This is the continuation of our battle report. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.
The main battle lines had made contact, the Empire line was wavering, and the emperor himself was fighting a challenge he was losing, watched hungrily by an entire horde of trolls...
Orcs Turn 4
On the eastern flank, the boar boyz charged in alongside the embattled chariots, but their arrival proved to be more hindrance than help as the Knights Panther, led by the grand master, carved apart most of the orc cavalry before they could strike a blow in anger. The few survivors immediately turned and fled, but were ridden down by the knights. The chariots also fled, however one turned straight into a rogue fanatic and exploded spectacularly.
Some rescue party. It's hard to find good help. I had hoped this combat might panic the orcs out of the tower, but it was not to be.
The halberdiers continued their futile struggle with the idol of Gork, and were rewarded for their tenacity by finally landing a single telling blow. The monster seemed surprised by this, and only flattened half a rank of the offending regiment due to the distraction.
I think the halberdiers actually won the combat this turn, but the rogue idol had no intention of running away, so it did them little good. Still, it was their best effort so far, and the thing only had like... 9 wounds left or something? It was mostly dead!
The squig hoppers had been making their way across the hill after their defeat of the war wagon, but now they spied a new target - the fleeing regiment of Ostland halberdiers, who were still running along, sobbing about the horrors they had witnessed at the hands of the black orc warboss. The squigs cared little for their pitiful stories, and bounded in amongst their fleeing formation, biting and tearing at anything that moved.
Ah, the horror! It bites! This place is terrible. We quit!
With the halberdiers having departed, it was left to the White Wolves to struggle on against the black orcs on their own. They pressed in, gripping their might cavalry hammers with grim resolve. The captain led from the front, but found himself face-to-face with the warboss with the terrible glowing eyes and axe. He grinned evilly, and it seemed that the brightness and malevolence of the glow increased...Seriously, he couldn't possibly roll a 6 for that axe again, could he? No? Only a 5? Oh, that's so much better...
The White Wolves fought with skill, but they did so as men who knew they were already beaten. They despatched most of a rank of the black orcs, but there were still plenty of them left. Fully a dozen knights were felled by the return blows, and the captain was dismembered in spectacularly gruesome fashion by the lunatic warboss. It was all too much for even the bravest knights, and they turned to flee.
The nerve of the White Wolves fails them, but they are unable to escape the pursuing black orcs, who roll double 6s. Of course.
And with a pursuit roll like that, they're sure to cause trouble in the backfield for the Empire.
The wyvern behind the Empire lines continued its mission of war machine destruction. The cannons by now had in fact wounded both wyverns, but left the riders miraculously unscathed. The warboss intended to keep things that way, hacking the crew of this machine apart and turning to face the rear of the crossbowmen nearby.
With this cannon gone, there was only one left. Unless you count the ones attached to the crippled steam tanks.
What? Don't look at me like that.
Having left the tower, the flagellants were just in the process of staggering together into some semblance of a formation when they found themselves under attack from a large mob of night goblins. They were also assaulted by a sudden bout of itchiness as a result of the shaman casting Itchy Nuisance upon them, in order to distract them.
I guess they have released their fanatics and had nothing else to live for, right? I mean what sort of lunatic night goblin regiment charges flagellants?
The night goblins did succeed in dragging half a dozen flagellants to their long-anticipated doom, but they lost more than twice that in return. Finally realising the folly of their plan, they turned and fled, hotly pursued by the flagellants.
Wait, come back! We have more dooms to tell you about!
The Teutogen Guard wait patiently for the inevitable demise of their crosssbowman companions, knowing they'll have their moment soon.
Back toward the Empire lines, the boar chariot spotted easy prey in the unprotected volley gun and ran over the crew unceremoniously. The orcs threw themselves at the crossbowmen with more enthusiasm than skill, and somehow managed to make hard work of their prey. The desperate humans managed to strike down a couple of the brutes with their knives, but for all their superior numbers, the orcs could only manage four victims in return. Perhaps emboldened by their pitiful efforts, the crossbowmen stood their ground, holding the orcs at bay!
Fair to say, this was not the result anyone was expecting. Even with their poor efforts with attacking, the orcs would have won combat by 5. But then they rolled double 1, so I guess it doesn't really matter how much they won by. Well done, brave crossbowmen!
The struggle between Karl Franz and the warboss leading the trolls continued. Deathclaw took another wound, but this time the emperor was rewarded for for his relentless swings of Ghal Maraz with a particularly telling blow to the orc's shoulder, which even his magical pendant couldn't deflect. The brute remained in his saddle, but it was clear he would not be able to withstand another blow like that.
