February Gaming Weekend.

 I've started thinking about a February Gaming Weekend. For the past 17 years, i've organized some sort of gaming event around my birthday at the end of February - the Annual Wargaming Birthday BasH! Sometimes its been a single afternoon or evening - usually a multiplayer miniature game of some sort with a few friends. Other times it's been and entire weekend of gaming - either a campaign or a mini, invitational con. Other times, just a few games with the family... 

I’m really trying to stay positive and plan as though we WON’T be in a FIFTH Wave of Covid… or STILL Be riding out an extended (never-ending) fourth wave!?   (Not that there are going to be any more restrictions of movements or visitations, regardless of how many die, this government had made clear!). But, these things often work out better if there has been some planning beforehand…. So I am thinking about it and trying to make plans… 

To get started, I recently catalogued all of the previous events on a separate page, recently...

Wargaming Birthday Bashes

A couple predate this blog - I was lucky to find a couple pictures of one of the pre-blog games (going through back-up CDs from previous computers, sifting through piles of old pictures)... but could find nothing for the first one... 

Putting this together and reviewing all these events, brought up a rollercoaster of memories ranging from pure joy to total despair. These constitute some of my favourite gaming memories, ever. Simultaneously many bring up feelings of soul-crushing misery and utter  despondency… 

Every year there was that one person (or two, or three) that insisted on RUINING ALL THE FUN (for ME, at least, They probably still had a great time!).  Whether it was the constant complaints about the system (the tabletop game itself and/or campaign rules), or their constant demanding for rulings about stupid bullshit they should have known the answer for if they read the rules and weren’t trying to seek advantage through rules lawyery, or just finding loopholes in either the game rules or the campaign rules and totally exploiting them…. 

There are more than a few of these people that have also showed up at many of these events that ALWAYS caused trouble and made me never want to run one again…  I've tried to stay positive in game reports and not mention these things plainly... Ignore it… "Let it go"... But it happened and, looking back at them, even now, I wonder, is the stress they cause worth it?!

Some I can simply NEVER invite again (finally got that solution through my thick head). A big problem is a few of them still live here in Saskatoon and THESE are the people that are almost ALWAYS available… and worst part is... some of them are truly generous, fantastic human beings… Y’know, OUTSIDE of gaming… 

On the flip side, there ARE about a dozen people that have come to multiple games over the years that totally make it worthwhile and never cause any sort of trouble or headaches. They are the reason I have carried on. They would be my DREAM TEAM of players for a game weekend… Unfortunately, over half of them don’t even live in Saskatoon and it is a big deal for them to get here… especially in February… especially in the middle of a pandemic… 

How does one get a Dream Team of players to show up, while not hurting good friends (who are terrible people to play games with)? 

That being said…. Problem Person(s) played in the Necromunda game (the last big one I ran in 2020, both at my Birthday Bash and again at ToonCon… I won’t say which it was the Problem Person(s) showed up at…) and didn’t cause much trouble… I think this was largely due to scenario design. There was a need to work together, to a certain extent (if the common enemy, played by me, was not stopped, EVERYONE LOST!! And Karloth Valois and his horde of Scavvies and Plague Zombies were NO PUSH-OVERs!), and there was no great benefit to being a dink (each had secret, individualized objectives and victory points - mostly points were awarded for dealing damage to Valois and his crew... but each gang had ONE other gang or gang memeber that they had some sort of vendetta against and could gain points by taking ONE specific character out.).… so… no one was really THAT much of a dink… 

I also find it hard to make plans and get things prepared when I get a luke-warm commitment from many people… Which I've gotten a lot of over the years, and especially the last few. “Well, I’d LOVE to… but we’ll have to see… I can’t plan that far in advance…” when it’s, y’know, just two months away…. Somehow people can make plans to go on holidays, or go to weddings, or go to (AND/OR ORGANIZE) larger conventions up to (and sometimes more than) a YEAR in advance on a specific day/weekend/week… but can’t say if they can make it to my thing until the week before…?! WTF!? 

