BarnHott 2026 - Hordes of theThings Competition - The Riders of Rohan - a 15mm Hordes of the Things Army

 BARNHOTT 2026 – a 15mm Hordes of the Things Competition

It has been a while since I last updated this blog. 

If truth be told, I have been busy on many other projects – such as rules writing for Pendraken  (Blitzkrieg Commander IV, Cold War Commander II, Future War Commander II, the Spanish Civil War supplement 'Libertad!' and the Korean War Supplement 'Forgotten War'); having major heart surgery (!); retiring and then writing and getting my two-volume book on the Armies of the Khmer Empire and medieval South East-Asia warfare into print (via Helion & company).  

So, I thought I’d start off my new ‘blog engagement’ with a write up of this years 15mm Hordes of the Things competition, organised and run by Nick Pope at Lincombe Barn (the Downend Folk House Association) at Downend in North Bristol. Held on the 21^st June – a sweltering hot Solstice Sunday and Father’s Day as well (crowned off by a major gas leak in Bristol City Center that caused traffic chaos on my return journey home).

I’ve played in the BarnHoTT competition over a number of years and repeatedly enjoyed it, but it’s been nearly a year since I last played HoTT and I hadn’t managed to get-in any practice games ahead of the event at all, due to being busy on other things. Life can often get in the way of my gaming, even though I am now retired! With that in mind I chose to use one of my old ‘reliable’ old favourite HoTT armies, my Lord of the Rings ‘Riders of Rohan’ army (see list below):

The RIDERS OF ROHAN

1 x Knight General (Théoden) @ 2pts

5 x Knights (Rohirrim) @ 2pst (10)

1 x Paladin (Éowyn & Merry) @ 4pts

1 x Hero (Eomer) @ 4pts

1 x Magician (Gandalf) @ 4pts

Stronghold: Meduseld – the Golden Hall of Edoras

Alternatives*:

1 x Spears (Rohirrim townsfolk) @ 2pts

1 x Shooters @ 2pts or as Blades @ 2pts (dismounted East-mark Rohirrim) 

[* I didn’t use either of my Alternative unit options in the event, although that was a possible competition option]

The army in its full glory - there is an extra Rohirrim (Knight) and the two Alternative foot units to allow me a degree of flexibility, if required.

Théoden and his hearth-guard and the main Rohan battle standard - Knight General

Éowyn and Merry - Paladin

Eomer and his trusty retainer - Hero

Gandalf (Stormcrow) - Magician

The Rohirrim - 5 units of Knights (+ one extra for flexibility)

Meduseld – the Golden Hall of Edoras - Stronghold

My Alternative options - a unit of Westfold towns-folk as Spears, and the unit with the banner can either be a unit of Blades or Shooters (as dismounted Eastfold Rohirrim) 

The figures for the army are mostly various mounted Essex Miniatures ‘dark age’ armoured cavalry – including Normans, Goths, Lombards, Vandals, mounted Viking types etc. all with their cast spears replaced with pins or wire as lances (for durability) and painted up in a uniform green livery, on grey horses. It seems to work well. Théoden is a Gothic armoured commander from the Donnington Miniatures Goth range; Gandalf is a Splintered Light mounted wizard (he should probably be in grey to be ‘correct’ but I liked doing the white) and Éowyn is a lovely Essex Miniatures converted Viking mounted figure, originally with an armoured rider carrying off a maiden (with the maiden converted into Merry). The Stronghold is a resin casting (possibly by Timecast) of a thatched Viking or Saxon long hall, with flags and all banners (made from Sainsbury’s tomato-puree tube) added.

The army is strong on ‘hitting’ power but can be very vulnerable (as I was to find out) to enemy Shooters and Flyers. I had previously looked at replacing Gandalf with some Riders to add some flexibility and speed, but play-testing had proven that this just weakened the army, for no real advantage.

There were 10 players in this year’s event and the competition ran to 5 games between 10.00 and 16.00hrs, with a hot lunch break, included within our entrance fee. Also, with lots of space to play, free and easy parking, tables and standard HoTT playing boards provided, the venue was ideal. 

So, onto my 5 games.

Game 1. Greek Myth

This army consisted of:

1 x Hero General (in a 2-horse chariot)

2 x Knights (Centaurs)

2 x Shooters (Cretan Archer?)

2 x Spearmen (Hoplite types)

4 x Warband (Myrmidons, maybe?)

Stronghold: A Greek(ish) Temple

The set up: with the Rohirrim split up into 3 commands to attempt to pass the woods. Not ideal and it left Théoden exposed in the centre (which probably cost me the game).

