HOTT Berkeley 2013

The Berkeley Vale annual HOTT Tournament was held on 14th & 15th September this year (2013) in  change from the usual first weekend in September due to a venue clash. I'd been worried too many might not make it but as it happened numbers were higher than 2012.

 

Below are some of the pictures I took and a bit of narrative.

 

We hold the event in the Skittle Alley at the Tudor Arms pub in Slimbridge. A nice pub with good and beer,  plus they offer accomodation for our overnighters as we are a 2 day event.

 



The Skittle Alley far end after just having set up the tables, each table is marked for a 15mm game and a 28mm game (more on this further down).



Other end of the skittle alley with the Coventry gang and Sharrock family warming up with a quick game of something.

The skittle alley is a great venue for our number as there's room to spread out and as per abow some areas to sit and relax. Not shown is the little alcove that's my 'office' where I set up the PC and printer to do all the admin to generate the pairings for each round. I use a Norwegian Swiss Chess program that allows you to set up tournaments as you like with different scoring and can prevent inter-club  games in the first few rounds if needed.

Round 1 gets under way. In the foreground is the pool army table. The tournament sustains both 15mm and 28mm scale by requiring people to bring two armies, one 'standing' and one 'pool' and they can be any combination of scale. The theory being enough people will bring enough of both scales to allow fair number of both armies so that all can be accomodated. In a round one player is elected by the pairing software to use their standing army and the other picks one from the pool to match the scale; they can use their own standing army instead if it happens to match scale and they want to.

This weekend we seemed to have a more 28mm games than normal but the alley was large enough to accomodate the games.

The Wolf Lords prepare to take on Skeletons.

Talking of wolves, the Sisterhood pack of Amy and Gemma Malcolm decided to join forces on day one. Amy ponders the move whilst Gemma (sporting suitable wolf scarf/headgear) salivates pondering her next victim (all will be explained later).

James Ewins asks Tony if he'd look after the kids later...

Richard Crawley's beautiful Dwarven Stronghold that doubles as a dice tower too.

More movement on the Wolf Lords vs skeletons game

Mike Shepherd seeks inspiration on how to beat the Moria Goblins.

Colin Evans ponders... again.

A traditional HOTT match as my Dwarves take on Tony Horobin and the Elves for control of the gold mine. I used 4 Blades (one a general), 3 shooters, 2 artillery and a Hero. Tony had 4 knights, a mage, 5 shooters (1 the general) and a flyer.

The eagle heads off to threaten my flank whilst both forces move forwards.

The cream of Elven chivalry line up opposite my artillery.

Oops. After that it went downhill very quickly for the Elves as Tony came out of the woods to force the issue...but shot at in woods get +2, and if you are shooting too it makes it messy for the shooters in the open at 5vs3 before the dice and then add in the artillery support... The dastradly Elven Mage did do for he Dwarven Hero but it was not enough.

My 2nd game vs Alan Millicheap and the Skeletons (6 Warbands, 2 Shooters, Anti-Paladin and Hero). The terrin made it awkward for my mainly good going troops but I banked on getting the Blades out of the rough quickly.

I moved to dog-leg position as I tried to protect my flank from the Hero and shooter support.

Alan tries to graddually shot my Hero backwards as his Warbands advance on my Blade line. As it happens I managing to break up the warband line with my artillery, and every time Alan wanted to charge all his broken up groups he got a '1' for pips so eventualy he went for gold and crashed in piecemeal but lucked out and his Warbands where toasted.

Some more shots of other games.

Steve Harris takes on Tim.

Mile begs the rest of the room to get him out of there whilst Dad James plays Keith's Pumpkins.

The Dwarven mine was keenly contested as this time the Fairy Folk decided to have a go at it (my pool table army of a Mid Summer Night's Dream - Oberon and Titania as mages, King of Athen spear general, Queen of the Amazons spear, Lysander and Demetrious plus brides as Warband, various wedding guests as Horde, Puck as lurker and Bottom (donkey) as Beast). Owen Webber was my opponent.

  Demetrius, Lysander and Bottom attack my flank and kick in the Dwarven shooters.

Oberon and Titania and faeries support the heads of state and the wedding party smash through my shooters. I ssend the hero and blade to support the remaining shooter in the rough.

The faeries are shot down as I try to slow the inexorable match on my Stronghold. Fortunately lack of pips prevents Puck from deploying and then it's too late.

The artillery belch once more and Titania is splashed to the four winds!! I back-peddle out of the rough. Owen sends inthe spears but it's against my blade general so a destroy is unlikely. Oberon is held off by the artillery and then he too finally understands the importance of the new form of warfare that is firearms....

