The Waltrop Campaign / Day 6 / HotT Battle Report

On the 6th day of the Waltrop campaign, the Greeks under the command of Fibos explored the jungle next to the beach where they have their camp. (Hexagon 21 on the campaign map.) There, they encountered a group of ferocious orcs and a silly looking dinosaur. Fibos, a young unexperienced officer, was not prepared for the battle that ensued. We used Hordes of the Things as a ruleset to simulate the battle.

I invited our neighbour Simon to play the orcs. He likes strategy games but had never played HotT before. I hope I explained the rules well. I always have a difficult time explaining the combat outcomes. Don’t know why. 

We used the following army lists:

THE GREEKS

Spears (General), 5 Spears, 4 Shooters, 2 Riders

THE ORCS

Warband (General), 5 Warbands, 1 Behemoth, 4 Riders

I was the defender and placed 4 tropical forests as the terrain.

I deployed my whole army on my right side of the board. I placed a phalanx of 6 spears in the centre, flanked by 2 shooters on each side. On my left side, a little apart from the rest of the army, I placed 2 riders.

Instead of deploying the orcs opposite to my army, Simon placed them on his right side.

In the first phase of the game I attacked with 2 riders and 2 shooters on my left flank. Simon lost 2 riders, one was shot down, the other was destroyed standing in the way of a recoiling dino (behemoth). I lost 2 riders and a shooter.

In the second phase of the game, I attacked with my phalanx. The spears were able to destroy an orc warband and an element of goblin wolf riders. Then Simon’s behemoth, in a forest, but supported by an element of riders and a warband, destroyed one of my shooters and 2 of my spears.

All in all I lost 2 spears, 2 riders and 2 shooters, while Simon only lost a warband and 3 riders. The orcs won. Officer Fibos wasn’t able to occupy hexagon 21, but at least he didn’t get himself killed in the battle. Well done, Simon!

This picture was taken shortly before Simon's behemoth killed 2 of my spears, thus ending the game. It was taken with a pink Fisher Price kid tough digital camera which belongs to my daughter.

Problems Making Papier Mâché Wargaming Hills

I enjoy making objects out of papier mâché. Masks, hexagons, walls, hills. I made these two hills about 6 years ago. I like the way they look but unfortunately they don’t work well as hills in a wargame. They are 3,50 cm high and have a smooth surface. Figures slide down or fall off.

Now I’m working on a hill that’s much flatter. It’s 1,50 cm high. I can’t make it flatter, I think. Then it wouldn’t look like a hill any more. It would look like a piece of area terrain.

Making a hill from papier mâché might not be the best idea, but as I said I like the material. It’s my favorite material. It’s my intention to make a hill that lies flat on the tabletop board. Unfortunately, each time I apply a layer of paper to a papier mâché object with wallpaper paste, the object changes its form while the paper dries. So it takes a long time to make a papier mâché hill that lies flat on the floor, possibly forever if you want a perfect hill.

I started to make this hill 2 or 3 years ago. In January I said to myself: Ok, two years are a long time to make a papier mâché hill. I have to finish this project now. I have to change my technique.

So I thought about ways to stabilize the object and applied a layer of Milliput, a self-hardening modeling clay which can be carved and sanded. This works a bit better but the hill still changes its form when it dries.

Maybe you think: Whatever. These are hobby problems. Not really important in a time when our environment is changing rapidly, reminding some of us of the big changes that happened 65 million years ago and lead to the extinction of dinosaurs.

Or you experienced problems making papier mâché hills yourself and can offer some advice on solving them?

I hope I can finish the hill soon. And start three more.

The Waltrop Campaign / Day 5 / HotT Battle Report

On the 5th day of our Waltrop campaign, the Orcs tried to occupy hexagon 39 on our campaign map. There, they encountered a group of Greeks exploring the jungle. We used the ruleset Hordes of the Things to simulate the battle that ensued.

Krüger played the Orcs:

Warband General, 5 Warbands, 1 Hero, 2 Riders, 2 Beasts

I played the Greeks:

Spears General, 5 Spears, 4 Shooters, 2 Riders

I was the defender and placed a couple of palm tree woods on the board to depict the jungle.

I deployed a block of 6 spears in the center, with 2 shooters on their left and 2 shooters on their right side. I placed 2 riders on my left flank.

Krüger deployed his 6 Orc warbands opposite to my spears. On his left flank he placed a hero and an element of riders; on his right flank, opposite to my cavalry, he placed another element of riders and 2 beasts.

I destroyed most of Krüger's cavalry early in the game. First, my two Thracian riders destroyed one of Krüger's riders (Orc boar riders) and one of his beasts (Goblin wolf riders). The element of beasts had supported the riders, recoiled into another element and was removed. Then, on my right flank two of my shooters shot down another Orc boar rider.

When our battlelines collided, instead of going for Krüger's last element of beasts, which was hiding in a wood, I moved the 2 Thracian riders behind Krüger's line.

In close combat, Krüger's warbands killed 2 of my spears, his hero killed two of my shooters, my spears killed 2 warbands and Krüger's last element of beasts killed one of my shooters.

