Hog

Hog is a sport played predominantly (but not exclusively) by the Dominion. It involves moving a pigskin ball stuffed with horsehair and a large central pearl into the enemy team's Endzone.

### Teams

There is commonly one Hog team per settlement, with inhabitants proving fiercly loyal to their home teams.

### Rules

* The currently inactive team’s rolls must be beaten, not matched.
* The away team flips a coin at the beginning of the game to determine possession, though they can defer it to the home team to start off in the second Half.
* The team with possession is allowed their turn first.
* Offence sets up their positioning first, followed by defence.
* Combat is allowed and expected. When a player strikes an enemy the enemy retaliates immediately after on the same turn. Regular flanking rules apply, with the exception that any movement while engaged, even if the moving party remains adjacent, requires an action be forfeited.
* The Pike takes possession of the Hog. The opening move of a round must be a backwards pass. Players can pass forwards if they are behind the line of scrimmage, backwards and sideways if ahead of it.
* The Hog can be received by anyone without the use of an action. Handoffs can be performed by anyone at the cost of their action. Adjacent enemies all get a chance to stop the pass, rolling Nimbleness against the passers nimbleness to swat the hog.
* Allies can be moved through. Unconscious enemies can be moved through.
* The Hog is “down” when the ball touches the ground, this can be accomplished by swatting the Hog, knocking a player prone and knocking a player unconscious. Possession then goes to the opposing team and the new line of scrimmage is established, starting a new round.
* When swatting the hog, a roll is first done by the defending player, then the swatter attempts to beat it. The defender must make a new defending roll for each swatter.
* Before the snap, members of each team receive the benefits of a 6 hour rest, healing by their Toughness or Tenacity attribute score.
* When a player ends their turn adjacent to an enemy they are engaged. Once engaged, a player is stuck on that tile unless they choose to use up their action to disengage. Two or more enemies results in receiving opportunity attacks.
* There are 4 rounds in a Half and two Halfs in a game. Tie games are settled by a brawl in the centre of the field, the last man standing’s team is declared victorious.

### Hog players

There are four different positions in Hog

* Pike: Leader position, strong, tough.
* Guard: Enforcer position, strong, tough.
* Flank: Coverage position, all-arounder.
* Cav: Runner position, quick, nimble.

A Hog player is drilled to perform a variety of tasks

Movement: 3 tiles (Cav is the exception with 4 tiles)

### Strategy

There are 3 main considerations a team captain must keep in mind while playing Hog.

* Engagement/ Movement
* Flanking/ Damage management and
* Teamwork/ Positioning

#### **Engagement**

Hog players are trained to restrain nearby players on contact. Ending a turn adjacent to an enemy player will result in both players becoming engaged with each other and stuck to that tile.

   E.g.

The players in the first image are unengaged.

The players in the second image have become engaged.

\*A player can become adjacent to an unlimited number of enemies during their movement without becoming engaged, all that matters is if they end their turn adjacent to an enemy, then they are engaged.

Engagement reveals itself to be a major factor when a player attempts to break said engagement. Breaking engagement incurs a penalty on the moving player relative to the amount of enemies they are breaking away from.

E.g.

The player in the first image broke from one enemy, they will lose their action.

The player in the second image broke from more than one enemy, they will both lose their action and incur an opportunity attack from the strongest player they broke from.

The player in the third image has broken from three enemies, they will lose their action and incur an opportunity attack from the strongest enemies equal to the amount of enemies they broke from minus one (the minus one accounts for the weakest enemy the player loses their action too).

Remaining unengaged is an important consideration for the team with possession of the Hog, as it allows for both free movement and the ability to execute an action. Remember to take into account the distance enemies can cover when positioning your team, a player is at his most useful unengaged.

#### Flanking

Combat is a major part of Hog, much of the training your average player receives is devoted to bringing harm to the enemy team and for good reason; a wounded team is a vulnerable team.

The main way to ensure your team takes less damage than the enemy is to make extensive use of flanking.

E.g.

In the first image, no one is flanking anyone, so no one receives an advantage in combat. It would be advisable for nobody to attack in this scenario.

In the second image, the player has managed to set up a one-man flank on the enemy’s left Guard. Attacking this flanked unit (with the flanking Guard and the Pike) would result in the player taking less damage in retaliation, resulting in an advantage in combat. This is an example of efficient damage management.

In the third image the player has managed to set up a three-man flank by positioning his players at angles greater than 90 degrees from one player called the anchor, in this case the red Pike is acting as the flank anchor. This is extremely efficient damage management as every additional man in the flank results in a weaker retaliation from the flanked enemy (in this case, the left green Guard and the green Pike).

Hog is a balancing act. Some teams focus primarily on beating the enemy team to a pulp while others focus on fakeouts and intricate runs, the most effective and well-rounded strategy is usually a combination of these two doctrines.

#### Teamwork

Teamwork is paramount in Hog. Here are a few scenarios that highlight its importance.

**Defence**

This situation is self explanatory, which team would you prefer to be defending as here? Red has no holes in its line, each player has backup and cover on at least one of its sides. The only real way to attack it is to get behind it and attack the wedge on its sides. Whereas green has holes everywhere as well as lone players that could easily be flanked and overwhelmed.

**Grounding/stealing the Hog**

The first image depicts a green Cav about to score a point, the red Cav has to either incapacitate the enemy or successfully swat the Hog from the enemy’s grasp, an action he is not likely to succeed as the player has to beat the enemy’s roll, not simply match it.

The second image depicts a player that has managed to position his players close enough to engage, allowing the red team three chances to swat the Hog or an increased chance to incapacitate the green Cav.

**Blocking a pass**

The first image depicts a green Cav about to pass to a friendly Flank and a red Cav about to receive his free attempt to block the pass. The red Cav is likely to fail his block however as he must beat the enemies roll.

The second image depicts a player that has managed to position his players close enough to engage, allowing the red team three chances to block the pass.

\*catches can also be blocked.

As in real combat, there is a choice that must be made between balancing wide coverage and tight local superiority. Sometimes the day is won by a lone Flank hiding behind enemy lines, sometimes it is won by blasting a 5 man wedge through a gap in the enemy’s defences. As always the answer is usually somewhere in between.