And then there's just one more combat we care about for the turn...
Azhag the Slaughterer was having fun hurling Purple Suns of Xereus all over the place, but his blades hungered, as did his wounded wyvern. He needed something to Slaughter. The spearmen had unsportingly turned to face him, but the Grand Theogonist on his war altar had not. With a gleeful roar, he charged into the rear of the machine.
Volkmar the Grim hears a troubling noise behind him, and is forced to leave his handy pulpit to go and investigate what is happening back there. That goes poorly, but the machine itself is Stubborn...
Volkmar heard Azhag's approach and stepped around to face him, but the struggle was over almost before it began. Azhag's blades slashed through the air with shocking speed, and the one of the great leaders of the Empire fell. Skullmuncha set about trying to gnaw on the now driverless war altar, but found it not especially edible. Not that it really mattered; Azhag waited for the horses to bolt now that they had no driver to control them, but they remained steadfastly where they were, unconcerned by the demise of their master.
Scribe's notes:
Squig riders in the middle run over the fleeing Halberdiers (Empire centre), Azhag attacks rear of War Altar while the Orks on the far right and the Gobbo Spearmen rally, the Night Gobs flee.
Blue Fanatic on left blows up, yellow heads towards the centre and other Blue follows up the Boar Chariots. On the right, a Fanatic takes out a Flagellant while another Fanatic chokes itself on it's chain!
Orks 10 Magic dice, 7 dispel dice. Itchy Nuisance on the Flagellants and steal a Power Dice! Purple Sun cast but had no effect. Poison on the Night Gobbos facing the Flagellants was dispelled.
Doom Diver at the Steam Tank - skid marks and hits - 2 wounds. Doom Diver in middle misfires and takes out 3 Black Orks. Rock Lobber misses, spear chukka misses (out on right).
Deathclaw hits the Warboss - 2 wounds - while the Warboss does a wound on Deathclaw (Kar Franz a no-hoper again). Boar Chariot takes out the cannon in the centre and turns to hit the Emperor next turn.
Boar riders on the far left lose 6 to the Knights Panther and the Boar Chariots lose a wound to the Knights, while the Knights lose 1. The Boar Boyz are gone and the Chariots flee through the Blue Fanatic, losing 5 wounds and a Chariot with the other fleeing. The Halberdiers take a Wound off the Dark Giant, who kills 5 in return. Halberdiers stand. White Wolves combat the Black Orks, do 7 wounds against 12 wounds received, break and are run down (double 6 pursuit roll!).
Crossbowmen survive the Ork charge, inflict 2 casualties for 4 lost, and STAND! :) Night Gobbos take 14 casualties to 6 against Flagellants and flee. Flagellants 1 short of running them down! Azhag kills Volkmar but does not damage the War Altar which stands.
Empire Turn 4
The Empire right flank was pressing forward across the eastern side of the battlefield. The Knights Panther had reached the enemy backfield and charged the night goblins, who were now the last meaningful regiment in the area.
What's left of the Knights Panther looking to clear up the flank.
The night goblins hurled nets to entangle the knights as they charged in, and braced their spears for the charge. Unfortunately they found no way through the armour of their assailants, and a number of them were fell to lances and flailing hooves despite their efforts to slow the charge. The one-sided nature of the struggle was too much, and their line broke. They were unceremoniously ridden down as the cavalry carried on their charge, as was the fleeing chariot behind them.
The night goblins flee and are ridden down, along with the already-fleeing boar chariot.
The orcs had taken up residence in the tower some time ago, and it fell to the greatswords to try to dislodge them. They launched an assault upon the tower from all sides, ramming their long blades through any openings they could find as the warrior priest shouted holy encouragement. Eight orcs fell to their efforts, whilst only a couple of greatswords fell victim to their retaliatory blows. The orcs had certainly taken the worst of the exchange, however they were quite happy in their tower and refused to leave.
It will take more than a single attempt to remove the orcs from their lovely tower.
Nearby, the halberdiers continued their one-sided struggle against the rocky monstrosity as it waded into their formation, crushing yet another rank of soldiers. Still they steadfastly held their ground, whilst the Kurt Helborg and his Reiksguard continued to bristle their moustaches in frustration and edged their horses sideways in an effort to get around the roadblock in front of them. The wizard in their ranks had lost control whilst casting Wyssan's Wildform in a futile attempt to help the halberdiers, and the resulting explosion had wounded not only the Reiksmarshall and one of his knights, but the emperor's standard bearer Ludwig Schwartzhelm and the foolish wizard himself! Helborg was not in the best mood.
