Matrixhammer in Action! A Night in the Forest Play Report!

Here are the orders from each players, and the public/private turn updates for the 6 turns/hours of "A Night in the Forest".  Enjoy! 

BONUS: Here is a post from the Imperial forces player's perspective for your enjoyment: https://coppersandboars.com/2022/09/06/my-first-experience-with-matrix-games/

(I've high lighted the empire player submitted orders green, and the beastmen player submitted orders yellowish) 

Turn 1: 

Empire: 

It is midnight! Your units are in or around the lakeside hut! In the forest! You hear the approach of a beastmen host! They are perhaps 2 hours away! You need to survive 6 hours! Till re-enforcements arrive at sunrise

The Forces of The Empire make the are immediately near the hut fire-resistant, whilst making the area further outwards more prone to fire/the spreading of fire

- The Halberdiers deposit dry leaves and twigs in the flammable area to act as good fire starters

- The Riflemen deposit some powder in the flammable area for the same reason

- The Wizard surges the lake water onto the fire-resistant area to dampen it

Beastmen: 

You can smell the scent of delicious man flesh! They are by the lake! They are two hours march away! You must feast on them before more men come (you can smell a great horde of the imperium that will arrive at sunrise [6 hours time])

We march towards the lake! Collecting dead animals by killing them and mud for a sinister magic!

- We use our weapons and speed to rampage through the forest!

- Our devotion to the plague god nurgle to carry and use the corpses!

- And the hunting prowess of our beastlord and raiders to guide us!

Umpire update: For both players: "consider that first turn a success!", and for the beastmen specifically: "you are an hours march away from the hut!" 

Turn 2: 

Empire: 

The Forces of The Empire make defensive preparations

-The Riflemen make holes in the roof so they can shoot out from it

-The Halberdiers use wood from the trees to create sharp spikes at the edge of the lake, facing towards the water

-The Captain gives rousing speeches to each group of soldiers to steel their courage

Umpire update for The Empire: 

And so, your troops spend the hour doing so! They are invigorated by your captains speech - the tension and unease abated. This is doubly so as it seems the beastmen have not gotten any closer to your position over the hour - the gibbering screeches wafting from the trees not getting louder. 

BUT, a very faint itchiness wafts briefly over your units skin. Your wizard senses some foul magics have occurred in the surrounding forests.

Beastmen: 

We stop for this full hour to conduct a ritual using the bodies and mud we collected to summon demons to aid us!

We will continue advancing next turn...

- The corpses and mud we collected!

- A full hour of praying and rituais in the name of grandfather nurgle! (Which gives my enemy some time to prepare more, also we probably make a lot of noise)

- Our shamans and their sickening magic!

Umpire update for Beastmen: 

You hear sawing, snapping of branches, and heavy thuds wafting from the direction of the lack over the hour! And the rousing shouts of the men in their babbling tongue! 

Your invocative rituals warp the dead animals you collected into a scrabbling horde of disease spreading demonlings! A miasma wafts from them! Maggots drop from their dead skin! They look like this:

There are 20 of the little buggers...They are about the size of a small dog, or large rabbit, each.

Turn 3: 

Empire: 

The Forces of the Empire create an air elemental to act as a scout, and sends it to the edge of where they can see, within the flammable area

-The Wizard summons the air elemental using his magic

-The soldiers ensure its sanctity by singing hymns and prayers of the Empire

-The Captain takes the plumes from the Halberdiers and gives them to the air elemental, so it can drop them as a signal if it sees any beast men

Umpire update for The Empire: 

The air elemental is summoned, vivified by the chanting, and whooshes through the nearby vegetation. It scouts out the surrounding area and reports that a large host of beastmen is to the North East, and a smaller host of the beasts is to the West! Both groups are north of the lake shore that the hut is on! It seems the beasts have begun burning the forests between their two forces  - not yet in the area of the forest you have primed for flame as yet - but the fire is creeping closer to that area most ready for flame nearby the hut! 

