HOTT AAR: Dwarves vs Lizardmen

Last week I decided to have a game of Hordes of the Things (HOTT). One of the things I like about games like HOTT is that they only need minimal terrain and a 2'x2' board so you can play them almost anywhere. Also you don't need many figures. The forces were as follows:

Dwarves
Hero General
2 x Behemoths
2 x Flyers
3 x Blades
1 x Shooter

Lizardmen
Hero General
2 x Magicians
3 x Riders
5 x Hordes
2 x Lurkers

The terrain comprised two woods and two areas of impassable terrain (a ruined temple and a tar pit containing a dragons skeleton). The skull and temple are aquarium features

The terrain layout

 

The Dwarves were going to defend and lined up in front of their stronghold.

The initial dispositions

The Lizardmen planned to put their Magicians between the wood and the skull while the hordes blocked the gap between the ruins and the skull with the riders and general in reserve. The Dwarves slowly moved the blades round to confront the hordes while the war mammoths raced forward to engage the magicians.

 

 

A number of turns of inconclusive combat followed as the mammoths tried and repeatedly failed to crush the magicians. Having to flee 6" when beaten by the magicians really hampered them. However the blades eventually got into contact with the hordes and started to cut them down. But the Lizardmen used spare pips when they could to bring back the hordes on their baseline.

 

The Lizardmen sent their riders in to slow down the blades but were easily defeated.

 

Tiring of the stalemate with the magicians the Dwarven hero general decided it was time to enter the fray

Sadly fate was not with him and a bad roll saw him ensorcelled and with their other losses that meant defeat for the dwarves.

The fateful die roll

All in all a bit of dull game with lots of to and fro but few casualties till the end. Still it scratched the itch and I'll play again but with less powerful units.

Phew! It's HOTT.

Well that's the obligatory hot weather pun out of the way, so moving on swiftly. I've been reading a few Hordes of the Things (HOTT) batreps lately so I decided to dig out two of my old HOTT armies.

I used to play a ton of DBA years ago and even ran a DBA campaign for my local club which proved very popular. We also played some HOTT as it's basically the same game with a few additions and I always liked the way you could use the points system to build any kind of army you chose from Daleks to Justin Bieber fans (this would obviously be composed completely of mindless hordes).

As you can play HOTT with DBA armies I hadn't bothered to build any HOTT specific armies. However about twenty years ago I was at the Vapnartak wargames show in York and there was a vendor selling painted HOTT armies. I took one look at the Dwarven Gyrocopters and I had to have them. For some reason still not clear to me I also bought a painted Lizardmen army and a nice Dwarven cavern as a stronghold. For years I thought they were 15mm figures until I saw some of the same models on the Pendraken site on one of my many trawls through their catalogue. I guess that just shows the quality of the 10mm Pendraken castings.

Hot weather permitting I'm going to reacquaint myself with the rules and have a few solo games to get back up to speed. I'll post a few batreps later but for now on with the eye candy.

First up is the Dwarven army which comprises:
Hero General
2 x Behemoths
2 x Flyers
3 x Blades
1 x Shooter

The Dwarven army arrayed for battle

Wooly mammoths flank the Hero General

Intrepid Dwarven aviators

The Lizardmen army comprises:
Hero General
2 x Magicians
3 x Riders
5 x Hordes
2 x Lurkers

The Lizardmen army arrayed for battle

The Hero General on his speedy mount flanked by Magicians
and protected by hordes of willing minions

Lizardmen Riders and Lurkers

The Hall of the Mountain King

Considering these figures have languished in an old school metal toolbox for the last 15 years they're in pretty good condition.