HORDES OF THE CARIBBEAN

COLD WARS, 2008 Theme Game

I wanted to put on a game at Cold Wars, 2008 that was in keeping with the theme, Pirates, and used a DBx game. I also wanted to attract some new comers to this system so thought DBR too complex. Hordes of the Thing is very versatile so I settled on that for the game. This event will be on Friday afternoon.

There will be up to 4 players per side. These will be 4 pirate Armies against the Spanish. The latter will consist of 2 Regular Armies, 1 Militia Army, and 1 Army of native Indian allies. The game will have some special features such as lots of terrain and hunting for treasure. Armies have a few more than 24AP.

The Pirate Armies are each

Captain General Hero

Artillery

Beast (mastiff with handler)

3 Shooters

4 Warbands

1 Lurker

plus each Captain-General can select another element from Lurker, Flyer or Blade.

The 2 Spanish Regular Armies	The Militia Army	Indian Army
Knight General Behemoth (herd of oxen) Artillery 4 Shooters 2 Spears (half pikes) 2 Riders Lurker	Hero Spear General Spear Beast 4 Shooters 4 Hordes Lurker Cleric	Witch Doctor General Beast Shooter 8 Warbands 2 Lukers or a Flyer

I attach some pictures of a play test game, with only 3 armies per side

Overview of the game, pirates on right, Spanish on left. Lots of terrain, including 3 BUAs, marsh and woods. Some elements have found or captured gold.

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~abeattie/dbasum2005/caribbenhordes/overview.jpg

Close up of the center, Militia has pushed back pirates, Beast has recaptured gold from a couple of pirates. Pirates can find gold in the various places but lose it if destroyed in combat.

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~abeattie/dbasum2005/caribbenhordes/spancenter.jpg

Very close up of Pirate dogs (Beasts) taking on Indian controlled Jaguars (Beasts)

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~abeattie/dbasum2005/caribbenhordes/jagvsdog.jpg

In the heat of action, Dave climbs on the table to bring his pirates in combat with Spanish regulars.

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~abeattie/dbasum2005/caribbenhordes/davetable.jpg

A climatic moment in the game, as Jeff's shooters take on Steve's herd of rampaging oxen and defeat them soundly (overhead cam view)

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~abeattie/dbasum2005/caribbenhordes/topshot.jpg

A question arose among the players in this situation. Can the Militia beast cross in front of the pirate flyer to attack the Shooters in the flank? Do enemy flyers have a zone of control in front of them. They can be passed under, so some players thought they can be crossed in front of. There is space for the beast to fit and not contact the flyer.