HotT for Teacher!

Well, not really. But I am re-teaching myself Hordes of the Things (not that it's an activity that takes an undue length of time).

With my new Irregular Miniatures 2mm models and some recycled MDF hills (goodbye sweet bookcases, hello sweet terrain), I was just gagging to get my game on and so...

A board where the only thing finished was the river! And even that wants flocking...  The black squares at the river's edge count as BUA, and the river between them as clear crossing.

I've been reading Phil Barker's beta ruleset Horse, Foot and Guns recently, and while enjoyable (at least in its earlier incarnations), wasn't what I was looking for in a quick game. So HotT it was, using Mr Barker's recommendation that base-to-base contact include close shooting as well as close combat. So line infantry became Spears, guards became Blades, bayonet-happy infantry turned into Warband, shooters cover only sharpshooters like jaegers, chasseurs and rifles and the rest is standard.

The armies were:
Albion (Left)
Blade General, 2 Blades, Knights, 2 Riders, 4 Spears, 2 Shooters. The Blades were brigaded together in the centre, with brigades of 2 Spears and 1 Shooter to either flank. The Riders were on the southern wing, and the Knights to the north.

Franconia (Right)
Hero General, Knights, 3 Riders, 2 Blades, 2 Spears, 2 Warbands. The Spears and 1 Blades took the northern flank, with the Warbands and another Blades in the centre. The riders covered the southern approaches, and the Knights and the Hero general stayed back as a reserve.

The game started with a whopping 6 PIPs for the Brit... err... Albionese? Albiards. Their northern infantry seized the town at the crossing, and their riders took up position on the southern hill in the riverine peninsula. Other infantry moved to secure the river.

The Francs, confident in their superior numbers, moved forwards. Their irrepressible cavalry charged the Albiards opposite them, but managed only a bloody draw, despite their advantage in numbers. In the next bound, the British completely destroyed them before crossing the river to threaten the Franc general. He called their bluff and routed one unit, sending the other cowering back to the island it had previously defended successfully.

As all this went on, the Franc infantry moved to assault the river. For several bounds, there was little motion (even when Albiard Blades attacked Spears while Knights flanked them!), until in one turn, three Albiard stands were destroyed. Things looked to be evening up until the British got another 6 on the PIP dice and manoeuvred into a crushing FIVE UNITS destroyed in a single bound. Game over.

This was the state of play at the end of the last bound. The Albiards still hold their side of the river - and have a unit of Riders in the south facing off against the ineffectual Franc Knights. The Francs have been reduced to their Knights (bottom right), their Hero General (below the BUA right), and one stand of Blades (in the river).

All in all, a fun, tense but thorough victory for Albion. Hopefully to be repeated soon in Technicolor. From the initial drybrushing of the Franc units, that shouldn't take too long.