Had to have a picture of Zardoz for TMP!!

After that I had camera issues or no time to take pics with admin to do.

The Saturday evening is devoted to board games or any other game people fancy running. We played some condotierre that Colin won and then I teamed up with Gemma to take on Benedict and Amy in a Pump Alley game. We lost the game according to strict scenario rules but as I explained to Gemma, we won the body count and that's all that reall matters! Thanks to Richard Crawley for organising that, great fun.

We then played the classic Werewolves of Miller's Hollow that I ran. Wasn't it funny that all 3 wolves were adjecent to each other and 2 were Malcolm and daughter Amy, the third being Alan Millicheap. Poor other daughter Gemma never stood a chance in round 1.  Much hilarity ensued the the wolves won the game. We played a second game in the village of Miller's Creek, Miller's Hollow having no villagers left.... This time Dad Gordon was a wolf again but other daughter Gemma was a wolf instead. Honest, I never fixed it. Hapilly forhte villagers they won and the vile werewolves were destroyed.

I did get one last picture: The eEnd of the final day as the packing up begins.

 

We had 23 players on the Saturday with 2 playing as a team, but on the sunday they asked to play seperately and we had 3 extra players and 2 had to drop out (1 for the day and the other at lunch), but the great thing about the software is it can cope and rather than give a Bye I have one of the players from the first game to finish have a game with the odd one out player. So a total of 25 players of the weekend wasn't too bad.

 

I had a blast running ti this year, each year I get more laissez-faire about it and it still runs so smoothly thanks to the generosity and good nature of the participants. I'd like to make a special thanks to Dreamholme Scenics for knocking up the lovely Tree-House memento, Jimmy Walton for the stunningly painted raffle prize ofsome Viking figures and to all the others who donated too.

 

Thanks to my opponents for the great games and I hope to see them all again next year on the 6th & 7th September 2014.

 

For the record the results were:

Best 15mm Army - Steve Harris with Wolf Lords

Best 28mm Army - Keith McGlynn with Pirates

Most Expedient Player (most General kills and or Stronghold captures) - Josh Jones

Best Placed Sisterhood (we have random prize every year) - Amy and Gemma Malcolm

Err.... and after 13 years I finally mananged to win my own tournament. Oops

Position	First Name	Last Name	Primary Total	Secondary Total
1	Steve	Price	21	85
2	Pete	Duckworth	18	74
3	Gordon	Malcolm	18	71
4	Benedict	Sharrock	18	66
5	Steve	Harris	15	78
6	Martin	Golay	15	70
7	Gemma	Malcolm	13	69
8	Keith	McGlynn	13	56
9	Josh	Jones	13	50
10	Tim	Sharrock	13	48
11	Alan	Millicheap	12	75
12	James	Ewins	12	56
13	Tony	Green	10	58
14	Owen	Webber	10	41
15	Nigel	Jones	10	13
16	Jamie	Crawley	9	46
17	Richard	Crawley	9	33
18	Tony	Horobin	8	65
19	Colin	Evans	8	53
20	Mark	Fry	6	36
21	Mark and	Ian	6	30
22	Amy	Malcolm	6	30
23	The Walkleys		4	27
24	Alan	McGlynn	3	22
25	Mike	Shepherd	0	18

 

 





HOTT Barn 2013

I took my Dwarves that I used at Berkeley along with fine Dwarven Mineshaft from Dreamholme Scenics. I did however drop the Sneaker and added an extrat Artillery; so 4 blades inc General, 2 artillery, 3 shooters and 1 hero

The main hall at Lincombe Barn: 

Game 1 vs Sean and his Gray Aliens, or rather Tim's Grey Aliens. Sean is over from California and studying in Egham, he cadged a lift with the Staines Massive. The Grey Aliens had 6 shooters, Mage General, Behemoth and 2 Flyers. Sean defended and put down some woods which could help his shooters but hinder his flyers. I got my choice side and Sean had to deploy narrow. 

His army was pip starved due to low rolls, terrain and pip heavy units. This allowed me to advance my artillery into range. I knocked off as shooter who recoiled into his behemoth. I then sent the behemoth running to the edge of the table and set about sorting my battle line. 

Sean attempted to use the flyers to cause me problems but pips were an issue and he overlooked the position of his Mage General, just infront of the behemoth that was just off the table edge. My arty opened up and sent the mage general recoiling through the behemoth and off the table to give me the game.


Game 2 vs Colin O and his dinosaurs, 3 behemoths inc general, 1 flyer and 5 beasts. I defended and laid down the Dwarven Mountain in 1 quarter of the board with rocky rough going next to them and a gentle hill diagonally opposite. Colin failed to get his preferred side so I set up on the hill. 