Both hordes will be able to charge your location within the coming hour! 

Beastmen: 

We shall divide our forces and March towards our victims in the following way:

- Half the raiders will lead the shaman and all the nurglings towards near the lake, stealthily

- The other half of the raiders will lead the other shaman to the other side of the forest, the shaman will set parts of the forest on fire!

- The Beastlord will lead all beastmen through the forest straightforward towards the smell, but will stay in the forest

- The raiders sneaking and hiding ability should help guide the shamans and remain them unnoticed

- The first Shaman will lead and control the nurglings with his sickening magic and chaos knowledge

- The march of the beastmen and forest fire should confuse the empire and perhaps scare them!

Umpire update for Beastmen: 

You divide your forces and proceed through the forest! Your forces are divided in the following way:

The raiders and shaman groups have crept stealthily through the forest - while the beastmen and beastlord have stamped and marched and bleated, braying for blood! The beastmen and beastlord are closest to the men of the empire - their delicious stench causing some of the beastmen to salivate with bloodthirst!

The raiders and shaman who have travelled to the far side of the hut have begun fires between themselves and the main host of beastmen! Smoke fills the air!

Your shaman notes that there is an natural wind in the air! The fire spreads much faster through the forest than was expected!

You hear chanting from the men who are your the target of your ravenous maws! Some horrid droning associated with their false idols!

After your hour of marching - you are apon the men - you can make out, in the distance through the trees, the mud of stone and brick, dark on the shore of the lake - illuminated just by moon light.

Turn 4: 

Empire: 

The Forces of the Empire attempt to catch attacking the beast men forces in the flames. If they can split them by trapping some beastly forces with them on the inside of the fires (that is, in the flame-resistant area around the hut) whilst keeping most out then that is a bonus.

-The Wizard keeps the flames at back until the right moment, then surges them forward

-The ground is prepared for fire with powder and dry  material, so it should spread quickly to the attacking beast forces

-The air elemental will also keep back the flames before surging them on by adding air as fuel

Umpire update for The Empire: In the hour you have fended off an attack by the beastmen! (See the public update). 

Beastmen: 

The Beastmen will attack! We have flanked them from all sides and we are blocking their escapes! We will slaughter them all in the name of the plague god and gather their corpses!

- The Nurglings will come from the lake! Poisoning the water as they swim

- The Raiders will aid the Beastlord in scouting for traps, before they charge towards the Hut!

- The Shamans will use their magic to burn more of the forest and aid the Nurglings! 

Umpire update for Beastmen:

As the main attack took place to the north, a group of 6 beastmen raiders, undetected by the scouting wind elemental, creep up from the shore of the lake. The raiders notice the wooden spikes installed by the forces of the empire , and take some time to pull them apart quietly as the fighting  takes place. The beastmen to their north are slain by the time they surge through the dissembled fortifications, a shaman, and a small horde of tiny plague demons accompanying them.

A visual of the imperial units you have sighted!

 

Your have a force to the north east of the burning ring around the hut, and a currently undetected force within the ring of flame!

Umpire public update: 

At 3 am, with the moon beginning to dip behind the trees, the beastmen attack the empire’s position! 

•    The main host of beastmen, led by a beastlord charge directly at the lakeside hut. 

•    To their west a smaller force of beastmen move forward towards the lakeside hut in a more measured and careful manner – igniting and spreading more flames as they go! 

•    As the main host of beastmen near the edge of the trees they barely notice the abundance of kindling and heaped dry leaves. 

•    With a surge of elemental magic, supported by the wind elemental summoned early in the night and the already blazing forest inferno,  the imperial wizard causes the trees surrounding the hut to erupt totally into flame!

•    The main host of beastmen are caught in the inferno! Half of their number burnt alive, the survivors stumble out into the clearing around the hut (drenched with some summoned elemental water keeping the flames at bay). 

•    The forces of the empire are ready for the beastmen, riflemen open fire from holes in the roof of the hut and halbardiers and zweinhander men receive the shambling charge! 

