Elvish Retaliation

After the slaughter of the elves, the elvish king summoned Telor the Hippogriff rider to his court and begged him to take command of the counter-offensive. Telor was a controversial choice with a very mixed record of victory, defeat and running away, but the king knew that Lomsec, his trusty wizard would be there to take over if things went wrong. The elvish army set out and met the invading beastmen. The elvish army is Telor on his mighty Hippogriff, Caradryan the the hero and Lomsec the level 20 wizard. They command 5 silver helms and 16 warrior kindred armed with spears.

Telor, warrior kindred, silver helms, Lomsec in the background.

The beastly army is led by Zorn the chaos knight, Bazor the Beast Hero and Malagor the beastly shaman. They lead 4 mounted chaos warriors and 15 beastmen. Both armies are 1500pts.

Beastmen, then chaos warriors.

Elves on the left, beasts on the right. A magical tape
measure sits in the foreground.

Turn 1: The elves all advance. Lomsec casts a lightning bolt that kills three hideous beastmen. Malagor the beast shaman casts a fireball that slays 1 silver helm. Magic missiles are mighty indeed when they disallow armour saves!

Turn 2: Lomsec really earns his keep with a mighty lightning bolt that destroys 4 chaos warriors and wounds Zorn. Zorn charges into the elf warriors and challenges Caradryan to a duel. Zorns mighty frostblade easily sucks the life out of Caradryans soul, but the press of warriors is enough to force Zorn into a rout.

Caradryan lies still, a frozen husk.

Turn 3: Telor swoops after Zorn on his hippogriff, chasing him right off the battlefield. The Silverhelms fight the beastmen, pushing back and forth with no one able to get an advantage. Lomsec casts Cause Stupidity on the beasts, but they shrug off the effects.

Turn 4: The warrior kindreds and Telor charge into the beastmen as they fight with the silverhelms. The beasts fail their panic test and are all quickly slain or fled.

End game.

In all, a decent fun game, although it took as long to set up as it did to play! Lomsec was the most important warrior, single handedly destroying the beasts best unit.

The Lightning Raid of the Beasts of Chaos

After several years of quiet, trouble is brewing on the northern borders of the elf kingdom. A terrible storm of multi-coloured lightning and thunder that sounded like the bellowing of mad giants tore a hole in reality, allowing the beastman Malagor, Zorn the Slayer, and their fiends of chaos to launch a raid of the peaceful elves. Lomsec the magician and Duranbar the Hero set forth to defend their green valley.

Malagor, center, commands his minions to cross the bridge of joy.
Mounted chaos warriors on the right, a herd of beastmen on the left.

The elvish defenders do not arrive in time to block the bridge. Archers
on the left, warrior kindred in the center, silver helms with Duranbar on the
right. Duranbar has a mighty Hell-Honed Blade that can cut armour like wood, wood like it
was cheese, and cheese like it was some icky smelly gooey specialty cheese.

A 1000pt battle. The chaos army was not terribly chaotic with only a few minor mutations, none of which affected the battle at all.

Turn 1: Zorn leads his chaos warriors in an uncontested crossing of the bridge. The silver helms attempt to charge them, but fail and end up disordered for their effort. This was not good. The arrows of the archers bounce harmlessly off the chaos warriors heavy armour. Lomsec rushes forth to attempt a steal mind spell on zorn but it fails.

Turn 2: The chaos warriors charge the disordered silver helms, easily routing them in their disordered state. They flee, but all the other elves keep their cool. Zorn gleefully pursues the elves, slaying every silver helm himself. The beastmen crossed the bridge in an orderly fashion, much to the disgust of Malagor who prefers chaos to order. The archers continued to rain accurate archery on the chaos warriors, but failed in every case to penetrate their armour. Getting desperate, Lomsec casts steal mind on Zorn with all his remaining power - and succeeds! Zorn stares stupidly, his companions lead his horse by the reins.

Turn 3: The beastmen charge the warrior kindred spearmen, and fight them to a draw. The archers, undaunted, continued to shoot the warriors, and finally killed one! The foolish warrior had raised his visor to scratch the wart on his nose.

