Orcs versus Green + Yellow Creatures / HotT Battle Report

Here is another short battle report from our campaign, you know, the Waltrop campaign.

After a horrible defeat against the Greeks, GURKBATZ let his orc warband into a piece of jungle (hexagon 47 on the campaign map) and encountered a group of strange green and yellow creatures.

We simulated the battle, using the excellent ruleset Hordes of the Things.

I played the creatures with this army list:

Warband General (yellow), 11 Warbands (green)

The army is made up of 24 copies of a miniature I had sculpted for the 2006 FU-UK sculpting contest. I had wanted to play this army for a long time.

Krüger says monotonous armies are no fun.

He played GURKBATZ and the Waltropical orcs (sounds like some kind of high school rock band) with this list:

Warband General, 7 Warbands, Hero, 2 Riders, 2 Beasts

I was the defender and placed three pieces of woods, a swamp and three rocks on the board.

I deployed most of my warbands in a battle line in front of a very large forest.

I didn’t know what to do with four remaining warbands, so they ended up on my left flank.

Krüger deployed his hero and his riders opposite to these and his beasts on the other flank.

He placed all of his warbands, including general GURKBATZ, in front of the large forest in the center, but forgot that warbands don’t get +1 rear support in bad going. Thus his warbands were deployed too clustered.

The large forest in the center put the focus of the game on the fight between his and my warbands. The forces on the sides weren’t activated much.

The mistake he had made in deploying his troops and bad luck let to Krüger’s defeat. He lost four warbands and his general.

"That was fun", I said.

"Not for me", Krüger said. "I lost."

"Yes. But you had a good chance of winning. You had a hero, beasts, riders … I only played warbands."

"I’m not very lucky playing Hordes of the Things", Krüger said.

"Sorry about that", I said.

The Waltrop Campaign / Day 4 / HotT Battle Report

On the 4th day of our Waltrop campaign, the Greeks under the command of Heracleides explored and occupied hexagons 22, 13 and 12, without further resistance. The Aquarians, lead by Spiros, took hexagons 62 and 71. In hexagon 81 they encountered a large group of green creatures and a behemoth.

Spiros said: „Hmmmm.... that's unusual. The light yellow guys are very colourful.“

I played the green creatures:

Warband General (yellow), 9 Warbands (green), 1 Behemoth

My cousin Sven played the Aquarians:

Hero General, 6 Spears, 4 Shooters

I was the defender and placed the terrain.

Since Sven had brought a box full of rocks from Munich and hexagon 81 shows a thin coastline next to the stormy sea, I filled the board with rocks and some tropical forests.

This gave me some trouble deploying my warbands in a battleline.

I placed the behemoth on my right flank. Sven placed his hero general opposite to it.

Although my behemoth didn’t have a chance to win the fight, it attacked the hero and almost chased it off the board, but alas, with the help of an element of spears, the hero finally managed to slay the beast.

Taking a picture of the battlefield from above, the remote control cable of my camera got stuck in the tripod and almost damaged it.

This made me nervous and without thinking too much I attacked an element of spears with my warband general.

Both elements had rear support but the spears were also supported by another element of spears on their left side. My combat and tactical factors added up to +4, Sven received +5. I rolled a 1, Sven rolled a 6. I lost the general and Sven won the battle, a well deserved victory for the Aquarians who occupy a large part of the coast of Waltrop now. 

24 Green Creatures

Twenty-four green creatures. I made the miniature for the 2006 FU-UK sculpting contest. It took me eight years to paint these. Pathetic.

What I'm Working on

A green creature.

A hill.

Hexagons.

What I'm Working on

5 green creatures.

6 pieces of area terrain.

What I'm Working on

5 green creatures.

6 pieces of area terrain. (Marsh and rough.)

A checkerboard.

To Do List

I tend to get distracted and start new things all the time, so Marjorie, my wife, convinced me to use 'to do lists' to organize my life. Buy storage boxes. Buy a kitchen knife. Go to the dentist. Paint a chair.

On the back of my regular 'to do list' I have a 'to do list' for hobby related stuff.

It says:

Paint 5 green creatures.

Sculpt 2 bamboo men.

Sculpt 2 horses.

Make a hill.

I don't think this is what Marjorie had on her mind when she talked to me about 'to do lists'.

Generic Green Creatures

Warband General (2 points)

6 Warbands (12 points)

I play Hordes of the Things on a 120 mm x 120 mm board with single based 28 mm miniatures put on regiment bases that have a base width of 80 mm. (I basically double all the measurements recommended for playing with 15 mm miniatures.) To fix the miniatures to the regiment bases, I use magnets and flexible steel sheets.

The core of my army consists of a warband general and 6 warbands. I tried all kinds of elements to supplement my core army, a hero, a magician, behemoths and beasts, and finally decided to play the following list: a warband general, 6 warbands, a behemoth and 3 flyers.

Warbands are difficult to play, so I posted a question in the Fanaticus Forum: what would be a good match against this army? People kindly responded and Alan Saunders suggested a list: 6 blades, 3 knights, a magician and a shooter.

Krüger, the friend whom I regulary play HOTT with, accepted to try the list against me. The miniatures he uses are old school GW High Elves. We have played 6 very challenging games using the two lists so far. I won 4 times and lost twice. It's too early to tell if the lists are balanced, I guess, but they are lots of fun to play.

Thanks, Alan Saunders!

FU-UK Sculpting Contest

This is a miniature I sculpted for the 2006 FU-UK sculpting contest. It's actually my first attempt at sculpting with green stuff.

The same miniature painted yellow.

A year later my cousin Sven sculpted this dog and 

received an honorable mention from Kev Adams and Brian and Wendy Froud, the jury of the FU-UK Pro-Am Sculpting Competition 2007.