I was the attacker and my opponent laid out the terrain, which was 2 x Woods and a Low Hill. The game started off well as I advanced across the table, between the woods in 3 groups, keeping Gandalf at least 6 UD's away from Éowyn & Merry (the Paladin) at all times. And managed to get my left-hand strike force engaged with the Greek mounted right wing, but despite repeated attempts at destroying the Centaurs, even with a couple of judicious flank attacks, and Éowyn attacking the Greek General in bad going, it was all to no avail, as the Greek General had previously made short work of Eomer, who recoiled into the same bad-going and was knocked-out, and then Théoden threw himself & a supporting Knight into the Greek Shooters and Spears, to avoid repeated fallbacks from their accurate archery, only to also be immediately knocked out in the fighting. Resulting in a speedy victory for my opponent. I only managed to kill a single enemy Centaur unit, by ganging up on it. So, a 6/2 loss against me, and a clean win for my opponent**, not a great start. 

The pivotal moment: where I could have won the game (but didn't), but the flanked Centaur unit (Knights) saw off both the attacking Rohirrim, and the Greek Hero General, despite being -2 for being in the Wood, fought Éowyn (& Merry) to a draw (I'll get my coat!). 

The death of Théoden: despite rolling a reasonable dice (4) it was just not good enough against the Greek shooters and that was the end of Théoden and the end of the game.

Learnings: I had forgotten how good Shooters can be against Knights, if they beat them in combat, and so sending Théoden in with only one supporting Knight was not a great idea.  Putting Eomer in against the Greek General previous move was a gamble, but I’d overlooked how close he was to the terrain behind him (a schoolboy error), and so it was the recoil that was his undoing. My enthusiasm to get out and deploy meant that my opponent was able to concentrate on one part of my army, as I maneuvered in ‘penny packets’ – always a mistake in HoTT.

[** who, went on to come 2^nd overall, so I can feel slightly better about this loss).

Game 2: The Spiders from Arachis Major

This army consisted of:

1 x Magician General

1 x Hero

6 x Beasts

4 x Hordes

Stronghold: a strange conical tower with a crystal on the top.

All the Spiders were helpfully colour coded to allow easy HoTT unit type identification.

At set up: here we see the Spiders, fighting on home territory and the Rohirrim with a solid line in the centre and a flanking force out on the left. In reality all the work of defeating the Arachnid hordes was done by the main body of Rohirrim, Théoden and Gandalf .

The battle in full swing: here we see Eomer and Éowyn (& Merry) pinned by two Spider 'Beasts' (top left), whilst bottom right Gandalf is beset all about by Spider 'Beasts', that he eventually destroyed, smiting them with his staff left & right (in true Tolkien style). In the centre, Théoden and the Rohirrim are making short work of the Spider 'Hordes' (marked in red) whilst the Spider Queen (Magician General, with her fetching florescent yellow knees) and her Hero (light brown colour) hold back to look for a weak point to strike.

Again, I was the attacker and so I was forced to advance across the table between gaps in the terrain, with two bits of Impassable, 3 of broken ground and a wood. However, I wasn’t going into the bad going and my arachnid opponent chose to advance out to meet me. The fighting was hard and bloody, but the combination of a firm frontage of Knights, Théoden and Gandalf took down the Spider hero, and some Beasts and finally the Magician General went down to Théoden (to recover his bruised honour from the first game), to give me a decisive 14/0 victory.

NB: dead Generals and captured Strongholds were tallied up to act as tiebreakers.

Learnings: this was the Rohirrim at their fighting best. The combination of Théoden, Eomer and Éowyn (& some excellent combat dice) gave me the edge I needed, and the Spiders being Beasts (Foot) meant that their defeat in melee to the Knights generated devastating outcomes.

Game 3: 1 Corp, Anglo-allied Army (de Woelratten) – e.g. very cheesy Dutch Water Rats (apparently). This was a very innovative army – with an emphasis on cheese and rats! It was also my own army’s worst nightmare to face, consisting of:

1 x Aerial Hero General

2 x Flyers

1 x Airboat

1 x Artillery

3 x Shooters

1 x Water Lurker

Stronghold: a Dutch Windmill on a large round cheese box

[In fact, the whole army had a very cheesy outlook, with both the Flyers and the Airboat being represented by various smoked or soft Dutch cheeses!]