Turn 4: The chaos warriors charged the warrior kindred in the rear, causing the elves to fail their panic test and flee. At the this point the gods took pity and ended the game to prevent the wholesale slaughter of the remaining elves. Total victory for chaos.

The end, right before the elves fled in panic.

A fun, short game. I haven't played warhammer in over 2 months, so I spent my day off re-reading the basics of the rules and had a go.

The attack on Urgal and the terrible Oliphaunt

Dear Gaius:
Oh fickle hand of fate! Oh cruel mistress of fortune, who raises us so high then smites us down! I hope this letter reaches you friend Gaius, though I be deep in the territory of the dreaded Gothians. Following our triumph as related in my last missive, our hero Julius Crassus struck deep into the heart of Goth territory, the goths refusing battle until we threatened their city of Urgal, but pride cometh before the fall as those heretical Christians are wont to say. I will get straight to the point, and hope my misery can be salved some what.

Our Roman cavalry faced off against half the gothian cavalry which sat atop a hill. Our legions and artillery were to the left, faced by the remainder of the gothian horsemen. But wonder to behold, the Gothians had an armoured oliphaunt amongst their force! No one has seen one of these beasts in generations, and it was thought the king of the east, Antiochus Nicator, kept them all for himself, never to let them out of his own army. Yet this beast was clearly crewed by soldiers of the Eastern king. Worrying enough without all the other bad news. Our cavalry on the right flank fought the gothians and had the worst of it, yet the greatest disaster was to befall our left flank. The gothian cavalry charged our legion and many men were slain on each side, until the gothians were forced to retire, but before they had slain almost all the men of Julius Crassus legion. The oliphaunt advanced steadfastly, and even a squarely aimed stone flung from our catapult failed to halt the monstrous creature. Julius Crassus bodyguard untimely fled, despite our leaders protests. Seeing this, our artillery crews fled as well. Our remaining legion fled immediately once the oliphaunt came within striking distance.

Our valiant legions fight hopelessly against the Gothian horde,
while the dreaded oliphaunt approaches from within the
town of Urgal.

So there you have it, a shameful defeat indeed. The army is in tatters and withdrawing rapidly back to the river Kwai and the bridge at St. Marks. Perhaps I will see you soon, dear Gaius.

I remain:
Flavius Flachus

Julius Crassus gets revenge

Dearest Gaius, how very different are the circumstances of this letter than the last! I trust you will be the first to hear the glorious news, I am entrusting the letter to my nephew Trebonius, himself carrying the official dispatch from Crassus himself.

As you will no doubt recall, after Julius Crassus unauthorized and disastrous attack on the Gothians his honour was at an all time low, and some whispered that the emperor may imprison him - or worse. All will be forgiven now, I can assure you!

Julius Crassus mustered what was left of his army, and called in every favour from every client he possesses. He put together a large cohort, and even 300 cavalry! The gothians were brought to battle near a small hamlet and its fields. The Goths held their line back, with a catapult firing from atop a hill, and a ballista shot at our cavalry skewering several with each volley. Julius ordered his 120 archers to take and hold a small wood from which they could fire at the catapult, eventually slaying its crew. Meanwhile the legionarii and cavalry advanced steadily. The cavalry was slowed down by the hamlets fields, yet they advanced never-the-less.

Our cavalry in the foreground advance through the field, while the
cowardly gothians wait while their siege machines do all the fighting.

At this point - Gods be praised and glory to our general Julius Crassus! - the Gothians nerve failed at our relentless advance, and they fled without a blow struck. Their general managed to rally them back to the battle, yet when our legionarii and cavalry charged they fled once more, this time for good. Our cavalry lost 23 men and our archers lost only 14, all due to Gothian artillery.

After a mighty victory like this, their is only one thing a true roman could do...advance and conquer! Much glory to Rome and her mighty legions.

Truly, friend Gaius, words cannot alone express Romes glory so here I will end this missive, young Trebonius is saddled and impatiently awaiting my finishing this letter. So without further ado, good luck and glory to Rome...always!