The last wargaming weekend I'd planned (a Necromunda campaign in the fall of 2019) which I had done SO MUCH WORK FOR (painting multiple gangs for people to use if they didn't have one and a bunch of terrain)... got cancelled because I got a bunch of "maybes", which turned into "NOPEs" in the last week or so coming up to the planned weekend for the event. (Luckily I was able to make use of it all in the following Birthday Bash/ToonCon event) 

(Except for the problem people… they can ALWAYS commit and will definitely make it…) 

Anyway…. 

I digress... 

Back to THE PLAN…

This also happens to be a BIG ONE - as this will be my FIRST HALF-CENTURY celebration! 

(Seriously, how the fuck did I actually make it this far!?) 

(Ooh! Maybe I should start the day with a half-century ride!) 

(but, like, a metric half-century... and only if its NOT -40°C!?) 

AND, my Birthday IS on a Friday, so it seems like it would be fun to use that to kick off a whole WEEKEND of festivities! 

But what format to take…? A weekend long campaign of some sorts - either tabletop miniatures (which could be competitive or co-op/semi-co-op) or a role-playing game? Or something more like a mini-con with a number of different events/games over the weekend. 

I think my favourite option is a co-operative, tabletop miniature adventure campaign - where the “players” are all on the same side and have one character/hero and/or a small unit of some sort, that fight against antagonists controlled by a GM (i.e. ME!) - and play through a series of linked adventures - possibly requiring collection artifacts or clues or completing objectives before they can move on, and culminating in a BIG BOSS BATTLE at the end of the weekend…?

But a lot of that depends on who is available that weekend, how much of that weekend they are available, and what they are interested or willing to commit to playing.  

Over a weekend I generally, mentally break it down into 5-7 game "slots":

1. Friday Night
2. Saturday Morning
3. Saturday Afternoon
4. Saturday Evening
5. Sunday Morning?
6. Sunday Afternoon
7. Sunday Evening ?

So... Campaign or Mini-con?

CAMPAIGN

Role-Playing Game or Miniatures?

ROLE-PLAYING GAME

Advantage to role-playing games - if things do go sideways, Pandemic-wise, I could always switch to Online… like I did for my birthday this past year. 

• Fate? 
• Wrath & Glory? 
• Something Else!? (unlikely) 

MINIATURES

Competitive campaign/mini-tournament OR a co-op/semi-co-op tabletop adventure (like RPG - but miniature combat focused where all the Players are on the same side fighting enemies controlled by a game master - i.e ME!) 

Competative Campaign/Tournement

Competitive campaigns/tournaments I could potentially run... 

• Hordes of the Things
• DBA
• Necromunda
• Kill Team
• 40K Combat Patrol
• Frostgrave
• Stargrave
• Warcry

• The Silver Bayonet

While a LOT of fun... there are almost always a LOT of problems with these... 

Co-op/Semi-Coop

As mentioned before, this is probably more most favourite option. Running a series of tabletop miniature adventures where all the of the players are (more or less) on teh same side, battling against foes controlled by ME - ultimately culminating in some kind of "Epic Boss Battle"!  Some of the games I have and could again run as a cooperative or semi-cooperative :

• Savage Worlds
• Age of Sigmar
• Warcry
• Kill Team
• 40K
• Necromunda 
• Song of Blades and Heroes
• Frostgrave
• Stargrave
• The Silver Bayonet
• Warhammer Quest (like Blackstone Fortress or any of the Age of Sigmar ones...) 

