HOTT 2 is OOP and available online.
I've always apprecciated DBA as an elegant rules-set. It seems to offend the Grognards due to not having sufficient unneccessary extra rules and statistics, not to mention being quick playing (heresy!) and put off many others through being obscurely written and quite abstract. Locally it has a fair following, though since none of the regulars at the Cavs play it, I generally do not either.However, one of its derivatives - HOTT (Hordes of the Things) is also quite popular. It is a DBA style game for fantasy armies. Craig C uses it to give his son games with his LOTR minis. My son is probably still a bit Young for that, but perhaps if I found a way to speed it up to 30mins approx with very simple armies, it could work. The virtue of the game is that it is abstracted enough that you could use it to represent pretty much anything. One enterprising Christchurchian tends to put out quite a few interesting armies using plastics and toys.
Currently, the writers of HOTT have made its
version 2 available free online from their website, since it has fallen out of availability. I think 25mm plastics are a bit fragile for a 5 year old to have long term, they end up getting broken, ruined and wasted. Maybe I should take Josh shopping to buy his own army from something like a 1/72 scale plastic kit, base them up and we could have a go at it. Hmm. He has a fair collection of the likes of these (on the right) already, though I daresay they are far too big.... unless we play on the floor!(edit) The pdf is missing the last page of combat,including the quick-kill chart. The best patch I can find at the moment is this reference sheet someone made for it. However, we really need all the info on the page, and I will keep looking.
(edit) (edit) No, it's ok. I figured it out, at past 1am... Now Josh and I will know what happens at the end of our combats.
(edit) (edit) (edit) No, looks like it's been pointed out and you can have page 23 as a download and they intend to correct the whole thing later.
That's a good idea Xelee- plastics are cheap enough.
ReplyDeleteNot sure of their availability but the 28mm soft plastics might also be worth a look- some of the 1:72nd manufacturers also make them- less fiddly for small fingers
I prefer HoTT to DBA and will save myself a copy- thanks for the link!
Craig
Good idea Craig, it's going to drive wife/mum to distraction but Josh and I will just have to keep sifting through everything we see in toyshops/bargains shops until we come up with something cool.
ReplyDeleteYou can get the larger scale HAT via the guy who imports in Chch, but that is hard plastic, so I am not sure it is the best idea - swords and spears will tend to be gone very quickly. There is amazing stuff out there sometimes though as toys, so will keep an eye out.
I was thinking more in the lines of the old Airfix 1:35 soft plastics, haven't seen the HaT etc plastics and didn't realise they are hard plastic.
ReplyDeleteOf course a couple of HoTT armies from the $2 shop would be fun and cheap start- farm animals vs the zoo?
Craig
I remember the ones from my childhood, but don't often see them around in other than WW2/Naps these days.
ReplyDeleteI found some 1/72 Zvezda Russian medievals in my bits box, which I have started to paint up for him as Minas Tirith. They are actually pretty close, apart from some curved swords. I got a box of the mounted version from Cyril/Stan and these have both lancers with little pennants like my Minas Tirith Knights and armoured horse archers to be Rohirrm.
Knowing as I do that the paint isn't going to hold long term, I've sprayed them black and just quickly added some faces, armour and weapons and leather belts to them. Josh is pretty happy with the result. I also got myself a good sized decorative elephant for $4 that barely fits a 60x60 base, so will be a great Behemoth for my Romans as Easterlings + Mumak amry to play against him.
They had wooden ships for $4 as well. Now I fancy myself an air-pirates army. HOTT is good for a laugh and I don't have the stress of Josh using stuff I've put some actual time and money into.
An old trick that works with soft plastics is to paint them first using PVA glue!
ReplyDeleteThe PVA shrinks as it dries and gives flexible surface for paint to adhere too (and it never peels off!)- alas I learned that a long time after we started painting our WWII airfix figures many, many years ago.
It works well, just adds another evening (or couple of hours in front of the heater/fire) to the painting process.
Sounds like a perfect way to start gaming!
Craig