Massacre on the Lonely Approaches

Tim (Spider Goblins) vs Gill (Tomb Kings) 

Only five miles now from Barak Varr, and the host of the Spider Goblins had swept all resistance from their path, winning every battle bar one and now within sight of the towers of the ancient Dwarfen stronghold, now in the hands of the Tomb Kings. 

Horde after horde of loathsome spiders crawled over the moorland, cresting the final peak of the Hills of Valenka where the aged Dwarfen  rune stones stood, the Tomb Kings were fighting a withdrawing battle, mustering their forces closer to home for a final last-ditch defence, but the dregs of the previous slaughters were still battle-worn and in no fit state to attack, even in desperate defence.

Only a single host of skeletal warriors stood ready to prevent the breakthrough of the Chittering Horde and it would be not nearly enough.

The Goblin King, with eternal hatred in his heart, roared a challenge and charged forward and battle was begun.

Conjuring a whirling maelstrom of eldritch power, the tiny Night Goblin Shaman pushed it into the midst of the Tomb King forces, blocking off their advance down an entire flank as the bony steeds stamped the ground, unsure whether to proceed.

And as that flank pontificated, the huge Arachnarok Spider slammed into the serried ranks of the Tomb Kings, even as the Spider King and his giant spiders scuttled alongside. They planned to take out the Tomb Queen atop her Undead Rhinoceros with a sharp strike of the mallet but the surge of undead warriors that came back at them, quickly overwhelmed even these mighty beasts.

 But it wasn't enough. From the east came the throngs of spiders, led by the Goblin King; and as the Skeletal warriors hacked on the corpse of the Arachnarok, they left their rear exposed. The Goblin King took full advantage of this, pushing his spidery hordes into the remaining forces on that flank.

They destroyed a Screaming Skull Catapult, the deathly Hierophant, a Casket of Souls and then finally pummelled the bones of the Skeleton Warriors. The Goblin King himself slew the Tomb Queen with his Dwarf-forged axe Killa Killa.

All the Lonely Approaches were covered in creeping and crawling spiders as nothing now stood between them and Barak Varr, ancient hold of the Dwarfs and capital now of the Tomb King armies.

The Hills of Varenka & The Lonely Approaches to Barak Varr

Barak Varr, the Dwarfen sea port that rests on the tip of the Black Gulf stood for centuries as a bastion of trade and order amidst the deadly lands of the Border Princes. Placed at the apex of the Badlands, it was assailed by danger but did not bend in all its long existence.

Until the Undead Nation came and a seige became a slaughter, as every one of the stout-bodied inhabitants were shorn in two and cast into the sea.

North of Barak Varr, stretching in a gentle crescent along the coast of the Black Gulf before reaching up toward Malko along the banks of the River Starnek, lie the Varenka Hills. It is in these hills that the Chittering Hordes of the Spider Goblins have their webs. Deep valleys lie completely netted by webs and beneath the upper surface visible to the sky, the ground below is night dark even at noon as thousands of goblins and millions of giant spiders scurry and crawl, plotting the demise of mankind and the source of their next wriggling and screaming meals.

In the long years when Barak Varr remained a bastion of the Dwarfs, the Varenka Hills were free of danger to some extent, the closer they were to the sea, but ever were the woods and valleys home to nasty and devilish things of fur and tooth, that oftentimes had more pairs of hairy spindly legs than was natural.

The Lonely Approaches, as it was named by the Dwarves, was a desolate stretch of rolling hills directly north of Barak Varr and key to their landward defence as the Spider Goblins often sent forays of unsightly inhuman things to strike at them there from that direction. It was almost bereft of folliage or natural beasts of the field, and prone to battering from wind and rain, but Dwarfen Rangers garrisoned the land there in elder days to watch for danger, both from the spiders of the Razor Webs and from the road both north and west.

At the peak of the highest hill lies an ancient set of standing stones, emblazoned with runes of old Dwarfen skill, set there to ward off the evil creatures of the north and to mark tha land as owned by Dwarfen courage.How tragic this landmark seems now as the Dwarfs lie as only fish-pecked bones in the shallows of the Black Gulf and souless undead creatures and black-hearted Spider Goblins bicker over their spoils.

The Lonely Approaches exist now only as a place of war for the unholy creatures of the Border Princes.

Fell Things in the Watchtower of Filigree Plain

Never before, within the Border Princes, had such a horde of Ogres been arrayed, stretching out across Filigree Plain.

