Horde of the Day
Today we have a small diversion ... a small unit of Orcish warband and a Hero / General unit to lead them out of the darkness to raid and plunder quaint 18th Century villages.
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| 4 bases of warband (Wb), mounted on DBx standard bases. Figures by warrior miniatures - 'Dragon Fantasy 15mm' range. Something a little different for sure, and just the thing I need for my 18th Century campaign. |
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| Each warband base has some generic standard, or command Orc figure to lead the rabble. |
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| Nothing too flash there - quick and dirty to paint up and base, and a lot of fun to do. Green skin, dark green glaze, lime green highlight ... done. |
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| Rear view - showing fairly basic equipment, and all figures have long matted black hair. Yuk ! |
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| The Orcs begin to assault the bridge. In the centre of the shot is a Behemoth - 25mm Orc figure, (Dragon Fantasy 25mm range) which I am yet to complete. Does mix in pretty well with the 15mm troopies though. I think I will add a second 25mm figure on that base to complete the Behemoth element. Stay tuned for him. |
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| Another shot of the behemoth. A good ally to have on your side, but don't go getting in it's way if it recoils from combat. |
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| Emerging from the vile forest - a slightly larger and uglier Orc Hero General .. mounted on a 30mm deep base and supported by his BodyGuard, the Hero is a strong and vital element in the HoTT ruleset. Note the dead, decaying and burnt vegetation on the base of all the Orcish Hordes. |
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| The Orcish Hero General shows off his latest dental work - nice set of teeth there ! Note that the standard bearer to his right actually has a large Dinosaur tooth in his belt as a personal weapon. The Hero and standard bearer figure are from EastRiding Miniatures range of 15mm fantasy figures. Get a couple of stocking fillers whenever you order a set of laser cut bases ! |
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| Another shot of the filthy Orcish horde. In the forground (a little out of focus) is an Orcish drummer, from the Dragon Fantasy range (Orc Command). The warband in the background is also proudly showing off some splendid dental work. |
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Next up for the Orcs - a little more Warband, some Chariots (Kn), Riders, Beasts, and a couple of comedy bits to add.
No games in progress yet - quite a bit more to do before the 18th Century battles begin ... but how do you think these guys will go against well drilled line regiments armed with muskets ?
Im not sure either !?!
In the meantime, I am putting together a set of house rules to fight 18th Century battles between Civilised imagi-nation armies, and allow for the integration of HoTT armies onto the field at the same time. Will be interesting play testing that.
The rules are completely different to DBx for civilised vs civilised warfare ... more traditional wargame rules in the style of various Napoleonic sets. However the civilised regiments of horse, foot and gun then translate to HoTT equivalents when they contact HoTT armies on the field.
Whilst the HoTT armies move by PIPs, the civilised armies move by traditional orders and morale rules. Other than that, the crossover between the 2 flavours of battle is an interesting one to integrate. It should feel like the player is playing 2 different games at the same time, once the demonic hordes arrive.
If anyone is keen to grab a copy of the rules, let me know and I will try to clean them up and then sort out a way to host a PDF file somewhere.
Cheers
Not too dissimilar to Colonial Africa vs. Natives or even North America French and Indian War type actions. Will the Orcs, etc, inhabit their own barbarous area, or live in the swamps, mountains, and/or forests, or some mixture of the above?
ReplyDeleteGood point - it is quite similar. I have recently discovered ATKM as well, and that is a lot deeper than it first appears. Some good mechanics in there for musketry and C&C. I might adapt some of those if the play testing of my own simple rules lead to too-strange results.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the Orcs (and other horrors) appearing - the world starts off a a normal 18th Century land, until new terrain pieces start appear on the map as players dabble in unwholesome researches. The strength of the barbaric hordes is related to the size and nature of the new terrain that appears. The effect of the 'abominations' as the terrain is called is proportional to the distance from it ... so for example if an Orc settlement appears in the foothills, the fighting qualities of the normal troops is reduced when near the settlement.
On the other hand, if the Orcs venture out towards the open fields, they will be no match for the disciplined line regiments. They effectively need to build up quite a force before they can threaten the civilised villages.
So from that point of view - a lot in common with FIW.
Really intriguing! Looking forward to enjoy further developments.
ReplyDeleteNicely painted army and a great idea for your campaign. Perhaps you might find the Newtite Corsairs useful. Take a look here: http://www.15mm.co.uk/HOF73_Newtite_Corsairs.htm .
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely brilliant ! Thanks for the link to that. I do put the odd ordre in to 15mm.co.uk as it is, so these are definitely on the next order. They have some very cool stuff buried away inbetween various categories of figures.
ReplyDeleteThanks again, and please - anyone feel free to drop more links to any other products that would suit.
I am glad you like them. I don´t know which geographical zones will be covered by your campaign, take a look here:
ReplyDeletehttp://khurasanminiatures.tripod.com/mystriisland.html.
You will find amongst others the Wildmen of the Savannah, the Salamen,a Giant ape. And if your armies reach the Icelands they might get involved in the Penguish Civil Wars.