Scots-Irish versus Picts – An Arthurian HOTT Battle Report

My Scots-Irish army arrived and I wanted to get them on-table, so I convinced Chris to bring over his Picts. Chris took the Picts, of course, and Adam commanded my Scot-Irish. This was Arthurian Big Base and Hordes of the Things (HoTT).

Summary: Quick Scots-Irish victory.


Scots-Irish Army

Here are a couple of photos of my Scots-Irish as they were getting based.

The first photo are the Scots-Irish generals. Lately I’ve been basing my generals on 40mm circles but the Scots-Irish generals are on chariots so I went for pill shaped instead (50mm x 30mm). The naked guy at the front is Cú Chulainn himself.

Arthurian-HOTT-901 Cú Chulainn and friends
Arthurian-HOTT-901 Cú Chulainn and friends

The second photo is about half the army, before I applied flock.

Arthurian-HOTT-902 Basing Scots-Irish host
Arthurian-HOTT-902 Basing Scots-Irish host

Table and deployment

Adam had a small centre of warband with Cú Chulainn (Hero General) and Cathbad the Druid (Cleric).

Arthurian-HOTT-903 Scots-Irish centre and left
Arthurian-HOTT-903 Scots-Irish centre and left
Arthurian-HOTT-905 Scots-Irish warband
Arthurian-HOTT-905 Scots-Irish warband
Arthurian-HOTT-906 Scots-Irish Hero General - Cú Chulainn
Arthurian-HOTT-906 Scots-Irish Hero General – Cú Chulainn
Arthurian-HOTT-907 Scots-Irish Cleric - Cathbad the Druid
Arthurian-HOTT-907 Scots-Irish Cleric – Cathbad the Druid

Adam clearly took a fancy to Beasts in HoTT. He took two, one of wolf hounds and the other of cattle.

Arthurian-HOTT-904 Scots-Irish wolf hounds and cattle
Arthurian-HOTT-904 Scots-Irish wolf hounds and cattle

I used my Gallic camp for the Scots-Irish stronghold.

Arthurian-HOTT-908 Gallic Camp doing duty as Scots-Irish Stronghold
Arthurian-HOTT-908 Gallic Camp doing duty as Scots-Irish Stronghold

Chris went for his usual mix of Spears, Hordes, and Crossbow.

Arthurian-HOTT-909 Pictish centre
Arthurian-HOTT-909 Pictish centre
Arthurian-HOTT-910 Pictish left
Arthurian-HOTT-910 Pictish left

Battle

Adam advanced directly forward, pushing his Beast out ahead.

Arthurian-HOTT-911 Scots-Irish adance
Arthurian-HOTT-911 Scots-Irish advance

Adam had taken a God, actually the Goddess Dana, and she appeared pretty quickly (PIP = 6). Adam placed her behind the left flank of the Picts.

Arthurian-HOTT-912 Goddess Dana appears
Arthurian-HOTT-912 Goddess Dana appears

A Goddess is pretty potent in HoTT and Dana quickly scored a kill.

Arthurian-HOTT-913 Dana goes for the kill
Arthurian-HOTT-913 Dana goes for the kill

On the other flank the wolf hounds ripped into Chris’s Hordes.

Arthurian-HOTT-914 Scots-Irish wolf hounds rip into Pictish hordes
Arthurian-HOTT-914 Scots-Irish wolf hounds rip into Pictish hordes

In the centre an ambush by Lurkers (ambush parties) disrupted the Pictish line.

Arthurian-HOTT-915 Scots-Irish ambush in woods
Arthurian-HOTT-915 Scots-Irish ambush in woods

Then the Scots-Irish cattle (Beasts) stampeded through more Pictish Hordes.

Arthurian-HOTT-916 Scots-Irish cattle stampede
Arthurian-HOTT-916 Scots-Irish cattle stampede

Having demolished the Pictish right, the Scots-Irish wolf hounds and cattle turned into the woods.

Arthurian-HOTT-917 Scots-Irish animals pour into woods
Arthurian-HOTT-917 Scots-Irish animals pour into woods

The cattle then attacked the rear of the Pictish battle line.

Arthurian-HOTT-918 Scots-Irish cattle hit rear of Pictish battle line
Arthurian-HOTT-918 Scots-Irish cattle hit rear of Pictish battle line

Chris brought his destroyed Hordes back on the edge of the table.

Arthurian-HOTT-919 Pictish hordes reappear
Arthurian-HOTT-919 Pictish hordes reappear

The Pictish general, with a couple of elements of Spear, now found himself surrounded.

Arthurian-HOTT-920 Scots-Irish ssurround Pictish General
Arthurian-HOTT-920 Scots-Irish surround Pictish General

Adam charged Cú Chulainn (Hero General) and Cathbad the Druid (Cleric) into the Pictish General and escort. Cathbad killed the Pict King himself.

Arthurian-HOTT-921 Cú Chulainn and Cathbad charge
Arthurian-HOTT-921 Cú Chulainn and Cathbad charge

And that was the end of the game.

Arthurian-HOTT-922 End game
Arthurian-HOTT-922 End game

Conclusions and observations

The game was really quick but we decided not to have another go.

Chris has had a long run of very successes with this Pictish army. Combining Spears, Hordes and Crossbow. This time the combination fell apart. We’ll see if he changes his strategy going forward.

HoTT remains fun to play and quick. It also allows fantastical elements (Gods, Beasts) for those players that want them.

6 thoughts on “Scots-Irish versus Picts – An Arthurian HOTT Battle Report”

  1. Always nice to see a HOTT game played. It is such a fun rule set. Much more so than DBA (for me) because the fantastical elements make it easier to say “yeah, that’s how the battle would have happened”. Whereas with historicals, I often find it hard to believe that DBA battles are close to how men actually fought.

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  2. Both rules sets have their uses. I prefer HOTT for fantasy games and all the quirks that creates. DBA like most ancients rules sets is for gaming and is limited in it’s realism. Both are entertaining.

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  3. The important thing after all is to play and have fun and this is subjective. I like DBA and I welcome its limitations in historical simulation, because the gameplay is still good. I’ve never tried HOTT, but the post tells me it’s very addictive!

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  4. When we used to play HoTTs regularly we made any player using the spellcasting of the Magicians to declare the spell (e.g. fireball, foot of Gruumsh, whatever) had no mechanical effect. But did result in me seeing Xena and Gabrielle leave the table for “Hot Tub Break” at a decisive point of the battle.

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