The defence of Kazid Varnbarr

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Borri looked over the parapet of the watchtower down the valley. He could hear the chanting of the elven queen coming closer, and the trudging of many bony feet. The rangers had done well to delay the evil forces which plagued their lands, but now they were advancing against the forward defences of the hold itself. How typical of the faithless elves to ally themselves with the lords of undeath, he thought. He turned to Ketil, the ancient rune lord of their hold, and his master. The venerable dwarf wasn’t obviously concerned, despite the small number of dwarfs to hold the forward defences.
Below them in the tower, the long beards sat calmly smoking and polishing their axes, muttering about the treachery of the elves and how the vampires of today were mere striplings compared to the vampires of yore. Njal, captain of the rangers, and many of his unit, had fought the vampires before, and weren’t going to be troubled by them now, especially now in defence of the hold.

Behind them, they heard the familiar chugging noise and a screech as the machine scudded to a halt on the grass behind the tower; the gyrocopter had returned.

“What news from the hold?” Ketil asked. The pilot pushed back his helmet, and smiled,

“The king is coming, the king is coming! He has mustered the royal guard, and some doughty fellows from the loading halls. They followed in the steam launches as fast as might be done, and will be here very soon, Grungni willing.” The old runelord nodded, and sent word of their imminent reinforcement to the other units of their small garrison.

However, within a minute of the cheering starting, it died in dozens of throats as the horde of their foes crossed the ridge and began to spill towards the village. The cackling elven queen was terrible to behold, and beside her, rank upon rank of vicious looking elves and filth encrusted skeletons. Already, bony horses and their undead champions, proud vampire knights, and fouler things began to surround their position. Borri was sure the king would be too late, and that though they would defend the village gallantly to the last dwarf, they could not stand against such a force for long.

And then, behind them, they heard a roaring from the lake, as the steam launches drove themselves onto the shore, and out spilled dozens of well-armed dwarfs, and at the head of the hammerers, made up of bravest hearted and strongest armed of all the dwarfs of Karak Zhufdrin, stood their king, Grettir, and beside him his brother Brodir, holding the sacred standard of their hold. Singing their warsongs, the king and his followers marched as fast as they might up the bank and towards the village. With the king at their side, they could win this day!

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Ahem….

Anyway, this week we thought doing a narrative battle would be a lot of fun. So, we went through the narrative games in the book, and Martin fancied ‘Raze and Ruin’. It was much more narratively sensible for a vampire/dark elf host to attack a dwarf village than the other way around, so we went with that. We thought a big game would be lots of fun, so 3000 points of dwarfs would hold the line against 4000 points of vampires and new and shiny dark elves.

We decided I’d be defending Kazid Varnbarr. The dwarfs of Karak Zhufdrin reside at the head of a large lake, and trade their wares down the lake and into the river at the other end, to sell to the humans down river. At the opposite end of the lake to the hold is the small village of Kazid Varnbarr, which acts as forward defences for the hold, as well as a place where human merchants can come and trade. Those tricksy elves wouldn’t be getting their hairless manicured hands on our gromril, that’s for sure…

So without further ado:

King Grettir’s mighty throng

King Grettir of Karak Zhufdrin, shield bearers, GW, MRoSteel, RoResistance, RoStone, MRoSpite
Ketil Okrhun, rune lord, MRoBalance, 2x RoSpellbreaking, shield

Borri Garaz-Grungnon, rune smith, MRoChallenge, shield
Brodir Gormriksson, BSB, MRoGromril, RoResistance, Preservation

30 Long beard rangers, FC, throwing axes, RoCourage
30 warriors, GW, FC
15 Xbows, GW, champ.
15 x bows, GW, champ.

35 hammerers, FC, RoBattle
GT, engineer, 2 RoPen, RoAcc
BT, engineer, RoBurning

Gyrocopter
Organ Gun

The army composition was a mix of effectiveness, narrative flavour, and also an attempt to run out king Grettir in the best way I could (who is still nearly finished being painted…), and my nice new and shiny (indeed, extremely shiny...they're still pewter coloured…) unit of hammerers. .