The Beasts and the Dwarfs of Chaos had insulted them on this land and now stood in mockery, leering from the tower top of the Watchtower at the Ogre's defeat.

King Maw bared his teeth and growled. This insult would not go unpunished. He would have Filigree Plain and he would have that watchtower if it was the last thing he did!

He let cry the signal for battle and all his monstrous infantry charged forward into battle, the Ironguts speeding in toward the Watchtower itself, nestled as it was against the wood hillside on the edge of the plain. They battered down the door but the Chaos Dwarfs inside fought in the opening and windows, batting them off. Nevertheless, the Ironguts killed far more of the Dwarfs than the Dwarfs killed of them.

But rather than fleeing, the Dwarfs still held! And before the Ironguts could attack again, a great and powerful Gorgon ripped through the undergrowth and battled the Ironguts, preventing them from continuing the fight.Behind it came a whirling spawn of chaos, all blades and hooves and grasping mouths.

The rest of the Ogre force swept across the plain, starting to close the arc toward the watchtower, but more of the fell creatures of Chaos came over the rise and ran toward them on hooves or stunted legs. And in their midst strode a gargantuan behemoth of metal smoke and flame: a K'Daai Destroyer, the ultimate expression of the malice and power of the Chaos Dwarfs: a gigantic metal statue come to life by sinister ritual.

The Leadbelchers let forth a tremendous volley of cannon fire but did little to harm it and King Maw realised there only hope was not to kill it but to draw it away from the Watchtower, long enough for them to take control of it.

Sending his Hunter and Sabretusks, his Maneaters and Gnoblars, King Maw's forces swamped and lured the Destroyer further and further away from the watchtower, hoping that in that, the battle might be won.

Meanwhile, with all the brutality within their monstrous frames, the Ogres battled against the Beastmen Gors, the Doombull and Leonine Giant, their numbers faltering but not breaking. King Maw himself strode to the aid of the Ironguts, as did his Slaughtermaster, and then finally the Gorgon fell, and with it, the Spawn.

At that moment, if they had renewed the fight against the Chaos Dwarfs in the tower they might yet have won, but they stood back long enough for the Leadbelchers to let fire at the tower. The ancient stone was too strong for the cannonballs though and the Dwarf armour within withstood much of the rest that got through.

The Ironguts charged in again but though they slew many Dwarfs, it wasn't enough and they were running out of time.

With the K'Daai Destroyer closing in on them, all they could do now was withdraw and plan anew.

Plan anew to take back Filigree Plain from the fell things of the forest.

Further Strategic Movement

So with the armies continuing to move on the map, we turn our ear to Mike, commander of the fell Chaos Incursion... 

Warriors of Dunkel Schloss 

Finally map movement and finally a chance to get my army into action.

My plan was to expand where possible but also to try and ensure I have supporting armies where ever possible.

The Chittering horde are quite tough as I remember so I wanted to engage the army with a support to give me extra men whilst facing the Tomb Kings and the Orcs head on.  Only time will tell whether this is a move on genius or a move of a fool.....

Skaven 

Oh dear. The Skaven aren't feeling too well. They're down to only two armies which is particularly annoying because it means the one who has been trying to fight its way through the West Woods since before this blog began has plum vanished. So much for that storyline but I had to keep the majority of the troops around Spike Hole, their capital.

By miraculous luck, the Random Events this turn caused the second Tomb King army attacking Spikehole to disappear. This has basically saved their bacon, and moving first before the Tomb Kings enables them to pin the Tomb King army in place while expanding their realms (possibly in two different places.

What's bugging me most though is that there will be only one Skaven game in the next five months or so while this campaign turn goes on and I potentially have four or five new Christmas-related Skaven units!

D'oh!

Vampire Counts 

Well. The Vampires are also doing very badly. But at least they won their castle back.

Their challenge now is that they are so far from their own borders and so are going to take time to restart expansion. Having said that, they have almost no enemies. If anything, the arrival of the Chaos Dwarfs last turn has helped them because now the Tempestrians (who would otherwise have quickly wiped them out) are going to be kept busy there while they rebuild their strength.

There's not much to be done, just locking the Chaos Dwarfs in place and expanding as best they can.

Beastmen 

Mike: 

I had to a gauge the enemy where necessary but also to get the additional bonus for having a supporting army it was necessary to get them in a supporting role as quickly as possible.

