Barbarian Horde vs Mountain Dwarves: A Sword and Spear Fantasy AAR

Just before Christmas, there was an epic Sword and Spear Fantasy encounter at the club between my Hyborian Barbarian Horde and Clive's new Magister Militum Dwarven army. There is a report of this on the Mödlhafen blog, but it seems only right and proper that the Barbarian point of view is also put on record.

Both armies were huge, around 1850pts of Dwarves and maybe 2000pts of Barbarians. Yes, we could have scaled things down a bit, but the chance to get everything on the table was too great to resist. You can see the size of the forces involved in this titanic clash in the first few pictures.

The two armies needed a 9ft long table to accommodate them.

I decided that I would have to get my Impact troops into combat as soon as possible, because that is pretty much what the Barbarians have to do. It is an army that lacks finesse, so it needs to get up close and personal as soon as possible.

I placed all my shooty troops in woods, not that I actually have many of them in the first place. 

My centre was packed with all my powerful heavy foot, supported by my L3 Magic user. I also had an Arcane Artifact to give my magicians as much of a boost as possible. The Artifact means that I get to roll an extra Magic D6 (giving me 4D6 in this game) and discard the lowest scoring dice.

Ignoring the Dwarven flying boat, I get my heavy cavalry, supported by  a Hero and led by a Captain) moving on my left as quickly as possible.

On my right, I send my Light Horse (out of view) on a flanking manoeuvre while I dash my packs of Wolves into action. I fully expect the wolves to get beaten, but hopefully cause a few casualties along the way.

My skirmishing archers start hitting the Dwarf flying boat. I really want to puncture this particular balloon.

My light horse move forwards, outflanking the Dwarf chariots. I hope that they will take this vehicles out.

As hoped, over on my left, the heavy cavalry wipe out the Dwarf crossbows and leave the Dwarf wizard exposed. Now, I just need to get these cavalry units through the Dwarf line, and start attacking them from behind.

My remaining heavy cavalry support the wolves and get into action. 

Charging my Hero on an Elk into the flank of the Dwarf cavalry, the unit is wiped out. The Hero is counter-charged by some Dwarf crossbows, who are melee capable.

My light horse charge a chariot unit in the flank, winning the combat with ease. I am hoping to roll up the Dwarf left flank.

Elsewhere, disaster strikes as my heavy cavalry are charged in the flank and, in successive combats, both units are wiped out. Disaster!

I blame those mammoths, personally!

My heavy infantry make slow progress across the battlefield. I really need them to get into combat with the Dwarven artillery, the kind of sneaky unit that the noble Barbarians just treat as cheating. Where is the honour in blowing your enemies up from a distance? Surely honour and fame only come when you "Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of the women!" after the clash of steel on steel?

On my left flank, a Dwarf Hero destroys my skirmishing bowmen, meaning that I need to send my Medium Infantry into combat to stop him causing chaos.

My Troll heavy infantry close on on the Dwarf centre

My right flank makes much better viewing than my left. I seem to be gaining the upper hand here.

Unhappily, we are running out of time, just as I destroy one of the Dwarf chariots, allowing my light horse to get behind the Dwarf line. 

I never did manage to puncture that annoying balloon.

And, just as my main infantry units get into charge range, we have to call time. I like to think that this encounter would have seen my Barbarians victorious.

So, a truly epic battle that ended in a draw. It was good to see big armies on the table, even though the sheer size of them makes control difficult. I never even got my Giant into combat, so he was pretty much wasted. 

I can imagine that concentrating all my mobile units on one flank might have worked better, with the main infantry line just holding a defensive position. Perhaps that would be for another day.

The Barbarian Hordes are gathered for battle

I've wanted to photograph all my Hyborian barbarian troops, using 15mm Copplestone barbarians together for ages  and on Sunday I had the chance, when I played my first game of Sword and Spear Fantasy at the club. I wasn't able to use the entire horde for the game, but here it is in all its glory;

I think that is a pretty impressive horde, but I'd like to add some more units at some point, although it isn't a priority.

As for the game, Pete and I fought a game with twelve units a side without worrying about points values. His army is based upon the Eastern Roman Empire of the Komnenian period.

I began by pushing all my cavalry forward on my left, while holding back on the right.

Pete advanced with horse archers against my Heavy Infantry Trolls and a unit of skirmisher archers, who wouldn't last long.

I slowly pushed my heavy infantry forward, supported by medium foot archers.

The central battle developed into one between Pete's armoured lancers and my foot. Amazingly, my foot triumphed, forcing the cream of Pete's cavalry off the table. My pack of savage wolves were also engaged against some heavy infantry as my heavy cavalry attacked Pete's Giants.

Pete threw more cavalry into the fray against my infantry shieldwall.

Unhappily for Pete, the dice fairies weren't helping him and he continued to lose units, making his position pretty hopeless, conceding the victory to my hairy chaps with loincloths and bad table manners.

