So another month and another challenge, this one was suggested by Simon “Blaxcleric” Moore and involves…you guessed it HOTT or “Hoards of the Things”. HOTT is a set of multiscale wargames rules published by the “Wargames Research Group” back at the start of the century (doesn’t that sound weird, when referring to twenty years ago!), the great thing about these rules is the fact that the armies involved are small and so relatively cheap (and as you all know I am cheap!!), this also means it should be perfectly possible to complete one of said armies in a month, and that is the challenge, complete one 24point (the standard starter army points cost) HOTT army in the month of September (or Hott’ember, clever eh? No? Well suit yourselves!). In fact I have already painted two HOTT armies this year, taking about two weeks from start to finish on each. But that was in “Lockdown” when I had plenty of time to sit and paint, whereas now I’m back at work so I’m not quite as confident as I could be, but we’ll see.
Now the army I have chosen to paint up for this challenge is the “Generic Barbarian” consisting of…
Hero general 4AP x 1 (3 figures)
Magician 4AP x 1 (3 figures)
Riders 2AP x 1 (3 mounted figures)
Warbands 2AP x 6 (18 figures)
Shooters 2AP x 1 (4 figures)
The scale we’ve chosen is 15mm, as this seems to be the most popular scale for these rules, though if anyone else would like to join
in you are more than welcome in whatever scale you prefer! (Please let Simon or myself know so we can link in to your Blog) The figures I’ve bought to make up my “Barbarian” hoard are from “Copplestone Castings” (as I’m sure regular readers will be aware Mark Copplestone is one of my all-time favorite sculptors) and have a very “Conan the Barbarian” feel to them, but I hear you ask why then are you not using the army list for the “Hyborian Northern Barbarians”, well this is simply because that list has a much less varied array of troop types (2 to be exact), and no Magicians, understandable when you consider Conan’s opinion of sorcerers! So not exactly canon, mine is a bit of homage to Conan rather than an exact depiction (and he had a magician friend in the films so I’m going with it!).
Please check out Simons excellent blog* to keep up with where he is up to with his army, and please remember to check up on my progress over the next few weeks.
Stay safe, and cheers Roger.
Rantings from under the Wargames table 
Sounds like a fun project Roger, always fancied a Conan based army based on Thulsa Doom and his warriors, just never did anything about it. Shall watch along with interest on what you guys get up to on this one
Thanks Dave, so many armies I’d like but have never done anything about too.
Could be the mantra of the gamer.
Cheers Roger.
Excellent post, Roger, and really looking forward to the HotT’ember Challenge. I’ve just double-checked my army’s points cost though as I simply bought it as a starter force and assumed it to be 24 Points. Like you, I have my eye on a second army too… if I can get the first one finished with plenty of time to spare. I’ve still got one more “Planet Of The Apes” post to squeeze in before the month is at an end though, so I’ll reveal all on Wednesday – as that’ll give me a day to get some priming done 🙂
Thanks Simon, a second army! I don’t remember saying anything about a second army, looking at the figures I have to paint I think I’ll be lucky to get one finished (besides I don’t have another army to paint anyway.
According to the rule book 24points should be the size of a starter army, so most of the “armies” for sale by manufacturers are 24points. Sadly Copplestone Castings don’t do HOTT armies so I have quite a few “spares”, so if you ever want to do a Conan based force let me know as I have a pretty good starting point..
Looking forward to seeing what army you come up with.
Cheers Roger.
Oooh, I get to see you knock an army out!!
Thanks Mark, but if you were paying attention I’ve painted two HOTT armies in the last five months, the John Carter on Mars one and the Elven one 🙄 really I’d don’t know why I bother sometimes!!!
😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁
Just kidding, Cheers Mate.
Well, maybe senility is here – or maybe you’re secretly my wife posing as a Brit with a blog and minis? Nah, she hates minis.
Cheers Roger.!
Trust me I am not your wife! Now please stop sending me flowers!
😉
Looks like a fun project/challenge. Too many models for me to do (of a single type) while trying to finish off the endless part-painted ones I have, but I do look forward to seeing yours develop!
Thanks Azazel, actually every model in the army is different, not sure if this is a goods thing or not to be honest😉
Cheers Roger.