Lincombe Barn HOTT Tournament 2025 sponsored by Alternative Armies

We are delighted to announce our sponsorship and prizes given to Bristol Wargaming Club in England for their annual Hordes of the Things (HOTT) tournament. BarnHotT 2025! The event happens on Sunday 15th June 2025 and its a small 15mm scale friendly event with an entry free and free food for those playing too.  Read more and get involved on their WEBSITE.  Good luck to everyone on the day.

Alternative Armies has a huge array of suitable Fantasy miniatures in the HOT 15mm Range (HOT154 Skeleton Giant above) as well as the classic Tabletop Games 15mm Fantasy Range not to mention the mighty Sengoku 15mm Japanese Fantasy Range and our HOB 15mm Buildings.  

We also have over twenty different pre-made HOTT 2nd Edition 24AP Armies each of which comes with all needed element bases included for free.  Above is HOTT1001 High Elf Army.

Recently restored a true 1980’s classic monster F24 Seven Headed Hydra which is a very different take on this legendary foe to our own HOT35 Giant Hydra.

If you run an event and would like to ask about our sponsoring of it with prizes please contact us on sales@alternative-armies.com with its details and we will be in touch.

Thanks for your time.

Now 60 Base choices with HOTT element MDF sizes added

A venerable wargames rules set which is going strong and excellent play of an afternoon is Hordes of the Things (HOTT) of which our own Hordes of Things (HOT) 15mm Fantasy Range was named and begun as in 1991.  We are pleased to announce MDF element bases at great prices added to our Bases for Miniatures Range in the sizes for HOTT.

We have added a further five MDF bases to our array which covers wood, resin, metal and plastic in a great many shapes and sizes.  Great for any game and scale of miniature or monster or vehicle. The new codes are:

MDF012 40mm by 15mm – Buy More Save More (10, 50, 100)

MDF013 40mm by 20mm – Buy More Save More (10, 50, 100)

MDF014 40mm by 30mm – Buy More Save More (10, 50, 100)

MDF015 40mm by 40mm – Buy More Save More (1,5,10)

MDF016 40mm by 60mm – Buy More Save More (1,5,10)

For your blades, warbands, behemoths, dragons, heroes and all other Hordes of the Things uses.

While our HOT 15mm Fantasy Range and the classic TTF Tabletop 15mm Fantasy Range have loads of miniatures suitable for this game we have a dedicated page of ready made HOTT 24AP Armies all of which come with element bases included for free.  Over twenty different armies.

Dwarfish Hosts (DH Range) 28mm Fantasy
Pt1 of the Overhaul is now complete!  

New molds, new pictures and single mini choice with value packs too.  Part one the earliest codes DH1,2,3 all sculpted by Dave Gallagher originally for Rieder Designs in the late 1980’s.  Young Dwarfs, Gnomes and Halflings plus the mighty Fnorr the Big ‘Un.  DH is a big range and we will report each part completed as it happens across this month with a new release at the end. 

Thanks for your Time.

New HOT Savage Lizardmen 15mm and HOTT 24AP Army

Cold blooded but hot on your gaming table we have four more codes of our Savage Lizardmen now released into the HOT 15mm Fantasy Range. Our last 15mm fantasy releases of 2024.  All of the Lizardmen are metal and their riding beasts are resin.  Now over one hundred and sixty codes in the range...

These miniatures go excellently with the free any scale HOT159 Holt the Treeman in orders until 3rd December 2024.  Now let us see what is new...

HOT155 Savage Lizardmen Beastmaster:  This pack contains ten mixed miniatures that being two poses of Lizardman with whip and then six of the same creature.  You can choose the pack or sampler (one of each pose) or creature alone if you wish on the page.

HOT156 Savage Lizardmen Command:  Rule over your warriors on the field of battle with this pack of ten mixed miniatures giving you a High Lord on Foot, a Magician, Assassin, Female Magician and a Guard.  Evenly mixed poses in pack or choose from the sampler (one of each pose) on the page.

