The Outcast Army

Figures slinking through the brush were masked by the darkening sky and cloaks camouflaged with browns and green. The clothing they wore hardly resembled shirts or pants, but seemed to be extensions of the woods themselves. Light did not show the bright fair skin of their elven heritage, it was dimished by mud and concoctions devised specifically to conceal flesh from the eye. They stole from shadow to shadow, unseen to any that were unaware of their presence, even other wood elves, creeping to the bodies of the fallen sylvankind. These fallen wood elves were part of Lord Hannibal’s host. The scouts hoped to find some of the missing men and women alive.

A man stood silent, further back from the scouts, his waywatchers. Black armor of leather sheathed his entire body, a black cloak billowing behind him in the cold sea wind. His dark brown eyes surveyed the scene before him with placidness, the ire that roiled behind them reserved for someone else. Several companies of the forests best archers scattered or fell today, the result of a brilliant charge by a smaller unit of errant knights. The rest of his forces failed to commit or were harried by battlefield confusion. This impart to the misdirection of one Highborn elf. The elf arrived early in the morning, just before the battle and caused havoc among the ranks with regards to the battle plan. Sent by arrogant lords and nobles of Athel Loren to right what they believe Hannibal was wronging. With his crazed machinations for the battle the original plans were shattered as the fighting reered its ugly head. This caused the day to be fought to a draw with Lord Rincewind’s forces, and the death of the Highborn himself.

“I never liked him much anyway,” commented Hannibal as he looked down at the lifeless body of the elf. To the elf lord's credit, he fought and slew a great number of knights, before another contingent ran him down. Hannibal’s black charger pawed the ground beside him, snorting her dissatisfaction. The man’s hand patted the hard flank of the horse. “Easy, this was not our mess, but I am afraid it is now.”

“That is right.” A voice came from behind him. The lighthearted voice of Princess Ilyara felt diminished, burdened with grief, “There is more bad news.”

“To achieve victory the “lords of Athel Loren” needed a much greater victory.” Disgust lined the words as the man spoke. “With such a loss of force we will not hold all of the ground we took, and I am willing to wager the item our illustrious nobles wanted so badly, is not what it appeared to be.”

“Right, right, and right again.” The elven maiden nodded slowly, with still more to come. The man said nothing, letting her speak instead of talking for her as he usually did. The news she needed to tell him next affected everyone that was left in his army and it was hers to bear to him. She took a step closer, her smaller frame dwarfed behind him. ”We are being blamed for this failure. We are outcasts now, unable to return to Athel Loren on pain of death, even hunted by some of our bretheren.” Her voice started to crack, the pain she must feel from all ties being severed from her home and family was something Hannibal was unable to share. He was still a man, and she an elf princess, but he knew she might be lacking in that title for remaining loyal to his army. She said we, Hannibal knew full well it was his burden to bear and rightfully he should let it fall upon him. A smile crossed his lips that she did not see, but he would not let her loyalty go unnoticed.

“Much of our rear forces are intact. They maintain a heavy presence along the forest that is growing. The range of the chaos relic we found did not manage to taint it and our casters concealed the vile magic as best they could. I sent runners to everyone loyal to you to rally there.”

“Princess.” The man interrupted her. She stopped immediately, lowering her head as if to receive more punishing words.

“I am not a Princess anymore,” she said so softly the wind almost carried her words away before Hannibal could hear them.

“Princess Ilyara,” he started again his voice much softer than before. “Are you hurt?” His head turned and he adjusted his body to look back at her. She stared up at him, her silvery eyes shining happily at his effort to show her the respect he knows she deserves.

“I am fine, perfectly fine, my Lord.”

“That makes me very happy,” he said. “I was worried.” With a motion of his hand he indicated the blood of men and elves splattered across the field, and the fallen lord at his feet. His face looked much harder now, his mind set to the mission of survival. He lifted his slightly, and let a smile creep back to his lips. She moved closer and let him embrace her tightly. With a hand he wrapped the cloak around her and started to walk away from the lonely field. It was warm inside the heavy material and she took comfort there, knowing that harder times lie ahead.

Wednesday's Social Event

This Wednesday's gaming event will be held at my abode. I, Don Raphael - Inwood Ranger and scoundral extrodinaire and my wife The Duchess of Kentuckiberry, will play host to a miriade of avid game players.