•    By the end of the hour all of the main host of beastmen warriors and their beast lord leader are slain but they have taken two halberdiers and a zweinhander man with them! 

•    The beastmen  to the west are cut off from the attack by the mass of spreading flames – currently unable to reach the hut on the edge of the lake

It is now 4 am! The forces of the empire have fended off one attack, but surely the dark forest has more horrors instore for them before sunrise!

Turn 5: 

Empire: 

The Forces of the Empire will attempt to prevent injury from smoke inhalation, whilst making the smoke a problem for the remaining beastmen

-The Zweihanders will soak any available robes and tunics with lake-water to act as a mask/filter against smoke

-The wizard will use fire magic to push the fires towards the remaining beastmen

-The air elemental will push the smoke towards the beastmen. It will extinguish/kill itself with the effort if doing so will help

Beastmen: 

The humans are surrounded on the hut! We shall burn them all alive in the name of Nurgle!!

- Both Shamans get away safely from the fire and begin to cast MORE fire!

- The raiders help the shamans get away safely from the fire they've caused, using their hunting knowledge

- Everything is a sacrifice for the gods! Even their deceased beastmen allies, they will conduct the fire to consume the humans!

Umpire public update: 

•    From 4 to 5 am the magical forest fire continued to spread in a great blazing inferno – magical agents on both the side of the beastmen and the empire encouraging the blaze and coaxing it to move in certain directions!

•    The wizard of the empire senses the wind of magic pushing from both the east and west, the fire roaring towards the hut and leaping over the hastily conjured firebreak! The hut swiftly catches ablaze burning to death the riflemen within! 

•    The imperial forces outside of the burning hut (a wizard, capatain, 3 zweinhanders and 6 halberdiers) flee the blaze moving south towards the lake – discovering that the beastmen have, at some point in the night, tampered with and penetrated the earlier erected shoreside spikes. They do not encounter whatever beastmen conducted such tamperings! 

•    The remaining imperial forces wade into the cool lake to seek refuge from the flames – it writhes with some daemonic foulness and causes their skin to itch and crawl but they are not slain by such mere discomforts in this hour. 

•    The foulness of the lake causes some misgivings for the units of the empire as they soak cut and torn lengths of fabric into damp masks to ward against the heavy – choking smoke all around them, but whatever illness this may have transmitted from the lake into their mouths and noses can be dealt with later! 

•    Safe from the fire for the time being, the wizard of the empire, sends flame and smoke towards the direction of the earlier scouted beastmen. The wind elemental surges along side the flames and smoke  - pushing them towards the beasts – but the bleating beastmen are already on the move, retreating from the blaze. The wind elemental dissipates.

It is now 5 am! The final hour before sunrise and the arrival of Imperial re-enforcements! 

Turn 6: 

Empire: 

The Forces of the Empire leave the lake on the eastern bank and attempt to engage the beastman forces that the wizard sensed there

-The Captain will lead the way to inspire his troops

-The wizard will cleanse their soaked and probably cursed bodies and clothes by summoning fresh new water once they get on land

-The halberdiers will attempt to form a spear wall, with the zweihanders on the flanks

Beastmen: 

We will flank the humans from both sides and attack! Killing them with our nurglings and plague clouds!

- The Raiders will guide the shamans safely through all malices! Hoping to evade the human's possible movements towards them.

- The nurglings are sent towards the humans to defile and kill them in the name of Nurgle!

- The Shamans clouds of sickness from both sides towards the humans! Each death is a sacrifice!!

Umpire public update: 

As the sun slowly brings light to the dark forest, from 4 to 5 am the following events transpire: 

•    The imperial forces (a wizard, captain, 3 zweinhanders and 6 halberdiers) march east along the shore of the lake, abandoning their (presumably) diseased face coverings. When they arrive on the sandy shore, illuminated by the nearby blaze, the imperial wizard douses all in fresh, magically summoned water. 

•    The western force of beastmen ( a shaman and 6 raiders) are unable to reach the forces of the empire in this final hour – blocked off by smoke and flame! 