HOT157 Savage Lizardmen Elders:  The elders are those warriors given leadership of hosts in times of war.  This pack contains ten mixed miniatures of three poses a Banner Bearers, an Officer and a Musician.  Evenly mixed in pack or choose the sampler on the page.  This code leads your infantry such as HOT127 as well as HOT119 and HOT134 when forming units.

HOT158 Savage Lizardmen Mounted Elders: Iguanosaurs are the riding beasts of the Savage Lizardmen and this pack contains four mixed cavalry of three poses which are Banner Bearer, Officer and Musician.  Evenly mixed in the pack or choose the sampler on the page.  This code leads your cavalry such as HOT141 and HOT142 when forming units.

There are a total of twenty two different codes contains under the internal range tag of SAVAGE LIZARDMEN with a wide array of infantry, cavalry, flyers as well as a Behemoth and Lizard Ogres and artillery.  As with all codes it is pack and sampler within ideal for battle or skirmish.

HOTT1024 Savage Lizardman Army:  A complete 24AP Army Pack including all needed miniatures a free element bases for use in HOTT 2nd Edition.  This army pack joins our other two dozen armies for this wargame including High Elves, Undead, Orcs, Dwarves and much more.  All with a good saving too.

This is our last new release news for 15mm Fantasy in 2024 and we thank you for your continued support.  Have you seen our HIGH ELVES array of codes? Infantry, Cavalry, Creatures, Heroes, Chariot and more such as HOT117 above. 

Thanks for your Time.

Holt the Treeman new and free in all orders until 3rd December 2024

“The very woods themselves came to life and took their vengeance upon the Men who had felled their trunks. Our blood mingled with the loam laden soil that day.”

Wood’ent it be nice to have a brand new metal Treeman useful in any scale of gaming for free in your package?  Well it would be and it is!  Totally free automatically put in packages leaving Alternative Armies, at the rate of one per package, until 3rd December 2024.  Holt the Treeman will be added to your order as long as it is shipped order is shipped (no Digital Download orders only sorry) and as many orders as you wish and anywhere in the world.  When we say free we mean it; no catch. 

HOT159 Holt the Treeman:  This one piece metal miniature is 45mm total height and can be used in any scale of tabletop gaming for a fantasy setting.  An Ent in 28mm or a Treeman in 15mm or a titanic Treeman in 6mm.  Covered in tough bark with gnarled joints and growths of moss and fungi Holt is intent on joining the forces of the Elves or other good aligned armies.  A suitable Behemoth in HOTT 2nd Edition.  Joins the other monsters, creatures and dragons in the HOT 15mm Fantasy Range.

If you missed any of the Formerly Free Codes you can see them all on the website in one place.  Every one has a saving.

At the top of this article you can see the new free Treeman with a the bones of fallen giant behind him.  These bones are from the new VNT49 Fallen Giant Skeleton resin set.  This set comes free with VNT50 Giant Skeleton as well.  Fantastic!

Hobby Corner…. Potan's War channel

A great wee video on Youtube (link is to his channel) in which our HOB 15mm Buildings are put to the test against others for use in 17th Century Wargaming.  Have a watch to see who comes out on top.  Check out Furioso the English Civil War if you are keen on this period written by Steve Danes.

Thanks for your Time!

HOT154 Skeleton Giant released 15mm Fantasy Range

The mighty HOT 15mm Fantasy Range adds its one hundred and fiftieth fourth code and to give it its due it's an Undead release of some height.  A new Skeleton Giant with battleaxe; a behemoth to lead your horde of Skeletons, Zombies, Mummies and others in a game system of your choosing.

Under a blazing sun High Elves ready themselves to take on what was once flesh clothed and is now through necromancy given animation.  Will their cavalry and bows be a match for so much bleached bone?

HOT154 Skeleton Giant:  A single piece metal miniature of 40mm height to top of head.  Armed with a battleaxe and shown with Wraith Cavalry and Wraith Infantry for scale.  You can see all of the Undead in the range by refining the ‘filter by’ option on the website.

There are many Monsters in the HOT Range including Dragons but few are so terrifying to mortals as the HOT100 Ghoul Dragon which is 65mm tall and 95mm long.  We marked the event of the one hundredth code release with this hulk of rotting flesh and we do so again with a saving off the beast now.