Now cutting to the chase, a bunch of my friends will be coming over the 14th to get in on some gaming action. We are taking a small break from Rysm's Dungeons and Dragons game to play some warhammer. I will be playing Rysm in the final scenario of our five battle campaign. This will start around 4pm so we can be well into the game as the other players arrive.

For a fluffy version of the battle, see the previous post; for a general run down, keep reading. The battle takes place in Mousillon, well inside the borders. The elves mission to seek out a powerful slumbering relic and claim more territory for the forest seems almost complete. The defenders valiantly continue to bring the elves to battle in an effort to send them packing from their realm and claim it once again. The score sits at 85-10 pts, Wood Elves (me) with 85 and the Bretonnians at 10. The 100 point mark needs to be reached for the campaign to be successful for one side. If the Wood Elves march to victory, they should reach 100 points.

That being said, the elves relic is of questionable background. It is quite possible the relic may be of chaos origin. In light of this news, some wood elven units may be unhappy with the path the elves are taking and join against the effort on the side of the Bretonnians.

In another light, many knights have lost their lives bravely at the numerous battles against the wood elves. Some defeats stung much deeper and left many knights dead or severely wounded. A few knights have offered their flag to the wood elves, on the stipulation that Lord Rincewind be brought to justice for his flagrant waste of the Lady's knights.

Now back to the rest of the gaming night. Several of our friends, who we play D&D with, are coming over. Two of them will be learning Warhammer Fantasy on the Battle for Skull Pass. Rysm and I will be assisting, once our game is over, in their knowlegde of the game mechanics and rules. We also may try to get a small game in if there is time.

After the Warhammer Fantasy we will be moving onto a separate Pathfinder RPG game hosted by our friend, Finkle. This game takes place in the world of Pathfinder and may take parts of the adventures built by the creators of Pathfinder. I will be playing a dwarven fighter for this game. A dwarf is a step out of my usual comfort zone of playable races. I usually play a character I think I would like to play, dwarves usually do not fit into that category, but I think I've found a character I may enjoy using. I guess we will see after I come back and post how it went playing him.

That is about all on the list that is on the docket. There will be some Xbox 360 action and who knows what else might pop up into existance. I'll recount the story after the event.

A Battle Approaches

This part of the forest was deathly quiet. The hour was late, the moon and stars masked by heavy clouds and the earth pitched into a deep darkness. Through the thick undergrowth and misshapen trees shone the only light. A few torches and small fires surrounded a small clearing. The flicker of the fire cast unsettling shadows from the twisted and bare trees.

Several sentries, undetectable without the keenest eye, kept vigil hidden from view of anyone unlucky enough to stumble upon this place. Their elven hoods were thrown up and bodies camouflaged with pieces of the forest. In the midst of the clearing stood two individuals, one much larger and broad than the first. Beside the tall man stood a heavy black charger, pawing the soft earth anxiously. The smaller woman, an elf, beside him watched the hole carefully.

"I don't like it." the man said at last. "Nothing about the forest feels right, are you sure about this relic?"
"The Spellweaver and lords of the forest seem sure enough. That is good enough for me to come to this place." she replied. "Why, do a few gnarled trees and shadows put you on edge, Lord Hannibal?"
The man clenched his jaw, considering the area around him a moment before replying, "No, they do not, Princess. What might come out of this ground does." He finished speaking and hefted himself up into the saddle of the charger. The princess looked over at him, unwillingly to express unwillingness to remain in this part of the forest alone. It was Mousillon, as the humans called it, and who knows what they might find. It was suppose to be a lost artifact to return to Athel Loren, but she felt, skeptical.
"Going so soon?" she started to say and tried to devise a method to keep him here.
"Yes, any moment your scouts will be coming to tell you Lord Rincewind is preparing for battle." Lord Hannibal indicated with a hand at a figure slipping through trees towards their position.
"Again? These humans are most frustrating, they must breed like orcs!" The princess turned to intercept the elven runner.
"Yes, but if they were orcs they would have killed Lord Rincewind by now, and elected a stronger leader." Hannibal added pointedly. "Unless Lord Rincewind is strong enough to behead them first, and thus remain in power."
Princess Ilyara frowned and was glad they did not have any other such armies to contend with. The scout rushed up to her and knelt.
"My lady, I bring word of an approaching host of Bretonnian knights." the elf finished between breaths.
"Rise my brother and send another to carry the word, we assemble for battle." The princess moved beside Hannibal and shifted into a wolf. The man looked down at her and smirked, "Not staying to watch the dig?" The wolf snarled and rushed off into the forest, followed closely by the black charger.