At set up: This was my terrain  choices (hmmm, what was I thinking!), but in reality with 4 flyers any bad going, unless it had been 'mountains' or 'skyscrapers' wasn't going to do me much good anyway, and at least the 2 pieces of Impassable on the flanks were of no use to the 'ratty' shooting line either. But you can very clearly see the cheesy theme with the flyers.

Despite being the defender this time and laying out a Wood, some broken ground and two pieces of Impassable, I was well and truly thrashed. Shot down by Artillery - Eomer crying that the “time of Heroes was passing!” as he had his mount shot out from under him and then Éowyn charged the same Artillery, seeking revenge, only to be gunned down herself! And the final straw was Gandalf (who had failed to ensorcel the rat Aerial Hero General, riding high in his Orange balloon) succumbing to a multiple assault by the general and his 2 supporting flyers! (I’ll get my coat). So that was a miserable 12/0 defeat for Rohan.

Learnings: So, what, if anything, could I have done differently? Against the ratty flyers my only answer was my 3 ‘court cards’ (Paladin, Hero and Magician) as I have no Shooters of my own and even Gandalf has his limitations. Attacking the Artillery and Shooter line, had distinct overtones of the Charge of the Light Brigade @ Balaclava about it, but they were my only targets on the ground. Had Gandalf been lucky with his spell against the ratty general, all might have been very different, but even then, it was the structural weakness with my army (against this opponent) that played against me. Onwards and upwards … hopefully.

Here is the Dutch Ratty army, fighting on home-ground against a Purple 'Aliens' army. You can see the Windmill Stronghold clearly, plus the marshy ground to favour the use of the Water Lurker (rats in a boat) of which there were quite a few across all the competing armies this year.

Lunch – a very nice hot pie was provided, along with water, and copious amounts of tea/coffee was available throughout the day. There was also a number of tables laden with club-members and participants items to sell – although I managed to restrain myself as I am offloading my own surplus at present anyway.

Game 4: Viking Myth

As it implies this army had a distinctly Norse flavour about it, although there were (thankfully) no Norse Gods to blight the proceedings. The army consisted of:

1 x Blade General

3 x Blades (assorted Viking types)

1 x Magician (a suitably pagan looking Shamanic figure - possibly Copplestone Castings)

2 x Heroes (lovely Copplestone Castings barbarian types)

1 x Flyer (a Valkyrie of course - possible another Splintered Light model)

1 x Beasts (a pack of Wolves)

Stronghold: I am not sure what this was, as it didn’t make an appearance.

Terrain at set up: This was me defending again, with the idea being that as I was moving first I would get to the central 'gap' between the Wood (right) and large bit of Impassable (left) ahead of my foe and fight on a reduced frontage to favour my Knights. Well ... it partly worked ... although the enemy Wolf Pack in the Woods did cause me some delay, until Gandalf worked out the right anti-Canis lupus spell.

I was defending, but in my post-lunch excitement failed to take any photos (other than the original terrain layout), but the game went my way, after a rather difficult start where the Wolf Pack succeeded in blocking the only route through the terrain for Gandalf and half of the Rohirrim. However, Gandalf waved his staff and ‘blasted’ the Wolves out of existence, but by then the game was all over on the other flank, where the combination of Eomer and Éowyn (+ Merry, of course) were dealing swiftly with the 2 (unnamed) Viking heroes and a unit of Viking blades (Huscarls one assumes). To give me a 12/2 victory (I had lost 1 Knight to the Viking Blade General).

Learning: making better use of Gandalf’s ranged shooting was a necessary lesson, as the Wolves, lurking in the Woods were not going to be an easy target to remove in hand-to-hand combat. Also, the winning combo of Eomer, Éowyn (& Merry) and Théoden – in a supported line, with the Knights is a formidable fighting force.

NB: my opponent went on to gain 3^rd place overall.

Game 5: Davy Jones’ Locker

This was another really innovative army, by Owen, consisting of:

1 x Magician General (Davey Jones)

1 x Behemoth (a Kraken – what else!)

1 x Airboat (the Flying Dutchman)

1 x Beasts (hordes of rats)

1 x Shooter (Pirates with long-firearms)

4 x Warband (other assorted Pirate close-combat types)

1 x Water Lurker (Sirens – who never came on-table as I put down no water features)

Stronghold: Davey Jones’s Locker

All beautifully presented and painted, with the Pirate crew from Peter Pig and the Kraken a vintage Ral Partha 25mm model:

Airboat: the Flying Dutchman - made from a Games Workshop 'Dreadfleet' model (photo taken whilst it was fighting in another game).  