•    The eastern force of beastmen (a shaman, 6 raiders and 20 small plague demons) launch an attack on the remaining units of the empire as they trudge east along the sodden lake shore!

•    A miasmic cloud wafts over the humans, as the green rotting demons the size of dogs charge them! Arrows rain from the trees as the humans fend off the attack! 

•    Though large in number, the horde of small demons is no match for the martial strength of imperial troops (buoyed on by their brave and inspiring captain) – the demons are slain! The demons and the arrows of the beastmen raiders take with them 4 halberdiers and 2 of the zwienhanders.

•    The raiders and shaman harrying the imperial forces from the trees are driven back by the wizard of the empire igniting the trees around them! (edited)

And so, the sun rises at 6 am, A wizard, captain, a zweinhander and 2 halberdiers of the empire trudge east along a lake in a forest. They shortly meet with a greater host of imperial troops who they regale of their ordeal during the night. The beastmen retreat back to their forest dwellings, a conflict soon to break out as to who will be the new beastlord leader of the tribe after a night of much fire and death. Though they may never know, it may have brought them great joy to learn that those surviving men of the empire died of some rotting, delirious fever several days later after setting foot into that diseased lake….

The End! 

Thoughts: 

The "one thing" may be hard when you have a small/intimate force to command. I tried to phase out the micromanaging of specific troops with the one hour length turns to make things more sweeping and cinematic. 

Other than that the game was quick, fun, interesting and easy to run! 

Matrixhammer Scenario! A Night in the Forest!

 Matrix games meets Krieghammer! A self contained strategy/war/matrix scenario expressed in three images! 

I'll be running it on discord! 

The Saga of Ostermark, Part 2 (Orks Versus Skaven!)

 Here is the second part of the reporting on my 6 player Krieghammer (warhammer using kriegspiel inspired rulings) campaign. I've been running it for about 6 months and the final battle (three players - Skaven, Chaos/Empire and Beastmen) is taking place right now! I ran it on discord, getting private orders from the players (whether those orders for in a battle or commands for travelling across the map) and publicly updating the map/giving important area updates. All of the battles apart from the final one have been in private, so the other players not involved in the battle were not able to get unfair intelligence on the other player's armies. I ran the game using the freeform/ruleless protocols (inspired by the Free Kriegspiel Revolution) outlined in my waraming PDF "Freeform Skirmish Referee": https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/352987/Freeform-Skirmish-Referee 

Find out more about Krieghammer/join the discord and play a game here: http://lizardmandiaries.blogspot.com/2021/04/krieghammer-rules-and-armies.html

I did all of the maps/battle images in Paint.net.

Part 2: Continued from Part 1 : https://lizardmandiaries.blogspot.com/2021/10/the-saga-of-ostermark-part-1.html

The army of the Empire has been defeated. The beastmen are full and fat with a feast of man flesh!

Day 13: Something feels...wrong, in Ostermark! The dead are raising from the ground in the West!

Day 14: The large town of Remer has been lost! The fleeing citizens tell of the walking dead and vampires taking over their fair town in the night! Oh the horror! Can the citizens of Ostermark have any respite?! Also! A battle in the Veldt! The greenskin warhorse has encountered the non existent Skaven!

Battle!

•    The skaven slaves unleash a volley of stones! That land somewhere on the other side of the trench – but no where near the approaching orcs!

•    The skaven warlord moves back towards the tower , screaming squeakily at his slaves to fire their slings better.

•    The skaven jezzail weapon team get one of the important orcs perfectly in their sights! CLICK! The gun malfunctions – not firing. A small puff of warpfire emits menacingly from the rear of the weapon.

•    A group of orcs moves south! Straight onto a hidden skaven mine! 3 of the orcs are exploded! A nearby goblin archer is also killed in the explosion!

 

•    The orc archers move towards the trench and open fire at the skaven slaves! The range is still quite far! But two of the slaves are struck and killed!

·        The orc army moves!

•    The skaven slaves open fire with slings at the orcs on the other side of the trench! The rocks fall harmlessly nearby the orcs!

•    Three of the orc arrow bows open fire at the fast retreating skaven warlord! All missing.

•    The remaining orc arrow boys open fire at the skaven slaves! Another is killed!

•    The skaven warlord moves, bravely, behind the grand skaven tower!

•    The river troll slowly clambers over the rocky hill, the jezzail team lines him up perfectly! And…BOOM! The weapon malfunctions again blow warpfire out the back of the weapon and coating the shooter in green warpflame!

•    The two southern river trolls begin attempting to wrench the nearby tree from the ground! They have not accomplished this task thus far!

•    The brave skaven warlord continues moving away from the battle!

•    The lone river troll strides over the rocky hill! He notices spikey things in the trench! 

•    The jezzail team puts out the flames! They are ready to fire again!

•    The arrow boys open fire, killing another three slaves!

•    Two of the skaven slaves, noticing how far away their warlord is, make a run for their freedom! Straight into a warpfire mine! They die!

•    The remaining two slaves sling their stones…missing the orcs.

•    The trolls continue attempting to wrench the tree free – it is coming loose but is not out of the ground yet.

•    The skaven warlord bravely flees the battlefield!

•    The skaven slaves don’t much see the point in sticking around with the warlord gone – they also flee! They are not blown up by mines.

•    POW! The jezzail team finally fire their gun! A chunk of flesh is ripped from the approaching trolls leg!

•    The lone river troll begins smashing apart the grand skaven tower!

•    To the south, the trolls wrench free a tree!

•    The arrow boys open fire at the jezzail team! Two arrows land into the ratty flesh of the team! A number more arrows land in the shield of the front member of the team!

•    The jezzail team fires at the troll again! Another hit, a chunk of its arm shot out!

•    The troll gives the grand skaven an almighty wallop. CRACK! CRASH! The structure falls apart!

•    SMASH! The troll caves in the head of one of the skaven snipers. The rat man’s dead feet paws and pushed down into the dirt from the force of the blow.

•    The other half of the weapons team manages to scamper out of the ruined pile of wood that was the tower.

•    The river troll catches his scampering, WHACK! Another huge blow from the troll. The rats leg is pulverized and his corpse is smashed into the splinters of the tower.

A victory for the orcs!

Although the fighting has not sated their hunger for violence!

 

To Be Continued…in Part 3! 

The Saga of Ostermark, Part 1

Here is the first part of the reporting on my 6 player Krieghammer (warhammer using kriegspiel inspired rulings) campaign. I've been running it for about 6 months and the final battle (three players - Skaven, Chaos/Empire and Beastmen) is taking place right now! I ran it on discord, getting private orders from the players (whether those orders for in a battle or commands for travelling across the map) and publicly updating the map/giving important area updates. All of the battles apart from the final one have been in private, so the other players not involved in the battle were not able to get unfair intelligence on the other player's armies. I ran the game using the freeform/ruleless protocols (inspired by the Free Kriegspiel Revolution) outlined in my waraming PDF "Freeform Skirmish Referee": https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/352987/Freeform-Skirmish-Referee 

Find out more about Krieghammer/join the discord and play a game here: http://lizardmandiaries.blogspot.com/2021/04/krieghammer-rules-and-armies.html

I did all of the maps/battle images in Paint.net. 

Original Recruitment Post for the Game/Details on how it was played: 

• Each player is in control of a faction warband. 
• Each turn, outside of battle with another player, takes a day. 
• You will be given a description of the region you are in and then give the orders for what your warband does on that day. 
• The turns outside of battle will be more broad strokes than the battles. Their purpose is to grow your warband/gather items of power/maybe be killed by NPCs. 
• The map will make it clear where all the other factions are but you will not know specifically what they are up to. Alliances and communication are possible between the different factions (if somewhat improbable), but each faction outside of the two Empire commanders has their own unique goal to win the scenario. 
• Battles between player warbands will be resolved in a public battlefield (This ended up being private!). 
• The end is not the end: A win by the Beastmen, Orcs, Skaven or Undead will trigger apocalyptic events that will be dealt with by the other factions in an epilogue of sorts (Both the Skaven and the Beastmen did this - they got a massive amount of troops as a reward!).