Team Option (Semi-Coop/Competitive)

The "All Quiet Campaign" - two teams with multiple players- each player commanding a squad or Kill Team within a platoon or similar larger formation... it uses set terrain representing a stagnant part of the front where the fighting has more or less ground to a halt. The teams are holding that section of the line for a period of three days and three nights. A series of six scenarios are played over that time period. Not all troops are used for each mission. Some are active (on the mission out in No Mans' Land), some can be on stand-by (sentries, holding the trenches or whatever), some are out-of-the-line and resting... Quality of troops degrades if they are used twice in a row (i.e. without resting)...?

MINI-CON

There are definitely some advantages to running a "Mini-Con". I can mix it up and play some different things. There could be somewhat less prep involved - especially if a few of them are board games and I dont have to worry about an airtight campaign system. Also, no one has to commit to WHOLE weekend - people could “sign up” for just ONE slot. 

The weekend could look something like:

• Friday Night - One-Shot Role-Playing Game
• Saturday Morning - Miniature Skirmish 
• Saturday Afternoon -  Miniature Skirmish 
• Saturday Evening - Miniature Skirmish 
• Sunday Morning -  Board Game
• Sunday Afternoon - Board Game 
• Sunday Evening - Board Game 

OR

• Friday Night - One-Shot Role-Playing Game
• Saturday Morning - Miniature Skirmish 
• Saturday Afternoon -  Board Game 
• Saturday Evening - Miniature Skirmish 
• Sunday Morning -  Board Game
• Sunday Afternoon - Miniature Skirmish 
• Sunday Evening - Board Game 

Just to mix it up a little... 

OR... have the one-shot RPG on the Saturday evening, half-way through...

OR... it could be ONE board game on Sunday... but, like, a bigger one with many players taking all day to play... 

Lots of possibilities here... 

COME-AND-GO CAMPAIGN

A third option I've been considering since I started this planning and writing this a week or so ago is a "Come-And-Go Campaign. This would be a semi-co-op miniature campaign - involving a number of linked scenarios played over the weekend that create a bit of a narrative... BUT... it could involve DIFFERENT characters/groups - played by different participants that could show up for just one session, or ALL of them. Ideally, there would be one or two that would play the entire weekend and would be the "Lead Heroes" that assemble the varied groups of allies to fight... whatever it is that they are fighting...? 

OR... 

...maybe I'll just play some games with my family again, like I did last year... 

Kind of still leaning towards co-op tabletop miniature adventure... possibly with come-and-go option... 

HOTT Summer 2012 Part Five: Year Four of the Campaign

And so we began our fourth and final year – which was something new in itself as our previous campaigns only ever made it through three years… one year in the morning, one in the afternoon, one in the evening… Anyway, this year Myomorpha was a vassal of New Angland and manga controlled one of Petroland’s cities…

If you haven’t read the reports of the first couple years of this campaign you should probably start with that. You can find them here:

Year One

Year Two

Year Three

FORCES

Player: Bob

Army: Centaurs

Country: Petroland

Cities: Pavet, Logit

Player: Tim

Army: Japanese

Country: Manga

Cities: Shojo, Gekiga, Kodomo, Mynet,

Player: David

Army: English Civil War

Country: New Angland

Cities: Kong Hong, Haiwei, Sintien, Hangshai

Player: John

Army: Ratlings

Country: Myomorpha – Vassal of New Angland

Cities: Monsei, Hamelin, Leithia

THE GAME

Year Four Declarations

Manga declared war on New Angland – we had a buffer between us and Petroland, and New Angland would be coming for me sooner or later… I guess he was thinking later. Because they only declared war on Petroland (as did his vassal, Myomorpha). Petroland reciprocated and declared war on Myomorpha and New Angland.

Spring Deployment

New Angland deployed in Haiwei.

Manga deployed in Kodomo

Myomorpha deployed in Hamelin

Petroland deployed in Logit.

Spring Moves

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

Whoops… I took four pictures and every last one was out of focus….