Stronghold: Davey Jones's Locker - made out of more GW 'Dreadfleet' parts

The game at set up:

The game at set up: with the Riders of Rohan at the bottom of the picture, with Eomer and Éowyn (& Merry) out on the right flank, facing the pirate crew and the enemy stronghold. From left to right, the Davey Jones army was - the Flying Dutchman, a host of rats, the Kraken and then Davey Jones himself, supported by 4 Pirate crew warband  (deployed in double-depth) and Pirate shooters out on the right flank. Until the Flying Dutchman had been 'seen-off' by Gandalf, the rear rank of Rohirrim was there to stop a potential rear base attack on Théoden.

I was the attacker and moved up quickly into the attack on two fronts. Leaving Eomer and Éowyn (& Merry) to move rapidly up the right flank towards the Pirate Crew and threaten the enemy Stronghold, whilst the rest of the army (with Gandalf on the far left) formed a line across the centre and the left. Once Gandalf was in range, he started throwing spells left right and centre, which did some damage (destroying the Flying Dutchman) but ultimately his attack on Davey Jones himself, led to Gandalf being ensorcelled (sitting as a frog in front of an advancing swarm of rats!). Once again, the dynamic duo of Eomer and Éowyn (+ Merry) did the serious damage to the main enemy battleline, destroying all 4 Warband and the Shooters. And at about the same time Théoden dealt the death blow of killing the Kraken. Taking my opponents army well over its breakpoint. I had lost Gandalf (still ensorcelled) and a lone Knight (defeated by the Kraken) to take the final scores to 17/6 in my favour.

Learnings: making use of Gandalf’s ranged spell shooting early on, particularly against the Airboat was the right thing to do. Plus setting the the killer combo of the Hero and Paladin to make short work of the Pirate Shooters and Warband was a real clincher, along with not getting ‘tempted’ to move on the undefended Stronghold, when there were more Pirates to be killed.

Conclusion:

And that was that. I had 2 defeats and 3 wins – two of the wins were significant and one of the losses was catastrophic, but I came 4^th overall in the end – which I was pleased with, as I was very rusty to start with but slowly got my eye back in. Proving that I just need more practice games. My dice were pretty even throughout, but Heroes and Paladins are also very forgiving, as long as they fight the right targets. The combo of a Paladin and a Magician can be off-putting to some, but as long as you can keep the two far enough apart if the Magician is casting spells, then you are ok. I have previously played all 3 of my 'court cards' and Théoden in a single close combat battleline, and that has worked, but when the Magician's shooting works it can be game changing.

Here are a few other random shots of other games in progress. Where I can identify the armies they are labelled.

Here is Davey Jones's Locker in action (attacking left to right) against a defending and very traditional looking Morannon Orcs (by the looks of things), with The Flying Dutchman trying its 'round the beam' tactics. You can get a good view of the Kraken here and some rather nice Orcen (or should it be Orcish?) shield patterns.

This shot shows the Greek Myth army (right) defending, fighting against Davey Jones's Locker - which looks to be in a rather depleted state!

The Morannon Orcs take on the Purple 'Aliens' swarm.

The Morannon Orcs take on the gothic horrors of Clarke Ashton Smith - one would assume that the Orcs were not affected by anything nasty or spectral thrown at them.

Keith McGlyn came 1^st, winning the event with his fantastically painted and highly imaginative army based upon the fantasy/horror works of Clarke Ashton Smith (a bit like Lovecraft but gorier – or so I am told!).  The event was sponsored by Alternative Armies, and Keith went away with a very nice new Alternative Armies 15mm HoTT army to add to his collection.

Here is Keith's Clarke Ashton Smith army (left) defending against the Spiders of Arachis Major. I just love that 3D print mushroom forest and the mausoleums.

So, another BarnHoTT is over. Thankyou to Nick for organizing it and for keeping it on the circuit. As always, I leave the event planning to build and paint up new armies to play HoTT with, and I already have many (many) unpainted HoTT armies in my collection (of course). HoTT is still my all-time favourite set of wargames rules. I must have been playing it for c.40 year+ now and still marvel at its simple sophistication. I am also overjoyed that it is not being repeatedly ‘fiddled with’ or ‘tweaked*’ – as that is totally unnecessary IMHO. Maybe by next year I’ll actually follow-through and paint some new armies for BarnHott 2027, instead of just planning to do so !!! And have a few more friendly games along the way. Maybe we'll see some of you there competing as well?

[*Although we could do with ‘sorting out’ Sneakers – maybe – most probably definitely!]