Then I attacked Krüger's hero with 2 spears, placing one of them in his flank, and one of my riders was able to give rear support while my spear general attacked Krüger's general. Krüger lost the hero and the general, loosing the game. Thus the Orcs weren't able to occupy hexagon 39.

My mother in law, who is from Honduras, and Hendrik, my son, watched the game. We tried to explain the rules to them and what it's all about. After the game I asked her for a short battle report. Here it is.

Rainbow Crawler / Gurps Stats

The rainbow crawler is a colorful eight-legged creature, about 13 inches long. It’s a scavenger, feeding on dead animal and plant material. Its bite causes paralysis.

ST: 4   DX: 12   IQ: 4   HT: 12

HP: 4   Will: 10   Per: 12   FP: 12

Speed: 6   Move: 6

Dodge: 9   DR: 1

SM: -4

Bite (12): 1d-5 crushing + follow-up paralysis

Traits: Acute Taste & Smell 2; Acute Vision 1; Attractive (Universal); Bad Smell; Clinging; Damage Resistance 1 (pelt); Discriminatory Smell; Extra Legs; Innate Attack (Follow-Up Poison, Contact Agent, Affliction, Paralysis, 10 Minutes, Resistible, HT-3); Night Vision 5; No Fine Manipulators; Blunt Teeth; Wild Animal

Skills: Brawling 13; Climbing 12; Tracking 13; Stealth 10

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. 

Chaos Space Marines versus Space Marines / 40K Battle Report / 1250 points

The other day I asked Krüger to bring his entire Space Marine Army and he brought: a captain, a terminator squad, a dreadnought, 2 tactical squads, a scout squad, a drop pod and a stormraven, a total of 1250 points.

I played Chaos Space Marines: a winged daemon prince, a chaos lord with a daemon weapon, 2 units of plague marines, a rhino, 3 obliterators and a summoned greater daemon.

Being very laid back old school gamers, we used the 5th edition of 40K as a ruleset. The scenario was capture and control / dawn of war.

turn 1

My daemon prince wiped out Krüger’s scout squad in close combat.

In Krüger’s shooting phase, his dreadnought destroyed my rhino, so the chaos lord and 9 plague marines had to leave the burning vehicle. Krüger fired a twin-linked plasma cannon, 2 melters, a storm cannon, 4 storm bolters and 10 bolters at them and managed to kill 2 plague marines. Then Krüger’s terminators attacked the same unit and killed the chaos lord in close combat. None of the terminators survived. (I rolled a 6 for the daemon weapon.)


turn 2

My obliterators arrived, fired 3 lascannons at the stormraven, landed a glancing hit and immobilised the vehicle. I attacked the tactical squad of space marines next to Krüger’s objecive with my plague marines and lost another 4 of them.

Krüger’s drop pod landed close to the objective on my side and 10 space marines disembarked. Then Krüger’s stormraven shot all of his weapons at my obliterators, including 4 bloodstrike missiles, and killed 2 of them.

turn 3

Next to the objective on my side a plague champion was transformed into a greater daemon. Nevertheless only 4 of the 10 plague marines, which were supposed to guard the objective, survived close combat. Next to Krüger’s objective my winged daemon prince was able to attack and kill 3 space marines.


In Krüger’s shooting phase, I lost my last obliterator. Damn. 

turn 4

The greater daemon destroyed Krüger’s tactical squad.

In Krüger’s shooting phase, the stormraven shot down another one of my plague marines, so only one plague marine survived next to my objective. (I had already lost the other unit, but I don’t remember when. Probably in turn 3.)

turn 5

Krüger’s captain killed my winged daemon prince in close combat and what was left of his tactical squat reached the objective on his side.

Then the dreadnought shot down my last plague marine. Krüger won the battle 1:0. Grrrrrr …

The Waltrop Campaign / Day 3 / HotT Battle Report

The Greeks under the command of general Heracleides and officer Fibos left their camp to explore the beach in hexagon 23. There they encountered a small group of Goblins. Krüger and I played out the battle that ensued using the ruleset Hordes of the Things. I was the defender, Krüger the attacker. I placed four pieces of rough terrain with bushes and some stones to depict the beach.

My army consisted of these elements:

Spear General, 5 Spears, 4 Shooters, 2 Riders

Krüger played this army:

Warband General, 4 Warbands, 1 Hero, 3 Riders, 2 Beasts

I deployed my phalanx in the center, 3 shooters on the right side and 2 riders on the left side. Krüger placed his warbands and hero opposite to my phalanx, his beasts opposite to my shooters and his riders opposite to my riders.

My strategy, if you can call this a strategy, was to send my riders and a shooter forward on my left flank and wait with the rest of my army.

Thus I lost 2 riders and a shooter.

On the other flank I was able to shoot down Krüger's beasts, combining the attacks of my 3 shooters. And one of Krüger's riders was pushed back over the board edge. In the center the battle wavered back and forth - I lost 2 spears, Krüger lost a warband - until 2 of my spears killed Krüger's hero.

The Greeks won the game and were able to occupy hexagon 23.

This is how our campaign map looks like now. Next turn Krüger's orks will start moving from one of their villages in the jungle.