Campaign Resources

The Political Map is in colour, but is a smaller file size, and for clarity it omits the city names and movement routes. Its main use is to keep track of the changing size of nations. This version shows the initial dispositions.

BATTLE SHEET

As a play aid, here is a quick reference battle sheet for Hordes of the Things. It is in PDF format so you will need a PDF reader such as Acrobat.

If you are a general HoTT player and not in the campaign, please note that this sheet incorporates certain house rules specific to this campaign which are not correct for 'official' HoTT. Mostly these pertain to victory conditions.

CAMPAIGN RULE UPDATES

1. NAVAL MOVEMENT (Effective from 29/3/02). I have made some changes to the way that armies can be moved by sea. These are incorporated into the v2.3 campaign rules that appear on this site, but if you have one of the original v2.1 hard copies that I gave out at the start of the campaign you should note the differences. The main change is that a nation can move only one (24AP) army by sea in any one season.

2. STRATEGIC MOVE PRIORITY. When I work out strategic movement each turn, nations move in a random order rather than simultaneously. However, following suggestions from some players who found themselves fighting the same battle in the same place season after season, the following was introduced effective from 1/4/03. If an army was defeated in the previous season, the army(s) that defeated it will automatically move before it does. This does not give automatic priority over other armies of that nation however.

3. MAXIMUM FORCE SIZE (Effective from 29/8/03). There is now a 72AP limit on the total value of a nation's armed forces. Also, at least half of the AP of a nation's forces must consist of elements with a value of 2AP or lower (this was always the case, so this is a reminder). This replaces the old 30 element maximum..
[The difference between value and cost is that the value of an element is its official cost as given in the 2nd edition Hordes of the Thing rulebook, as opposed to the campaign-specific cost given on your army lists. In particular the AP value of Knights and Riders is 2AP, although in most army lists they cost 3AP to raise. Also, making infantry mounted costs extra, but does not alter their value.]

4. HORDES (Effective from 29/8/03). All nations that have Hordes in their army list may now replace them if they are destroyed in battle at a cost of 1PIP, as described in the 2nd edition Hordes of the Thing rulebook.

5. CAPTURE OF CAPITOLS (Effective from 1/11/03). From the beginning of Year 12, Evil nations who capture the capitol of another nation (of any alignment) are no longer obliged to accept that nation as a vassal. They may always opt to to so on the turn that they take the capitol.

If a third nation subsequently takes the capitol, then it is obliged to accept the nation whose capitol it is as a vassal (unless the third nation is also Evil). A nation may at any time offer to become a vassal of the nation which is holding its capitol regardless of alignment / political restrictions.

BASE SIZES

A number of players have started building their own armies, but don't have access to a copy of HoTT. I would of course recommend that you go out & buy one, but in the meantime here is a quick guide to the base size conventions for 15mm figures.

All bases should have a WIDTH of 40mm.
Bases should have a DEPTH as follows:

  DRAGON, AIRBOAT - 60mm
  BEHEMOTH, ARTILLERY, MAGICIAN - 40mm
  GOD, BEASTS - 30-40mm
  HORDES, FLYERS, HERO, PALADIN, CLERIC, KNIGHTS,
  RIDERS, LURKERS - 30mm
  SHOOTERS, SNEAKERS, WARBAND - 20mm
  BLADES - 15-20mm
  SPEARS - 15mm

In general close-order troops like spears, blades and some shooters and warband should be 4 figures to a base (assuming human-sized figures). Loose order troops like knights and most warband and riders should be 3 to a base. Things like Heros, Paladins, Clerics, Sneakers and Magicians can be a single figure, or can be a group, depending entirely on your own tastes and conception. For most others it largely depends on how many figures will fit on the base.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q: Can I move my armies around during winter?
A: No. Winter in effect does not exist. Armies will fall back to the nearest province that they can spend Winter in, but that is all, and that is an involuntary move. You can re-arrange two armies that are in the same province, but no more.

Q: Can I break an alliance with a nation, and immediately invade them?
A: Absolutely not. You cannot take action against them until the turn after you break the alliance.

Q: What about if I break the alliance in winter?
A: No, they have to be given a full (order-writing) turn’s worth of warning if you are going to indulge in this sort of treachery.

Q: Why not? That spoils all my evil & opportunistic plans.
A: To make alliances a serious commitment, not to be undertaken lightly, and to discourage exactly this sort of petty backstabbing.

Q: Can a general move on his own?
A: A general can be moved from one element into another element up to 3 hexes away providing that there is a clear route through friendly territory. The receiving element can move to meet the general, but it cannot subsequently move and cannot be moved during the turn as if it had a general present. The donating element cannot move before the general transfers, although it can do so after. If it is attacked before the general moves, the move is cancelled. If the receiving element is too far away, or an enemy interposes itself, or anything else happens that interferes, the move is cancelled. The general cannot be in transit at the end of the turn; he is either in the receiving unit or he is still in the donating unit.

Q: In the official HoTT rules an army is defeated if it looses half its AP. In the campaign this has become a third of its elements. Why the change?
Early in the campaign I made it a third to speed up battles and to prevent nations being utterly devestated before they had a chance to do anything. I’ve now returned to the official break point of one-half of AP.

Q: Also, in the official rules Horde elements can be replaced in battle. Why can’t I do this in the campaign?
You now can; see Rule updates above.

Q: When will the campaign end? What are my victory conditions?
A: Assuming that everyone doesn’t get sick of it and give up, when one nation is acknowledged ruler of the world, meaning that all other surviving nations are either its vassals, vassals of its vassals, or allied to it and acknowledge its claim to victory.