This is our last 15mm scale release news before the massive Winter Mega Event commences 24th October.

Thanks for your Time!

HOTT at Colours 2024 the day plus results and sponsored prizes

It was our pleasure to sponsor the recent tournament with prizes and to give this account of the results of the day.  Enjoy the read and if you would like to approach us for sponsorship please send your details to sales@alternative-armies.com and we will see what can be done.  We have an array of HOTT 2nd Edition 24AP Armies which include all needed miniatures with saving and free element bases.  All miniatures taken from the HOT 15mm Fantasy Range and Tabletop Miniatures 15mm Range.

HOTT @ Colours

Fourteen players gathered (14th September) for a 15mm Hordes of the Things tournament at the annual Colours Wargames Show in the south of the UK, hosted by Newbury and Reading Wargames Society. Taking place in the Newbury Racecourse Grandstand, traders and historical demo games predominated. We were fortunate to be provided with an excellent, well lit area for our Hott competition, and the players graced this with some great looking armies and scenics.

Starting at 10 a.m., I organised a total of five rounds, and by the end of Round 4 there were four players in contention for the top spot.  After a tense Round 5 Mark Skelton emerged the winner, scoring four wins from his five games, using mean-looking Aliens of Acheron.

Alternative Armies had kindly sponsored the event, with some neat 15mm scale models, and NRWS chairman Colin assisted with the presentations. Honours went to 1st (Mark Skelton), 2nd (Martin Myers), 3rd (Pete Duckworth) and Last Place (Simon Finney, taking the much sought after ‘Thrower of Ones’ trophy). An additional prize for Best Presented Army, a tough choice with the great standard of armies brought along, went to Keith McGlynn’s colourful  ‘Dobbies Revenge’ force. Other armies spotted included everything from Don Quixote to Space Orks, Japanese Fantasy, Garden Gnomes and Riders of Rohan. In Hott, ‘anything goes’, so imagination and creativity can run riot.

Many thanks to Gavin at Alternative Armies for his kind sponsorship, which was much appreciated, to all at NRWS for the opportunity to play at such a superb venue, and to the great players for making the day a success. 

Further details can be found on this public Facebook group.

Here are the detailed results of the tournament:

The Newbury and Reading Wargames Society had provided an excellent, well lit space for the fourteen competitors to play, and the competitors graced this with some great looking armies (we used 40mm frontage / “15mm” scaled rules).

We were playing a total of five rounds, and by the end of Round 4 there were four players in contention for the top spot. A pseudo-Swiss Chess Round 5 followed, at the end of which Mark Skelton emerged the winner, acquiring 20 points for four wins out of five games.

NRWS’s family team of Colin Cockburn and granddaughter Bobbie kindly assisted with the presentations, trophies going to 1st, 2nd and Last (‘Thrower of Ones’) place. NWRS’s Robert helped out by judging the Best Presented Army, a difficult task due to the great standard of Hott armies brought along.

Prizes awarded were:

Winner : Mark Skelton, Alternative Armies 15mm Skeleton Hott Army.

2nd : Martin Myers, Alternative Armies 15mm Dwarf Command pack.

3rd : Pete Duckworth, Alternative Armies 15mm Sitting Dragon.

‘Thrower of Ones’ : Simon Finney, Alternative Armies 15mm Griffon.

Best Presented Army : Keith McGlynn, Alternative Armies 15mm Scenics.

Final points scores 

(based on 5pts win, 2pts winning draw, 1pt draw, 0 pts loss).

    Mark Skelton ……..20

    Martin Myers ……..19

    Pete Duckworth ….18

    Colin O’Shea ………15 (2 generals killed)

    Baldie (aka Lee).….15 (1 general killed)

    Neil Mason …………12

    Keith McGlynn …….11 (1 general killed)

    Connor Truby ………11 (0 generals killed)

    Mark Fry ……………..10

    Peter Card ……………9

    David Cox …………….6

    Pete James ………….5 (22 AP destroyed)

    Jane Williams ………5 (12 AP destroyed)

    Simon Finney ……….1

(Tie break = head-to-head, Strongholds, Generals, Army Points)

Armies Used :

