Post by primuspilus on May 29, 2019 19:01:48 GMT
My son has been getting hooked on playing HotT with 'is old dad. Promising him a game after he gets back home from school has been a fantastic bribe to assist with getting him to the school bus in the mornings. Hey, we must all work with the tools we've been give, I suppose!
When you have several little ones, budget, painting and gaming time are all necessarily short. So Big Battle HotT is completely a non-starter for us. So, here is our (so-far) interpretation of the Battle of Five Armies, using canonical 24AP armies, and a fixed map (subject to design flaws of course!). Once we settle on the "perfect" map, we'll take a screen shot and show it as well.
HotT - "Pocket Battle" of Five Armies:
Slopes of the mountain spurs are bad going, but do not block shooting. We have been pretty loosey-goosey regarding hill benefits, but we are leaning towards using the edge of the board as the hill crest line on either side.
Slopes of the mountain spurs are bad going, but do not block shooting. We have been pretty loosey-goosey regarding hill benefits, but we are leaning towards using the edge of the board as the hill crest line on either side.
The River Running winds effectively across the battlefield. There is a stronghold (mountain gates) and impassable terrain (pool) at one end. We have a ruined town close to the goblin base edge. Archery features prominently in the tale, and so the armies are more archer-heavy. The Men and Elves could easily take more/fewer Sp/Sh, and it still works well enough.
Goblins (24AP)
1 x Wb (gen) Bolg [2]
4 x Be (Wargs and Wolf Riders)* [8]
2 x Sh (goblin Archers) [4]
8 x Hd (goblins) [8]
2 x Lu (goblin raiding force) [2] May not deploy until after at least ONE element of free people's forces has been destroyed.
* I read no accounts in the book that suggests to me that goblin wolf-riders should be treated equivalent to trained horse-archer outriders of Rohan, for example. The account suggests that they successfully and rapidly overran the advance skirmish line in Dale, in bad going.
Goblins (24AP)
1 x Wb (gen) Bolg [2]
4 x Be (Wargs and Wolf Riders)* [8]
2 x Sh (goblin Archers) [4]
8 x Hd (goblins) [8]
2 x Lu (goblin raiding force) [2] May not deploy until after at least ONE element of free people's forces has been destroyed.
* I read no accounts in the book that suggests to me that goblin wolf-riders should be treated equivalent to trained horse-archer outriders of Rohan, for example. The account suggests that they successfully and rapidly overran the advance skirmish line in Dale, in bad going.
Beasts (+3/+4, 400p in bad going, no ‘-2’ TF) can do this. Riders, …well, ... not so much.
Men of Dale (6AP)
1 x Sp (gen)* [2]
1 x Sh (Archers) [2]
2 x Lu (skirmishers) [2]
Men of Dale (6AP)
1 x Sp (gen)* [2]
1 x Sh (Archers) [2]
2 x Lu (skirmishers) [2]
*For those who insist, you can of course take a Sh general (Bard). We prefer the game with a Sp general. YMMV.
Elves of Mirkwood (8AP)
2 x Sp (infantry) [4]
2 x Sh (Archers) [4]
Dwarves (8AP)
2 x Bd (Dain) [4]
1 x He (Thorin) [4]
Eagles: (2AP)
1 x Fl [2]
Now we toyed with having three separate commands, but from a HotT perspective, that ends up possibly hurting the goblins too much. The free people's would be guaranteed 3 PIPs every bound, and could see a maximum of 9 (f we used d3's, say). It works well having the Free people's having the conundrum of whom to have in command (which location). That said, feel free to adopt the Roman method: say dice for which of the three leaders (Thranduil, Dain Ironfoot, and Bard) might lead the multi-national army that day!
Deployment is free, but with the caveat that each "nation" must deploy with bases touching an element of their nation (lurkers excepted of course).
I do not believe Thorin is suitable as a general. He pretty much stuffed up his very first diplomatic mission as king, and almost brought men, elves and dwarves to utter ruin at the hands of the Gundabad army. He got lucky with his berserker's charge. I thought about making him a Wb just for that.
At this scale, Gandalf (as Cleric) and Beorn (as Paladin) would not be "visible" in effect. Thorin, though, while tempted to leave him out, did lead a charge, and rally the battle at a critical moment. And Beasts are QKed by hero's, so that seemed appropriate.
Eagles arrive on ANY board edge, and can move that bound, on a PIP cost of 3. But watch out - until you have dealt with the goblin AAA batteries (Archers), you may just be giving them something to do on an otherwise boring afternoon...
Enjoy! 
Also, you'll forgive us if my young son recoils in horror at the thought of using one of Smaug's distant relatives to ally with!?