The Ellenroad Engine House Game
4th February 2001
Report by Richard Crawley
While most of the population of this list seem to have been in Tring or Plymouth there was another contingent playing HOTT near Rochdale. We put on a big demo game at Ellenroad Engine House on Sunday to add interest to people's visit and to raise a bit of cash for the trust which runs the site.
The battle was played on a 12 feet by 6 feet table in 25mm scale with the players' strongholds in opposite corners and major neutrals' strongholds in the remaining corners. Minor neutrals could be recruited thanks to chance cards and "secrets" cards which could be purchased by the players or by members of the public.
The starting armies were 36AP Lunattics (based on my Glorantha Lunar army) and Dispepsians (based on my Gloranthan Sartarites). The major neutrals were the Dwarfs (20AP who joined the Lunattic side after a couple of Dispepsian Flyers sent to recruit them fumbled their die roll) and the Goblins (20AP who joined the Dispepsians).
The early part of the battle was spent whizzing around visiting terrain features to see what was there (some of them got you a free chance card) and gradually forming two battle lines near the centre of the table.
The main clash, when it came, was a somewhat scrappy affair with the Lunattic forces eventually going down when forced to throw their Hero General out wide after the left flank collapsed under the combined weight of two heroes and some Goblin Hordes. The General held on for some time but was eventually killed by a Goblin Hero with Hordes at his sides. As the Lunattics were mainly facing the Goblins and had taken more casualties than them we declared them defeated.
The Dwarfs hung on for a couple more turns but now facing an army with two Heroes, two magicians, and a Behemoth (Fergus the Psychotroll recruited after appearing by chance card) it would only be a matter of time before collapse followed.At this point time ran out but all involved agreed that a conclusion had been reached and a good time had been had.
Thanks must go to the players - Adam Griffiths, Matthew Zunder and John Koziol (Lunattics and Dwarfs) and Tom Zunder and Simon Beaver (Dispepsians and Goblins). I think they felt it was worth battling the Pennine snows for.