The Ghost And The Darkness

 This is another HOTT piece from the original Stronghold. My only contribution has been my usual light editorial hand. The lists are based on the 1996 film of the same name.

Army Lists for 'Hordes of the Things'
by 'heath'

In 1898, two extraordinary lions went on a man-eating rampage that claimed over 130 lives. Nothing like this had happened before and it hasn't happened since. These two seemingly invincible beasts brought Britain's plans for an East African railway to a dead halt and literally stopped the greatest colonial empire on earth from one of its grandest engineering feats, absolutely cold. A bridge-building engineer, John Patterson, aided by an acclaimed wild game hunter, Remington, set out to find and kill these demons that the African's called "shaitaini" or "Devils of the Night." These two unbelievably cunning lions, "The Ghost" and "The Darkness," set their sights on the two men who were hunting them. Despite rivalry and animosity, the two men must trust each other with their lives to vanquish the two fearless man-eaters and prevent their frightened basecamp at Tsavo fromfulfilling its Swahili namesake--"A Place of Slaughter."

The “Ghost and the Darkness”

Stronghold: A cave full of bones

God (Male lion, 'The Ghost') @ 4AP	1
God (Female lion, 'The Darkness') @ 4AP	1
Beasts(Pairs of lions rules over by The Ghost and The Darkness) @ 2AP	8

Special army rules:
Both gods can be deployed for 6 PIPs, but only a single one leaves the battlefield if a '1' is rolled. A god that has left the field may be returned by a subsequent expenditure of 6 PIPs. The army has no general's element. However no element in it is counted as being out of command.

The Army of John Patterson

Stronghold: A train carriage on tracks surrounded by tents

Hero general (British railway engineer John Patterson, and wife) @ 4AP	1
Hero (Remington the hunter) @ 4AP	1
Magician (Local witchdoctor and tribal council) @ 4AP	1
Blade (The lion killer warrior, native assistant to Patterson) @ 2AP	1
Shooters (Remington’s bearers, armed with rifles) @ 6AP	3
Hordes (Imported Indian and local African railway workers) @ 4AP	4

HOTT 52 - Week 18 - Boxers vs Foreign Devils

Having showcased my Boxer Rebellion and Foreign Devil armies the other day, I thought that it would be appropriate to make them the subject of this week's HOTT 52 game. So I did.

After considering changes to the armies I decided that the Foreign Devil's Bishop Favier element, currently a paladin, could be reclassified as a hero, thus reducing the deadly paladin/cleric combination this army has where their magician is effectively neutralised. More to the point I decided to run him as a hero general; the sources I used say that "Bishop Favier ... was transformed into a "devil prince" (guiwang), two hundred years of age, who ... had gained complete ascendancy over the minds of the other 'devils'.". This 'ascendency' sounds like justification to make him a general.

Anyway, the Boxers defended, and ended up with one flank of their army anchored on some fields.

The Foreign Devils found their advance slowed by some fields on their line of march. They put the Russians and Japanese on their right in order to hold that flank, covered by the artillery. The advance in the centre, against the bulk of the Boxer troops, would be led by the Royal Navy contingent supported by shooting from the Italians and Americans.

The main attack would be on the left, with Bishop Favier and the Bengal Lancers moving rapidly to turn the Boxer's right flank.

The Boxers were deployed close to their stronghold (deep bases plus a deep stronghold will do that), so needed to advance a little to gain fighting space.

A view from the artillery position. No relevance to the game.

Early advances into bright sunlight. The field slowed the Foreign Devils' advance, but the Boxers were slowed reinforcing their right flank.

The Foreign Devils moved forward slowly, but on their left the Bishop and the lancers were making good progress.

The left flank attack halted for a turn to allow the naval contingent to move up in support.

The Boxers initiated the attack. A gap in the Foreign Devils' line was too good an opportunity to waste, offering a useful overlap, and attacking meant they controlled the order of combats (often an important consideration in HOTT).