Petroland marched south to Sintien to lay siege to it once again. Centaurs just aren’t any good at sieges (as one might expect). It was unsuccessful. The Rats scurried north to try and steal way Logit while the Horsie-peoples weren’t looking. The Were likewise unsuccessful. New Angland marched it’s forces from Haiwei to Hangsahi and back – effectively patrolling the coast hoping to catch me wherever I landed. The Army of Manga landed at Haiwei and the battle was joined…

The Battle of Haiwei

My troops shot forward as quick as they could hoping to break the New Anglanders before Mr. Dragon showed up. Ihad to deploy in depth as I was flanked by some bad going and impassable terrain. As I rolled only ONES for PIPs for the first four turns I wasn’t really able to spread the line out… Seriously… I was rolling almost as bad as John…

I have to say, I’m really liking the new DBA random terrain placement more and more – the symmetrical square of bad0-going was just getting SOOOO BOOORRRRRRRINGG by the end of the campaign…

We did this little dance of back and forth for a couple of bounds. Luckily David was coming up short on PIPs most of the time and wasn’t able to engage the Airboat more than once – thus leaving it partked in the air infront of my artillery and a shooter… We never did get to shoot it out of the sky, but it caused David some anxiety.

Eventually we put the hammer down and killed the General and that was that… The New Anglanders fled to Hangshai.

Summer

In the summer the Centaurs gave up their fruitless siege at Sintien and returned to Logit to relieve the siege of their corral there. I pursued the new Anglanders to Hangshai, but ended up having to lay siege to it as the army fled further South to Kong Hong.

Third Battle of Logit.

I started getting lazy about taking pictures at this point. Bob and John setting up their battle with David looking on.

Initial dispositions of the Third Battle of Logit

I don’t think Bob blasted Johns General in the first turn this time around… Actually from my notes John only lost 2AP… So he didn’t’ even lose his general…

The Rats actually won this one and plundered the Corral at Logit before following the trail of horse-man-turds all the way back to Pavet…

Autumn

The Army of Manga continued it’s siege of Hagnshai, which eventually capitulated. The Centaurs of Petroland made on last final defence against the oncoming Ratling Horde.

There was an awful lot of woods for a city called Pavet…

John tried to marshal his rats into a column to sneak around through the gaps in the  woods in an attempt to avoid the Lurkers. He likened his deployment to that of a Napleonic French army… I thought it looked more like Braddock’s Column… but whatever.

The column touched the trees at one point and out popped the Lurkers.

Yep, Braddock’s…

Actually there was quite the exciting little battle, but I somehow never bothered to take any pictures… Ah well…

The Rats were repelled (or repelling… I’m a little confused about that… either rway they lost).

At the end of year four we called it quits. It was only 7PM and we probably could have squeezed in another year… but I was pretty tired, and the others were probably pretty tired of me… so…

Here’s how things look at the end of it all…

Painting the Map yellow. On paper (or MDF, rather, as that's what the map was painted on...) it looked like I was doing pretty good. But everyone else had found a LOT more actual battles than me… A total of 12 campaign battles were played. Bob won half of them, David won three, John won two, and I won a single battle (I only actually played two).

The Final Tally…

Player: Bob

Race: Centaurs

Country: Petroland

Cities: Pavet

Battle Prestige: 47

Prestige from Cities: 6

Total Prestige: 53

Player: Tim

Race: Humans

Country: Manga

Cities: Shojo, Gekiga, Kodomo, Mynet, Haiwei, Hangshai

Battle Prestige: 11

Prestige from Cities: 36

Total Prestige: 47

Player: John

Race: Ratlings

Country: Myomorpha

Cities: Monsei, Hamelin, Leithia, Logit

Battle Prestige: 19

Prestige from Cities: 24

Total Prestige: 43

Player: David

Race: Humans

Country: New Angland

Cities: Kong Hong, Sintien

Battle Prestige: 21

Prestige from Cities: 12

Prestige from Tributaries Cities: 16

Total Prestige: 49

So… um… Bob won…!? Hmmm… yesterday when I tallied it up I had David at 55…(Whoops)? I think I must have given him prestige for three cities, and he only had two… doh… Ah, well. It was very, very close. We won some, we lost some… and I think everyone had a pretty darn good time.

