Engaged :)

Text cannot contain my joy. I have found my hearts desire, and she loves me back

This is the girl I want to spend my life with:

I’m so happy

A gentlemans war – 1250 pts Empire vs. High Elves

This is my first try at making a warhammer battle report. This is part of a campaign, being played out with some friend. I played the empire here, and my cousin played the High elves.

Prehistory

The wind was sweeping against Victor Guttmans face. He drew his cloak tighter around him, but did not seek shelter behind one of the wagons. It would not do for the soldiers to see him hiding while they had to march in the freezing cold.

The year was coming to a close, and while the land was still green, it was rapidly becoming colder. Not for the first time, Victor Guttman wondered what he was doing here. Yes, he was on a mission from his count, and with the blessing of the holy church of Sigmar, but still, this was absurd. The elves, their mythical allies had landed an army, which in itself was not possible. No one had seen an elf in over two generations, and while he had preached about Magnus the Pious, and his elven allies, often enough he still found it difficult to believe they were real.

And now this, an army marching not to greet them, but to throw them back, and him, ordained priest of Holy Sigmar, at its head. The chain of events leading to this moment was despairingly simple. The elves had claimed, by ancestral right, the land of one of the minor barons. Said baron, von Wiederbaum, had appealed to the elector, but the elves were in a hurry. By the time the appeal reached the court, the elves had already made good their claim, and thrown Von Wiederbaum out of his keep. The Elector could not stand for such an insult, and had to respond. Said response was currently marching through the beginning cold. The Holy Church had protested such an armed response, and the Elector had to accommodate them somehow. This lead to the unhappy compromise that he, warrior priest of Sigmar, should carry out the dirty deed. That way the Church hoped to limit the bloodshed, and the Elector got his public revenge along with the blessing of the Holy Father. Everybody was happy, except Guttman.

Before the Battle

The day was coming to a close, and the soldiers were busy making camp. Guttman stood in the command tent, along with Preceptor von Richthofen and Augustus the mage. Present was also Sergeant Neumann and Outrider Horst. Together they represented what could be called the officers corps of this army.  They had made camp outside some village too small to have a name.

Neumann spoke first: “The elves are close. My rangers have followed them for some days. We will have to face them tomorrow.” This was met with strange mix of weary sighs and jubilant expressions.

Von Richthofen: “My knights will be ready! They will learn to fear the Knights Panther”, a hungry look in his eye. Guttman noticed this, and decided he would have to keep an eye on this man. A battle that should never happen could end as a bloodbath if he got his way. “What about the rest of you?” Guttman asked. “Are your men up to the task?”. Everybody agreed.

Augustus said, in a rasping voice: “The sergeant speaks the truth. I have seen it. We will meet the elves on the morrow, on this very ground. We will be tested, but not found wanting.”

Guttman: “You mean, the fight will be over the village itself?”

“Indeed it is so, chosen of Sigmar”

“Well, this changes things somewhat. Have you, perchance seen their battle plans as well?”

“The host of Ulthuan will conquer the village, and make it a fortress of spears!”

Horst: “Spears, not arrows? Then it’s easy. We surround the village, and bombard the living crap out of them. Like shooting fish in a barrel.”

Guttman: “And that is exactly what we are going to do. I want no unnecessary deaths.”

von Richthofen: “But the Elector commanded us to”…

Guttman interrupted: “The Elector commanded me to lead this expedition as I see fit! Are you in disagreement with this, Preceptor?”. Von Richthofen glared at him, but held his tongue.

Guttman: “So, here’s what we are going to do. I will lead the knights around the left side, and Horst will lead his pistoliers around the right. The handgunners will stand in the center, and hold the elves off. Augustus, you will help them in this. Neumann, you will lead the left flank down the open ground, in case the elves want to give battle. The artillery will support you in this.” There was murmurs of agreements from around the table. Only von Richthofen looked unhappy, but Guttman had expected this. He would have much preferred not to have taken command of the knights, but he dared not, not with von Richthofen leading them.

The red morning

As the first rays of sunlight lit up the world once again, it was clear to all that Augustus had been right. The elves were marching on the village. The army quickly formed up, according the the plan laid down, and stood ready to meet them.

One elven spear company were moving around the right of the village, while another were heading directly towards it. On their left flank were elves clad in mighty furs, and on their rights were a small group of elves with long slender swords. Further right there were two mighty warmachines deployed, already being loaded. The elven general was on foot, with the furred elves, and a mage was with the flanking spears. Some elves were already at the village, hiding behind one of the buildings. Augustus had been dead right. Guttman felt his heart leap. This was it, and everything depended on him now.

A meeting of equals

Guttman ordered a general advance. The swordsmen moved into the open land, followed by their detachments. He lead his knights forward into the gap between the house and the small patch of forest. The rangers advanced cautiously towards the leftmost building, and the pistoliers moved to outflank the village.

Augustus tried to use his magical foresight to help the handgunners, but the elven mage countered him. Undazed, he then hit the mage’s spearcompany with a thunderbolt from the sky, killing one of the elves.

When the thunderous sound had just subsided, the cannons let roar. The cannon with the handgunners shot at the elven mage as well, killing three. The other cannon targeted one of the elven warmachines, and made a perfect his, but the sturdy wood rebounced the leaden cannonball, and the machine was unharmed. The rangers tried to shoot at the skirmishing elves, before they took cover in the house, but did not hit.