Notice how the rivers become crucial as in both upcoming  anti-Tempestrian games, the river will lie between the two armies!

Wood Elves 

This is a fairly tricky one. The Orcs and Knights of Ebon Scar have invaded my land but the Dwarfs are about to. Meanwhile the Empire is in an offensive position too. Also the section north of the Empire army is a special section, worth double.

What to do?

I have to protect the special section. Then see off my attackers. I don't have much choice. I'm going to ignore the Dwarfs and go for the enemies that are already within my borders.

Tomb Kings 

What a sprawling realm - all along the bottom!

Well, simply, it's a case of sending out the reinforcements to where they're needed, to head off the Empire and Chaos Warriors and go to finish off the Skaven!

New Sylvania

Well the Empire have a comfortable and safe zone and can really choose their own options.

I'm definitely going for the Tomb King and Wood Elf-owned special zones (not shown here) and I want to make headway into the Skaven and Daemon realms.

Trouble is, with the new rules, the river needs a 4+ to cross it and move on so it's a risky move (which I just failed). And (rolling again), my other army fails to move on too. Both cross the rivers but remain on the same section. Damn it!

Chaos Daemons 

With the Empire Encroaching and the Valley of the Skulls (a special map section) fallen under Ogre control, the best actions seem fairly straight forward here:

Stop the interlopers and take back what belongs to the Daemons!

Dwarfs 

Now the Dwarfs haven't been doing that well for a while due to some crazy movement by my friend Joao a couple of turns ago and a massacre or two. But they do have a potentially very secure footing being based in a corner. Both the Wood Elves and Orcs are at risk from all sides and are ripe for the attack.

One of my initial objectives for the Civilised Realms was to create a trade route joining all three lawful realms. The shortest route to do that is straight through the centre of Gaping Jaw, the Orc capital and across the middle of the Realm of Dunkel Schloss. Not an easy or quick endeavour and one liable to lead to stretching (as we've seen on the Tomb King realm.

Having said that, with pressure from two allied sides, the centre may crumble.

The Dwarfs are up for this alliance but I would say that they have two personal objectives beyond this: King Durak Grund is all about recapturing Barak Varr. Meanwhile, Morgrim is all about kicking ass against the Wood Elves and his personal arch nemesis, Maglor Telemnar.

Bearing this in mind, I think I'll assault the Orcs in the special map section where they are, bring some Dwarfs south to support this (and head towards Barak Varr - slowly). THEN I'll send the other stunties off to slay some Elves!

While taking advantage of their distraction with other foes to snatch up some of their realms. Notice, by the way, that in heading downward to Dipswallow, I'm leaving some northern Wood Elf realms for the army coming behind to grab...

Chaos Dwarfs

Last, but certainly not least, we have the evil stunted ones.

With the Tempestrians coming in hard in the north on a special map section supported by two armies and a section already captured by them (during the Random Events phase), there's little choice but to power reinforcements to the area. The Tempestrians are, by far, the greatest threat to the Chaos Dwarfs and they need to be stopped!

And that's it for campaign movement for this turn, leaving the overall map looking like this:

And with the scenery:

The Watchtower of Filigree Plain

Filigree Plain is a desolate area of little vegetation in a deep valley close to where the Black Mountains meet the World Edge mountains, right on the border of the Ogre Kingdom of the Great Maw and nary far from the Dark Heart of Stygian Wood where the Beastmen dwell.

Being open and clear of obstacle, it has long been a scene of battle over the centuries between the evil creatures of the mountains and the hard bitten settlers of those parts but in happier times the clear terrain also afforded an open view to watch for coming enemies.

The Watchtower of Filigree Plain, and others like it, was part of the grand vision of Gerard D'Astatic, the great Bretonnian hero who founded Tempest Falls, some one hundred and fifty miles to the south. He envisaged the whole of the Border Princes as one great valley of prosperity, one day cleared of all fell creatures and standing as a great bastion of civilisation, protected by mountain and sea on almost all sides.

The building of Tempest Falls took all Gerard's life and the lives of three further generations of strong sons and it wasn't until then that the Tempestrians could reach out and begin the work of building the Watchtowers that had been part of this grand design.

Each watchtower became the bastion of a brave knight and his men as they watched for trouble and sent messengers home to report of the movements of their enemies.

The Watchtower of Filigree Plain was completed in 1635 and became the home of the line of d'Arion. It was Luc D'Arion who first took charge of the tower and the lands about and he fought a brave battle against the beasts and Orcs of the forest.