While it was fun to actually play in a game I think I actually prefer to just run them. I was worried that a smaller campaign might get a little dry having to fight the same people and not have the same dynamism as the previous campaigns, but I think this one worked out pretty well. I’d definitely say it was better than some, might have been a bit more fun/dynamic with one or two others… we shall see.

I also think I like DBA better than HOTT. While I like HOTT, I could do without the gimmicky stuff- any of the 3AP+ units. Some of them seem like one-trick-poneys that armies get built around and when they work they’re devastating… and it sort of reminds me why I don’t like Warhammer…. and without those elements… well, you’re basically playing DBA.

I am thinking the next big campaign I would run will be next February (2013). It will be a semi-historical DBA Greek hoplite city-state warfare campaign. We will be using the army lists of Early Greek Hoplites (and their contemporaries) but there may be substitutions of some mythical elements - The Centaurs, for example, could be fielded using the Skythian army... The Amazons might be Thracians... or some more Northerly Hoplite Greek Army (Spears and or Auxilia with a few elements of Cavalry and/or Light Horse...). So there could be some fantastical elements but nothing

Of course,  that’ll be the next NEW one – i.e. one that I have to paint new figures. But I suppose a smaller campaign – like this one – could be organized with armies that I already have anytime, just for locals, from time to time throughout the year – if ever we could just agree an a date where four or more of us ccould get togehte for a day… I might not hand paint a fancy new map for each… but in theory it seems plausible.

Alternatively, what I’d REALLY like to do is run an ongoing campaign with a few local players – if we could agree on a weekly time to get together – do one season a week (or more, if there ended up being no battle in one season)… or I could use something more like the old Mighty Empires for a campaign like that… Hmmmm… Something to think about… 

HOTT Summer 2012 Part Four: Year Three of the Campaign

So we began Year Three with Myomorpha as a vassal of Petroland and New Angland owning one of Myomorpha’s original cities. I don’t remember if John was able to fully rebuild his army over the winter. It was kind of all on the honor system. I was only really trying to keep track of what I still had…

FORCES

Player: Bob

Army: Centaurs

Country: Petroland

Cities: Pavet, Mynet, Logit

Player: Tim

Army: Japanese

Country: Manga

Cities: Shojo, Gekiga, Kodomo

Player: David

Army: English Civil War

Country: New Angland

Cities: Kong Hong, Haiwei, Sintien, Leithia, Hangshai

Player: John

Army: Ratlings

Country: Myomorpha – Vassal of Petroland

Cities: Monsei, Hamelin,

THE GAME

Year Three Declarations

Seeing as how Petroland was looking like he was in a pretty good position and had shored up their other border, Manga declared war on them… and their vassal Myomopha.   New Angland also declared war on Myomorpha. Petroland declared war on Manga and New Angland, and Myomorpha declared war on New Angland…. So I think pretty much everyone was at was except New Angland and Manga (the Human Alliance) and of course Petroland and Myomorpha couldn’t be at war (the Furry Fraternity)

Spring Deployment

There was actually some planning and coordination involved in this… The army of Manga deployed in Kodomo. New Angland deployed in Leithia. Myomorpha deployed in Monsei. Petroland deployed in Logit.

Spring Moves

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

The armies of Myomorpha and New Angland, marched against each other, to no one’s surprise. New Angland got off first and so the battle took place in Myomorpha’s capitol of Monsei. Manga Sailed to Hangshai and marched inland to Leithia – to prevent Petroland from marching in there and cutting off new Angland’s Retreat/line of supply – should thing not go well for them in Monsei. Petroland didn’t march On Leithia, but rather laid siege to Sintien.

