The battle of Grauenburg

 Those who follow usually the blog may remember that ages ago there was a a warhammer fantasy campaign ambientated in the province of Reikland. The campaign ended with one pendant battle, and today we have finally played it altought the campaign is over. So I give you: the battle of Grauenburg, where an army led by Karl Franz will try to defeat the dark elf invaders and throw them from their lands.

 We used the scenario generator designed by Gav Thorpe that came in WD 108 (Spain), we scored a hasty battle, with just the vanguards of two units appearing in the first turn, the two deployment zones were two corners of the table. The empire had the objective "vengeance", were they would get 500VP for killing the enemy general, and the dark elves "advance", were their units in the deployment zone of the empire would grant them their value in VP.

Above, you can see the advance of the Whole imperial army in their second turn.

 While the dark elves deployed nextly around their vanguard of an "altar of khaine" and executioners

The empire right flank was composed by massed reiksguard led by Karl Franz, Ludwig Schwarzhelm and a death wizard

 Overpowerd unit of doom!

 Karl Franz's regiment crashes into the cold one knights and anihilates all but one of them

 Their persecution smashes a surprised regiment of spearmen who althought having 5+ ward save thanks to the altar are routed and run over by the unstopable reiksguard

 Who now take the flank of the corsairs without having suffered any losses for the moment

 Taken by the side, the corsairs are also eradicated, but in their excitement, the reiksguard ends up in the middle of the dark elfs army

 Meanwhile, the repeater crossbows kill some crew and cause panic amongst the crews, inhabilitating them for the rest of the game (since the don't have enough movement to reach and shot the cannons again)

 The dark elves take their vengeance, the hydra charges the knights by the front and the crossbowmen by the right, the combat ends with one knight down and four wounds for the hydra, but being stubborn thanks to the altar the elfs hold their ground despite losing the combat by five points

 The remaining cold one knight charges the imperial mage inflicting one wound

 Finally the dark elfs manage to get some sucess killing three knights and wounding the emperor with a single spell

In the imperial turn, the knights end the last cold one knight.

At that moment, the battery of my camera gave up, the combat continued, the most destacable part of it was that after the knights and the crossbowmen and hydra killed themselves, karl Franz, all alone charged against the supreme sorceress leading the army and beheaded her with a single strike of Ghal Maraz, at which point we decided to end the game since the empire had earned 500VP and the dark elves had clearly lost the battle by slaughter.

So the first fight for my dark elves and it has ended in ingominious defeat! lucky that I was leading the forces of the empire tough.

The siege of Minas Tirith

This post tells the siege of Minas Tirith as fought with alesso cavatore's rules and 1:72 miniatures

here we can see the darkness forces:

Orcs, dark men and trolls all arrayed under the command of the black captian: the witch king, their siege engines include two siege towers and Grond (counting as a battering ram). the tower in the left is manned by men from harad and the east, while the one in the right by orcs, trolls and orcs push grond into the gate

 The forces of light include a diverse force composed majorly of warriors of the feuds of Gondor with a complement of minas tirth warriors and rangers, at their head are prince Imrahil and some dol Amroth knights, Gandalf the white and Forlong the fat himself!

 "send those beasts into the abism!"

In the first turn the light picks up the initiative ad their cavalry makes a sortie with Imrahil at the head

 The witch king reacts by charging one knight and killing him with a black dart

 in light's nex turn they seize also the initiative and move the cavalry against the tower in the background

In darkness's movement phase the towers move forward dodging the cavalry and the witch king charges against some Minas Tirith bowmen

"fool don't you know death when you see it?"

 The siege engines move closer to the walls while the knights and Imrahil are stuck in the rearguard by some orcs and a troll

 Grond moving to it's target

 the first tower reaches the wall...

 and the orcs start to pour into the battlements, one is killed

 but another slays his opponent and the enemy is amongst the defenders!

 althought the next turn the light seizes the initiative, the witch king makes an heroic move and charges and kills two bowmen of one of the towers

The second tower hits the wall and a regiment of easterlings smashes into the defenders

 Finally Grond reaches the gate and begins to batter it

 In the rearguard, Imrahil and the knights keep fighting killing orc after orc

 After abandoning the tower, the two trolls that pulled it move into the wall

 the knight next to Imrahil falls under repeated hits from the Mordor troll

 Gandalf moves to cover the gate while the witch king lands upon the defenders of the left wall to aid the orcs pressing from the siege tower

 The orcs have opened a gap before the tower and start to mass upon the wall, the witch king has flown to the tower to better cast his magic upon the defenders before the gate

 A block of warriors of the feuds prepare to hold the gate

 And with a final explosion the gate is blown to pieces

 Gandalf reacts quickly, launching a sorcerous blast that knocks two trolls to the ground injurying one if them and killing a orc

 Alone and surrounded by orcs Imrahil is finally killed

 But not all hope is lost, in the right wall Forlong the fat holds the breach single-handedly turn after turn against hordes of haradrim and easterlings

The witch king attacks the defenders of the gate by the rear killing two bowmen

 "you are soldiers of Gondor, no matter what crosses that gate, you'll hold your ground!"

 But the sheer ferocity and might of the trolls smashes the first rank and falls into the second

 In the left wall the fight has descended into the ground when the gondorians try to reach the gate but are charged by the orcs

 Against all ods Forlong continues to hold the wall

 In the left wall a lone warrior of Minas Tirith kills one orc and attacks the bowmen

 But at the other edge of the wall a warrior of the feuds is killed to compensate

 Gandalf attacks the Witch King without fear, since the black captain has low will he is in danger of disappearing spectrally

 The defence of Gondor is shattered by the trolls, althought the valiant defenders manage to kill some orcs

 in the right wall the fight has also extended to the ground 

 with his will spent, the Witch King disappears to confront the coming of the rohirrim

 But since his troops cross into the city smashing all oposition his victory is assured

 Forlong is finally killed

 And Gandalf is also slain under a troll

 Little pockets of resistence remain surrounded by the forces of darkness

 The sittuation is the same at the left and right walls

 A picture of the last survivor, all the other warriors of light have been slain!

 A shot of the exterior of the white city at the end of the battle