Of course, for a first game, we both made mistakes with the rules, which helped me more than it did him, but we will learn from that. We also took a while to really understand how to use magic users and how the magic rules work, but we'll get there.

We are basing our units on an 8 cm frontage, mostly with two 4 cm wide units together, which means that we can use figures already based for HOTT, DBA, DBM etc.

Overall, a fun game. I am looking forward to playing these rules again.

Hyborian cavalry reinforcements

I think (hope?) that I've finally finished my 15mm Hyborian Barbarian horde for Sword and Spear Fantasy games. The final additions are the rest of the cavalry. Here they are en masse, charging against some hapless enemy foot.

The front unit is one of Cavalry, as defined in the S&SF rules. They are a single unit, sized 8 cm x 3 cm. They will join my existing two units of Cavalry. They are supported by two units of Light Horse.

The next two units are the Light Horse, based on 4 cm square bases to give them a looser formation. Each unit is therefore 8 cm x 4 cm.

Obviously, they are all just the same excellent Copplestone figures, so the only way to distinguish between them is the base sizes.

I think that the last thing I need to do is photograph the entire horde, which should look pretty impressive.

Then, all that is left is to actually get them onto the table for a few games.

Barbarians with bows and arrows

Despite being away in France for a trip last week around the battlefields of the Western Front and various towns in the region, I did manage to complete some more Copplestone 15mm barbarians for my Hyborian Age horde once I got back.

First, there are three stands of archers, on 4 cm x 2 cm bases who will be added to the three stands I painted last year to give me three units of medium foot archers. These will be paired up to give a unit with an 8 cm frontage, but only one base deep. I think that this will look fine on the table.

The other bow-equipped troops are four stands of Copplestone Pict archers, on 4 cm square bases, who will form two units of skirmishers. In my imaginary Hyborian Age, these "Picts" represent cave-dwelling tribes who are allies of the semi-nomadic barbarian tribes. Of course, in Robert E. Howard's  pseudo-historical vision of the Hyborian Age, the Picts were described as being "small in height, squat and muscular, adept at silent movement, and most of all brutish and uncivilized" who had retained only rudimentary technology and language skills. I see these archers, together with the ones I painted last year as Neanderthals who have survived to co-exist with the Cro-Magnons who comprise most of the population of the world of Hyboria. Anyway, here they are;

All I have left to paint now are a unit of Medium Foot and three units of Horse. One of these will be based up as Cavalry (in S&SF terms) on 4 x 3 cm bases and the other two as Light Horse, on 4 cm square bases.

After I've finished all the units, I need to decide exactly how I want to use them on the table. I've recently decided that my trolls will be used as armoured Heavy Foot and being larger than humans they will have the impact and powerful attack characteristics.

I am also thinking that my human Heavy Foot (of which I have 12 4 x 1.5 cm stands) might be put together as two Large units, i.e. being three bases deep and two bases wide, as well as having them as three normal sized units, as described in my previous post.

I am wondering if I might need more units for variation, too. I like the idea of steppe mounted archers as fast skirmishers, but most of the available figures seem to look too "modern" to my eye, and I'd like a stand of mammoths or other big monsters to be used as Large Beasts. Alternative Armies have a rather nice monsters called Rhinosaurs which would look pretty good on the table, with perhaps a few barbarians in the howdah. They also do a version without the howdah.

More Hyborians join the Barbarian Horde

Following on from the two groups of trolls and the wolves, I have completed two more units of barbarian warriors for my Hyborian Sword & Spear Fantasy army. Like all the others these are from the Copplestone Barbarica range of 15mm figures.

These will join the existing barbarians that I painted up last year as HOTT Blades. and will form the core of the army. I intend all three units to be used as Heavy Foot with Average Protection, with the original ones being designated as Hearthguards, with the Shieldwall and Standfast attributes, and maybe Brave or Heroic as well.

These two new units will be less exalted Heavy Foot, also with Shieldwall. To distinguish them from the Hearthguards, these guys have standard bearers attached to the units.

In addition, I have painted up two command stands and three magic users. These are all on round bases. I do have other magic users and clerics in my original HOTT army, plus three hero/general figures on square bases. I will also include these in my S&SF army, probably as an army general, heroes and as a high level magic user.

The figure on the left, with a standard bearer and a drummer will be a general and the other stand will be a captain. The magic users will all be Level 1 magicians.

Next, I will be working on more archers to be used as Medium Foot missile troops and Pict (in Copplestone terms) archers to be used as Foot Skirmishers.

I am really pleased with how this army is looking. Once I've finished off all the new additions, I'll take photos of the complete army.