The Second Battle of Monsei

The rats prepare to defend their swamp. Monsei is build on the ruins of swamp castle (the third swamp castle – the one that burned down, fell over, AND sank into the swamp – it has good foundations).

John looking puzzled. Perhaps he’s wondering what that rider is ccgalloping off on his own way off to the flank… perhaps he’s wonder what to do with is PIP this turn…

The army of New Angland advances

And then the dragon showed up….

And ate everything…

Summer

With Myomorpha as his vassal, New Angalnd turned their eyes north and rode off to relieve the siege of Sintien. With my work done there, the Army of Manga retired back to Kodomo. The rats remained in Monsei to lick their wounds and… well... I don’t suppose they were rebuilding or anything… maybe they were re-messing the place up again after the those damned New Anglanders made it so tidy while they were there…?

The Battle of Sintien

The army of New Angland arrives to relieve the beleaguered city of Sintien.

The Centaurs charge forward – hoping to break the New Anglanders before their dragon caught the smell of Horse-man-flesh and decided it was feeling a bit peckish. 

The Centaurs had some initial success… but then the dragon showed up with a mad-ass case of the munchies.

Autumn

The Rats continued to re-grow their filth. New Angland pursued the Centaurs back to Logit. And, realizing I’d have a reduced army next year anyway if I didn’t participate in some siege or battle, the Army of Manga braved the stormy seas and sailed for Mynet to invest it once again – this time, much of everyone’s surprise – successfully! 

The Second Battle of Logit.

The Centaurs didn’t really have much of an army left… four elements (plus their lurkers…? I guess that’s 12AP…). But bob put up a brilliant defence! First the Airboat was obliged to flee off the table, then the dragon, too, though things were getting a bit hot and fled….

This still wasn’t quite enough to pursuade the New Anglanders to depart so the Centaurs forces reformed and charged up the middle to mee the New Anglander’s foot.

Eventually they were whittled away and the General was slain…?

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

 The War rages on with YEAR FOUR of the campaign!

HOTT Summer 2012 Part Three: Year Two of the Campaign

Everything back to where it was at the beginning… except I think I was down a couple stands to start with… and I replaced my Sneakers with a Cleric (as we were allowing such substitutions). I think everyone else waas back up to full strength, but John also decided that Magicians weren’t so useful in a Horde army and so took a Hero to replace his lost Wizard.

FORCES

Player: Bob

Army: Centaurs

Country: Petroland

Cities: Pavet, Mynet, Logit

Starting Army:

1x Magician General (Centaur Shamen)

1x Knight (Armoured Centaurs)

2x Shooters (Satyrs)

7x Riders (Centaurs)

Player: Tim

Army: Japanese

Country: Manga

Cities: Shojo, Gekiga, Kodomo

Starting Army:

1x Knight General (Mounted Samurai)

1x Cleric (Priests)

4x Shooters (Ashigaru Archers)

3x Spear (Ashigaru Spearmen)

Player: David

Army: English Civil War

Country: New Angland

Cities: Kong Hong, Haiwei, Sintien

Starting Army:

1x Cleric General

2x Shooters (Musketeers)

4x Spear (Pikemen)

1x Knight (Cuirassier)

1x Airboat (

1x Dragon (um… pretty self-explanitory)

Player: John

Army: Ratlings

Country: Myomorpha

Cities: Monsei, Leithia, Hamelin, Hangshai,

Starting Army:

1x Hero (Verminlord)

2x Shooters (Jezails)

10x Hordes (Rats, sir, fousands of ‘em)

3x Blade (big , bad, nasty rats)

THE GAME

Year Two Declarations

This time I declared war on no one, waiting to see who might declare war on me… New Angland declared war on me, as well as Myomorpha. Myomorpha declared war on New Angland, and Petroland declared war on Myomorpha.

So… Manga was at war with New Angland, who was also at war with Myomorpha, who was also at war with Petroland… make sense…?