Warhammer Fantasy Campaign Battle 4 - The Panty Raid(Camp Assault)

The Great Panty Raid was named for the fourth battle of this Warhammer Fantasy Campaign. Between my Wood Elves and Lord Rincewind's Bretonnians. The theme of this battle was to out manuever the opposing army (most likely at dawn or dusk) and attempt to gain the advantage by ravaging the enemies camp. Since I am partial to female characters and elves, and Lord Rincewind had a damsel (and hopefully a couple others at camp haha) we decided to jokingly name this the Panty Raid! Successfully winning the battle would yield lacy plunder to the opposing force! Here follows is my account of the battle.

















Above is my armies deployment. Pay no mind to the pegasus knights with my Warhawk rider, she is rather stubborn and thinks she can make mounts of them, she always manages to kill a knight with shooting more than 50% of the time so I don't argue. From Bottom picture to top We have (left to right)


(Sorry about the retardedness of going from bottom to top, the blogger moved them all around and this the third time i've changed the writing to try and fit the pictures!!)


My highborn (lord) Alter kindred with Bow of Loren, Arcane bodkins (no armor save) pageant of shrikes, and briarsheath.
3 warhawk riders
10 GG
Waywatchers deployed in the open more than 12 in away from his army (was gambling here)
GG in the forest
Noble with GW, Helm of the Hunt (HoTH), and Hail of Doom Arrow (HoDA) Alter kindred
8 wardancers
Treeman
Dryads
6 Wildriders coming out of camp still carrying win
and farrrr to the right the 5 glade riders.

I wanted to free up some points in this game for another GG unit so I dropped a character. My branchwraith did not come, so I was very light on magic. I knew, and hoped, my friend would be light on the magic. He never uses much of it and I was banking on him taking one damsel to my one level 2 spellsinger (yes I took a level 2 while most would argue take a level 1 instead to save pts)

I rolled treesinging first and i was unahppy because I would have to accept call of the hunt if I rolled it next. I rolled Ariel's Blessing instead, manageable to cast on 3 dice. I took one scroll - didnt need it he never cast anything - and a deepwood sphere. I kept the SS in a wood with the GG knowing he would charge and they would flee out, if he got in the wood he would suffer S5 hits on any model in the wood with my SS, even partially, in my magic phase - plus I could cast treesinging to damage him.















Above is his deployment, Bottom picture to Top one (left to right):
10 Peasant Bowmen (PB)
5 Knights Errant (KE)
10 Skirmishing bowmen
10 more PB
5 Peasant Yeomen infront of the bowmen
9 knights errant (I think)
8 Knights errant with Paladin BSB in it (starting the left of the right picture now)
4 horrid, wretched, dirty pegasus knights (PK)
Lord on a pegasus behind them, just getting his lazy butt up out of the mud.
Trebuchet behind the PK
5 Grail Knights (GK) with damsel level 1 - Lord of Life spell that heals wounds to models.
and of course, the required KoTR unit, who says it needs to be big? Just needs to be, and it is that at 5 models.

Now starts the battle.

















Bottom picture is my first movement of my left flank. Glade riders didnt make it out of LoS of the PB and take 3 casaulties on his turn and actually flee back behind the WR. His other shooting is negligible. On my right flank (bottom pic) I fire away with 20 GG, HoDA that only rolls 5 shots, Waywatchers that moved just within 15 inches of his PK to shoot for Killing Blow (KB) 3 warhawk riders fire, and my Highborn fires at his GK killing 1 (lucky 2 Ward Saves). After all the firing he had 1 PK left and I was happy with that because that unit bugs the heck out of me.

On his turn he charges out at my Waywatchers (WW) with his Lord, Pegsus Knight, and Grail Knights - my Waywatchers flee, and I hoped they would roll just over a 6 to get out of flyer range, they rolled an 11 and ran all the way behind the Wardancers. His flyers had to move full distance and are out of position, his GK stop at 8 inches. This is shown in the picture below

He moved his KoTR to cover chargers of the GK or PK I think, moved his KE on the left to charged my GG and turned his other KE w/BSB to cover his peasants incase i charged them, foolishly, with my Wildriders or dryads. Next round I dont have pics for but I charge his lord with myWD - they fight and lose in challenge but hold. Then lose when charged by his GK, flee and are caught, his PK goes down to firing and a few more GK are picked off by my lord off picture, my Warhawks fly out of LoS of his 5 KoTR and line up the Trebuchet for a charge. WW fail to rally and flee 10 inches, almost just off the table edge.

