Tags
Fantasy, God of Battles, Necromancer, Necrotic Tome, On campaign, TinPot Tea-party, Undead, Wargame, Wargaming
My fantasy campaign with Graham has been hotting up with our second battle taking place this week. The first scenario saw King Graham Ironfoot’s Dwarves holding the Hellmouth Pass against an outnumbering horde of undead minions, funneling them in to a bottle-neck and destroying them completely. In the second confrontation he sent out word to call all the Dwarfish clans to war…
Scenario 2 – Gathering the Clans
In this battle Graham and I deployed our 36 point armies on the table as shown. After deployment we rolled for the weather and with a heavy morning fog rolling across the field, battle commenced…
From the fog, ominous shapes can be dimly seen as they shamble forwards. The Dwarf crossbowmen hold their fire until sure of a good target…
From the howdah of her personal War Sphinx the Ghoul Queen urges on here fell minions…
The fog lifts only to be replaced by sleet and snow, further hindering the Dwarf’s advantage of ranged weaponry and as the Undead come inexorably closer the Clans desperately attempt to form-up to meet them…
Undead Cavalry sally forth from the horde to harry the left flank of the Dwarf battle line…
Suddenly the snows abate, the clouds part and the crisp morning sun shines down upon the host of walking undeath bearing down upon the Dwarven defenders…
Lead by the beautiful and deadly Kalee, the vanguard unit smashes into the Dwarf battle line, slaying the centre crossbowmen regiment to the last Dwarf and advancing on in to the resultant breach in the line…
The Dwarves retreat, desperately hoping to reform on the far side of the river…
Even the fearless and resolute Greybeards see the danger of being surrounded with the river at their backs…
However, they are unable to out-pace the fleet cavalry and decide that it would be better to die facing the enemy. With renewed courage they charge into the flank of the horsemen, smashing them to flinders!..
Inspired by his courageous brethren, the bear rider confronts Kalee. As the old Dwarven proverb goes “Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you!”. However, the heartless automata are unmoved by the destruction of their champion, and the bear rider’s victory is a brief one…
Meanwhile, The Ghoul Queen has problems of her own as the Dwarf secret weapon, Underminers, surface and attempt to overwhelm her. They are crushed under the tread of her mighty War Sphinx but the brief respite allows the Dwarf Sage to cast the ‘Skies Fall’ spell, slaying Necromancer and steed both…
With the fell Necromancer and her Champion vanquished the Dwarves make a desperate last stand at the water’s edge, hoping to stay alive long enough to watch the remaining undead crumble to ash once the last vestiges of the magic animating them bleeds away. Alas they are overcome and not a single Dwarf is spared.
Upon the carrion field
As the last sounds of slaughter abate, the Dwarven Clans are shattered asunder and the undead horde dissipates, leaderless they shamble through the land without direction. A Pyrrhic victory at best for the forces of Undeath, but there are plenty of practitioners of the Necrotic arts and always more material with which to work. Most important of all is to remember that you cannot kill death and villains are never truly vanquished…
Overview
A very tense and interesting battle for both Graham and myself, my early success can be attributed to the capricious weather which cloaked my approach nicely and saved me from a hail of crossbow fire for the first couple of turns. Indeed all seemed lost for Graham’s stunties, but he resolutely forged on and managed to deal me several terrible blows, not least the destruction of my Necromancer, the very linchpin of my whole army! The day saw final victory to the legions of Undeath but at what cost? The next instalment will see the Dwarves attempting to close the Hellmouth Pass for good as a brave holding force hold the Undead long enough for Dwarven miners to collapse the cliffs to either side.
