Friday 9 April 2021

The Empire versus Beastmen! Krieghammer Battle report (with pictures)!

 Here's the battle report from the first completed game of Kreighammer. This is all taken directly from the "Battleground" channel in the discord which provides the commanders the details of what happened in the turn and what they use to formulate their next set of orders. If you are interested in playing a game, get on to the discord! https://discord.gg/FAGRQjfeHs 

Turn 1: 


An imperial settlement at the edge of a great forest! Rumors of a growing beastman menace have proven true! A great braying and yowling emits from the woods! The town bell is ringing and the imperial troops form to defend the Empire!

Turn 2: 

  • The forces of The Empire move towards the forest, in formation at the edge of the settlements structure.
  • They are unnerved by a the howling and bleating and snorting and yowling coming from dark wood.
  • The beastlord and his hogbeasts thunder through the vegetation, moving south east.
  • The enormous hogbeasts snort and slather, eager to consume the nearby men.
Turn 3: 

  • The forces of The Empire hold at the edge of the forest. The mounted lord and knight trot around the buildings, ready to charge at any moment!
  • The troopers at the edge of the forest just make out some movement in the trees to their North West before a green magical miasma tendrils around them. Four of the troopers now feel violently ill.
  • The hogbeasts  stamp their feet and slather, fighting their natural instincts to charge into the men infront of them. The beastlord Kang's will holds them in place.
Turn 4: 

  • The beastlord kang blows his greathorn! A terrifying wail! Movements in the woods!
  • The unsettled troopers reform - the sick ones at the back - well ones at the front of the line.
  • The air is filled with gun smoke as the riflemen fire a volley of bullets at the soothsayer in the woods. Though there aim is good the vegetation is too thick to get a good shot. One bullet does glance the soothsayers arm though - in no way a killing blow!
  • The northen mounted knight gallops his horse - charging into the wood to slay the summoner of the miasma, when he is suddenly wracked with shuddering, body covering pain. Foul energies course through his body!
  • As the knight charges, grimacing through his pain - he sees beastmen raiders suddenly appear in the woods in front of him - bows ready to fire. He wheels back - retreating to the cover of the village.
  • Hearing the great horn, beastmen raiders appear in the north, beastmen runts appear in the south!
  • With the horn blown, the beastman lord commands the eager hogbeasts to finally charge the men!
  • The hog beasts , stomp, stomp, stomp and CHARGE through the underbrush.
  • The troopers of the empire hold the first charge at bay, the hogbeast receives several flesh wounds from poking halberds.
  • The forces of men can not withstand two charges from such a creature, and when the second smashes into their line , the front line of troopers is smashed to the ground!
  • The hungry eager hogbeast crushes them under hoof and takes a massive bite from a rear trooper.
  • The trooper falls - his leg near removed. Dead.
  • Kang the beastlord moves towards the south part of the village!
Turn 5: 

  • The beastman soothsayer trots through the woods, tracking the retreating knight. It attempts to send pain surging through the knights body but is too drained from the previous spell to do so. 
  • Behind him the raiders bleat and trot through the woods – they fire at the mounted knight. Only one arrow hits him, denting his plated leg armour.
  • The two mounted men gallop south, forming up behind the southern hut. 
  • The beastlord and his four beastman runts charge behind the mounted lord, unable to get close enough to attack. 
  • The line of riflemen withdraw – beginning to reload their rifles as they do so. It will take them a few moments to have their weapons ready to refire. 
  • The four unshattered troopers watch in terror as the Hogbeasts stamp and gore and devour their four prone comrades. The hogbeasts are coated in blood and gore and ichor as they rip apart the men who were bowled over by their charge in the last turn. THE HOGBEASTS ARE FEASTING! The man flesh is too delicious for them to bother attacking for the time being. 
  • Though terrified, the four surviving troopers reform and hold their ground. Their lord is in sight and they must protect the empire!
Turn 6: 
  • The Beastlord stomps back around the southern building, bellowing at the hogbeasts, “GET BACK TO WORK YOU PIGS!”. His cajoling has not worked as yet – the hogbeasts still have men to eat!
  • The mounted knight and lord attempted to charge the beastlord but were unable to find their target due to him moving away! Instead the group of Beastmen runts heading towards them were crushed under the charge! Two runts are killed! Crushed under hoof and speared and sword slashed into a pulpy mess! The two remaining runts scatter, stabbing the managing to gouge a horse each with their spears! 
  • The troopers march south – unable to keep pace with their mounted comrades, especially so with their lingering illness. They gag and sway as they march. 
  • The riflemen reload – and are now reloaded! They will be able to fire next turn! 
  • A volley of arrows land in the dirt just to the North West of the riflemen – the beastman raiders fired from the woods but their targets were too far away! Perhaps if they leave the cover of the woods…
Turn 7: 