Hext his KE charged my GG, they flee and his unit stops just infront of the woods, darn! His BSB KE unit charges my treeman, who is sitting just to the left of this picture in regards to the KE unit and Peasant Yoeman base showing.

I take a play from his handbook and challenge the paladin so the rest of the unit can't hit. We do no wounds to each other! I lose combat, need an 8 stubborn and roll a 9, get run down. There goes the treeman, to his defense he has never broke from the many combats he has fought, so it was inevitable and set his BSB unit up perfectly to receive my WR flank charge and Noble rear charge.















bottom picture is my warhawks murdering the dreaded Trebuchet, in the right hands of someone who guesses guess range weapons like the devil, this is deadly. I am just glad I dont have a horde army and when it does scatter it misses! It didn't manage much this game, and I didnt give it chance. The "Pegsus herder" killed 2 crew, no wounds back, and outnumber sent them packing, I hoped to roll high enough to get off the board and away from his KoTR and I did, see you next WE turn!

In the top picture is my left flank, his right. My dryads charged his PW and wiff, killing one, he fears me but has more models and hits on 6's instead of running. Go figure he manges to kill 1 and outnumbers me. I roll over the 7 I need and my dryads run!! OMG tree forces are having a rough day. They dont get run down but hit my glade riders that turned to face that direction on my turn. They fight next time around and the riders kill two and the horses one, no PB hits so they flee and are caught by my riders, who get to set up for flank charge on the next PB unit!

















bottom pic is my battle with the BSB and KE still picking out treeman splinters. The charge yields me about 5 WR wounds and 1 horse, and 4 from the Noble. In all they kill about 5 or 6, not getting hit back. With a banner/warbanner/fank charge, rear, and negating ranks he needs a 2 to stay, with the reroll he fails and they run. Both pursue and the WR hit the side of the KE unit outside the woods, Noble gets 1 inch behind the fleeing unit.

In the top one is just a picture of the dryads running and the GR getting their hands dirty handling some peasant rabble.
















This bottom pic shows the WR smashing into the KE flank, they manage to do well in combat again, even the horses, and the unit flees, don't catch them, but charge the next turn and they almost make it out of my units 18 inch charge range - so are destroyed. The lord charges my WW that rally at the table edge, I lose 3 in the fight, fail break test and they run off, Lord holds. GK can just see the last GG on the left and charges only to die in stand and shoot.

The Grail Knight unit was picked off by more lord shots, and the damsel got 1 wound from my pageant of shrikes, this last turn i shot them again and they wounded her, and she rolled her 6 ward save!!! The NERVE! So I took the Glade guard and pummeled them with arrows, doing enough to randomize a wound to her and finish her pretty little self off, and take a GK leaving that lone model left.















Bottom shows the dryads rallying and taking more heat from the PB on the left shooting. Good thing they get -1 for moving and -1 for shooting skirmishers. The Glade riders avenge their fallen friends and charge more peasants, doing some nice spear hits and chase them off, catching the unit.

Top picture just shows his Paladin and unit turning around, they suffer the effects of the Deepwood sphere but live, and even treesinging doesnt do much. My GG move to see them and shoot, only killing maybe 1. But.... The far unit of GG, I wanted to shoot at his lord before committing my Lords arrows. They fire and doe a nice amount of hits, he rolls his armor save and fails 3 out of 5 or 6 of them. No biggie, he has 3 wounds and a 4 up ward save (due to items) and fails ALL three rolls - again. Easy come easy go said the treeman.


The GG finishing him off allowed my lord to pepper his 5 KoTR and kill 2 and u can see where my WR caught his KE in the back of the pic.

After this there was some more maneuvering around his KoTR with my Warhawks and my GR headed back towards camp, WR went to mop up those KoTR and noble headed left to help with the knights stuck in the woods and the PB. My friend had to concede at this point because of family obligations so we ended there. I took some prized banners, damsel "clothing articles", the camp and the day

Highborn: "Will you wear this?"
Princess Ilyara: "In your dreams, buddy."