The campaign map

Factions, Their Goals and Recruitment information (From the Recruitment Post): 

• Beastmen, Starts with 15 points: You must raze three towns of the stinking menfolk. More beastpeople will join your cause if you find them in the deep dark forests and woods!  
• Orcs, Starts with 15 Points: You must prove yourself as a warboss, winning five battles against any of the other factions! More orcs dwell in the mountains, they will be looking for a fight! Goblins are in the woods, bash them into fighting for you!  
• Skaven, Starts with 20 Points: You emerge in the middle of the Veldt from a tunnel from the under empire. You must capture two human towns and keep each for long enough to build a tunnel beneath the ground. You will be sent more troops overtime from beneath the earth!  
• 2 x Commanders of The Empire, Starts with 20 Points Each: You must defend The Empire! Cleanse Ostermark of all other factions. You will be sent an allowance from the empire to recruit more men from the towns and villages of the region!   
• Undead, Starts with 15 Points: Your vampire baron master requires an army of the undead! Raise the dead from the many sites of ancient battles or cemeteries in the region. You must not return south until you have raised an army of undead worth 80 points. 

Some caveats: 

• Probably not balanced in any way! Your army well may be crushed! 
• The campaign will probably take a while to play out. 
• There may be a lull for you when we have to resolve a battle between two warbands

A turn is a day. Each turn you will get a description of the region you are and how your warband's actions from the previous day went. Each turn you provide orders as to what your warband will spend the day doing. All of the above will be done via private message. It generally takes a day to travel between regions - but mountainous/forested regions may take longer! (edited)

Moving to a new region takes a whole day. Doing something in a region also takes a whole day. You can split up your armies but they will be weakened if they meet aggressive groups!

Player Warbands: 

Beastmen, The Peacebane Warherd, led by Beastlord Kurghan Fleshrender.

Orcs, led by Black Orc The Nameless:

Skaven do not exist ( Clan Vaksyne, led by Warlock-Engineer Slatker Fleshfire):

Army of the Empire 1, led by Rifleman Fritz Von Strusseldorf:

Army of the Empire 2, led by Pistolier Grondschlächt von Impfneid-Zugzwang:

Undead, led by Vampire Lord Talos Carrackvane:

Daily Map Updates: Each map updates represents a day - bits and pieces happened in the direct messages between me and the players but I will not present them here in the interest of brevity! 

Day 1. 

Day 2: I didn't upload a map image for some reason....

Day 3: 

Day 4: From the mountains come the roar of "WAAAAAAGGGHHHHH!!!!", heard as far as Muckenhof. The orcs there have been incited, a great beast has been slain and a new great and glorious warboss marches forward, gathering the greenskins! (The Orc commander defeated a Jabberslythe in the mountains!) 

Day 5: A great howl comes from the northern black forest. Smoke fills the air. Ryazan is razed by the beastmen. Now diseased men and women flee from the town - they are unable to cross the river into the safety of nearby towns and are lost forever in the chaos infected wood!

Day 6: 

Day 7: In the East the people of the town of Weiler has begun fleeing from the approaching horde of Orcs! They are absolutely terrified at the size of it! Some of the braver/insane fighting men have stayed behind but most of the town has abandoned hope and fled!  Where are the defending armies of The Empire, they cry!

Day 9 (Lost a day here!): The town of Weiler has been lost to the gleeful destruction of the orc host!

Day 10: The people of Nagenhof and Buckrow have begun to flee their city - fearful of the enormous orc warhost rampaging the land! Some small token hosts of mad defenders remains! Sigmar, they cry, Why has your Empire abandoned us?! Some of the refuges from Buckrow fall dead on the riverbanks - a foul sickness wrecking their fleeing bodies! 

