Hi all,
The spectre of Warhammer 4th edition is walking through the club at the moment, and today saw a particular close-fought battle between the Dwarfs of Karak Znifln and the brutish tribe of Blacktooth the Cruel, and old enemy of the dwarfs in these parts of the old world.
The story goes, that the orcs and their Night Goblin allies have been looting dwarven cairns in search of powerful runic items buried there in what the dwarves thought would be rest eternal. The orkish shaman Old Blacktooth and his faithful Wyvern 'Crunsha' have been roaming the lands of Karak Znifln for many years, constantly posing a threat to the dwarf caravans and trade along the Worlds Edge Mountains. Although he has been brought to battle on many occassions, none of the dwarven clans have been able to bring him to justice, and the Znifln Book of Grudges grows thick with his atrocities. Lately, Blacktooth has allied himself with the Black Orc Warboss Orlag and his orc-tribe while brokering an alliance with the Night Goblins of the 'Split-Eye', forming a horde of greenskins not seen in these parts for many a year. This roaming band of savages specialized in looting the ancestral graves in search of a mighty weapon of Orc-legend, simply called 'Da Mangler' by Blacktooth. This weapon, so the prophecy goes, will make its bearer unstoppable and help unite all the tribes in the nearby valleys, forming a mighty WAAAAGH.
To stop the ravages of Blacktooth and his croonies, the Elder Council of Karak Znifln have appointed chieftan Bronn Hargrimmson to gather his clan and march out to confront the horde. After days of trekking through the valleys surrounding Karak Znifln, dwarf scouts reported back to Bronn that the greenskins were gathering at the foot of the mountains nearby, having identified a large group of cairns from the oldest age of the Znifln dynasties. The scene was set, the ground chose, soon blood would run.
The orcs would field a 1500 point force looking like this:
Blacktooth on 'Crunsha', Orlag and his troll-bodyguard, a large unit of orcs with a boss wielding the shrieking sword, two units of night goblin archers with full command and fanatics, a Rock lobber, a pump-wagon and an additional Night Goblin shaman. Orlag had a magic sword that let him automatically hit everything he tried to kill - a weapon surely stolen from a dwarven tomb.
The dwarfs would be fielding this:
Bronn and his bannerman, both with runic protection on their armour, a unit of Longbeards, a unit of Hammerers lent by the High King of Karak Znifln, a small unit of crossbowmen, a stone thrower, a unit of slayers from the local shrine of Grimnir, a unit of Ogre mercenaries and their halfling cooks (sometimes doubling as snackpacks on the march), a gyrocopter lent by the engineers guild and finally Trygve the wizard - a dwarf trained by the college of magic in the human city of Altdorf in the far-away Empire of man.
The battlefield was plain, with the dominant features being the hills and cairns, which the battle was fought over:
The two forces deployed on each long edge, the orcs plaing the large mob of orcs in the middle, flanked by the Trolls and the larger Night Goblin mob, with the pump-wagon in front. On the far right flank was placed the other Night Goblin mob, backed up by the Night Goblin shaman and Blacktooth. Facing them were the trollslayers, leading a lone charge against the flank of the horde. The rest of the dwarf units gathered in the middle of the table, with the warmachines and the crossbows taking position on the small hillock at the back.
The two battle lines marched forward, trading shots and spells across the table. The rock lobber managed to misfire and wouldn't fire for the next few turns. The dwarf general, in true miser fashion, sent the disciples of Grimnir and his mercenaries forward to be slaughtered at the hands of the trolls and fanatics, leaving the question of pay mute:
The fanatics took a horrible toll on the dwarfs, only to swing back into the goblin lines, killing the Night Goblin shaman outright and smashing the Night Goblin mob facing the slayers.
The Orlag and the trolls, with a bit of help from the dwarf stone thrower (I told you, the question of pay was mute), drove off and killed the ogres, carrying the charge into the dwarf line proper:
Meanwhile the main orc thrust in the centre has stalled, mainly because the pump-wagon had been hit by a meteor summoned by the dwarf wizard, but also because of internal squabbling on the orc unit:
When the gyrocopter swooped in and steamed the Night Goblins, things started looking bad of Blacktooth, and the swooped off into the skies, determined to end the threat from the Stone Thrower:
In the melee between trolls and dwarfs in the middle, Bronn yelled out a challenge to Orlag and the two leaders met in the din of battle, locking sword against hammer:
The ensuing battle ended with both leaders being dragged away from the battle by their closest kinsmen, wounded to the point of death. The trolls, too stupid to notice that their leader had fallen, fought on, crushing dwarfs with their clubs. Then the rock lobber crew pushed their machine back in place on the hill, fired, and watched as the stone landed in the middle of the melee. The boulder crushed a troll and every dwarf around it, creating an ebb in the battle:
On the flank, the surviving two slayers had reached the Night Goblins and had begun hewing the diminutive greenskins down with their axes. This went on for some time, but in the end, the Goblins proved too numerous for the two berzerkers, as they disappeared under the green tide of bodies:
In the other end of the battlefield, Blacktooth swept down on the Stone Thrower, Crunsha killing two of the crewmen instantly. Thr third crewman played hide-and-seek with him for two turns, untill Crunsha got tired of the sport and gobbled him up as well:
The orc center was moving again, and after seeing the last of the trolls dragged down by the elite hammerers, the large mob charged into the dwarfs, killing longbeards left and right, scattering them, only to be charged by the hammerers in the rear:
The hammerers made short work of the orcs in the rear of the unit, breaking the orcs. meanwhile, Blacktooth had charged down at the wizard, only to be caught by the crossbowmen, who valiantly defended their only hope of survival. In a desperate bid for victory, the crossbowmen managed to pull Blacktooth from the saddle, the orc cowering unit the belly of Crunsha. The old Wyvern stood over the beaten shaman and bellowed a howl at everyone coming near its fallen master, gobblin up several dwarfs who came too close:
The triumphant hammerers readied their last charge that would take them into the now rallied but bloody orc mob. As they moved up into ranks, a shadow fell on them. It was another comet, summoned by the wizard in what felt like aeons ago, when the orcs occupied the ground they now stood on, Their rear-charged had been their undoing, and before the could flee, the coment struck the ground, incinerating the last regiment of dwarfs still fighting:
The orcs looked puzzled as what was just beginning to look like a good fight turned into a large crater in the ground with dwarf body-parts spread around it. "Wot?! Where did dem bearded gitz go?!!":
A last, spiteful but ultimate token resistance, was waged by the gyrocpter as he sprayed the remaining Night Goblins with steam, scattering them:
The end-game looked like this, as darkness fell on the battlefield:
Although Blacktooth and his horde had taken a beating, they were the only remaining on the field that day, the dwarves not killed or fleeing being dragged off to the camp-fires of the greenskins to provide sport. Crunsha sat atop his mount of dwarf crossbowmen, snacking on their remains while nursing Blacktooth himself back into health. Bronn was born back to Karak Znifln by his remaining kinsmen, the shame visible on his broken face. The vandalization of the ancestral graves would continue, only slowed down by the sacrifice of the Hargrimmson-clan.
Welcome, Guest. Please 
April 26, 2024, 07:11:49 PM
