Lessons from Hel Fenn

A massive game of Warhammer like this, with several players and huge armies, takes a lot of effort to put together. 

Well the battle is over, the report is written, and it's finally time to step back and take stock after the Battle of Hel Fenn (actually, I started writing this article weeks ago, so by now it is well past time for us to take a look back). This was the most ambitious thing our gaming group has ever tried to do, and to be honest it's resulted in the largest (at the very least, the longest) battle report I've ever seen. I'm delighted with how it all worked out in the end, and as a whole I would say the project was a success. However, there are always things to be learnt from an exercise like this, so I thought I'd take a look at what went right, and what could be done better in the future.

Guest Post: Writing a Battle Report

For all that I wrote up and posted the final turn of the Hel Fenn battle report today, it is now the better part of 2 weeks since the game itself was played. During this time I had a number of people regularly querying where I was at with the report. One of these people was Owen the Puddingwrestler (from over at Terrain for Hippos). I think I must have snapped at him at some point about giving me time to get it ready, because he took it upon himself to write the following piece for me, to help explain why it is that these things take a little while to prepare. If you're a little baffled by the hippo references, head over to his blog and all will become clear. Or infinitely more confusing, depending upon your state of mind...

Writing a Battle Report

A lone hooded figure sits crouched over the dim light of a laptop screen in the dead of night; completely still save for the fearful flickering of his fingers over the keyboard. Occasionally he lets out an insane giggle. He is watched by a silent mass of small, grey hippos, all waving banners bearing messages of support. Every now and again, a woman will come over and place a supportive paw on his arm or offer him a glass of Coke. A child is pushing a Thomas the Tank Engine around his feet. Outside, fiends and wild creatures howl and batter at the windows, demanding that the manuscript is completed at once. The figure types on, doing his best to blot out the gibbering of the creatures outside.

He is Greg the Hoodling, and he is completing a battle report.

The Battle of Hel Fenn, Part 6 – The Final Turn

This post is a continuation of the 20,000pt Hel Fenn battle report. You can find the parent page containing links to each turn here.

Oh dear...

Vampire Counts, Turn 6: Another one bites the dust

Vampire Counts, Turn 6

A more detailed map can be found here.

The Battle of Hel Fenn, Part 5

This post is a continuation of the 20,000pt Hel Fenn battle report. You can find the parent page containing links to each turn here.

Vampire Counts, Turn 5: Here Comes the Sun

Vampire Counts, Turn 5

A more detailed map can be found here.

The Battle of Hel Fenn, Part 4

This post is a continuation of the 20,000pt Hel Fenn battle report. You can find the parent page containing links to each turn here.

Stirland MASH: The Halberdiers tend their wounded upon the hill behind the front lines.

Vampire Counts, Turn 4: The Fall of Stirland

Vampire Counts Turn 4

A more detailed map can be found here.

The Vampire Count lines swept ever onward, encroaching on the defensive positions of the enemy and in places threatening to overrun them. Mannfred could smell the fear of the enemy cattle, and knew that panic would soon start to spread. All it would take was a little more pressure in the right places...

The Battle of Hel Fenn, Part 3

This post is a continuation of the 20,000pt Hel Fenn battle report. For the other turns, head to the parent page of the battle report here.

Along the lines in turn 3

Vampire Counts, Turn 3

Vampire Counts Turn 3

A more detailed version of the map can be found here.

The Battle of Hel Fenn, Part 2

This post is a continuation of the 20,000pt Hel Fenn battle report, part 1 of which can be found here.

Turn 2 under way

Vampire Counts, Turn 2

Vampire Counts Turn 2

A more detailed map can be found here.

Black Knights and Coach to the front, Spirit Hosts to the flank: All in a day's work for an Ironbreaker

The host of the Vampire Counts was advancing rapidly, and already bitter hand-to-hand fighting was erupting up and down the line of battle. The Ironbreakers on the left flank hunkered down behind their shields and braced as Black Knights and a Black Coach crashed into their front, whist a Spirit Host rushed at their flank and howled as their ghostly talons tore at the Dwarfs' armour and weaponry. Though 4 of the Ironbreakers succumbed to the onslaught, the unshakable courage of the comrades showed through and they held their ground.

Fell Bats charge the Dwarf Flame Cannon

The Battle of Hel Fenn, Part 1

A 20,000 point battle report

Setting up took a while

Count Mannfred Von Carstein surveyed his lines as the last of his troops lurched into position. All was in readiness. Turning, he gazed out from the edges of the fenland and across the plain beyond, to the hills on the other side. The remnants of the cold morning mists lingered over the marshland, however he could still make out the shapes of the enemy soldiers as they prepared for battle. His foes also appeared to be ready... Or at least, they thought they were ready.

Mannfred smiled evilly to himself. His enemies thought they had him cornered, at the end of a long and brutal war. For a long time now (years, in fact), he had been making a fighting withdrawal and they thought his strength to be spent. But they had followed him all the way into Sylvania – the seat of the Vampire Counts' strength – and they had no idea what awaited them. The surface of the fens was still, betraying no hint of the restless dead waiting to obey his will. The foolish human cattle thought they had his match today, but he had more than enough forces hidden to change all of that. Once he had dealt with this alliance of Dwarfs and men, there would be little strength to repel him when his legions ventured forth once more. This battle would be the beginning of the end for the vulnerable Empire.

---

Count Martin von Kristallbach stood behind the lines, conferring with his captains and Kallad Stormwarden, the leader of the Dwarf force that stood side-by-side with his own Empire coalition. Kallad was visibly impatient, constantly tensing his grasp on the haft of the axe at his side. Martin understood his eagerness – finally he had the chance to face the Vampires that had destroyed his kin and hold – Karak Sadra would live on in the Great Book of Grudges and the hearts and minds of the Dwarfs, but its people were all but gone. After years of fleeing, Von Carstein had finally turned to fight – a mistake they did not intend to let him live to regret.

