Game: Hordes of the Things (HOTT)

Thread: Re: magician question for those who play HOTT

Ed_the_Red — 2008-05-09T09:18:18+00:00

Bespelling is done only by magicians, after movement but before shooting and close combat.

The relevant rules are on p20 of the version 2 rulebook. Bespelling costs two pips, so you have to save some from your movement. A second magician can support a bespelling attack; this costs 1 pip and subtracts 1 from the defender's combat total. There are circumstances where there are penalties to the magician's combat total e.g. casting a spell over running water or being too near a Paladin or Cleric. There are no line of sight requirements so you can bespell an element behind a wood, or even one which is already in a combat situation - in this case the magical attack is resolved first and could result in the target having to recoil (and thus not take part in close combat at all) or be destroyed.

Magicians cannot support a non-magical ranged attack (shooters or artillery). They can of course get stuck into close combat like any other element and fight, give supports etc without any pip expenditure. In fact they are quite good at this.

The combat outcome, as ever in HOTT, depends on the type of target element. Heroes and other magicians are magically ensorcelled and taken off the board (but could potentially come back - see p24). Most other elements recoil but some flee off the battlefield (Gods, dragons, lurkers) or flee (flyers, airboats, behemoths, sneakers). This is particularly effective against behemoths which take a long time to turn round and come back again!

A magician attacking at a distance through bespelling doesn't suffer any adverse results except when the target is another magician or a god. However don't forget that if the attacking magician rolls a 1 on its combat die, it becomes 'semi-frogged', and if it does it again, it turns into a frog! Again, it can return, as per other lost heroes and magicians.

Hope this helps!

You might like to join the HOTT mailing list /yahoo group which is full of jolly souls much more knowledgeable about HOTT than me. [url]http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/HOTT/[/url]

Eddy

Thread: Re: magician question for those who play HOTT

pigasuspig — 2008-05-09T03:56:46+00:00

I don't have the rules handy, but as I understand, a "spell" is just the magician's ranged attack. Special things about it:

It costs PIPs to attack.
No line of sight needed.
Penalty shooting over water
"Ensorcel" is a new possible attack outcome, which only happens to enemy heros (or maybe magicians too) and, rather than destroying them permanently, destroys them temporarily: they can spend 6 PIPs to come back into play touching YOUR stronghold, something of a risk.

I'm not sure about magicians supporting other ranged attacks.

Thread: magician question for those who play HOTT

Maleko — 2008-05-09T03:36:08+00:00

I understand the whole using PIPs to cast spells, but what does bespelling actually do? It seems as if there is 2 ways to bespell someone. One is supportive bespelling, increasing your modifiers by 1 or 2, depending on the river. The other is ensorcellment where you basically bewitch an element or hero or whatever so it gives them negative modifers. Can someone get me on the right page? Maybe I already understand and just need reaasurance :yuk: