Dave's army included a magician. I'd never had the "pleasure" of facing a competently generaled magician before and it was most painful. 
I brought out a mixed army (bow, blade, riders, hero) with a dragon (having never played one before). Dave quickly put me down in game 1. I must play more HoTT this year so I can give him a run for his money. The dragon did not appear in game 1 so the picture above must be from game 2.Game 2 was also a beat down based on Dave totally pooching my left flank through careful deployment and me rolling a pair of one's for pips that I was never able to recover from. I hate being outplayed! The dragon did show up, though!
Game three was a mess. Again, the damned dragoon watched from the sidelines. I managed to quick kill his magician with my hero and the withstood a couple of bad rounds of general-on-general combat. Eventually my hero behind the lines (bottom picture) managed to block a recoil and I (narrowly) won. Good thing HoTT/DBA allows players to win 1/3rd of the time no matter how badly they play!
Lessons for me include: (1) play more so I'm better at the game, (2) bow stay in the woods except to flank, (3) dragoons are too gimmicky for me (dragon for sale!), (4) I might like to try a paladin and a cleric, and (5) I should have had a lurker or two in my ranks. Given the turmoil of DBA 3.0, I expect I will be playing a lot more HoTT this year.
Up next: A bunch of 28mm figures are on the hop. I have some 28mm Roman auxiliaries underway (mail and flesh done--onto cloth and shields) and a bunch (maybe 20 or 22) Celts are ready to be built today. I always find myself short of bows and skirmishers so that will be their fate. And then some Warlord Imperial Romans. Tomorrow Bruce drops by for Star Trek Fleet Captains.
You are very magnanimous in your report, I think the dice favoured me in the first two games. Dragons are indeed fickle beasts. Magicians and dragons require some patience since you need big pips to do much with them, and of course a 6 early in the game to even have a dragon on the board with a chance to develop a battleplan.
ReplyDeleteI still think heroes are the best bang for 4AP, as you showed in the last game, but they can die like flies if the dice are poor.
Oh, I don't think I was being magnanimous; it was quite an ass kicking. Better rolls would have helped some, though, in games 1 and 2 (but likely not enough). Oh, my wife wants to know if during your post-game pundering you made off with a half-eaten box of Purdy's chocolates from the coffee table that you stacked your terrain on? :)
ReplyDeleteThat's a great looking pair of armies, guys!
ReplyDeleteWe haven't had much luck with Dragons here either - people rarely take them. I don't think anyone has ever even tried a god either. I've thought about mounting a spare knight on a a dragon and calling him a dragon-riding Aerial Hero... but at 6AP... that's a quarter of your army wrapped up in one stand... Still... I'm tempted to try it out...
It's been fun and inspring following your blog this last year and I'm looking forward to following all the stuff your planning for this year! Have a great year!
Tell your missus we are innocent, there is no room in my terrain box since it is jammed full of terrain, and you handed me my army box and terrain box at the front door since I almost forgot to bring them with me.
ReplyDeleteI was going to try the aerial hero yesterday, very powerful but also very vulnerable to other heroes and magicians at a cost of 6AP. Ouch!
Dave: My apologies--the chocolates were found cowering under a game of creationary.
ReplyDeleteTim: Thanks--I'm keenly watching your blog and stealing some shield designs from old posts as I work on these Romans (drying as I type). Oddly a mis-type of Romans autocorrected to "Onans", which sounds like a missile troop you wouldn't want to tangle with!
No worries, glad they turned up.
ReplyDeleteBefore I forget, I cheated yesterday and took one (or more?) of your blades on a quick kill with a knight. Knights don't get this quick-kill in HOTT, only in DBA. Sorry! This is one of those differences often overlooked.