Day 11: Buckrow is lost to the orc menace! Hundreds if not thousands of refugees flee West along the river in search of heroes to save them!

Day 12:  Something feels...wrong, in Ostermark! The dead are raising from the ground in the West!

Battle! The forces of the Beastmen, The Peacebane Warherd, led by Beastlord Kurghan Fleshrender will be attacked by the Army of the Empire 2, led by Pistolier Grondschlächt von Impfneid-Zugzwang, on the river near the ruins of Ryazan! 

A river, just east of the Ruin of Ryazaan. Beastmen on a boat and a troop of The Empire's finest.

•  The scouts of the empire notice something off with the boat first. The beastmen are limp and stiff and staring off into the distance. Only the two beastmen runts appear to be moving. 

•    The ranged units march into position and open fire – they focus on the more lively runts who appear to be steering the boat– the forest echoes with the BOOM of rifles and the arrows and bullets slay the beastman raiders! They fall into the river – dead. 

•    The remaining beastman aboard the barge do nothing in response. As the empire’s units get closer they realise it is a trick! Foul chaos magic has coated the corpses of dead men, beastman, and wild animals in a glamour to make them appear like living beastmen! They are but stinking, rotting corpses!

•    An ungodly HOWL blasts from the north!

•    At the ungodly howl – the two peasant scouts flee! The days marching through up river with endless howling and gibbering and the sight of a boat full of a corpses is too much for them! They run away! 

•    One of the conscripted archers also  jumps in the river and swims South. This madness is too much for her! 

•    Two beastman soothsayers in the woods send gouts of flame at the imperial troops! One is unsettled by their glinting armour and does not cast – but the other sends a fireball at the two Pistoliers! Grondschlächt von Impfneid-Zugzwang is set alight! 

•    5 Beastmen Raiders appear in the nearby woods and fire at the burning pistoleer, Grondschlächt hitting him twice! Both in the arm! He may have trouble firing with this arrow wounded arm! 

•    A stinking plague carrying Nurgle Chaos Spawn emerges slathering from the woods and runs at the mounted knight! It scratches and bleats but is unable to pierce the knights armour or unsettle its mount yet. It is unable nor cares to, reach the targets it was directed to attack! 

•    7 spear wielding beastmen runts appear and charge at the mounted pistoliers! 3 stab at Grondschlächt’s mount, 1 spear wounds its flank! 4 stab at the other pistolier’s mount! It is stabbed twice! Both mount are unsettled by the stabbing at the flames! One of the pistoliers horse bucks but its rider holds tight! 

•    5 Beastmen appear! 3 Smash into the Western Troopers! 1 of the troopers is beheaded by a beastman! The other has its leg cleaved off! Both are slain! The remaining trooper pierces one of the beastman’s arms but does not slay it!

•    The other 2 beastman smash into the mounted knight already beset by the spawn of chaos! A beastman smashes in the leg of the poor horse who crumples to the ground! Dead! 

•    The now unmounted knight hacks at the foul spawn of chaos that is gibbering at him! A might blow! The chaos spawn has its head instantly removed! The melts to the ground oozing pestilence! The knight immediately begins cough and hacking beneath his helmet!

•    The riflemen all reload! The men and women of the empire look at Grondschlächt for direction in this madness! In the north there is howling of yapping and snarling of many vicious wild beast dogs!

•    Grondschlächt opens fire at the Soothsayer launcher of flames in the woods. A VERY lucky shot! Getting it right between its beastly eyes! The soothsayer is dead. Hermann the other pistolier unleashes his pistols at the other Soothsayer – not having as much luck but wounding the casters arms! 

•    Herman, ungodly whispers filling his skull, screams – tears running down his face, “Too many secrets! Oh god the secrets!”, and sends a fireball hurling at one of the western Beastmen! It catches aflame! 

•    The remaining Soothsayer sends a ray of pain towards the westernmost foot knight! His body seizes up in excruciating pain and he drops to the muddy ground, laying on his back in pain and screaming in agony! 