Spring Deployment

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

Once again the army of Manga deployed in Kodomo, though there was less wondering about where exactly I might lead my troops. The army of New Angland played it safe starting in Kong Hong – expecting the Rats might start in Hangshai and march on his capitol in the Spring. The Rats didn’t however, they must have felt that hangshai was enough of a buffer – and that New Angland would have to worry about Manga from the east – and so looked to their Norhtern border with Petroland who had one place to go… thus the Rats deployed in Hamelin and the Centaurs opposite them in Logit.

Spring

The Rats got off to an earlier start and were at the borders of Logit before the Centaurs could move out. The Army of New Angland marched north to Hangshai to remove the Ratling administration by parading through the streets throwing rat poison down all the drains and gutters…

The Battle of Logit.

A rather open, scenic vista on the banks of the Pulpwaste River….

John, David, and Bob

This was an exceedingly short game. On Bob’s first bound he ensorcelled the Hero General and the Rats fled in panic.

Summer

Having returned Hangshai to New Angland, the Army pressed on into Myomorpha and laid siege to Leithia. Unfortunately just as the Army marched out of view, The sails of an invading fleet from Manga arrived and laid siege to Hangshai. Neither armies were successful in their sieges, which then carried on into autumn.

The Centaurs, however, pursued the fleeing rats acrtoss the border into Myomorpha and the Rats stopped their flight and gave battle at Hamelin.

The Battle of Hamelin.

John gives battle on the banks of the Ratpiss Water (a tributary of the Pulpwaste River).

Turn one and already the Lurkers are harrying the Rats rear.

The lines thundered forward and engaged.

The whole mess quickly denigrated into a confused brawl between furries.

Then the Airboat Allies arrived… and but it was pretty much all over… The rats were on the run once again…

Autumn

The armies of New Angland and Manga continued their respective sieges. The Anglish were successful in reducing Leithia. Manga, not-so-much….

The Centaurs, hot on the heels of the rats (do rats have heels…?), pursued them to their capitol of Monsei.

The Battle of Monsei.

The battle straddled the banks of the Ratpiss Water.

Most of the fighting took place in a corridor between a swamp and the Ratpiss – though some brave centaurs galloped downt eh other side of the river and crossed it to attack the stronghold.

I’m not entirely sure what caused the end… lost general? Lost Stronghold? Lost army… but the rats went down and had to accept the horsiemen as their furry overlords.

The situation at the end of year two.

New Angland had taken Leithia, and Petroland had captured Hamelin and Monsei (though the latter two were returned to his vassal, along with the previously ensorcelled Hero, went the rats accepted the Centaurs as their overlord).

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

 The War rages on with YEAR THREE of the campaign!

HOTT Summer 2012 Part Two: Year One of the Campaign

Saturday morning saw the start of the actual campaign. There were some minor change-ups to the armies: John decided that calling the Jezails “artillery” didn’t work out and thought they’d be much m ore useful as “shooters”. I replaced the Magicians with some spear and shooters that I’d just finished up. And David showed up in the morning with an Aitboat model that he’d just finished up… Now, my first instinct was to say “um… no”. I see there as sort of being some natural balance in my armies – there aren’t a lot a really gimmicky things, no one army has things that the other armies can’t really deal  with… but it was such a neat model… and I thought “how bad can Airboats be…?” Well…

FORCES

Player: Bob

Army: Centaurs

Country: Petroland

Cities: Pavet, Mynet, Pavet

Starting Army:

1x Magician General (Centaur Shamen)

1x Knight (Armoured Centaurs)

2x Shooters (Satyrs)

7x Riders (Centaurs)

Player: Tim

Army: Japanese

Country: Manga

Cities: Shojo, Gekiga, Kodomo

Starting Army:

1x Knight General (Mounted Samurai)

1x Artillery (Cannon!)

1x Sneaker (Ninjas!)

