At present I'm in a period of painting whatever bits of unpainted lead or plastic drift through my transom (one bonus kudos cookie for whoever gets the reference) but from a rules point of view I'm fairly steadily focussed on Simon Miller's To the Strongest! ancient rules.
Yesterday's trip was spent considering the Gloranthan Hordes of the Things elements I have and how they might make the transition to TtS! I approximate chronological order of my recruiting the armies, here are the conclusions I've reached so far.
Trolls
My Troll HOTT army is based on the Darkdemon clan of Pavis. From the Pavis and Big Rubble book we know that they are followers of Zorak Zoran and use zombies and skeletons to reinforce their Dark Troll troops. They also have a relationship with Cragclimber, a giant they keep on side with bribes of beer.
In HOTT terms I have six skeleton/zombie Hordes, two Dark Troll Warband, two Trollkin Shooters, a Homboboboom shaman Magician, a Dark Troll Hero, and Cragclimber who serves as a Behemoth in HOTT terms.
In TtS! I'm tempted to deploy all six elements of Zombies as a single, extra-deep element of Fanatic Warriors. As Fanatics they'll carry on hitting at 6+ regardless of disorder. As an extra-deep unit they'll take three hits before breaking. Both of these seem to me pretty good ways of modelling an almost inexhaustible supply of undead. The only problem is that with them being on 6cm square bases they won't fit into a single square.
The Dark Trolls and Trolkin I'm tempted to combine into a single unit. I might rate them as Billmen.
The Hero will probably serve as an unattached, heroic general.
I haven't yet given much thought to how magic might work in TtS! but if I was trying the Trolls now, I'd treat the shaman as Artillery (cannon). They're immobile, which fits with their circle-dancing Trollkin and stationery drummers, and can "shoot" at a distance.
Sartarites
In HOTT terms I have ten Warbands, one base of slingers hiding in bushes (Lurkers) and a couple of sylph Flyers. There are also some Duck allies; an element of Humakti warriors who I rate as Blades, a unit of Shooters, and a couple of young Ducks with slings.
The Warbands, double ranked, will form two units of TtS! javelinmen with two elements left over to create a Light Infantry (javelin) unit. One of the Warband elements has a clan chieftain and his Duck sidekick so I think probably an attached, heroic general.
The single element of Humakti Ducks I think will probably form a small unit of veteran Legionaries in TtS! terms. I'll also declare them to be "swimmers" despite their armour.
The Shooters can have their base extended and become a TtS! Light Infantry (bows) unit. Again "swimmers".
The same could apply to the single element of slingers.
Finally we have a pair of Sylphs which, in the absence of TtS! rules for aerial troop types could be treated as heroes.
Dwarves
Next to be completed were my Mostali. Three Blades, four Shooters (a mixture of crossbow- and gun-armed types) and a Hero make up the main battle line. The Blades could each form a small Legionary unit in TtS! terms. The Shooters would give me two units of Light Infantry (one bows and one handguns), while the Hero could be an unattached general.
The Cannon Cult are obviously artillery (cannon). And finally we have my Nilmerg, who's about to explode a load of barrels of black powder. Hmm, this one clearly needs further thought.
I'm being chased away from the Mac by my daughter now so the rest of the armies will have to follow later.
1 comment:
All sounds very interesting, Richard. If you need any figures to round up elements, please drop me a line; I have various odds and ends in the loft and might have a suitable "spare".
Re deep units, they just need to appear deeper than regular units, so you can do pretty much as you wish with them.
Best, Simon
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