Introduction
"
Hordes Of The Things" (Hott) is a generic miniature rules not intended for any particular historical/fantasy period. Very intuitive and easy of access, it is not considered as simplistic as it may seems on a first look. A small army can be build with as few as 40 miniatures. A quite
dynamic fan(aticus) base supports the rule, exchanging advices and sharing their current projects. Taste it and you will (most probably) like it !
The tiny adaptions proposed below for the English civil war (ECW) should also be fine to depict the continental thirty years war (TYW) which took place at the same period. It is probably the appropriate moment to credit
Tim (ECW Hott) and
Arindel (TYW Hott) for inspiring the full project.
ECW/Hott units correspondence
We use the following table to build our armies. As a consequence, the bulk of a force is made of elements of knights, shooters and spears.
Type
|
Hott
|
Comment
|
Pikemen
|
Spears
|
About 50% of the infantry of a typical army. Good to challenge enemy
units to contact in hand to hand.
|
Musketeers
|
Shooters
|
About 50% of the infantry of a typical army. Good to challenge enemy
units to stay in arc of fire.
|
Lobsters
|
Behemoth
|
The very few parliamentarian heavy cuirassiers wearing full armor.
Only vulnerable when outmaneuvered.
|
Horse
|
Knights
|
The "standard" cavalrymen of the period. Some wearing
armour. Able to use fire at close range and charge the ennemy.
|
Forlorn hope
|
Shooters
|
Converged volunteers to form "enfants perdus" units. May
also be represented by "warbands" if relevant.
|
Elite cavalry
|
Hero
|
Romantic view of prominent officer and his retinue who can do the
difference on their ones.
|
Dragoons (mounted)
|
Riders
|
Less brutal mounted units usually deployed on the flank of the army or
in reserve to pursue routing ennemies.
|
Dragoons (dismounted)
|
Lurkers
|
Troops on foot, usually sent in front or on the flank of the army to
disturb enemy progresses on the field.
|
Cornish infantry
|
Warband
|
Correspond to the romantic vision of the royalist Cornish infantry.
Proposed by Ph. Barker.
|
Clubmen
|
Hordes
|
Depicts hasty enrolled local infantry or clubmen defending their
cities from the various raiding armies.
|
Canons
|
Artillery
|
Represents all types and calibres available for the period. Should be
limited to a very few elements.
|
Infantry units are generally made of 2 elements of spears (into the centre) and 2 of shooters (on both flanks). Other variations are useful to add some variety. Personally, I like to field a single large infantry unit of 2 shooters and 4 pikes. Musketeers elements may also be field separately as "commanded shot" units. We usually tend to represent a cavalry unit by 3 elements and field artillery elements disseminated.
Of course, the Hott system is so flexible that you should never hesitate to use your own interpretations. Armies can be more romantic with assassins (sneakers) and fierce black coated preachers (clerics) or even supported by fantastic witches on brooms (flyers) or the like. Have a look to "Avalon burning" range from Eureka to get more "fantasy" inspirations.
Home rules for ECW
Pike and shot formation
Infantry units are divided into pikemen (
Spears) and musketeers (
Shooters). To encourage players to use historical formations and relevant fighting results, we have slightly modified the combat outcomes for
Knights. You should now read : "
Destroyed by behemoths, or by artillery or magician they have moved into contact with this bound, or by shooters adjacent and forming a group with spears the have moved into contact with this bound, or if in bad going. If not, recoil".
Commanded shot
We represent "commanded shot" units by... shooters. They cannot join "pike and shot" formation during the course of the battle. However, they may move 300p instead of 200p (like v1 Hott shooters).
March moves into big battles
In big battles we have found that a victorious flank command can't really move quickly enough to exploit its success and support the rest of the army. So in big battles elements we allow elements to march move. That is, and element, or group of elements, can make multiple moves, so long as no move after the first starts, ends or goes within 600p of an enemy element. Normal PIP costs apply for each move (this is a copy/past from
Alan Saunders website).
Dismounting dragoons
During ECW, "Dragoons" correspond to mounted musketeers moving on horse but fighting on foot. Their horses were of questionable quality but the dragoons proved to be useful during skirmishes/raid and flank covering duties. To represent this, if in bad going, once per battle, an element of
Riders may dismount as an element of
Shooters at the cost of 1 PIP. A
Shooters element may not "revert" to
Riders during the course of a battle.