4x Shooters (Ashigaru Archers)

3x Spear (Ashigaru Spearmen)

1x Rider (More Samurai…)

Player: David

Army: English Civil War

Country: New Angland

Cities: Kong Hong, Hangshai, Haiwei, Sintien

Starting Army:

1x Cleric General

2x Shooters (Musketeers)

4x Spear (Pikemen)

1x Knight (Cuirassier)

1x Airboat (

1x Dragon (um… pretty self-explanitory)

Player: John

Army: Ratlings

Country: Myomorpha

Cities: Monsei, Leithia, Hamelin

Starting Army:

1x Magician (Ratling Wizard)

2x Shooters (Jezails)

10x Hordes (Rats, sir, fousands of ‘em)

3x Blade (big , bad, nasty rats)

THE GAME

Year One Declaractions

Myomorpha declared war on New Angland. New Angland declared war on Myomorpha. Pertoland declared war on Myomprpha and New Angland. And Manga declared war on EVERYONE!? So… I think everyone was at war with everyone…

Spring Deployment

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

Manga deployed in Kodomo, just to keep everyone guessing. New Angland deployed in Hangshai. Petroland deployed in Logit. Myomorpha deployed in Leithia.

Spring Moves

Manga sailed across the straights of oil – losing two elements in the process to besiege the Petroland fortress (corral?) at Mynet – but was unable to breach their defences (losing another element). The Centaur Herd galloped into New Angland and besieged Sintien, but was likewise unable to bring the New Anglanders to give up their land.

The New Anglanders, not knowing where they might be attacked from held in Hangshai. The attack came from the west and the vermin hordes stormed in from Leithia.

The Battle of Hangshai

The Rats try to cross the river into Hangshai.

John and David.

David moved his troops up to the river and then mostly just hung out while his Airboat sailed around and destroyed things on the flanks…

There’s a pic of his model. Not really to scale with the rest of the minis… but still very pretty.

The Dragon DID show up…

But I think it went straight for the Ratlings wizard general which scared it off with a shower of sparks and loud banging firecrackers!?

The battle raged on.

A column of rats made it across the river and made a break for the stronghold.

I think this ended with the New Anglander’s Cleric General being beaten down by the big bat rats (or maybe the wizard in a general on general throwdown…?) I can’t remember, but the Rats won, took Hangshai and the New Anglanders retired to Kong Hong.

(while this was going on Bob and I played a fun game… during which I was totally distracted, trying to listen to what David and John were up to – as neither have played the game a lot… probably should have just spectated, ah well… )

Summer

(dagnabbit! I totally forgot to keep up with the taking pictures of the map moves…)

In the summer the Centaurs of Petroland gave up their siege of Sintien and galloped across the plains to relieve the siege of Mynet. The Rats pursued the New Anglanders to Kong Hong.

The Battle of Kong Hong

Giant Rat Horde in column to pass between the rock and the hard place David had thrown out for him.

The New Anglanders deployed at their very base line hoping that would buy them time for their Dragon to arrive and save the day!

It did and it did, chewing through the Ratty column along side the Airboat.

The Battle of Mynet

The Centaurs relieve the Corral of Mynet along the River Effluent.

Riders Charge down the Cannon on my right, while the rest of the line reorganizes.

With the artillerymen driven off the Centaurs turned to ride up my flank.

I did actually get the sneakers into contact with the General!? But they didn’t prove to be all that useful…

I can’t remember the details of the rest of the battle… and apparently didn’t take any other pics…? But it ended badly for me and we were forced to give up our foothold on the mainland and retire back to manga.

Autumn

(Again with no picture of the map moves... drat!) 

In their hasty retreat back across the straights, the army of Manga suffered further losses and decided it would be best to just continue retiring all the way to the capitol and rest and rebuild for the following year.

The Rats retired back to Leithia, and the Army of New Angland marched on Hangshai to lay siege to it… but failed to exterminate the rats within....

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

 The War rages on with YEAR TWO of the campaign!