The Marines of the Hardenburg fleet, shipwrecked off the coast of Tilea and unable to get home to Hardenburg by ship (since the river aver was blockaded by Nuln and Bretonnia), marched north through the haunted forests hoping to break through Southern Sylvania and march west out of the dread lands and back to their city without further mishap at the hands of the Obsidian guard...
This game was the first part of our possible finale battle (If it was tennis you could call this game my Advantage). I had a force consisting of 2550pts. I would have to march it from one short table edge to the other short table edge, simple... However each turn D6 crypt ghouls would be generated from each side of the board. When they arrived they could charge and act normally, also I said that they could ignore terrain penalties. Whatever I managed to get off the board I could use in the next game, but anything that was killed I couldn't. In the next game the vampire force I would face would be composed of 2250pts of Vampire counts, so their hope was that the ghouls did more than 300pts worth of damage to me as I advanced.
Having been reading maybe a bit to much Black powder (by Jervis johnson and Rick priestly), I chose to form a brigade square as used by the British in the Sudan. Suprisingly it looked quite solid actually! I positioned all the Infantry and heroes in the centre (all the squishy stuff), together with my "landship" stegadon and my limbered up cannon (basically the cannon was now a chariot with the crew as its drivers). I then positioned the greatswords as a kind of rearguard with the three Knightly units as a Vanguard, they could probably all deal with the ghouls. I realise however that ever since kasos I have become much less protective of my Outriders as this time I positioned them as Flank guards. You see if I was charged in the flank I was fairly confident that my stand and shoot would deal with any ghouls.
The garrison commander looks out from his watchtower at the Square marching towards the safety of his camp.
The Vampires went first and an event I had not expected shook up my morale a bit. Six ghouls flank charged one of my knights units and manage to kill one of the kathars but also took a casualty in return. That was bad odds!
With my formation severly broken up I did my best to repare the situation. The knights, now fairly confident of defeating the ghouls, turned to face them and were immediatly blessed by Morr with his own hammer and shield. My knights then made a Brake for the Garrison, riding out front with the limbered cannon (which was seen as pivitol in destroying the terrogheist Wrackjaw). The outriders and landship then made their way onto the infantry's right flank with a smaller block of horse on the Left. The greatswords then slowly made up the rear.
Killed: 1 knight
Having wiped out their previous opponents and reformed to ride next turn, the knight's kathar took yet another flank charge from five more ghouls. But this time Morr seemed to protect them and not a single knight was slain, however they were forced to reform to face the ghouls.
The four previously generated ghouls then charged my Border princedom knights, but failed to slay one. However this tactic of striking the knights rather than the outriders was working well for the ghouls.
My turn saw the Black bear knights and the limbered cannon make it very near to the garrison, however they were now in the open and un protected, we just hoped that the ghouls wouldn't charge that far. The Landship and Outriders then threw up a line in front of the newly arrived crypt ghouls, forcing them to either flee or charge the outriders. The blocks of infantry were still quiet safe and the knightly units seemed bound to finish off their ghoulish foes before they could brake through.
However the Ghoulish turn went bad for the men of the empire! The ghouls charged the outriders on the right, but suprisingly only two were killed by the stand and shoot. The remaining two rushed into combat... however they were all killed and not a single outrider died. For the border princes however the ghouls, though they slew them all, proved a bit more trouble and managed to take down another knight. The Stegadon to was charged but made short work of its foes.
Killed: 2 knights
The March now kept going, appearing to be going very well. One of my knight units and the Cannon was alomst in the protection of the Garrison.
Some little Ghouls however were still following the Hardenburgers...
With the sucess of their previous charge against the outriders (or the lack of stand and shoot casualties) they charged in and took no casualties from the gunners. They then proceeded to kill a few of the outriders to no casualties on their own part. The outriders bolted and the Ghouls tore them to pieces as they ran, before overrunning into the knights.
Killed: 2 knights, 5 outriders
The Knights Kathar were again bogged down in combat with more ghouls, but Morr was definatly protecting them and they easily threw them off without mishap.
Having got the knights of the black bear and the great cannon to safety one could well say that it was looking up for the empire... but th delay caused by the ghouls had ssverly slowed us down and left our formation in makeshift shape, also the Ghouls were now coming on thick and fast, pushing their way in and the Kathars were now stranded out at the back of the formation.
Killed: 2 knights, 5 outriders
And in yet another grizly combat two more border princes died and the rest bolted the way they had come! The ghouls had now prized open the formation and could set about ripping apart the soft centre!
Killed: 4 knights, 5 outriders
The whole formation was almost off! Things were getting tense as Boris Johannes atop his war altar and the Knights Kathar kept the tide of ghouls of the flanks and rear of their men.
But the border pinces were still fleeing. If they fled off the other board edge they were counted as dead, however if they managed to stay on the board then I could use them as reserves in the later game.
Yet another ghoul charge also happened and with the death of another Outrider they to bolted, but Boris quickly reigned them in and sent them back towards the watchtower.
Killed: 2 knights, 6 outriders
With the Stegadon and 30 halberdiers off the table and the 30 peasants off next turn there was not much time left for the ghouls to cause mischeif... But then st. domonic accepted a ghoul's challenge... foolish boy
...he was defeated and ran down soon after, a sad day for his comrades. His wounds were so great that there was no way he could join them in the coming battle. The ghoul then overan into the archlector who's soul fire blasted the undead creature to pieces!
Killed: 2 knights, 6 outriders, 1 warrior priest
And with that the battle was ended. The forces of the Empire had escaped. Killed were some 2 knights, 6 outriders and 1 warrior priest, the border princes had by now rallied and would arrive as turn one reinforcements... Now for the final battle... the Battle of Ghoul Glade as it would come to be known...
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