Year 1, Turn 3

In the Third month of the campaign space is starting to get tight and most of the prime land is taken!

The Abyssal Dwarves a new village in the north east near the Rhordian boarder while their newly acquired fleet heads south to scout out an island next turn.  In the South East of the empire an independent dwarf city is found and laid siege to.

The siege of the dwarven city can be found here.

At this point the Abyssal dwarves have an alliance with the Rhordians to the east and a somewhat unspoken non aggression pact with the other empires.

In the League of Rhordia another village is found and in the far north a Fortress leaving the mountains without a convenient pass (due to needing a city) making travel into and out of the empire difficult.

An alliance is formed with the evil dwarves to the west and a final border agreed upon with the salamanders in the south to ensure some further exploration without war.

The Salamanders expanded their empire slightly however no new settlements were scouted.

Spoken and unspoken non aggression pacts abound with the other races and the siege against the independent southern fortress remains with no starvation losses.  The growing naval fleets however end up gaining an extra gold crown for the empire.

The Elves had a spot of luck scouting out and acquiring two new cities and a single ship!

Outside of this their non aggression pacts are keeping the peace but preventing further expansion along the northern and eastern borders.

The land grab and the year is nearly at an end.  The only question is who will get greedy first and use warfare as a means to expand?

Year 1, Turn 3 Battle

The battle this turn is a grudge match between the Abyssal Dwarves and an independent coastal city of Dwarves.

The dwarf defenders only have 300 points and refuse to give into the forced rule of their evil kindred.  Their militia consists of:

1 regiment of crossbowmen
1 organ gun
1 troop of ironclad.

The Abyssal Dwarves have a large 1740 point army cosnisting of:

2 Hordes of Obsidian Golems (one with a Battering Ram)
2 Katsuchan Rocket Launchers
1 Gargoyle Troop
1 Horde of slave orcs
1 Regiment of slave orcs
1 Regiment of berserkers
1 Horde of black souls

The dwarves were led by two Iron casters with the general being Asgarth (who had blood boil and surge) and his lacky Steve of Accounting (who had only mastered surge...)

The thing to keep in mind about any battle in this campaign is that even if you outnumber your opponent severely all they have to do is cause some casualties to lessen your effectiveness in further battles.  In this case the dwarves have almost no chance outside of demonically possessed dice but if they can take out a unit it will hamper the army later down the line.

The dwarf player opted to setup the gate further towards their right flank with the towers on either side trying to bring the battle into a narrow field in order to wear down the assaulting force.  The Abyssal Dwarves (having to fully deploy first) spread out in hopes of taking the walls wherever the dwarves would be short on dwarf power.

The golems with the battering ram were surged up as fast as possible in order to take the gatehouse.  The dwarves had planned their defenses well and with super hot boiling oil (the kind that burns magmas golems!), crossbows and artillery nearly take the golems down.  They only fail due to a horribly unlucky roll of a 3 for nerve where a 4+ would send them back to the magma pools they were spawned from! 

Thankfully Asgarth and Steve were able to heal the horde before they battered down the gate and hid inside the gatehouse itself!

Meanwhile on the rest of the walls the slaves and blacksouls take to the ladders and sieze the walls closing in turn after turn towards the stalwart dwarves.  It is here that the gargoyles got a little to greedy and ended up in range of the crossbowmen on the tower and were wiped out permanently from the army!

The ironclads abandoned the wall in an attempt to charge the gargoyles in case of another bad nerve roll but only ended up showing their back to the gatehouse and receiving a charge to the rear from obsidian golems.  The slave orcs had already claimed the organ gun and the blacksouls slaughtered their goody two shoes brethren in the tower claiming the city for their own nefarious purposes...

Asgarth was victorious!  The loss of the gargoyles was unfortunate however the loss of the obsidian golems would have been horribly bad.  Sometimes its better to be lucky than good...

Year 1, Turn 2

The Abyssal Dwarves had a fairly uneventful turn only finding a village this month leaving their area fairly desolate so far.  They continued to lay siege to the Independent fortress which paid off as the defenders decided on a whim to surrender rather than face the prolonged starvation and eventual enslavement.

The banner in the Grotto attempted to find a few worthy slaves at the village.  What came forward were 80 points and a few mouths to feed which were quickly dropped back into the grotto.

The League of Rhordia finds another harbor that would have been independent except for their negotiating skills which turns them to the cause of the league!

The Salamanders explore further along the coast line getting uncomfortably close to elf territory.  For their efforts though they find two  villages and a city.  On top of that they claim another fleet of ships!

Their siege of the southern fortress results in another 40 points of starvation for the defenders and a -2 to the nerve of the walls as hardships take their toll. The defenders are now down to 810 points.