In the centre the advance party of Royal Marines and sailors was overwhelmed and destroyed.

Bishop Favier was faced with the Boxers' Red Lantern sorcerer. The odds were in his favour ...

... and improved when the Bengal Lancers covered his flank by riding down the Boxers threatening it.

Sadly whilst the odds were in the Bishop's favour, the dice weren't, and he found himself a captive of the Red Lantern's magics.

And that was it; with their hero general and an element of warbad lost, against one element of warband of Boxer's destroyed, the Foreign Devils had lost.

It was such a short game that I set it up again, so you get a bonus report this week.

This time the Foreign Devils defended a cathedral, improvised from my toy buildings.

The Boxers aimed their attack on the enemy left. A rapid advance would reach the enemy position before they could move forward to benefit from the forward slopes of the ridge they were on. The Boxer's left was covered by a large village, and the Imperial musketeers were ordered to take position there and cover it against a Foreign Devil flank attack.

The Boxer advance was rapid indeed, and they got a toehold on the ridge before the Foreign Devils had moved forward too far.

Meanwhile the Royal Navy advanced on the village.

The artillery destroyed an element of Boxer soldiers.

The musketeers opened up on the advancing naval troops.

Bishop Favier and the lancers moved forward to seize the forward part of the ridge. The Bishop charged the mighty Peking Boxers; beating them would drive them back and break up the Boxer line, whilst losing to them and retreating (there was no chance of being destroyed) would see them pursue and become isolated from the rest of the Boxer line, forcing it to advance to cover them. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

The plan didn't allow or a tied combat; the Bishop ended up stuck in melee with the Peking Boxers.

The Boxers responded by bringing in the flying Red Lantern to hit Bishop Favier's now obvious exposed flank. This sequence of events shows that even playing solo you can outwit yourself; I really didn't see that coming when I launched Bishop Favier's attack.

And that was it for the Bishop. Again. The Foreign Devils broke, having inflicted the loss of one element of warband on their opponent.

I'm not 100% sure about the Favier as hero general option, but may explore it further. Maybe simply making him a hero is the way to go, making his loss less critical. I am rather taken with the original army's choice of an artillery general, which is delightfully risky (but which actually makes the artillery a tough proposition in close combat if well supported).

Army Showcase - Boxers and Foreign Devils

I was looking through my Flickr account the other day when I came across this set of photos I'd done about ten years ago of my 15mm Boxer Rebellion matched pair for 'Hordes of the Things'.

The basic lists for these armies can be found on Page 77 of the v2.1 of the rules, so I won't repeat them here. The lists also have the notes on the various abilities attributed to the troops by Chinese writers at the time.

Tigermen and musketeers. Although historically the Tigermen appear to be skirmishers of a sort, I run them as warband, because they look like they ought to be. The Imperial musketeers are shooters. All of these figures are from Irregular Miniatures.

Peking Boxers. They were said to be 10' tall and bulletproof. I used 25mm figures from Irregular's Ancient Chinese range for these sword-armed heroes. Flanking them are the rank and file. They are based as hordes, and that's how the list does them and how I originally ran them. However the army performed badly against its historical foe with hordes, so these days I run them as warband, albeit on a very deep base. Again the figures are from Irregular Miniatures.

The Boxer commander is also a warband, and is based as such. More Irregular Miniatures.

The feature elements of the army are the Red Lantern Auxiliaries; women possessed of awesome magical powers. This one can fly so is a ... flier. She's a 20mm figure from Atlantic's Maoist Chinese set (yes, they did such a thing). She was originally seated in a rickshaw, which brings us to ...

... the other Red Lantern. I left her in her rickshaw. She's the army's magician.

Finally the army can call on the aid of Guandi, the God of War in his golden armour. Guess what he is. Aside from being an Irregular Miniatures 25mm Chinese general.

Opposing the Boxers are the Foreign Devils. These are primarily from Tabletop Miniatures' Boxer range. I wanted to do one element to represent each nationality involved, but I ran out of elements, so I'm afraid fans of the Germans and Austro-Hungarians will be disappointed.