And so life went on and the watchtower remained in Tempestrian hands until the Calamitous Times.

For then did dark mists spirit Tempest Falls itself away from the Border Princes. And cut off suddenly from support and supplies and with no great armies to hold the evil ones at bay, this watchtower as well as all the others, became suddenly very alone.

To the honour of the line of d'Arion, they fought off all enemies for three full years. But in that last winter, when the Beastmen of the Stygian Wood were starving and filled with mad rage, they came to the Watchtower in numbers too great, and the Knights and their men-at-arms, and their ladies and children, were all dragged away to their doom.

Strategic Movement -Turn Four

Here's the map movment for Turn Four, with a bit of an insight into the strategic thinking behind the moves.

Orcs 

With the Warriors of Dunkel Schloss only one map section from their capital, Gaping Jaw, the Orcs have no choice but to bring them to battle:

a) To pin them in place
b) To hopefully drive them back
c) To make time for more reinforcements to get into place.

The Random Events phase granted the Dwarfs control of the Special map section adjacent to one of the ORc armies. Worth two map sections, again, this is a prize worth pursuing.

The third Orc army move is debateable. Moving it away from the Wood Elf frontier leaves an opening for adventurism on their part but with two hostile forces in the south east, close to Gaping Jaw, they are probably the priority.

In fact I'm going to move it into an unoccupied Wood Elf realm. If in doubt, expand your realms!

Though I may come to regreat that!

The Knights of Ebon Scar 

The Knights of Ebon Scar aren't under threat really so it's simply a matter of expansion and locking enemy armies in place so that they can't make inroads.

Having said that, one of my tips is to generally avoid conflict so I'm going to take as much land as possible and only bring the Daemons to battle for now.

I anticipate the Wood Elves attacking me in return but let 'em come!

One tricksy bit is you notice I attack the western Daemon army, locking it in place because I'm anticpating their other force going to battle with the Ogres one way or another.

Spider Goblins

Now this is quite annoying actually.

Spider Goblins are one of my more successful armies and they were on a steam roller ride to Barak Varr up until this turn; but the unfair start I foolishly gave them in the campaign has really stabbed them in the back now. With their special map section under threat and only two armies left to them, they have to expand and protect. There are too many Tomb King armies present to risk an attack on Barak Varr and even if they won it they would likely lose a good portion of their own land.

To this end they're going to lock the Tomb Kings in place and go to head of the Chaos Warriors, while also expanding and protecting their special map section.

Ogres 

Oooo! We have a siege possibility against the Daemons!

Or do we?

The Random Event for the Daemons allowed them to move one enemy army on their turn. My friend Mike is moving the Chaos armies this turn but as he isn't here right now I'm sure he won't mind me moving the Ogres as far away from Pernicious Gate as possible and also leaving the Valley of the Skulls open!

D'oh!

With that move enforced, the Ogres only choices now really are to bring the battle to the Tempestrians in Slaughter Pass once more, head off the Beastmen incursion on the Filigree Plain and send reinforcements down toward the Daemonic front.

Tempestrians 

Hmmm. The larger your realm becomes, the greater distance from the centre (where aremies are generated) to the borders.

I'd like to attack both those close pink Chaos Dwarf armies, but that would leave the northern Chaos Dwarf realm unclaimed. Maybe it's better to move forces into position and take as much land as possible.

Meanwhile the Beastmen have to be stopped before they can get started and troops need to be mustered and sent off in their direction. At the same time, my western borders are undefended (due to a terrible massacre at the hands of the Daemons).

Although I never play the Tempestrians in the game, they are definitely the force I'm rooting for at this level.

Who's Next? 

Well that's it from me for now. The Warriors of Dunkel Schloss are next in line and Mike is moving them. Here's the map of their current locations for him to start pondering.

And to aid Mike's decision making:

• Brown to the south are Tomb Kings 
• Bright green to the south east are Spider Goblins 
• Dull green to the west are Orcs 
• Dark green to the north are Wood Elves 
• Turquoise to the east are Empire
  
• The sections named in capital letters are the capitals of each realm. 
  
• The special map secions (worth double and granting special abilities in-game to the owner) are highlighted in red below.
  
• Having an army in an adjacent section to a battle adds points to the battle
  
• Once in contact with another army, your army can no longer move. 

Let's see if Mike is as good at Strategic Movement as he is in the normal game...