Recon 2003 HOTT Competition
Report by
Alan Saunders
As has already been mentioned I turned up at the HOTT competition at Recon on Saturday. With all of us up in Birmingham, and the female side of the family off to the ballet, the male side needed something to do for the day. A trip up to Leeds seemed to be just the thing (a one day event is too far to get to from Staines, but it's only a couple of hours from Birmingham). I was accompanied to the by Cei and my Dad. The latter had considered taking part, but decided not to. Cei isn't really up to speed on HOTT yet, so also didn't compete. A pity, really, as the idea of three generations of the same family taking part in a competition has a certain appeal. They both spectated or wandered the show. Cei found a few participation games to play during the day, and seemed to have a pretty good time of it.
With it being a fairly late decision to turn up I hadn't managed to produce a new army, so resurrected the newly refurbished Narnians, as they have not seen much action under HOTT 2.0. They didn't have any new elements, but I did assemble and paint a Victorian lamp-post to use as scenery and a 'Barker marker'.
My first game was against Tim Sharrock. We have met twice already this year, and stood at one game apiece, so this was the 'Best of Three'. I defended against Tim's Tupi. Aslan died early trying to kill a shooter, but the Pevensie children did for one and secured that flank. The main fight was in the centre, though, where the Tupi's Dodo was the main threat. The Pevensie children recoiled it over one of its own riders, before hitting it again with flank support from the giant and killing it. A Tupi rider straying into the rough fell elsewhere and the Tupi hero was pulled from his frog to give the Narnians a 14-6 win.
The next game saw me attacking Alex with an Orc army. He dployed his army either side of a big wood, which meant that one wing was too far from the general and became starved of PIPs. I attacked that one with a combination of Aslan, the Pevensie children and a couple of beasts. He was in a two element wide column, so I hit him with the big elements and flanked with the beasts, and soon found myself 10AP up, killing two knights, a behemoth and a flier. He brought over his hero to try and save the day, but the children/giant combination were equal to the task, and killed that too, giving the Narnians a 14-0 victory.
In my third game I was defending against Brian Pierpoint's elves. This had the, now traditional, aerial hero/flier combination, as well as a groud-based hero and plenty of beasts. I slapped down plenty of woods, and hoped to be able to hit the aerial hero with either my hero or the paladin. Hindered by the terrain Brian went for a direct aerial assault on my stronghold, hoping to double it. Although he beat it it didn't fall, and he stayed in contact, so I was able to slide a horde across and block the recoil of one of his fliers, with the option of a further slide blocking his aerial hero as well. Threatened by this the aerial hero broke off, leaving the fliers in the lurch (insufficient PIPS to move all of them). The hero's retreat, however, but him right in front of Aslan and the children, who swiftly exploited their good fortune. Aslan took the hero down, whilst the children killed a supporting beast element. The destruction of another beast element saw the Narnians chalk up another victory, 12-2.
My final game had the Narnians attacking Dave's dwarves. He advanced a solid line of blades, but when he was within 200p of me I attacked. This allowed me to choose the order of combats and, with no combat worse than parity I was confident of a few wins down the line. I lost every combat, Aslan and the giant dying in the process. Dave was swift to exploit his advantage and I lost a rider and beast in subsequent rounds to lose the game 12-0. The Narnians finally met their match against a solid line of blades.
This left both Tim and I on three games apiece, but I had the better 'points difference' so clinched first place to get the trophy and a painted dwarf army (11 blades and a shooter) which now belongs to Cei. With only four games to play there was plenty of time to browse the show as well. Recon is a nice little event; there was a good mix of participation and demo games, and plenty of traders to take money off you. I spent most of mine with ERM, but also bought a book on Reivers (the Montvert one) and a few figures from Kallistra (some dwarves on ponies to expand Cei's army and some lovely ghosts).
Many thanks to the Wakefield and Ossett Wargamers for a good day out.