In the centre of the field, the demigryph knights saw the approaching black orcs and decided that they were needed elsewhere. They charged the boar chariot that had destroyed the volley gun, but when it fled they altered their path toward the trolls, but misjudged the distance and stopped short. With the black orcs looking at their flank...
The struggle between Karl Franz and the orc warboss finally came to a head as the emperor's relentless blows found their way past the orc's defenses and he fell with a frustrated gurgle. The trolls, many of them having fallen asleep by now, were startled awake by the resulting commotion, and the confusion was too much for them. They turned and shambled away from the triumphantly roaring griffon, with their retreat upsetting the horde of orcs nearby, who also turned and fled. Karl Franz resisted the temptation to run down his fleeing enemies, choosing instead to remain where he was to contest the critical high ground.
With the warboss dead, the trolls' leadership was too poor for steadfast to do them much good. Karl Franz held his ground to contest the objective, but also because his griffon was on a single wound and there was a night goblin regiment full of fanatics in his path.
The Teutogen Guard charged in to relieve the stalwart crossbowmen as they held off the waves of orcs, two of them fell as they engaged, but their hammers reaped a terrible toll. More than a dozen orcs were bludgeoned to death, and this was more than the orcs could handle. They turned and fled, but failed to elude their pursuers.
The flagellants continued their efforts to spread the good word about impending doom amongst the night goblins, but they continued to shout their lack of interest as they fled through the forest and the gaggle of war machines that were sheltering there.
No, come back! There is more doom for us to discuss!
On the western flank, the knights charged once more into the remnant of the black orcs, who had rallied right in front of them. Several orcs were impaled on the lances of the knights, however two knights fell to their great weapons, and the few remaining black orcs bravely held their ground.Not much left of these units at this point.
Brave black orcs. Die well!
Azhag was still hacking at the back of the driverless war altar when a hissing, steaming noise entered his hearing. He stopped what he was doing and leaned around the machine just in time to see a rickety, leaking steam tank bouncing and careening toward him! The thing crashed into Skullmuncha with devastating force, and the wyvern collapsed with an angry, pained hiss.
The steam tank managed to overcome the damage it had sustained in order to generate enough steam points to spin about and rush to the assistance of the war altar.
Azhag dropped to the ground and rolled away from his fallen mount as it collapsed, before launching himself at the steam tank and flailing futilely at its tough steel hide. Realising he was outmatched, and with the crown hissing panicked warnings in his head, he staggered about and prepared to flee...
Azhag lost combat, broke and ran...
Someone really should put a reversing beeper on this thing. It's unsafe!
...but his retreat was too slow for the reversing war altar, and he was ingloriously run over by a pair of horses without anyone steering them! The Orc and Goblin general was dead!
Scribe's notes:
Demigryphs charge Boar Chariot that flees; Demigryphs fail to redirect into Trolls. Teutogen Guard move up to support crossbowmen against the Orks in the centre.
Reiksguard shuffle left into the trees.Spearmen on the right move up to support the Knights Panther who charge the Night Gobbo spears.
Magic - 13 power dice to 11 dispel dice. Wyssans Wyldform goes off irresistible, the BSB and Helborg cop a wound each and a Reiksguard Knight pops! Other spells are dispelled.
Cannon shooting at the Wyvern (centre gun) misfires - out for a turn. Hellblaster takes out 3 Black Orks, while crossbows take a wound off the fleeing Boar Chariot.
Night Goblins net the Knights Panther and take 9 wounds for no casualties. The Panther's horses kill 2 gobbos, the Knights kill 4 and the Captain 1. The Gobbos flee and are run down, as is the fleeing Boar Chariot behind them. The halberdiers lose a rank to the Dark Giant but pass the Ldrshp test. Great Swords attack the Orks in the Tower and the Ork champ kills a swordsman while the rank kill another. The Great Swords kill 8 Orcs in return (52 left).
2 Teutogen guard and a few crossbowmen fall while killing 13 Orks, the Orks flee and are run down. Karl Franz kills the warboss on Boar, the Ork Boys fail Ldrshp and flee as do the Trolls. The Emperor restrains so as not to trigger Fanatics in the Night Gobbos behind the Ork Boar riders. Skullmuncher is killed while Azhag shrugs off a hit when they're run over by Noakes' Steam Tank. Azhag fails Ldrshp test after resulting combat and flees 3", to be run over by the War Altars horses in reverse! Quote: "The dumbest way to die".
End of Turn 4
No comments:
Post a Comment