I imagined my army as two halves, one that would set up in the village, and the other coming in behind as reinforcements. This scenario has half your army in the village, and half coming in from behind, so was well suited to imagining a ‘reinforcements’ sort of situation.

So the first line of defence would be made up of a beefy unit of longbeard rangers to hold the watch tower at the centre of my defences. I thought that throwing axes would be ideal to help defend a fixed position like this, as it should allow a lot of S5 short ranged shots. To defend the flanks of the village, I took 2 smallish units of crossbows, each to defend a house and not to move out unless absolutely necessary. As my other characters seemed better placed in the reinforcements, this seemed a good place to put my rune lord and smith, who went with the long beards. A gyrocopter would suit the idea I had of the battle well (somebody had to go and get help, after all), as well as having lots of T3 things to shoot steam at, and finally an organ gun (because some short-ranged blasting is always helpful).

The ‘reinforcements’ were designed around the king, really (I didn’t see the king hanging around the forward defences). So I took the biggest unit of long beards I could manage, with the BSB and King Grettir, who was suitably armoured to deal with the inevitable blender lord of horror. Following him was a block of doughty dwarf warriors, and then a bit of artillery, which I guess was hauled off the steam launches as the battle lines marched together.

The evil horde looked like this (4000 points)

Vampires:
Blender lord on foot, ogre blade, magical defences (4+ ward, good armour, etc); L1 spell caster
Blender hero-level vampire on a horse, apparently kitted out for challenges; L1 spell caster
Wight king, horse, +1 to hit sword, and magic shield giving him a 1+ save
banshee

About 65 skeletons, spears, FC (blender lord and banshee here)
20 ghouls, champion

10 black knights, FC, banner of the barrows (wight king here)
3 vargheists
Corpse cart

Varghulf
10 blood knights, FC, banner of blood keep (hero vampire on horse here)

Dark Elves
Hellebron on the cauldron of blood
L2 sorceress, sacrificial dagger

About 20 spearmen, FC (Hellebron here)
About 20 crossbows, FC, flaming banner (sorceress here)

Medusa creature

The battlefield

The table was obviously defined by the village at the centre. At the dead centre was the watch tower, with the long beards and rune smith and lord, and the gyrocopter sitting behind it. Either side of the tower were walls (behind the right of which was the organ gun), each ending with a house, with a unit of Xbows in each. There was a 4th house further back, and other walls dotted about.
On the flanks there were a series of forests and hills (I set up the table, as the scenario dictated; I wanted the idea that the evil army had marched up a valley towards the village, so the table was flat in the middle and hilly and wooded on the flanks).
My other deployment was to put the bolt thrower behind a wall on my left flank, my hammerers as far forward as they could in the centre, the grudge thrower in the middle with the best arks of fire I could manage (which weren’t great really, but I didn’t want to put it out on the flanks), and the warriors on my right flank behind the rightward house.

Evil Turn 1

The evil horde surged onto the table. On my left to right, the blood knights, varghulf and vargheists began hooking around the village. In the centre advanced the skeletons and corpse cart (to my left of the tower), the elven spearmen and the cauldron (to my right of the tower), then the crossbowmen who rushed to take up shooting positions on a hill. Then hooking around my right flank were the black knights and the medusa.

Magic blowed strongly, and Martin put everything he could into a sword wind. Unfortunately for him, he got lots and lots of 5s, but only 1 six, and I (seeing that he had less magic than I thought he would) slapped a spell breaker on it (plenty more where that came from!). His other spells were easily dispelled.

No shooting.

Dwarfs turn 1

King Grettir rushed forward to take up defensive positions behind the walls to the left of the tower (important note – he was lined up opposite the vampire lord in the huge blob of skeletons opposite, so unless the vampire moved, if the 2 units clashed, the vampire would only be able to fight the king. Hooray for the wider frontage of shieldbearers!). The warriors pushed up forward to face off against the black knights, tucking in behind the rightward house. No other moving.

The rightward Xbows and organ gun shot up the elven spearmen, forcing a panic test which they passed. The grudge thrower scattered off the cauldron, but still clipped it doing a wound. The leftward Xbows and the bolt thrower shot up the blood knights, but all missed.