Not only do they have some luck trading this turn gaining a gold crown but the salamanders also manage a whopping 200 point reinforcement at one of the villages!
 

The elves only end up finding a village and are now determined to take the city harbor by assault.

The board after moves:

Battles



The only battle this month took place between the Elves and a woefully defended Kingdoms of Men city.

The elves of course quickly took the city without casualties.

All of the empires currently have a string of uneasy treaties and or non aggression pacts however once the free land runs out that may quickly shift...

Year 1, Turn 2 Battles

The only battle this month took place between the Elves and an independent settlement of Kingdoms of Men however it is a siege so the battles a little bit different.

Each turn that a settlement is under siege both the defender and attacker get to build siege equipment or reinforce the walls.  In this case the elves opted for two siege artillery and the defenders chose to reinforce two sections of the wall and equip the wall with boiling oil.

The entirety of the defending force consisted of 160 points, just a troop of shield wall and archers.  They would be attempting to hold out against a full 1500 point elven army lead by Alf the mighty Elf King on his steed!  Most likely they regretted trying to refuse elven rule at this point...

The elves began with releasing volleys of arrows at the troops on the wall to no effect while the siege artillery ranged in on the walls themselves.  With no safer option available the men remained hidden behind the ramparts.

With siege ladders in tow (yes I know I need to get those models done but I'm no factory!) the infantry blocks advance while the drakon riders (minus riders, they were yummy) take the tower.  The drakons would swoop down from the towers to easily destroy the archers while the shield wall moves from the wall to the gate itself and assault outwards.  Whether madness or a simple attempt to slay the enemy general they leave the safety of the castle.

They of course fail to do more than stun Alf at the shear audacity of these men.  Even the wizard Sprinkles could only stand by and shake his head as the Drakons swoop down and dismantle the humans piece by piece.

King Alf won an easy victory this day and lost nothing.  The city was under his rule now.

Year 1, Turn 1 Battle

Only a single battle took place during the first turn which was the Rhordians attacking the Stubborn salamander mercenary banner.

This would prove to be a fairly one sided battle as a regiment of Kaisenor Lancers and a Clan Lord on Fire Drake face off against a fully loaded 1500 point Rhordian Army.

The Rhordians were lead by Duke Von Boos the Headtaker atop his Winged Aralez.  Backing him up on this their maiden battle was the Army Standard Lars and the Wizard Gunther, the Strange.  The salamanders were caught out in the open across the river and thus the battle was joined!

 The Salamanders were not deterred by being outnumbered 3 to 1 (except for the waver penalties for being that badly outnumbered!) and charged headlong into the enemy lines.  The kaisenor lancers were quickly torn to shreds by artillery and archers while the Clan Lord ordered his mount to burninate the Volley Gun destroying it utterly.

The Clan Lord then engaged Duke Von Boos in hopes of scoring some kind of moral victory.  On this day bravery turned to folley as the duke and his entourage slew the mercenary that dared to demand payment from the Legion of Boos!

The battle was one and the Rhordians suffered the permanent loss of their volley gun.

Year 1 Turn 1

The board is set and the capitols placed!

Abyssal Dwarves started in the North West being a bit daft and building their capitol on a swamp!  Their starting Territories included a few villages but another village and a Fortress were quickly discovered.  The Fortress refused to bow to the stunty whims and the dwarves laid siege to their army.

The League of Rhordia ended up in the North East surrounded by mountains.  They had a little better starting territory including an additional city.  Scouting revealed a mercenary banner of Salamanders that, although small in size, still thought it wise to refuse to offer their services for free and as such were promptly attacked.

The Salamanders ended up with possibly the worst starting position in the South East however they did find a fortress to lay siege to and still ended up with a few villages.  Their luck changed when they quickly came upon two fleets of ships and now rule the seas!

The elves took up the South Western area and rolled amazingly well for their starting territory gaining a fortress and three villages.  Even more villages were found during the scouting phase although the city that was found rose up against their pointy eared dictators and a siege began.

Battles

Only one battle took place this turn but you can check that out here

Rhordia defeats the mercenary banner easily with minimal losses.

The elves had quite a bit of luck and the once 300 point defense force in the city has shrunk to 160 points due to starvation during the month.

The salamanders starve only a few points out of the defense force in the fortress however a further 100 points of peasants leave the besieged and join the salamanders force!


Reorganization


During the Reorganization Phase The elves tried to recuirt a few good elves for Banner 1 and 2 however there were 'worthy' peasants to add to the army.

The Abyssal Dwarves however have more luck as Banner 2 Enslaves 240 points or Orcs into their army.

Rhordia and the Salamanders decided not to risk the rioting and leat the peasants stay in their settlements.