My fear was the beasts outflanking me so I opted to have the blades nailed to the hill and arty and shooters to cover my right, hero in support. Colin tried a flank attack but after a knockback gave up on the idea and opted to assault the hill with behemoths. Colin's flyer swooped behind my lines but my shooter able to recoil it back over my own line so it died. 

More artilery fire meant his beast support could not reach my line and only 2 behemoths only got into combat. The behemoth general won and forced back a blade but the other was doubled and died. In my go I turned the flank on the behemoth general and destroyed him so getting the game.


Game 3 vs Benedict and his water themed army, Behemoth general, hero, 2 riders, 3 hordes, water lurker, 2 shooters and God!. Big grudge match as Benedict and I seem to meet most Berekeleys so no quarter was either offered or expected. I defended and declined to bother with water. 


Similar terrain as above went down but with woods as I had more shooters and he had the aerials. Benedict got his preferred side and the gentle hill. 

He then promptly came off it to avoid attrition from artillery. His hero and riders combo went straight in for the kill but were only partially successful takign down 1 arty but losing a rider and eventually the hero. The God arrived as the melee ensued and hit my arty but my blade overlaps meant I clung on for dear life and dressed my lines. 

 

I managed to get a shooter in trouble by leaving it no recoil against he impassable mountain and Benedict gleefully pounced to bring the scores closer. Benedict's God remained resolute and finall did for my arty whilst my hero and his behemoth were playing to-and-fro with overlaps each side. Now at 8-8 and I managed to turn the flank on Benedict's behemoth general and with the combat for the game.


Game 4 vs Tony Green and his Hoth Rebels, 2 heros (Leia and Han) Paladin (Luke), 4 shooters including the general and 2 flyers, not quite an uber army of old. 

I defended again and once more laid standard Dwarven Terrain Mk II much to Tony's despair. It went worse once he lost his prefered edge and I had the hill. Sadly no pics of this game as by this time I was pretty distracted by the intense game. Tony went for surgical strike with Leia leading some shooters through the rough but pip starvation slowed them down. 

Han and Luke tried for the gap between the hill and rough but pulled up once my shooters and arty swung to the centre to create the Valley of Death. Tony's flyers tried to pin my shooters but pips meant I was still able to intercept Leia (Luke's thought's gave her away) and her force. 

One of the flyers was shot down as my dice rolls became inspired and at this point Tony lost the will to live, he sent Han into my blades for a desperate bid to break my line, I recoiled but then in my go blew Han away with arty. A second flyer was then shot down and with no option Luke went for the Dwarven hero. Patently not yet ready in the force and unable to roll better than my 6s Luke bit the dust to give me the game.

So four wins out of four and 3 generals killed meant I won a fine bottle of Southern Comfort for 1st place.

I like the job Own did on his HOTT Berkeley  2012 memento, love the littel flowers:

 
Again, thanks to Nick, Craig and the gang and see you all next year if not sooner.

Steve 

Soylent Green

Just a few quick pics of my Soylent Green HOTT Army.

HOTT Dwarves - 15mm

So we've just finished HOTT Berkeley 2012 and here are some pictures of the army I used.

I'd had the figures lying around for a long time begging to be painted but wasn't motivated. For HOTT Berkeley I always do a momento for the attendees to make it a bit special... not that it isn't special enough of course but it's nice to take something home.

This year I'd left it late to sort out so was in a bit of a panic but then a discussion ensued regarding my 25mm Dwatven mine (http://web.onetel.com/~stenic/Wargmes/myarmies/hott/HostofMinehelm/Host%20of%20Minehelm.jpg) and Shaun of Dreamholme Scenics reckoned he could knock one up to fit a 15mm HOTT Stronghold.

I got the army painted in time for HOTT Berkeley and Shaun was true to his word providing 24 of the mines.

Here is the full army:

It consists of 4 Blades includingthe General with the Standard, 1 Hero, 1 Sneaker (to test the revised Sneaker rules), 1 Artillery and 3 Shooters.

A close up of the Hero:

A close up of the Artillery:

The mine entrance; I added the spare figures from the army to make it look like something was happening, one dwarf entering the shaft with torch, two messing about with the gold truck and one wondering up to see what's happening.

Another shot of the mine.

The back of the terrain item has a badge detailing "HOTT Berkeley 2012". I understand from Shawn these will be available from his online shop at some point although without the badge that makes the 22 people who got one at HOTT Berkeley 2012, plus one very lucky US tourist to the UK and 1 lucky no-show, very special people indeed.