The VSF world's naval elements in HotT

Andy and I have been talking for several months about how we might include naval elements into our HotT (Hordes of the Things) games. Why? Partly the aesthetic.. we both fancy the look of some suitable fantasy and especially VSF naval 'ships'. I'd also had a taste of the use of naval elements in some DBR games with Keith.. and liked what I'd experienced. This was an itch that needed to be scratched. I am careful to make it clear however that we are NOT looking for a naval game, merely an additional layer of 'flavour' in our HotT games.

Currently the HotT rules allow for 'water lurkers', but these are relatively limited in use (as are all lurkers). That is not to say they lack use, merely that they were not quite what we were looking for. That is just a matter of taste.

We decided to see if we could take the DBR rules for Ships, Boats, and Galleys, and adapt them to HotT games. This game was out first 'play test' to see what we had. We placed the games in the Weird World War 1 genre, with our WWW1 German and British armies.

My British army contained:

1 x Hero general
1 x airboat
1 x boat
2 x riders
2 x blades
3 x shooters

Andy's German army contained:

1 x shooter general

1 x Boat

1 x Horde

3 x Blades

2 x Behemoth

2 x shooters

Deployment, with the two boats in the 'waterway' deployed to the left

While the two Boat models look very different, there is no significance in their appearance, the are both simple 'Boats'

The opening round of fire forced one of the German behemoths back

... and a British shooter back

However more telling, was the opening of the naval action when the German Boat eliminated the British Boat. Both boats were carrying their compulsory land element, and so the loss for the British cost them their Boat and a blade

Action continues on land

The German Boat advances towards the British shoreline flank

The British Airboat attacks the German horde.. a mistake as it happens, as the airboat was to be tied up in this combat for the entire game

Action is joined on the British left

The German behemoth makes a break through against a shooter element

The German Boat prepares to disembark it's blade element. Andy placed the Blade element on the Boat base simply to remind himself that it was there.

It gets very messy in the centre

Repeated attempts to eliminate the German general fail

The Germans eliminate the left flanking riders

The British Hero general is eliminated, and the battle is lost for the British

So, how did we think this all went? Basically well.

• Our DBR adaptation requires naval elements to carry one land based element (as with DBR). If we assume that is necessary (we have included that requirement for now) then I learned that when the opponent has a naval element too, it is better to disembark the land element asap.
• The adaptations are probably not a tournament option because if you are the attacker, with a naval element when your opponent doesn't and if she therefore chooses not to pace a river or waterway,, that means you've effectively lost 3 AP (even though they don't count towards losses). The same thing happens with a water lurker, but that of course is only 1 AP
• The option of a Boat vs Boat combat is interesting
• We found several more areas that need consideration. The DBR rules include March moves which don't exist in HotT. Rather than add them in (an unnecessary complication, as we don't intend to change the fundamental nature of the rules.. they work just fine) we have another plan.
• We found we needed to add in 'waterway' as a terrain feature, again essentially mirroring the DBR rules. 

Once we are happy with progress, we'll post our suggestions for comment.