These are the Russians and the Japanese. Solid and reliable, they are blades.

There are two elements of British troops, representing a mixed party of Royal Marines and sailors. Fearless, and always ready to bring the fight to the enemy, they are warband.

Less gung-ho are the Italian Bersaglieri and US troops. Skirmishers by nature they are classed as shooters.

The army's cavalry is provided by the Bengal Lancers. I think these are Tabletop figures, but I'm not sure if they originally had turbans or if I added them myself. Anyway, they are knights.

The general for the Foreign Devils supervises their artillery. But who are those ladies next to the gun? And why are they naked?

It was well-known that the Foreign Devils disrupted Boxer magic by means of naked women, so the army includes an element of naked women. they are from Peter Pig and are classified as a cleric.

The army actually includes a real-life cleric. This is Bishop Favier, who led the defenders of the cathedral in the north of Peking and was apparently the incarnation of a 200 year-old devil-prince. I generally run him as a paladin, but he would work as a hero as well. I have no idea of the origin of this figure; I think it was in a mixed bag I got on a bring-and-buy.

To be honest I find that the Foreign Devils generally get the better of most games. More so when the Boxers were bulked out with hordes, but still with them as warband. I think their troops combine together better, and with both a paladin and a cleric they can pretty much nullify the Boxer's magician  for the entire game; for the Boxers to remove both causes of magical disruption they pretty much have to eliminate the Foreign Devils' army. One possibility is to run the Bishop as a cleric, but drop the element of naked women (using the figures elsewhere in the army) and add 4AP of new troops.

Still, these armies have seen good service over the years, particularly the Boxers, who predated the Foreign Devils by a while.

Isandhlwana

I've wanted to do a refight of Isandhlwana for years now, and on Thursday I got my chance, when Vic and Caesar arranged a game using Black Powder. We were all rusty with the rules, and some of the scenario was made up on the fly, but we ended up with a great and entertaining game, albeit that the result was somewhat inevitable.

John and Vic took the Zulus, ran as three 'brigades' with a CinC. Caesar and I took the British, who were split into two commands with no overall commander, thus restricting their actions a little and reflecting a confused defence as well as friction between Pulleine and Durnford.

The camp and the eponymous mountain.

Zulus mass behind the hills.

Durnford organising his end of the defence-line.

And here they come!

Caesar sent the NNC (represented by some very un-NNC tribesman loaned to the game by Bryan) on a wide sweep to the left in order to slow Zulu flanking moves around the mountain. The lower slopes of the mountain were passable, but the very top section wasn't, and provided a possible defensive anchor-point.

The Zulus reach the donga, which would offer them some cover from the British fire. A couple of dodgy command rolls, as well as disorder from the British firing did manage to keep the Zulus at bay for a couple of turns.

John's left horn advanced quickly, though, putting Durnford's horse under immediate pressure.

On the other flank the NNC came under attack.

They lasted about as long as you'd expect.

Meanwhile the Zulu centre was now pushing forward against the British centre.

The British line started to fall back, the horse voluntarily and the foot less so.

From then on it was simply a matter of how long the British would last, as the Zulus threw in attack after attack. Although casualties in combat were roughly even, the Black Powder support rules favoured the Zulus who had more units to provide it.

Caesar anchored the British left on the mountain, but the Zulus were determined and wiped them out.

Most of the British line fell back. The artillery didn't. They put up a brave fight, but died at their guns.

The Zulus mass for a final attack ...

... and the British collapse. With only three units left Caesar and I conceded.

Thanks to Vic and Caesar for putting everything together. I was amazed at how long the British lasted. When I saw the endless masses of Zulus facing us I just assumed we'd be in melee in a couple of turns, and our units would rout from lack of support. In fact the British line proved more resilient than we though (we did play one of the support rules incorrectly for about half the game though, which did give us a small advantage).