Mark Skelton - Locals of LV-426 (‘Aliens’ of Acheron theme)

Martin Myers - Don Quixote de La Mancha

Pete Duckworth - Dorothy and Chums (Wizard of Oz)

Colin O’Shea - Early Bornu (African Sahel)

Baldie (aka Lee ) - Baldie’s Boyz, Space Orks

Neil Mason - Garden Gnomes

Keith McGlynn - Dobbie’s Revenge (Clark Ashton Smith inspired)

Connor Truby - Orcs and Dino’s

Mark Fry - Riders of Rohan

Peter Card - Ghost Dance (Native Americans)

David Cox - Barbarians (Copplestone)

Pete James - Japanese Fantasy

Jane Williams - Chess

Simon Finney - Orcs

Hobby Time: Wargrunt Art’s take on HOT27 Griffin 15mm and a wee conversion

Shared kindly with permission from the photos of Wargrunt Art over on Facebook their take not only on the HOT27 Griffen but also a wee conversion of the saddled version which normally mounts an Elf Hero and has rather a 16th Century Renaissance rider upon it. 

 

 

A useful creature for any game system and a favourite for Elf Armies in rules such as HOTT 2nd Edition this is a natural take on the Griffen done by Wargrunt Art. Here is an all angles view. 

 

You can follow Wargrunt Art on their Facebook Page. This three piece metal 15mm Monster is 30mm tall when assembled. It is one of many monsters in the HOT 15mm Fantasy Range which has over 160 different packs all of which have a ‘sampler’ option. 

 

 

HOT117 Elf Hero on Griffen gives you a rider upon the creature which is complete with a saddle and reins. It gives you the option on page to purchase the pack or the rider or mount in its own. Wargrunt Art decided upon a Human rider and who knew that MRC12 French Gendarme meant for a horse would fit on the monster’s back no problem! It looks lovely and well done! 

 

The range contains many choices of 15mm High Elves including a Hero on Griffen or on Wyvern alongside artillery, eagle riders, chariot, cavalry, foot and mounted command and many types of infantry too. 

 

Thank you for attention and our thanks to Wargrunt too! 

 

GBS (Gavin Syme)

HOT1 Dwarf King 15mm painted by I Maenas Hael

Back in April last year Alternative Armies released brand new Dwarf Handgunners and also remolded and unveiled new painted pictures of the Dwarfs in our HOT 15mm Fantasy Range. See these in full on our BLOG. 

 

(Click to enlarge)

 

We had many requests for these and to release the artillery in the range as single codes which we also did. It was great to see a wargamer on Instagram showing off his lovely work on the Dwarf King from HOT1 Dwarf Command. Permission given I present to you the work of Kieran otherwise titled i_maenas_hael you can check him out on the link. 

 

Lots of work on some thing so small. In the command pack is the King as well as a Banner Bearer, Spear Carrier and Guards. Nicely done! 

 

 

As stated check out the HOT 15mm Fantasy Range for our Dwarfs or the BLOG article for that news and pictures. 

 

 

 

We are currently working on the next packs for the Savage Lizardmen to complete their army. This will include command and special unit. We are also working on an expansion to the favoured Ogres too. If you have any input on creatures, monsters, types or such you would like to see in the range then by all means email sales@alternative-armies.com and let us know. The Cockatrice above was the result of such a poll on our Facebook Group. 

 

Thanks for your time. 

 

 GBS

HOT135 Savage Lizardmen Archers join their 15mm army

“From a barbaric time in a savage land these cold blooded warrior and live in many tribes which often war with each other. Their armies shake the very ground as they advance in unity against the foes of their race.” 

 

 

The Savage Lizardman Army in the HOT 15mm Fantasy Range expands once more with a new pack of ranged warriors. Above you can see the new Archers ahead of the mighty Lizardman Behemoth; facing off against a trio of Ogres intent on mayhem. See the whole range HERE. 

 

 

Great for any game system the new HOT135 Savage Lizardmen Archers contains ten figures an even mix of four poses of 15mm scale metal miniatures. As with all HOT 15mm Fantasy codes you can purchase one pack or you can choose a sampler which gives you one of each pose of miniature from this pack; a great way to try or to make skirmish forces with HOT. 