Making a start on the Hyborian lead mountain

I bought the Great Escape Games Sword & Spear fantasy rules last year, with the intention of playing games in 15mm. My original idea was to create a 15mm post-Roman army with an Arthurian theme, and this is still my intention. I have a load of Lurkio post-Romans and a few early Byzantines, plus a few Magister Militum wizards which will become transformed at some point, but it also occurred to me that I could expand my Hyborian Barbarian HOTT army into a larger force for S&SF.

The consensus at the club for S&SF in 15mm is that we should use an 80mm frontage for units, which means that any troops based for HOTT or DBA will be compatible. Therefore, a while ago I bought several packs of extra Copplestone Barbarica 15mm barbarians and other figures to bulk out my existing troops.

I have enough extra figures to create more cavalry units, and also heavy infantry, medium infantry, levies and skirmishers, but as I want this force to have a proper fantasy dimension, I also bought some wolves and trolls from the Copplestone range.

So, my initial foray into this particular part of the lead mountain was the wolves and trolls, and here they are;

I decided that I wanted my trolls to have green skin, but also to look like they could hide in the rocks of hills and valleys, so I thought that grey fur would work well. The wolves, of course, are just wolves and grey and brown shades are natural. In both pics I've put a stand of barbarians to show the scale of the new additions. The trolls have been based on 80mm x 60mm MDF bases and the wolves on 40 x 40cm ones, so that they could be used for HOTT too.

Next, I will continue working on some generals on foot and some magic users. I've also got 24 barbarians on the go, who will form two extra Heavy Infantry units. After that, I have more barbarian archers, some more troops to form medium foot and cavalry units and Pict archers to act as skirmishers.

I really like the Copplestone barbarians. They have loads of character and are excellent castings with bags of personality.

As a flying unit option, I am thinking about the Magister Militum Valkyries, which look pretty nice too, but this is something for the future.

Lincombe Barn 2018 HOTT tournament

Yesterday was the long-awaited 2018 HOTT tournament at the club. There was a total of 12 contestants, four from the club and eight players who had travelled from elsewhere to take part. 

There was a wide variety of 24pt armies on display, with a huge variation in styles and inspiration, making each game a joy to play or watch. I brought along my Hyborian Barbarians, comprised of a Rider general, four Warbands, three Blades, two Shooters and a Hero. We all played five games, so we all faced plenty of challenges to overcome, some of us more successfully than others. 

Also, there were some club players who weren't taking part in the tournament. Some were playing Clive's excellent Airspeed post-apocalyptic pod racing game, just take a look at the terrain items Clive has scratch-built. I particularly like the trailer home with a garden. Even in a blasted wasteland there is a budding Alan Titchmarsh, dreaming, no doubt of the Chelsea Flower Show.

Elsewhere there was an Arkham Horror boardgame in progress.

Now, here is a selection of pictures of the main event, the HOTT tournament. First, Dwarves vs Meerkats (none of whom seemed to wear a smoking jacket or have a dodgy Russian accent).

I particularly liked this giant jellyfish (I think it was a Flyer) in the Fishman army. (edit: actually, as has been pointed out by Martin below, the jellyfish was a Dragon).

Here are my Hyborians in action. Firstly, against a nice-looking army of Abyssinians;

Here facing off against a Life of Brian-themed army led, inevitably, by Biggus Dickus as a Blade general and featuring Brian's Mum as a Paladin and Brian as a Hero, rather than a Very Naughty Boy.

My Hyborians also had a game against an army of Teutonic Knights, with two Behemoths portrayed by wedges of knights.

Here are the Fishmen against one of two King Arthur armies.

These are Ninja Camels, with a Unicorn Paladin.

And next, here is probably the most innovative army, made up from a load of flying Puffins with a Scary Rock stronghold, although the Rock looks more surprised than actually scary.

And here is Nick, who organised everything, taking some time out to photograph the various games.

Thanks Nick! Also, thanks are due to Andy, who organised the catering and kept everyone fed and watered.

So, what happened in the end? Well, the plaudits go to Pete, the defending champion with his Life of Brian army who won again this year. Here are the final standings;

1. Pete              W5  L0  15pts
2. Armand        W4  L1  12pts
3. Colin             W3  L2    9pts (killed 2 generals)
4. Mark             W3  L2    9pts (killed 1 general)
5. John              W3  L2    9pts
6. Martin          W2  L3    6pts (took 1 stronghold)
7. Owen            W2  L3    6pts (took 1 stronghold, but worse kill/lost difference)
8. Kevin            W2  L3    6pts (killed 2 generals)
9. Keith             W2  L3    6pts (killed 2 generals worse kill/lost difference)
=10. Tony         W2  L3    6pts
        Carole       W2  L3    6pts
12. Nick            W0  L5

As you can see, it was pretty tightly-fought, with many of the placings being decided by killing generals and taking strongholds. 

It was a terrific day of gaming, lots of fun and a nice and friendly bunch of opponents. I look forward to the 2019 tournament. I expect that I'll spend the intervening 12 months trying to build a killer army.