I am in Korea at the moment and have spent some time with Peter Panzeri (who is serving in the US Army here at the moment). We had a small DBA tournament last Thursday Night as an excuse to later slip up to the Navy Club and consume large quantities of Micro-Brewery Beer.

One of the things I was chatting to the guys here about was the use of Hordes of the Things (HotT) as an almost universal rule set. Now, I was wondering if you could ship me a copy of the stuff you did with the BBHotT WWI bash at, was it Historicon? Or did you just use Bruce McFarlanes amendments that are listed on the Humberside site?

Cheers, Thomo the Lost

RESPONSE from: Bob

Hi TtL

The Big Battle HOTT I did at Historicon, Hordes of the Kaiser, was straight HOTT. I just renamed all the HOTT types into WW1 types. I then edited the HOTT new edition rules with those names replacing the original. To a reader then, there is no Magician, just a General Staff type with certain capabilities. It does not cast a spell, it calls in a bombardment. It does not ensorcell a hero (that type stayed), it shell shocks it, etc. Attached is the revised text so you can see how it reads. [Note: you can see the document in the GI_Newsletter files section at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GI_Newsletter/files/1.%20WARGAME%20RULES%20SYSTEMS/Hordes%20of%20the%20Things%20%28HotT%29/.)

I think HOTT is a very universal rules set. This is especially so if you actually change the text to use the names of troop types you want to employ and just leave out what you do not want. I took out reference to rivers as I had none in the game.

The game did have a few drawbacks. People had a difficult time relating to Gas (god) being able to move around like an entity. If I were to do the game in a more "realistic" mode, I would make some modifications. Gas, for example would still come on with a 6, and have the same movement and combat factor but I would allow just the first placement to be chosen and then some random factor for future moves. I did bill the game as a metaphor for WWI and not a tactical game.

Gas could be viewed as follows. The initial 6 is for the set up of the gas delivery system. Then future use of it is not the same "entity" of gas being moved around, rather it is a new barrage of gas in a new area. So what about combat with gas? Victory by the other side can be viewed as both the element being attacked not effected by the gas and some strategic victory over the gas delivery system. The original player throwing a 1 is some resource allocation decision that causes the gas delivery system to be out of action.

There are a few other anomalies such as beasts -- US Marines (devil dogs)-- being "mounted." And Armored Cars (Knights) being DIB by machine guns (shooters) they attack. I might want to rework the combat outcome table to better match the troop types with their historical referents.

By the way, I did the HOTK, Hordes of the Kaiser, (was Hordes of the Teutons) with 15mm figs, mounted on 25mm bases. The only way to fit the Tanks and armored cars, ambulances--Red Cross (clerics), and Special Weapons (Paladins) on bases. Even then I had to put them at an angle across the base. I should have gone to deeper bases.

Attached are some pics of a game before I did the final terrain. (See the pictures in the files section at http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/gi_newsletter/lst?&.dir=/Wargame+Photos/HotK+game+at+Historicon+by+Bob+Beattie&.src=gr&.view=t.) The game was set in the late spring of 1918. German's "Operation Michael" where the Stosstrupen (stromtroops) broke thru into the green fields beyond (so no trenches) and were pushing toward Paris. Brits, French and Americans are counterattacking. A pretty good scenario and a game enjoyed by the players, both in the local group and at the Con. I had to remind everyone that it was a game with WWI toy soldiers and not a real simulation of combat.

I think HOTT2 would provide a better ancients game than DBA now. At least DBA should be rewritten to conform to HOTT moving and combat rules. I plan to put the DBA troop types into HOTT context and see how it plays. I would like to see other historical eras converted to HOTT, instead of DBA.