  • The beastman raiders and soothsayer leave the cover of the woods! They storm North East, and are behind the Northern hut. They prepare their bows and spells…
  • The air erupts with booms and gunsmoke as the rifleman open fire on one of the hogbeasts. It squeals in agony and annoyance! It is distracted from its feast and filled with fury. It is bleeding from several wounds covering its body but its not yet collapsed! 
  • After their volley, the rilfemen begin reloading and retreating away from the hog beasts. 
  • The furious beastlord stomps to the hogbeasts, he roars directly at them – but the village shakes with the thunder of their rage, “Move pigs!”. 
  • The pigs terrified into action leave their feast behind – they stomp south the beastlord behind them. 
  • In the East, the sick troopers move slowly back – keeping the southern hut between them and the roused hogbeasts. 
  • The two mounted units protect the retreated troopers. They block they charging beastmen runts from getting to the troopers! One of the runts is sword hacked and speared to death, the other pokes the knight’s horse yet again in the flesh with its spear. The horse snorts in pain and is beginning to limp a little on its bleeding flank.
Turn 8: 

  • The beastman soothsayer’s contorting fingers crackle with lightning for a moment. To the south a rifleman falls to the ground screaming, rigid with pain. He continues to shriek at the top of his lungs – held in place in the dirt. 
  • The northern beastman raiders unleash a volley of arrows at the rifleman, two arrows smash into the breastplate of one of the riflemen, saving his life. The rest are unaccosted. 
  • The standing riflemen flee the battlefield! 
  • The troopers also try to flee the battlefield. Only one gets away! The rest are too sick and slow on their feet to put enough distance between them and the beastmen! 
  • The mounted units of The Empire move to cover the retreat of the troopers. The brave beastman runt spears the leg of the mounted lord! The horse looks unsteady – blood running down its leg. 
  • The hog beasts and beast lord thunder around the southern hut. They are charging north! Slathering, pounding, snorting and howling!
The Forces of The Empire retreat! The beastmen are victorious! 




4 comments:

  1. Just tested this solo and it was really fun! 15 points bands, a duo of necromancers trespassing (hehe) in a graveyard vs a band angry empire men.

    Out of curiosity, which software did you used to manage the map and the units moves?

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    Replies
    1. Very cool to hear! Who won? Get any pictures? I use Paint.net which is a free little photoshop-like.

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    2. I used the libreoffice draw tool to create the map and run the game, so I have step by step captures of the battle (the main issue about this software is it can't manage transparent background of pictures, so units are all rectangular with a white background). I should give a try to Paint.net.

      It was a 15 points scenario: a pair of necromancers trespassed on the local graveyard guided by their pair of ghouls, and began to revive the residents. The gravedigger ran to alert the local empire soldiers (1 knight, 1 warpriest, 2 archers and 2 troopers) and was conscripted with a young peasant (hoping to become the squire of the knight) as militiamen. The necromancers have to leave the graveyard alive to win, the empire soldiers try to eliminate them (and the ghouls as a bonus).

      The battle started roughly for the undeads, as one necromancer was quickly dispatched by successive lucky shots, and the other was harmed too.
      Then, a sneaky attack by a pair of ghouls created a turning point because it allowed the lasting necromancer to swarm the melee imperials with zombies and skeletons (bad luck for empire men here, especially for the warpriest who desperately tried to curse zombies, and was hit from behind by a ghoul).
      At the end of the battle, the knight was overwhelmed as the gravedigger ran for his life, followed closely by the harmed necromancer, helped by one of his skeletal minions.

      So in short, mitigate victory for the vampire counts (by the way this faction name sounds always weird when there are actually no vampire present).

      Anyway, thanks again for sharing this nice game!

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    3. Sounds like a fun and dramatic game! Not sure if you saw it but I sort of summarized the kreighammer protocols I was using in this PDF here (its free): https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/352987/Freeform-Skirmish-Referee

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