WoV #2 - Helping friends

Second battle of the Wolf of Vengeance campaign.

As I wrote in the previous report, probably this game set in Bretonnia would not be Rhobar's first choice of proceeding after defeating Max Tarn. However, I chose to follow a chronological principle in narrating our games, so to discover the different aspects of the story together with the Hero (and obviously Grimbeorn). From now on, little info about the previous game would be quoted in the briefing if needed.

Path of the Orcs Game 1

Helping friends

July 23, 2020

Briefing

Heglestein told you, Rhobar, to become friends with the Bretonnians, who during this difficult time of war lost their rightful king Louen Leoncoeur. However, some duchies are still faithful to the Crown, and one of them is Gisoreux, just beyond the Grey Mountains near of your actual position.

You make contact with the Duke of Gisoreux: recently they suffered a lot of Greenskin attacks from the mountains, apparently headed to the Forest of Arden, in the southern corner of the land. This warbands constantly raid the country, and the Bretonnian troops are struggling to stop them. So, every help is warmly welcomed, especially if it means the presence of veterans from the Imperial infantry.

The Paladin and the Damsel from the Gisoreux want to confer with you and draft a battle plan: you decide to deploy the massive Bretonnian Trebuchet on a hill near the road to the Grey Mountains to the forest, because an Orc army is approaching and you're told that they have with them a Giant...

***

Empire + Bretonnia vs Orcs & Goblins. Battle, 1500 pts

The armies

The good ones

Empire Army - 750 pts

Rhobar is the field General of the entire army, but his Imperial troops occupy half the point available. He mainly provides the infantry units the Bretonnian lack: 20 Crossbowmen and 31 Spearmen with the Battle Standard Bearer on foot. As per the campaign rules, Grimberon has a limited choice between The Empire Army Book, but with this game he wins the possibility of deploy the Knightly Orders: however, he decided to delegate the heavy cavalry to the expertise of the Bretonnians for this particular game. Rhobar himself will ride with his feudal allies.

Bretonnia Army - 750 pts

The Bretonnians field a pretty standard list: two Heroes (Damsel as General and Paladin as BSB), 10 Knights Errant and 10 Knights of the Realm, and a Trebuchet, hoping to obliterate the Giant before he can damage the other troops.

The bad ones

Orcs & Goblins Army - 1500 pts

The Orc leader is actually a Warboss, so the suspects of the Bretonnian about a bigger operation behind this raid are confirmed. They deploy a big unit of Orc Boyz, flanked by heavy units like Black Orcs, Trolls and the Giant. Two Goblin Spear Chukka complete this list.

The game

Oh boy did we take poor pics of this game. This was an exciting battle, in which Rhobar lost lots of men (both Bretonnian Heroes died shot by the Goblin Spear Chukkas), but these photos do not pay tribute to this. So, please consider this more like a narrative post.

In this and the following pics you can see one of the final actions of the game: the Bretonnian Knight with the Paladin are ready to charge the Orcs, but the Spear Chukka (surrounded by Orc casualties) shoots on the flank and kills the Paladin himself. In the end, the Imperial troops succeeded in slowing down the enemy.

The story

After a particular good day for the Goblin artillery, the Human casualties are scattered all over the field. The Orcs are in the same spot: however, the Trolls are still alive and they blast your Imperial Spearmen at the end of the game. You're the only surviving leader: the Greenskins are slowed down, the Giant is dead, so you decide to retire from the battlefield before losing all your army. Even if you didn't kill the Orc Warboss, your objective is partially completed: the Orcs have understood that Gisoreux can react to their raids, so you hope they will reduce or even stop their descent from the mountains.

While you leave the area with the survivors you have only one image in mind: the fact that the Orc tribe symbol was a classic orcish skull surmounted by a warhammer, and you're sure that that was Sigmar's hammer... what does it mean? It's a mystery that you could only reveal by understanding why all the Greenskins are gathering in the Forest of Arden...