The elves advanced according to plan. One spearcompany moved to the left of the village, trying to outflank it. The elven greatswords moved to the right, to meet the knights. The fur clad elves moved easily through the forest towards the village, and their accompanying spearmen followed them.

The elven mage cursed the cannon that had killed his kinsmen, and wove a mystical shield around the fur clad regiment. Augustus chose not to oppose these efforts, but conserved his power for later.

Both the warmachines had spotted the knights coming around the village, and the crew was hastily turning the fearsome engines around. Within moments twelve barbed arrows were flying towards the valiant knights panther. Luckily the haste had not allowed the elves to get a proper aim, and only two arrows hit, one of these felling a knight. Guttman let out a prayer to Sigmar for their deliverance.

Guttman looked at the elves swordsmen coming towards them. The size of their swords, and the ease with which the carried them did not bode well. He decided not to seek combat with them, for now, and wheeled his regiment to get around them. The promixity of the elves made the knights nervous, and the move was not nearly far enough to bring them to safety.

Neuman continued his advance towards the elven warmachines, hoping to draw fire. It was clear that his regiment would play no further part of the battle, so any fire directed at them would keep the rest of the army safe. One of his detachments followed him, and he sent the other to help the knights who seemed to be in trouble.

Horst lead his pistoliers around the side of the spearcompany facing them, firing as they rode, and felling three more elves. On their nimble steeds, the elves had no chance of stopping them. The archers advanced towards the village, hoping to prevent the elves from marching through to the handgunners. Augustus used his magic to improve the aim of the handgunners, but little did it help, and the center spearcompany escape totally unharmed. Augustus, through, used the power he had conserved before and blasted the elves lurking in the townhouse with a mighty lightning bolt. Four of the five elves perished, but the last of them remained on watch.

One of the cannons took aim at the fur clad elves, which the mage warded before, and managed to fell one of them. The other one shoot the bolt thrower that had survived one hit, and this time the nimble machine was smashed beneath the iron ball.

The elven army responded fluidly, through. The swordsmasters saw the knights angling around them, and charged. The Knights however, knew a losing battle when they met one, and fled on their mighty steeds. The elves were left stranded in the open between the house and the forest, with the flank visible to both cannons. What had been simple cowardice could turn out to be decisive for the battle.

On the other flank the much depleted spearcompany choose to press on in spite of the bombardment from the pistoliers and charged the archers lurking behind the house. The archers remained calm, and decided to take a few elves with them. Their shafts found no chink in the elves armour, but the elves ran out of air before reaching them. And now their rear were facing the pistoliers….

The elven mage wove the magical shield around the fur clad elves once again. He tried to curse the cannon once more, but lost control of the winds of magic. Augustus was quick to respond and slung a thunderbolt at the remaining boltthrower, killing one of the crew. Unfortunately the now dead elf had just finished loading the device, and the remaining crewman aimed and fired. Four of the free company that had moved to support the knights were spiked to the ground by the storm of arrows, and the rest turns tail and flee.

Horst is quick to spot the opening, and lead his pistoliers in a furious charge into the rear of the spearcompany. Guttman reigns in the knights and turn them around to face the elven swordsmen again, but he already knows that he will never have to order the charge.

The handgunners shot four elves from the spearcompany as it trid to maintain formation while marching through the village. The archers joined in and kill one more elf. Both the cannons saw the open flank of the elven swordsmen, and let roar. One of them overshot the regiment, but the over punches right through, killing five elves. The elves are shaken, but do not retreat.

The elven mage negate all Augustus efforts, but it cost him dearly. The pistoliers hammer into the rear of his unit. The elves respond lightning-fast, turning around and stabbing with their long spears, and felling two horsemen before they can even strike. This is far from enough, through, and pistols fired at point blank range killed four elves. Fighting cavalry to their rear, and having enemies to their front, the remarkable discipline of the elves finally collapsed, and the fled. Horst led his horsemen forward, riding down the last five elves. The elven mage was incapacitated with a quick blow to the head from one of the pistoliers, and Horst flung him across his saddle.

As the handgunners were loading their weapons for another shot, the elven general decided that enough was enough. One of the spearcompanies were gone, his mage was taken prisoner. The other spearcompany were already down to ten elves, and bravely looking down the barrel of a peleton of handguns. They would not make it. The cannons had already smashed half the swordmasters, and stood poised to do it again. Whatever the swordmasters did, they would have to keep their flanks away from both the cannons and the knights, a very difficult task, but should they fail, they would die. Only the white lions were still combat effective, and this would not last. He ordered the banners to be lowered, and the white flag to be raised.

Guttmans heart skipped a beat, when he saw the elves lower their weapons and kneel. He quickly barked orders for his army to stand down. Had it not been for Horst, the outrider, this would have been a massacre, as the handgunners were taking aim at the kneeling elves. Horst reacted before he heard the order from Guttman, and held the flank back.

Guttman dismounted as the elven general came marching towards him. He could not help feeling proud. He had turned back the mighty warhost of Ulthuan, and almost without casualties. One knight would never ride again, and two pistoliers had fallen. Four mercenaries would need his attention, but aside from that, no one had died. And now he would finally get a chance to put a civilized end to this decidedly unnessesary war.

My blog, my games

Welcome to my blog. This blog will contain posts about anything that takes my fancy. Use the categories to navigate, as I will not try to keep to any one subject.

One of the first uses will be to detail stories and battle reports from my warhammer games. In fact, one of these is coming shortly. Enjoy.