Saturday 26 July 2014

The Clash at the Crags - Part Two


The Armies


The forces of Khorne (commanded by myself)

  • Dorrin Blissbane - Dwarf 10 Hero with Chaos Weapon 'Lustdrinker'
  • Melondil Nightnoon - Dark Elf 5 Hero 
  • Marta Hartmann - Human 10 Hero
  • Hermann Foerster - Beastman Champion
  • 7 Beastmen - Light armour and shields
  • 7 Skaven - Light armour, shields and spears
  • 8 Humans - Bows and light armour
  • 8 Levy Humans - Spears
  • 6 Giant Wolves


Dorrin with retinue and Marta leading the village militia


The retinue of Fergus (commanded by Fimm)

  • Fergus - Fimir 5 Hero with Chaos Weapon
  • 5 Fianna Fimm - Light armour
  • 6 Shearl
  • 10 Humans - Shields
  • 5 Witch Elves - Additional hand weapons and poison


Fergus & Co.


The Battle

Fimm deployed his forces facing in all directions around the slave pen in the middle of the battlefield, not knowing where they would be attacked from. I opted to set up on the long edges, happy to relinquish first turn in exchange for not having as far to go to get my objective of releasing the captive slaves.

The humans deployed all in one corner, confident that they could break through the Shearl. My pack of wolves and a single Skaven deployed on that flank also. The wolves were intending to attack the Shearl from behind or charge the humans, giving the ratman a clear run.

Dorrin deployed on the other side with the majority of the Skaven with the hope that this would allow me to get a flank charge in at some point.

Battle commences!

The first couple of turns were fairly unexciting, our units just jostling for position. The archers caused a couple of wounds on the Shearl unit, killing one of them and the Fianna Fimm lead by Fergus started chasing the much quicker Skaven around the cottage. Dorrin and his Beastman bodyguards slowly (3" move!) made their way towards the middle of the battlefield whilst the Witch Elves ran up the hill hoping to outflank the Chaos forces.

The first charge of the game was from my (Move 9) wolves engaging the humans. I had high hopes for this engagement as the wolves are competent combatants - but it was not to be. Fimm was even more confident than me and proudly declared that, as his champion was wearing a wolf pelt, they were hunters extraordinaire. Both my wounding hits bounced off the shields of the wild humans (Fimm rolled boxcars) and in return one of the wolves was struck down. It certainly seemed that Fimm was right!

The wolves were not prepared for this kind of resistance, broke off, and were run down with a single member of the pack escaping and fleeing the field.

The Wolves, enraged by the champion's choice of headgear, charge into combat

Hoping to follow up on this success the Shearl charge the spear levy and cut down two of the fearful humans. In return the spearman caused a wound (much to everyone's surprise) and Marta caused a further two thereby tying up the combat. The archers moved up to get a flank charge in case the combat dragged on much longer.

Marta puts her Fimir-clubbing skills to good use

However the combat didn't last long at all. The next round a further two Shearl fell without causing any casualties and the last one ran off. Marta held her forces back to save me having to reform them.

The survivor would go on to spend the majority of the game wandering around in a daze of stupidity as all the humans filed past in an effort to remain relevant in the coming fight now that their flank was all but abandoned.

Success!

With both enemy units on this flank distracted, the lone Skaven made it to the slave pen, opened the gates and formed the slaves up into what appeared to be a fighting force. However, unarmed and unarmoured they wouldn't be able to hold up against a real foe...

The freed slaves form up using the fence as protection...

... Which is exactly what they came up against as the Fimir's human fighters charged in. Buoyed by their success against the wolves they started cutting down slaves left and right. This was simply too much for them to cope with as they broke, ran and were almost completely dispersed after the Skaven that was leading them was killed.

Unfortunately for their pursuers, they just happened to end up directly between my Beastmen and Skaven. This was a rather short lived position as they were charged in the rear by the Skaven, panicked and fled. Not only that, but the Witch Elves were sufficiently unnerved by the unit breaking that they retreated from the battlefield completely. Result!

The humans would later rally again, only to be mercilessly cut down by Dorrin and his Beastmen.

... but they aren't really capable fighters

The Fianna Fimm charged the now out of position Skaven who chose to flee rather than face such an uneven combat. Then, at long last, the Beastmen closed in for the inevitable clash. Hermann challenged Fergus to single combat, but they failed to wound each other. General incompetence was in fact the theme for the combat as both sides caused only a single would each (not enough to kill a model) but the Beasts won overall due to their charge bonus. Fergus couldn't keep the Fimir in check and they routed, taking further casualties with even Fergus himself receiving a wound.

Hermann and Fergus go toe-to-toe

In the meantime, the lone Shearl - ignored as it was deemed no longer a threat - finally regained his senses long enough to charge the archers!

The Fimir manages to overcome his stupidity (briefly)...

The archers suffered a wound, fled and another of their number was hacked down as the enraged Fimir chased after them.

... but that's long enough to greatly inconvenience the archers.

Fortunately, after a few moments, they managed to recover their composure, turn to face their wounded pursuer and finish him off.

Back in the main battle, The Fimir recovered, reformed and bravely charged straight back into combat! This time Dorrin was the one to challenge Fergus to single combat. I felt pretty sure that he could handle a wounded Fimir hero.

As their Chaos Blades clashed there was a blinding flash of light and a piercing screech. Each of their weapons held half the soul of a Daemonette - Ripfondler - and them colliding was sufficient to weaken the magic that held her captive. The Daemonette materialised into combat with the Wolfman and slashed at him brutally, easily piercing both armour and flesh.

This ferocious assault took the Chaos forces by surprise and they were pushed back by the Fimir onslaught, two of their number going down for no losses on the other side. Dorrin rolled a trio of ones for his attacks this turn which didn't help either!

This wasn't to last however. The protective mist surrounding the Fimir had dissipated now that their numbers had dwindled. Blinded by the sunlight, they were not able to protect themselves from the vengeful Dwarf and his abhuman followers! Fergus and the Fimir were cut down almost to a man, the last surviving warrior fleeing the fight. I was unable to give chase however as the Daemonette was still locked in melee.

Ripfondler coalesces from the clashing chaos weapons

Finally it came to this. Ripfondler was surrounded, slashing out in all directions, desperate to be permanently freed from the runic bindings of Dorrin's axe.

But even with her supernatural strength and agility she couldn't outfight everyone. The poisoned bite of Hermann tore away a chunk of her arm, the warp-venom flooding through her veins. As she stumbled to the ground Dorrin swung his axe high over his head and struck the Daemonette in the shoulder, cleaving her clean in two! Her soul was ripped from her physical embodiment and dragged back into Fergus' and Dorrin's chaos blades, her corporeal form collapsing into a mound of sickly-sweet-smelling dust.

Dorrin strikes down the Daemonette, severing her soul once more

Victory for the forces of Khorne!

6 comments:

  1. Nice work. Captured everything succinctly and the pics look great. Next time Dorrin, next time!

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    1. I still need to work on my photography skills to be honest, a lot of them are still coming out slightly off focus. Practice will make perfect!

      I've just finished painting up the new additions to the warband, so part three will be up shortly. :)

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  2. Awesome battle report with great pictures and a very interesting array of models. A pleasure to read.

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    1. Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm hoping to keep the battle reports going as the warband grows. :)

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  3. This is awesome, I'm hoping to do some RoC gaming soon and I hope it turns out like this!

    All the best
    Ace

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    1. Thanks Ace, I really have to get on with playing more RoC as it's such a fun idea. Hopefully my photography will have improved since this report too...

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