Evil turn 2

The flanking forces continued their wide sweep around the village, the blood knights getting a long-shot charge on the bolt thrower, and the black knights crashing into the warriors on my right flank. Hellebron pulled off a long-shot charge on the tower, and the vampire lord, fancying his chances, declared a charge on the hammerers. He needed an 11 to reach them, and he managed it (the tables at the club are a bit under 4’ wide, so the evil army marched on 22 inches away). The ghouls failed a charge on the leftward house. At this point, Martin forgot about his medusa creature in a forest, where she stayed out of harm’s way for the remainder of the battle (I forgot about her too as well).

Magic did nothing, and the huge volume of repeater xbow shots dropped on the organ gun didn’t do anything either.

Combat was full of dwarven heroics!

The warrior champion bellowed out a challenge at the black knights, and the champion of the unit accepted. Side stepping his ensorcelled lance, the doughty warrior smashed the wight champion from his saddle. Though in the rest of the combat, the dwarfs lost, they held through steadfast.

The blood knights killed the bolt thrower crew with contemptuous ease, and overran over the wall (which killed 2 blood knights – I like to think my mortally wounded crew managed to hamstring the vampire knights as they rode over them), and span about to prepare to take the royal guard in the rear.

In the assault on the tower, a fair few elves went down to throwing axes, but they made it into combat. My runesmith killed the warrior champion in a duel, but hellebron (getting off the cauldron) minced about 8 longbeards, and her friends killed 2 more. The long beards fought back bravely, and slew many elves, but lost the combat. They held easily.

In the main show, the strutting vampire lord (seeing that he couldn't blend hammerers) bellowed out a challenge, which king Grettir was only too happy to accept. The frantic slashing of the evil lord just clanged against Grettir’s fine dwarven armour, doing no damage at all, and though some trinket of blackest sorcery saved the vampire lord from any harm, the king could see he had the beast tamed. In the rest of the combat, my BSB personally smashed down 3 skeletons, the frantic scrabbling of the skeletons themselves (needing 6s to hit…) managed only one wound, which I then saved. Then 30 S6 great weapons swung, crunching another 20 skeletons there and then. The vampires lost the combat by about 25, and the once mighty unit was reduced to about 15.

Dwarf turn 2.

The only movement was to chug the gyrocopter over the tower to get a lovely steam gun shot in the flank of the spears/throne unit.

The shooting phase was eventful. The gyrocopter steamed about 6 elves to death, but they wouldn’t run. The longbeards, chastened by the brutal bloodletting of the foul elven queen, and vexed by her cavorting antics atop her blood throne threw a volley of throwing axes right at her, reducing her to 1 wound. The organ gun opened up on her too, causing 6 hits, and smearing the remains of the foul witch across her own alter. Hellebron was dead! The grudge thrower got a direct hit on the ghouls, reducing them to about 6. The leftward xbows shot the blood knights who were now behind them killing one. The rightward crossbows shot some of the elven crossbows.

In the combats, the doughty warrior champion bellowed out another challenge, and the wight king was compelled to accept. The long dead warrior however could not harm the plucky dwarf, who struck him hard and true, only for his blow to be turned aside by the wight’s magic shield. In the combat the dwarfs closed ranks and began to push the black knights back, reducing them to the king and 5 normal knights with crumbling.

In the main combat, king Grettir was still unimpressed by the frantic flailing of the vampire lord, though his own weapon could not penetrate the foul magics protecting the beast. It mattered not. The hammerers crushed the rest of the skeletons with contemptuous ease, and the vampire lord crumbled to dust in front of him. Muttering about how he’d faced caged squigs with more fight in them, Grettir reformed his hammerers to face the flanking forces who had swooped around the left of the village. In the aftermath of the vampire lord’s death the corpse cart crumbled, but the ghouls and black knights passed their checks.