•    The beastman raiders open fire! Hitting one of the riflemen in the leg! The rest of the arrows sink uselessly into the mud. 

•    The riflemen open fire on the remaining Soothsayer. Another crack shot from the guns of man! A bullet in the head! The other soothsayer is killed! The remaining projectiles hit into nearby trees and bushes, uselessly. 

•    Three of the beastman runts charge at the ranged units of the empire, all three stabbing a target with their spears! A rifleman is wounded in the leg. The conscripted archers are stabbed through the belly with spears! Dead!

•    The remaining beastman runts stab at the pistolier’s horses! Not achieving much of anything!

•    The remaining trooper attempts to help his leader! Moving towards the runts attacking his horse! The beastmen warriors nearby to him hack their axes at him! Three hits, a blow to the leg and arm slows the trooper – allowing the third beastman to stomp forward and behead him.

•    On the eastern flank the now unmounted knight coughs and splutters and wheezes in his helmet! He has been infected with some foul plague from the corpse of the spawn of Nurgle. 

•    The beastman nearby to him descend, swinging their axes! SMASH! SMASH! The knights leg armour and helmet are cracked and smashed and destroyed by the blows of the vicious beastmen! 

•    The knight, reeling from the attack and feeling ill, stumbles forward – missing his swing

•    The beastmen swing again – perhaps over confident, the first misses, the second smashes in the leg of the ailing knight. He is bleeding profusely from the wound!

•    The knight stumbles forward and pierces the arm of the beastman! It his last action in life as he tumbles forward into the mud – from his injury and fast acting plague infection. The beastmen hack at his prone form – cleaving his skull beneath his useless helmet.

•    Grondschlächt, see a free path, charges his horse and self into the river to douse the flames, The horse is so far doing ok with this task and the flames have been doused! This act may have affected his gunpowder supplies!

•    The western beastmen hack at the prone and paralysed with agony footknight. He is powerless to stop them hacking him to pieces. He is dead.

•    The units of the empire form up as best they can! The banner man – seeing his friends and comrades ripped to pieces from ghostly beasts that seem to have appeared from now where, throws down his banner and attempts to flee. Nearby runts and beastmen stab and hack him to death. 

•    The Riflemen and Pistoliers all reload! Ready to fire!

•    Another great terrifying HOWL from the woods! The Ruin of Rheden a foul slathering pack of fang hounds bounds out of the woods! Hungry for man flesh!

•    Another booming and doomfilled howl from the North. It is largely aesthetic in nature as the troops of the empire as terrified and unnerved as they could possibly be! 

•    One of the western beastman jumps in the water to douse the flames cooking his beastly body! 

•    The rifleman wildly fire their arms at nearby runts! They are too close and too surrounded and too terrified to get a good shot. They have missed! Gunsmoke fills the air yet again regardless. 

•    Four runts surrounded the rifleman! All stabbing deep into their flesh with their spears! The riflemen are dead. 

•    Another three runts attack the horsed pistoleer! Only one hit! But a deep stab into the flank of the horse! The horse crumples and dies beneath the pistoleer!

•    The raiders in the nearby trees fire at the dismounted Pistolier Hermann! Two arrows hit him! His leg and arm are pierced. 

•    The beleaguered Herman is chopped at by nearby Beastmen! Not the finest blows from the beastmen but…it is enough to slay the already wounded and shocked and battered and fallen from his dead horse Herman. He is slain!

•    Grondschlächt urges his horse ashore, hoping to escape. His sodden pistols amazingly fire! Slaying on of the beastman runts! 

•    Grondschlächt is massively overwhelmed and outnumbered, the horde of beastmen have him surrounded. It is moments before he is ripped from his horse and the horde begins its feast! Grondschlächt is slain along with his men – carrion feast for the beastman horde.

The army of the Empire has been defeated. The beastmen are full and fat with a feast of man flesh!

CONTINUED...IN PART 2!