero

The Martian hero is unensorcelled, coming on from the Undead army's rear base edge

But the trap closes on the Martian behemoth

The behemoth kills the Undead hero, but is hit again

and is destroyed ...

The Undead dragon finally appears, just in time to see the Martian army defeated...

Another great game.. HotT continues to give fantastic games, 24 points offers enough challenges to make each game well worthwhile. 

Who knows what the Martain invaders will face next.

In the darkest depths of Africa: the Martian armies meet arachnid foes

The Martian armies continued their advances across the face of the planet. Their early successes against the Lost Worlds tribes led them deeper and deeper into the dark continent, not knowing what they might meet. Several days onto their advance they were confronted with a most ghastly foe... a horde of the most terrifying spiders, well possibly terrifying to we humans, but possibly not to their Martian attackers.

The game was played using our 20mm armies and the Hordes of the Things rules.

The Spider army:

12 x Horde
1 x Hero general
2 x Behemoth

The Martian army:

1 x Hero general
1 x Behemoth
4 x Shooters
4 x Blades

The Spider horde advances... my first error, it's better to wait close to your stronghold, or baseline, when using a mostly horde army

The spider centre: behemoth, hero general, behemoth

Martian shooters against hordes

The Martian army pushes forward into contact

Ouch ...

The Hordes are recoiled

Hero vs Hero, both are lost (actually our error, as even though the totals were odd, it wasn't a tie... so it oughtn to have been a spider hero general win)

 

The right spider behemoth pushes the Martian behemoth backwards

Spider hordes are dying, and some are coming back. Because of our error with the hero conflict, both forces were starved of pips. For the spiders this was problematic, as this limited the ability to bring back the hordes

The two spider behemoths are caught in conflict, but ..

One of them is flanked and lost. The Martians have the edge

The casualties are too treat and the spider host is defeated...

So the Martians have won another victory on the dark continent.. what next?

Naval elements for HotT: a first attempt

Andy and I had been talking about the idea of incorporating naval elements into our HotT games, mostly for the narrative, and the aesthetic. While the obvious troop classification for these would be as water lurkers, an interesting discussion on the iO group led me to think that possibly a better option might be to use them as artillery stands. They would then play as naval elements in DBA.

With that question (sort of) answered, I've been engaging the creative juices to conceiving some suitable stands for this purpose. This first one is as a surfaced submarine, in the best traditions of Captain Nemo, and was created from a plastic 'egg' used to package jellybeans. My thanks to Andy who provided the 'breakthrough' thinking that allowed me to finally visualise what I wanted. Kia ora e hōa!

The 'egg' was cut lengthways to provide the semblance of a surfaced submarine. The photos show some of the stages in development.

Yet again, I am appreciative of the opportunities that HotT creates to indulge our creativity - this is good for the soul. I know I could get someone to 3D print such things, and there are most probably suitable files available, but such things wouldn't be 'mine', if you now what I mean. I love the good old fashioned scratch build challenges. Next some surface units .. thinking caps on.