Battle of the Tan Plateau

 For the past month, I've been painting like a fool to get the pile down. It was inevitable that I hit painting burn out, so I decided to have a battle. It was a quick, throw it on the table game. I picked Hoards of the Things. Probably not a great decision as far as the number of figures on the table, but I wanted something where I didn't need to prepare forms with stats on them. So here is the battle report. 

King Ivan sat alone on his throne watching the fire slowly die in the late evening. His knightly companions were all out on various adventures and quests, and all he had for company was his faithful hounds. Suddenly, the doors to the great hall opened and two guards let in a peasant, clearly exhausted and covered with wounds.

"My king," gasped the peasant, "a large body of Orcs have come down from the north! They are attacking villages as the go!"

King Ivan called in his subordinates. "To arms! Muster the garrison, send messages to my vassals, and prepare my horse and armor! We ride at dawn!"

He called to his falconer. Giving him a small paper with a note on it to tie to a bird, he said, "direct your swiftest hawk to the Eleven kingdom.  There, the mighty wizard Dangolf  the Dazzling should be among them." He hoped that Dangolf would receive the message and come at once, hopefully with reinforcements.

Two days later...

The royal army arrived early in the morning and deployed on the field on top of what is known as the Tan Plateau. Scouts had reports the huge Orc army heading up onto the far end of this very flat plateau. 

On the far right was a company of royal spearmen led by Sir Philbert:

On the center right, King Ivan placed his knights. At the forefront was Prince Valiant, a mighty champion of previous battles:

King Ivan commanded the knights:

Just to the left of the knights were the royal archers commanded by one sergeant Giles of Ham-on-the-Rye:

At the far left flank was the company known as the Guild of Turnip Farmers from the county of Ompfsk (known for their turnips, beets, and other root vegetables) armed with flails. They were led by mighty mercenary captain, Jeff:

As the morning mist cleared, King Ivan and his men saw the great Orc army marching toward them in the distance: 

The royal army was dismayed. Among the hoards, was a giant ogre:

Snarg the Obnoxious, chef of the Orc Tribal Confederacy laughed a orcy laugh and turned to his sorceress and main squeeze, Gristleena and said, "this should be a breeze, my love, we outnumber the humans 2 to 1. We will have them off the field in no time!" She cackled but said nothing:

The Orc army swiftly rolled toward the humans (high pip rolls for the Orcs; low pips for the humans). The Ogre roared as he ran out in front of the Orc line toward the knights:

"I shall smite the foul brute!" cried Prince Valiant as he charged at the ogre:

Sadly, it did not end well for Prince Valiant who was knocked aside like a rag doll (it was even up Hero vs. Behemoth, but the dice rolls were not in the Prince's favor):

Instead of causing fear, the sight of Prince Valiant's apparent demise enraged knights to attack and kill the ogre: 

Meanwhile, the rest of the units move toward each other. The archers of both sides get into range, and begin to take shots, but they have little effect on the opposing armies. The turnip farmers attacked the Orc archers as the Orc line busters hurtled themselves against the royal archers. A unit of orc warriors moved slowly (Orc army now getting low pip rolls) to flank the turnip farmers:

Suddenly, from the humans' left flank came Dangolf leading a company of Elf archers!

The wizard casts a spell that sends forth a yellow blast of lightning towards the Orc unit:

Check out the classy special effects!

*Crack!* *Sizzle!* the Orcs are dead!

Meanwhile, the Orc unit led by Snag and the knights collide and the spearmen are attacked by the Orc archers and a company of warriors that flank them:

"Oh Snap!" Realizing that she had yet to cast any spells, Gristleena tries to, but there are too many Orc warriors in her way and is unable to do so (magic users can only cast spells from a distance in HOTT). For several rounds, the melees were inconclusive.

 Back on the Human left flank, the turnip farmers defeat the Orc archers with the aid of the Elves' support fire, and the royal archers manage to push back the Orc line breakers several times: 

Things did not go any better for the Orcs on the right side. The Snag's unit finally fell to the knights and the royal spearmen held their ground and managed to cause both attacking Orc units to flee! 

Seeing that things were falling apart, Snag turned to Gristleena and said, "baby, it's time to go home." and wisely called for a retreat. 

King Ivan contemplated going after the routing Orcs, but decided against it. The Humans rejoiced at their victory! There were few casualties and the land was once more safe. The turnip farmers turned to go back home to their turnip farming. Prince Valiant, while seriously wounded, was still alive and taken back to King Ivan's castle for a long but full recovery. 

Postgame Analysis:

The Orcs started off really well as far as pip rolls. The number of pips rolled determines how many units get to move. There were able to move in very quickly. However, once in combat, they really rolled terribly compared to their human opponents even when they had more pluses. Too many times, they would roll a one. HOTT, as well as DBA, is more suited for smaller armies, not much more than 10 units (bases of figures) on a side, where each base acts as a unit. They are really designed for relatively quick battles.  I've been playing DBA on and off since it first came out, but never really gotten into the rules, and I suspect I won't with other rules that treat bases as a single, independent units. They are too abstract for me.  I might replay this battle with other rules or try again with HOTT using only much smaller number per side.