Evil Turn 3

Martin was not looking happy at this point, and I thought he might have conceded, but he showed real blood dragon spirit and kept going. The varghulf and the blood knights charged the hammerers, but the blood knights, needing to roll a 4 to make it, only managed a 3, meaning the varghulf was all alone against the entire royal guard…

The much depleted ghouls charged the left-ward house, and the last 5 or so spearmen charged the tower again. Three got smashed by throwing axes on the way in, but the last 2 kept coming. The Vargheists charged the grudge thrower.
The Xbows tried to shoot the gyrocopter, but did nothing. Magic did nothing…

The poor old varghulf managed to devour a hammerer or two, before being smashed down by a flurry of great weapon blows. The ghouls did well against the Xbows, dragging down a few of them, but the xbows held easily. The black knights did fairly well against the warriors, the wight king finally dispatching the plucky champion. However, the unit was reduced to just the king and 2 friends, and the dwarfs still held on steadfast. The vargheists devoured the GT in double quick time, and turned around to face the rest of the dwarf army.

Dwarfs turn 3

King Grettir and his fellows charged the blood knights. The long beards came out of the tower (leaving the rune lord behind so that the elves couldn’t snatch it at the death), and got ready to march on the vargheists if needed. The rightward xbows marched out of the house to set up a rearward charge on the black knights. The gyrocopter chugged over to steam gun the Xbows.

In the shooting, the OG misfired (but didn’t blow up), but the steam gun on the gyrocopter did well, boiling about 6 elves, and the rest ran off. The leftward xbows shot a couple more ghouls (2 left).

In the combat, the blood knights thinned out the hammerers a bit (killed about 8), but then they were all smashed down, and the hammerers reformed to face the vargheists. In the other combat, the warriors finally finished off the black knights.

Evil turn 4.

Martin knew the game was completely up, but wanted one last turn. The vargheists charged the hammerers, the ghouls charged the leftward house again, and the xbows rallied. He finally remembered about the medusa creature, which slithered over to shoot the rightward xbows in the rear. The medusa did kill 3 xbows, but the combats didn’t go well. King Grettir crushed the vargheist champion in a duel with ease, and his hammerers destroyed the others. The ghouls killed another crossbowman, but then were hacked down. All the undead were destroyed, and the dark elves reduced to a medusa, a sorceress, and about 7 crossbows. We called it a day there.

So, what went right?

Well, I think my list was well chosen for the battle in question, whilst my opponent’s was less so. That helped immeasurably.

The game was basically won by the unkillable dwarf lord living up to his reputation, and neutralising the vampire lord. Martin had the good idea of running his vampire lord on foot, so that his killing power would mitigate the uselessness of the skeletons. It was a good idea, but today it just failed because I had just the right character there on hand to deal with him, and so he just crumbled to nothing in next to no time.

To an extent, I think my opponent lost this game, as much as I won it. If he had managed to get off a combined charge on the hammerers, with the skeletons in the front and the varghulf/blood knights in the rear, he could well have won. I did smash the skeletons quicker than I expected (and I was, in turns 1 to 2 seriously worried that the hammerers would be duel charged). Having to set up your entire army first is a big handicap, and I do think Martin deployed fairly well, but him timing was off.

To be honest, I think the single biggest thing which lost Martin the game was pulling off the long-shot skeleton charge on the hammerers. If he hadn’t charged in turn 2, either I’d have charged him (so losing the benefits of the wall), or I’d have been simultaneously charged on turn 3, both situations being a lot better for Martin. A little thing which made a big difference!

Generally, I think my units did well. A hammerer horde is just brutal, and utterly smashed face - wiping out a big unit of blood knights on the charge was nice! OK, it met everything it fought it optimal conditions, but I still think they did well. And it is always nice for your king to seemingly win the game through his own personal exertions. Very heroic! I’ll have to get one of the skalds of the hold to write a saga.

I was a bit lucky, not failing any psychology tests at all was handy, and blatting Hellebron on turn 2 helped no end! She was mean, as dangerous as a blender lord, I think (killing 8 longbeards, or so), but just too fragile (a 4+ ward with no armour and T3 isn’t that good – she went down to throwing axes and an organ gun, not even cannons). I think if it were a ‘normal’ game she would have done better, but wasn’t really suited to trying to storm a watchtower.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun, everything did go to plan, and also, from my point of view, taking a bit of time to think about the scenario made the whole experience more enjoyable.

I hope the report was fairly clear. I'm afraid there’ll be no report next week, as I’ll be playing Saga (a really cool historical skirmish game – check it out if you get the chance). Thanks for reading, and best wishes,

David.