The End

Stalemate at Blackadder

Here was fought the battle of Blackadder. Many a peasant was slain this day, much attributed to the elves, but the Prince would say otherwise! He slayed hundreds of them! Anyway, my Blackadder TV show reference is somewhat off, Rysm might glean a peek into that episode and how it compares to this battle. To the right are the Brets, seemingly more numerous than the poor elves! But I did have two units in the buildings, one scout unit in the closest, and a waywatcher unit in the building on the right. They impacted the battle very little. My bowmen are hiding at the bottom left of the screen in the forest, with a spellsinger even deeper in there. For future reference that grey building is 24 inches from the hill with the trebuchet, not that anyone is counting. (inside joke)

This battle was magic heavy, and when I say that I mean we took our Lords as casters, with one additional caster required. Since my magic is anything but, offensive. I took a level 3, threw glamourweave on him and a mount - waste. The one good thing about this lord is that he took the wand of the Wych Elm - allows me to reroll dispel attempts. My level one spellsinger carried two dispel scrolls. I also took a Branchwraith with the level 1 wizard upgrade and cluster of radiants to add an additional dispel die. My dispel dice were up to 7! Good for neutering the Bretonnian magic, maybe not a Dark elf or Chaos magic phase, but a start.

Both the picture above and below are facing each other on the battle field. This is the side my wood elves eventually conquered, but were conquered when it came to the other side. It was a turn or two of staring at each other and the treeman moving himself up in the trees along with my noble. Bowfire was exchanged between the Glade riders and the peasants with each side losing some. Peasant Yeomen found there ways into the middle to bait, and my noble almost bit, and she probably should have because her +3 ward save didnt save the charge she gladly accepted. Don't use leadership dice for armor saves, they will do you wrong. The knights errant smashed into her and then ran into the treeman, who gladly held opened his gnarley arms to his old friends, and then the wardancers pranced into their flank. Dryads moved up to find the skirmishing villien Bill and got within an inch. The next turn they charged the bowmen who fled through another set of knights errant. This led the fear causing dryads into the knights errant, who turned tail and charged (fearlessly) off the table - past the running bowmen. Eventually Bill got his dream and fought the branchwraith mono y tree spirit. To his credit Bill would have hit the wraith, had he got his turn to strike.

Below the Men at Arms move to surround the house in the picture. They heard there were elven women and drink inside. They charged to the building and met with the 7 waywatchers, who themselves were drunk by the shooting rounds that followed, and fought them hardily for the right to the brothel and drink! The battle was fought in initiative order, to the benefit of the armorless extra hand weapon wielding waywatchers. Striking first the waywatchers take down about five men at arms, allowing five to strike back causing no wounds. The peasants take a step back and think about digging under with spoons, before being barreled over by a different kind of forest "spirits".

The battle ended in a draw. With the Bretonnians surrounding their precious trebuchet in the fifth turn and coursing out from it, catiously, to claim another table side. The Elves were routed and had no presence there, and were too far away to bring themselves to bear against the Brets from their now human deprived side of Blackadder. A single scout lived (still not worth the points against a mostly armored foe like brets) The waywatchers also survived the day but should be strung up by their big toes for lousy shooting from such a promising position. Coming soon, the elves regroup to try and gain momentum to push further into Mousillon.

The Forces of Athel Loren Defend their Waystone

Celebration at the Waystone! Victory for the Elves and the Forest!



Lord Hannibal's Wood Elves effectively defended their Waystone from the Bretonnian forces. With this second victory the fey forces will negate the -1 tree terrain pieces that Mousillon afforded Lord Rincewind's armies. The Wood Elves now are well inside the boundries of Mousillon and will need a serious effort to uproot them from their position of power.


Campaign Key
D-Draw -10pts
MV- Marginal Victory-15pts
SV-Solid Victory 20pts
M-Massacre 30pts
Current Campaign states are:
Battles fought: 2
Wood Elves: 1 MV, 1 M - 45 pts
Bretonnians: 0 0 pts


-Picture

-Battle Summary- Posted here by Rysm!

http://loreseeker.blogspot.com/2009/04/forces-of-loren-prevail.html



The Loren Waystone - Newest Mousillon Landmark

The successful defense of the newly erected Loren Waystone has ensured the elves of the forest are able to readily call upon the power of the forest. The rolling farmland and pastures that once covered this muddy landscape are now populated with the beginnings of a woodland. Many refugees fled before the coming battle, and those so dedicated to defending their land have either fled at the routing of Lord Rincewind's army, been conscripted to their own militia forces or slain for failing to yeild to the lands newest masters. As the wood elves gaze out upon the rolling fields they wonder what Mousillon has left to offer, and if the swine and cattle left behind is edible by elven standards.

More to follow