 

 

As well as twenty poses of infantry there is a Behemoth and Lizard Ogres as well as Artillery with crew and an Iganosaur too. 

 

 

See the Lizardmen in battle above against our Giant Slugs from Tabletop Miniatures code 549. There will be further releases later this year expanding this army even further as we move into cavalry both on the ground and flying too. 

 

 

You may not have seen our great HOTR resin 15mm Orc forces. Command, Horde, Archers, Cavalry and Trolls. Every code can be had as a single sprue or a pack or value army builder bundle with a saving. See them all HERE within the range and alongside our other metal Orcs, Chariot and Mountain Orcs. 

 

 Thank you for your time and this is our last fantasy release of the month. 

 

GBS

HOTT Dwarf and Orc 15mm Armies painted by Gareth Fowler

We were favoured in an email from keen wargamer and fan of HOTT 2ed edition Gareth Fowler who showed us his approach to basing, painting and preparing two pre-selected 24AP Armies he got from Alternative Armies.  We asked him if he could furnish us with a wee article and some pictures to share and he kindly did.  All the miniatures are from the HOT 15mm Fantasy Range and are codes HOTT1003 and HOTT1005 from our 24AP HOTT 2nd Edition Armies which come with free element bases.  

Also see our BLOG if you are keen on Dwarves for new Handgunners and updated images of our codes.  Over to you sir!

I picked up the two army packs (orcs and dwarves) as a good pal of mine has a multitude of 15mm HotT armies and I was keen to get a few quick and simple armies painted to offer him an opponent.

After unpacking and cleaning the (minimal) flash and mould lines from the models I decided to paint the orc army in a colourful and grimy style and the dwarves with a brighter, more heroic tone.

The models were mounted on long sticks, pressed into blobs of blu-tak (other than the larger ones which were mounted on corks for painting)

The orcs were primed white with an airbrush, the skin basecoated a mid green and the metal parts undercoated black. Having just taken delivery of a set of the Army painter speedpaints, I set about testing them on the cloaks and cloth areas with decent effect, once I had got the measure of the thinner properties of said paints (they are very much like a thick glaze). 

Once the basecoat/speedpaint areas were finished, the metal areas and small points of detail were blocked out in preparation for the “instant grime” of Quickshade strong tone dip, which I brushed on sparingly to a few models, let to settle for a minute or two, then brushed the surface again with a larger brush, moistened with white spirit which pulled the majority of the tone from the models surface, leaving the colours more vivid but still affecting a grimy look, especially in the recesses. 

The orcs were then selectively highlighted using the base colour or similar and a complimentary highlight in the odd place.

The dwarves were primed black, then sprayed from above with white ink (again with the airbrush) to pick out all the great detail and to assist with targeting!. After re-painting the metal areas black, I painted the basecoats and metallics from the inside to out and then gave the warmer colours a thinned wash of strong tone and the metallics a thinned wash of grey speedpaint (which I was very pleased with, for a first attempt).

The beards and hair were tidied up with white and were finished with varying colours of red/brown/grey and yellow speedpaint.  I then added a mid and a highlight to the blue and red tabards, painted the leather areas brown and highlighted them with tan, and finished with a highlight on the brightest part of the metallics.

One of the axemen was converted to a standard bearer with a length of brass rod and a printed flag. All in all, the dwarves took a considerably longer (but very pleasurable) time to complete than the orcs but I am pretty happy with the result. 

Basing consists of fine ballast glued to the MDF bases, washed, mid and highlighted, then a couple of types of 2mm static grass was added along with some shrubs, rocks (horticultural grit from the garage!) and a few tufts.

Lastly I would like to add that the free bases included are a great addition being nice and chunky resin easy to lift and to mount upon then to move about without touching or damaging the miniatures.  The miniatures were a joy to paint and though the axes on the Dwarves are thin it is more than worth it for their style plus the Ogres are wonderful!  The flag came from Wargame Designs and the transfers are from Veni Vidi Vici.  Oh and taking pictures of 15mm is really hard!

We hope you enjoyed this read.

GBS