The Empire right flank was still a hive of activity, despite the relative calm across the rest of the line. The cavalry arrayed there were late arrivals – the Grand Theogonist Kurt III himself had arrived in the early hours of the morning at the head of a strong contingent of Knights. He had been pursuing Mannfred since besting him at the siege of Altdorf, and his arrival did much for the Empire cause. With his newly bolstered forces, Martin was confident that he finally had the strength available to put an end to the Vampire menace for good.

The thud of hooves announced the approach of a knight in heavily gilded armour, his visor raised to show a dark and grizzled face. “I am Markus Leichhardt, master of the Order of the Divine Sword,” he introduced himself with a curt bow in the saddle. “Herr Count, I place my men at your disposal. We came as soon as we heard that the abomination Gothard the Undying was in the enemy's midst. We mean to put an end to him for good.”

“You and your knights are most welcome, Master Leichhardt,” Martin acknowledged him with a nod. “Reports do indeed put the Wight Lord Gothard at Von Carstein's side.” Beside him, the Dwarf Kallad growled at the mention of the accursed vampire's name. Martin turned to look at him as he continued, “there are many here with a debt to settle with the undead host. I'm sure we'll all get our chance soon enough.”

Even as he spoke, the air over the enemy lines crackled with unnatural lightning, and the deafening peals of thunder that followed all but covered the sound of the undead army as it began its advance. “In fact,” said Martin, “it seems that time is now upon us. Everyone to your posts, and may Sigmar be with us.”

Hel Fenn - coming soon...

Hi folks!

For those of you waiting impatiently for the Hel Fenn battle report, I apologise. The New Year period has been a bit busy and this battle promises to take a long time to write up, if I want to do it justice. Sorting through about 700 images (and culling blurry and irrelevant ones - a symptom of having at least 5 people taking photos) is a bit of work, and then there's the writing and the maps... Rest assured, I will get there. The end product will probably come out on a turn-by-turn basis, as it will be too big for a single post and it might get things online a bit quicker. I hope to have something online before the end of the week. Time will tell exactly how much.

In the meantime, here are a couple of images to help tide you over...

Another full army shot

It's become a habit for me to take a photo every 6 months or so of my Empire army, to show how it has progressed. It's been about 6 months since the last shot, so I figured it was time once more, as the new year approaches.

Unfortunately the photo is not exactly a work of art. I was about to pack up the army into cases so that I could move it in preparation for the Hel Fenn game, and was a bit pressed for time. I still hope to get better at shots like this, but I really need to give myself more time if I want things to turn out properly. The green in the corners is me blotting out all the junk I had sitting in the background...

My Empire army, which is getting pretty big by now.

Planning Hel Fenn

The artwork for the Battle of Hel Fenn, as found in the Empire at War source book

I've written a number of times about my intention to recreate the Battle at the Gates of Kislev, and how this is one of the driving forces behind my continued efforts in painting my Empire army. It's a long road if I am to get the army to the size I want, and the game has now been a long time coming. Discussing this with my friends, we came to the conclusion that we needed some sort of stepping stone rather than simply going all-out at some ultimate and still far-distant target (after all, the Kislev battle is meant to be the largest ever seen in the Old World). Thus we started to consider other, more achievable targets for the near future. And we came up with a plan. We would recreate the Battle of Hel Fenn.

I suspect most Warhammer players will have at least heard of this battle, even if they don't know all the details. Indeed, as with all such "historical" encounters in the game, the actual details are a bit vague, and tend to conflict depending upon where you read them. But there are some basic details that are consistent, and those are what we shall work with.

Hel Fenn came at the end of more than a decade of conflict known as the Winter War, in which Mannfred Von Carstein had invaded the Empire with his undead army and unsuccessfully attacked both Marienburg and Altdorf. Pursued by a combined army of the Empire and the Dwarfs, Mannfred eventually turned to fight at Hel Fenn, within the borders of Sylvania. In the ensuing battle, Mannfred met his demise at the hands of Count Martin of Stirland, and his army was destroyed.

Depending upon which version you read, there may have been High Elves present as well, or the Archmage Finreir may have been using his great powers to assist the allied forces from afar. Some accounts have the Dwarfs arriving late to the battle, and likewise some of the Empire army, including the Knights of the Divine Sword.

Mannfred was eventually cut down by Count Martin's Runefang, however you would normally expect a Vampire to be able to handle a mere human general. Martin's triumph may have been caused by Mannfred's exhaustion from controlling a vast army of the dead in the field, or it may have been brought about by the intervention of a third party - a rogue Vampire named Jerek Von Carstein, who had once been Grand Master of the White Wolves (other accounts state that Jerek was never raised into undeath, and his corpse was found at the foot of cliffs around Middenheim, drained of blood).

As you can see, the variety of accounts leaves things a bit open to interpretation. We'll be keeping things relatively simple, as there will be enough interest in the game due to its sheer size. The game will be 20,000 points per side of fully painted models, making it one of the largest games I've ever heard of, and it should make for quite the battle report. 

The models will come from 6 different owners and involve a variety of colour schemes, which largely dictates the unit types and sizes that will be used. I collated what we had available and arranged it into usable forces, which should help things work on the day. One point to note in this battle is that it was in the year 2145 - some 150 years before the formation of the Colleges of Magic. As a result, the Empire army contains no wizards.

Below is the "player pack" that we will use for the game. It will be taking place on the 30th/31st of this month, so this is no long-term pipe dream - it's happening in less than 2 weeks...

Owen has been busily preparing terrain specifically for the battle, and has also found time to whip up the logo you see below: