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Previous: Mortal Empires, Part VII - Gameplay Changes

Armed with the foresight of my previous two losses, I resolved to begin Legendary campaign number ten with the mindset of not taking anything for granted.

Karl Franz's starting army. Franz is positioned squarely in the center to give all his troops a Leadership bonus. Spearmen, swordsmen and halberdiers hold the line while handgunners and crossbows support from behind. The Reiksgard cavalry are deployed far to the right to flank the enemy.

We united the Reikland without any issues, fighting each battle manually to make sure of the result. Afterwards we ignored Marienburg and immediately headed north-west to Grung Zint to destroy the Skullsmasherz before they could rise to power. Karl Franz was met by a massive Orcish army, but we fought them nonetheless. I was confident that I could beat them despite the numbers.

As the enemy advances to the Imperial lines the cavalry sweep behind, take out missile troops, then attack the enemy from the flank or rear.

I was wrong. Our army was wiped out in a disastrous defeat.

This single orc stronghold of Grung Zint was a simple annoyance pre-DLC, but post-DLC united with the Skull-Smasherz and the Crooked Moon to wipe me out in the ninth campaign.

If you recall, I was trying to keep Franz's Household guard intact for narrative purposes, because the idea of how these units fared in the overall campaign appealed to me. Well, I need not worry about them anymore. The whole army was wiped out. Franz was wounded, and carried back to Altdorf. While Franz recuperated I hastily raised another army in Eilhart under neophyte General Alberich Hergiger to defend against the Skullsmasherz. They came down like before in numbers, and attacked the Empire's north-west. It looked like a repeat of campaign number nine was on the cards. The crucial difference, however, was that Wissenland was able to destroy the Skull-Takerz in the south-east instead of being overrun by them, and that difference gave me the chance to defeat the Skullsmasherz in the north-west without being double teamed by the Orcish tribes. It's better to be lucky than good sometimes.

Franz had recovered by the time the Skullsmasherz arrived at the gates of Eilhart, and this time around Franz was able to avenge his defeat. Once again, however we could not pursue the orcs and finish the job, because rebels in Altdorf demanded our attention. After the rebellion was put down another orcish army was en route, and Franz was forced to defend at Eilhart once again. If we say one turn in game is equivalent to one week, then this back and forth took a four to six months of fantasy time. The orcs would come down from the mountains, the Empire would defend, but be too weak to pursue. One particularly crushing victory gave the Empire the opportunity it was looking for, however, to pursue the orcs back to Grung Zint. In the second battle of Grung Zint Franz was able to capture the stronghold and end the Skullsmasherz once and for all.

The wars with the Skullsmasherz did serve a greater purpose. They gave Franz enough experience to get to level 15, which is when he unlocks his flying griffon Deathclaw. With Deathclaw in play Karl Franz changes from a somewhat dangerous cavalry commander to a deadly tactical threat able to strike anywhere on the battlefield. Once we defeated the orcs we immediately attacked Marienburg, and this time the siege was much more one sided than in my seventh playthrough, because Franz could literally fly over the walls, attack the enemy artillery, then swoop back and assist the troops scaling the castle walls by directly attacking the defenders on the parapets. Having a lord on a griffon shortens sieges dramatically and removes the need for battering rams and siege towers, which typically need a few turns to construct.

The siege of Marienburg. Free Company militia scale the walls and suffer heavy losses.

The capture of Marienburg finally squares up this playthrough with where I am in the written account. The sequence of events is slightly different. In playthrough number seven the order of events are (1) unite the Reikland; (2) capture Marienburg; and (3) capture Grung Zint. In my current campaign the order goes (1) unite the Reikland; (2) attempt and fail to capture Grung Zint; (3) defend against Grung Zint; (4) capture Grung Zint; and (5) capture Marienburg.

Karl Franz on his griffon Deathclaw attacking the defenders on the parapets while the Reiksgard break through below.

If these were parallel universes then the capture of Grung Zint and Marienburg took place months after the original campaign documented in my earlier posts. Franz is also more battle hardened, having lost his beloved Household guard in the first battle of Grung Zint, and now riding to battle astride his griffon Deathclaw. This version of Karl Franz is grimmer, darker and more ruthless, but perhaps better suited to the coming wars than his more idealistic counterpart in the campaign I abandoned when the Tomb Kings DLC dropped.

Next: Mortal Empires, Part IX - Recurring Nightmares

Previous: Mortal Empires, Part VIII - History Repeating

Karl Franz was now the master of the Reikland. He had crushed the secessionists, driven back Todbringer's agitators, defeated the Skullsmasherz orcs of Grung Zint and returned the Free City of Marienburg back into the Imperial fold. Astride his griffon Deathclaw, the young Emperor was rapidly making a name for himself as a bold, incisive and formidable general in the field.

The first battle of Grung Zint. The Empire forms up in a familiar line of battle with the Reiksgard on the left flank. Free Company skirmishers harass the flanks of the oncoming orcs.

Yet only a few knew his secret.

The Free Company usually do a better job of dispersing the oncoming horde but in this case the orcs maintain cohesion and crash into the Imperial line.

All his life the Prince of Reikland had been tormented by recurring dreams and nightmares. As a youth these visions of chaos, blood and death were merely visceral images, jumbled fragments which made no sense to the terrified child. Supplications to the temple of Morr, the Imperial deity of death and dreams, suppressed the dreams for a time, but as Franz matured the visions became even more persistent. Franz's father Luitpold spared no expense in trying to find a cure for his son's malady. He spoke candidly to the Grand Theogonist, consulted the masters of the Colleges of Magic, and prayed at various temples and shrines, hoping to gain an insight into his son's condition. All were in vain. At Luitpold's deathbed, the young prince confessed to his father that he believed that it was the future he was seeing in these visions. Karl Franz could not shake the feeling that everything he did, and everything he would do, he had already done before.

The aftermath of the first battle. The orcs shatter the Imperial line and pursue the broken Imperials. Karl Franz is wounded and his Household guard wiped out.

This was no mere fancy or trick of the mind. His advisers and generals were constantly astounded at Franz's ability to predict his opponent's moves. He anticipated Ludenhof's rebellion and Todbringer's treason. He knew that the Skullsmasherz were massing in force in the mountains, and placed his army in Eilhart in time to defeat the greenskin horde. Even envoys sent by fractious lords were surprised to find Franz aware and fully cognizant of their demands, and already waiting with a considered response. This prescience did much to enhance his reputation and prestige among his followers.

Sigmar has granted you the sight, they said.

Franz had no answer for that. Little did they know that Franz kept the darkest parts of the visions to himself. While he reluctantly shared his prognostications of the mundane and passed it off as strategic acumen, he never told anyone else the recurring visions which plagued his nights, and woke him in the dark gasping with dread, heart thundering in his chest.

Altdorf in flames, overrun by the walking dead.

Sometimes the visions were different. Sometimes the invaders were fur clad Norsemen, with their cold blue eyes and fair skin emblazoned with blue tattoos and sigils acknowledging their worship of the Chaos Gods of the north. In Franz's dreams they tore through the streets of Altdorf, raping, killing and pillaging everything in their path. In some of the dreams he saw elves, cold, fey and unimaginably beautiful, enslaving thousands of his countrymen and spiriting them away to a cold and distant land across the seas. In one particularly vivid dream he saw the greenskins engulf the capital, felt the cold bite of steel impale his chest and watched his lifeblood drain away at the hands of a large green-skinned monstrosity at the gates of Altdorf.

Yet for all that horror it paled in comparison to the fate of the city in the hands of vampire counts. Commoners hung from their feet like so much cattle, bled to satisfy the blood thirst of the nightkin. Men and women torn to pieces by ravening ghouls and mindless zombies. Babies wailing as they were held by pale skinned beauties, cooing and stroking the child, looking for all the world like adoring mothers in gesture, voice and action. Yet from the visions Franz knew that they admired the children for the sole reason that their blood was the sweetest and most delectable, a rare delicacy prized within the Night Aristocracy.

During the day Franz gave no sign of his tortured nights. His friends and advisers fretted and worried about his increasingly serious mien, but nothing they could say could persuade him to relinquish the mantle of responsibility he had draped over himself. His victories over the rebels, the rout of the greenskins and the recapture of Marienburg, although widely celebrated, seemed to lack any significance for him. In fact at times he seemed impatient, much like a spectator at the theater watching a play he did not particularly care for and has seen many times before.

There is no time, he would state grimly.

Reckoning for the Skullsmasherz. Franz, now on Deathclaw, leads a Reiksgard army to annihilate the greenskins once and for all.

There was only one time where Franz felt the burden of loneliness lift from him, and it was during the battles against the orcs of Grung Zint. Driven by the vision of a greenskin tide obliterating Altdorf he marched his army to destroy the orc stronghold before they could muster their forces. His army was ambushed and virtually annihilated. Franz was lucky to escape with his life. But before the rout Franz had spied upon the orc warlord at the head of the host and immediately recognized him. This was not uncommon for Franz, who saw people, places and beasts in his dreams long before meeting them in life.

No, what shocked Franz was that the orc recognized him, too, and had known he was coming.

The first battle of Grung Zint was a disaster for the Empire. The subsequent battles were not. In the second battle of Grung Zint the Empire avenged their first loss and destroyed the Skullsmasherz for all time. But looking at the fallen orc warlord before him Franz could not avoid the feeling of kinship he shared with this vicious brute of a creature, and the inescapable feeling that this monster, defeated now, had once slain him and conquered the Empire.

I am not mad then, he said to himself. And the future is not set.

The orc, mortally wounded, roared its defiance. In its mien Franz saw a burning desire for vengeance for a lifetime of suffering for its kin - hunted to near extinction, their mountain homes razed, wandering the peaks and valleys in constant fear of trappers and bounty hunters stalking them for the bounty on their ears. Franz met the implacable hatred in its gaze, and nodded.

Till next time, orc, he said, before administering the final blow.

Poor Franz. To paraphrase a quote from the movie Groundhog Day, he's died so many times he doesn't even exist anymore. I'm now in Legendary playthrough number ten, and that doesn't count the numerous campaigns I played in the original game. While Legendary Lords are technically immortal - if they die they come back in a few turns' time - Franz has lost every Legendary playthrough in Total War: Warhammer II. In four campaigns Altdorf has ended in flames, surrounded either by the Vampire Counts and/or the Varg Norsemen. In my last campaign Altdorf was overrun by orcs. Four campaigns have been abandoned, three because I didn't like my starting position and one because I wanted to include the Tomb Kings in the campaign.

Now I'm playing to see if Franz can avoid the nightmare of those previous campaigns. At this point I'm feeling kinship with Cassandra, the Greek oracle who had the power to see the future but was completely unable to do anything about it. I know the vampires will run rampant in the east. I know the Norsemen will sweep all before them in the north. The question is what I can do about it. At least at this point Franz has prevented the future in which the greenskins obliterate Altdorf from coming to pass. The rest are still up in the air.

Next: Mortal Empires, Part X - Mousillon

Previous: Mortal Empires, Part IX - Recurring Nightmares

The city of Mousillon, once a thriving port town on the west coast of Bretonnia, has an evil and sinister reputation. Shunned by the common folk it is largely deserted, and those that dwell there have an ill and foreboding aspect. Mousillon is the home of the Red Duke, a proud knight of old who once led men in the Crusades against Araby. This was over a thousand years ago.

Mousillon, the City of the Damned.

Nowadays the Red Duke still holds sway over Mousillon, for the once proud Duke of Aquitaine is a feared vampire of legend. When the Age of Reckoning began and the world fractured into hundreds of squabbling factions an Undead army burst forth from Mousillon and marched on the lands of men. Led none other by the Red Duke himself, the dread host captured the cities of Lyonnesse and Gisoreux. The Duke, in his endless rage, declared war against the living, and punctuated his declaration by the wholesale slaughter of thousands.

The Red Duke.

The nation of Bretonnia was also in the grip of its own civil war, and the threat of Norscan reavers left the king of Bretonnia, Louen Leoncouer, unable to act. With his base in Reikland temporarily secured Franz was free to move against Mousillon, however, and after obtaining the king's permission Franz mobilized a force of Reiklanders to head west into Bretonnian lands. The city of Gisoreux lay at the south-western end of the Gisoreux Gap, while the city of Marienburg, so recently annexed by the Empire, lay in the north-east. Franz did not want an Undead host marching through the pass to threaten his occupation of Marienburg, and resolved to destroy the Red Duke once and for all. In this he had the assistance of the Grand Theogonist Volkmar himself. Franz could now field two armies, and the second he entrusted to the venerable head of the Cult of Sigmar. Moving together in tandem Franz and Volkmar defeated the Red Duke and drove him back from Gisoreux. They pursued the Duke back to Mousillon, and together they captured that squalid ruin and destroyed the remainder of the Duke's army. The final act in this swift campaign was the liberation of the port city of Lyonnesse. In a matter of several weeks Karl Franz had destroyed another enemy of humanity, adding yet more laurels to his name, and earning the gratitude of the Bretonnian provinces.

Franz and Volkmar's westward route in the Mousillon campaign. The two armies muster in Altdorf, take river barges to Marienburg and then head south-west through the Gisoreux Gap to Gisoreux. After capturing Gisoreux they march on to Mousillon, before finally liberating Lyonesse from the Red Duke's clutches.

Things are looking up in this campaign. Our borders have stabilized, allowing us to strike west against Mousillon without fear of being attacked at home. I've unlocked another Legendary Lord, Volkmar the Grim, and have the financial resources to field a second army. I've recruited a bunch of heroes - captains and warrior-priests - and seeded them in both armies. If these heroes don't die they will grow to be powerful melee units. I've also got a Light Wizard as a reward for completing the Bloodpines quest earlier in the campaign, and he's coming along nicely. Wizards can be used in a wide variety of roles, but I use mine to delay the enemy with the Net of Amyntok spell or make troops unbreakable for short periods of time.

The world map, as it appears in the Total War interface. Volkmar has just finished off Mousillon by capturing Lyonesse in the north-west.

Franz's army composition has changed now that we have the capacity to recruit Reiksgard. Before he used to field a balanced army with swordsmen and crossbows - now his army is composed purely of Reiksgard knights and skirmishers. At the beginning of each battle I split the knights into groups and place a mounted hero in each group, and then deploy the skirmishers ahead to disperse the enemy army. We can then pick and choose when and where to strike. The cavalry are fast enough to evade bad match-ups, while no one is safe from Franz flying high above the battlefield on his griffon.

Volkmar's army is more conventional, using line troops and missile units to present a traditional battle line. The wizard is more useful here, so I've placed him with Volkmar rather than with Franz. Every Imperial army should have a warrior-priest - not only can they become quite tanky once they gain several levels of experience, but they also have the ability to replenish lost troops faster between turns. This isn't important yet, but will be when facing multiple armies in the middle game. Ideally I would love to have artillery in Volkmar's army, too, but I've run out of building slots in the Reikland to unlock it. Gaining Lyonesse gives me a third provincial capital after Altdorf and Marienburg, and the priority for this city will be to unlock artillery for the Imperial armies.

Next: Mortal Empires, Part XI - Crisis in Ulricsberg

Previous: Mortal Empires, Part X - Mousillon

Ulricsberg is the name of the massive plateau of white rock rising from the Drakwald Forest in the heart of Middenland. It is on this place that the city of Middenheim was founded, and for centuries the City of the White Wolf has remained inviolable, proof against pestilence, war and famine and an enduring symbol of Ulric, the ancient God of War and Winter. Middenheim is ruled by the Elector Count Boris Todbringer, once a bitter rival to Franz, but slowly being won over by the young Emperor's string of victories and his uncanny ability to counter every move made by his enemies to destabilize his fledgling rule.

Middenheim is home to one of the most famous Imperial Knight Orders - the White Wolves. Sadly, the White Wolves are not represented in-game.

When the news arrived in Bretonnia that Middenheim had fallen the first reaction was stunned disbelief. The Reiklanders, celebrating their relatively easy triumph over the undead legions of the Red Duke, could scarcely believe their ears. The rivalry between Reikland and Middenland was an ancient one, but the Reiklanders had always respected the mettle and courage of their more "uncouth" and "barbaric" neighbors. A vast tide of Norscan raiders had supposedly swept past the Nordland fortress at Salzenmund, and taken the city garrison by surprise. The bulk of the Middenland army was fighting in the south against Hochland over the township of Carroburg, and could do nothing. By the time an armistice was signed and the troops withdrawn the city was in the hands of the Norscans. This was a double humiliation for the Middenlanders - not only were they forced to cede Carroburg to Hochland, but their ancient capital of Middenheim had been lost.

Todbringer's self-recrimination knew no bounds. But his shame at being the first of his line to lose Middenheim paled in comparison to the fury he felt at the betrayal of the Elector Count of Nordland, Theodoric Gausser. Gausser, infuriated at the election of Franz, had deliberately ceased all patrols in the north as a gesture to spite the new Emperor. The lack of eyes and ears in the north was not lost to the Norscans, who took full advantage of the discord in the Empire to strike a mortal blow. The Norscan tribes of the Varg and the Skaeling swept south in unprecedented numbers, raiding and pillaging throughout the Imperial provinces of Ostermark, Ostland, Hochland and Middenland. The fact that Nordland was spared the Norscan's wrath did not go unnoticed.

Gausser's treason did not end there. He declared Nordland's independence, and launched an attack on Gosling, a northern city in the province of Marienburg recently annexed by the Empire. Volkmar was one of the few who knew of Franz's visions, and he asked the Emperor if he had foreseen this. Franz replied no, and said that in every vision he'd seen Gausser had rallied to the cause and fought with the Empire. Franz, not wishing to execute a man who he believed would become a staunch ally, was reluctant to move against Gausser. Volkmar counseled the Emperor that Gausser's actions were treasonous, and must be answered. The Grand Theogonist also warned Franz that since they could not be sure whether the Emperor's visions were divine or diabolical in origin, they could not rely on them to guide their actions.

Middenheim is another city described in exquisite detail in the modules printed to support the first run of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

In any case the two men agreed that the first course of action must be to liberate Middenheim from the Norscans. The Imperial armies were swiftly mustered and headed back east at all possible speed. To defend Lyonesse, Franz assigned Balthasar Gelt, the new Patriarch of the Colleges of Magic. The new Patriarch of the Colleges of Magic was largely regarded as an impudent upstart by more established masters. Nonetheless, his defeat of the former Patriarch Thyrus Gormann at the ritual duel in Altdorf secured his position as the Head of the Colleges for the foreseeable future.

Franz met Todbringer in Altdorf, and it was there that the Count of Middenland swore eternal fealty to the Emperor in return for Reikland assistance in re-capturing Middenheim. Franz also demanded that Todbringer end his feud with the Elector Count of Hochland, Aldrebrand Ludenhof. Chastised and humiliated, Todbringer had no choice but to comply. To ameliorate his wounded pride, Franz appointed Todbringer as Reiksmarshal - a position left vacant after the death of Kurt Helborg in the first battle of Grung Zint.

Franz marched northwards with Todbringer from the Middenlander's last redoubt in Weismund. At Middenheim the combined Reikland and Middenland army captured the city in a lightning strike against the Norscans, who showed little aptitude for siege craft. The Middenlander's perception of Karl Franz as a weak and soft "southern river" lord was irrevocably changed when they saw the Emperor crashing into the Norscan lines like a vengeful thunderbolt from the skies. Coupled with the liberation of their beloved city Franz had finally done enough to win the hearts and minds of the Middenlanders, who would go on to become staunch allies in the wars to come.

I've unlocked the last Legendary Lord, Balthasar Gelt, so nominally I now have three armies in the field. We can't afford a third army, however, so Gelt doesn't actually have an army with him. He is effectively just leading the garrison at Lyonesse. I've also been able to confederate with what remains of Middenland, who have been pounded by the Skaeling and the Varg and only have one city left after losing Middenheim and Carroburg. In Total War you can consolidate with like-minded factions by either becoming so friendly with them that they welcome confederation, or by swooping in to rescue them from certain destruction, which is what we did in this case.

When you confederate you gain control of the old faction's cities, armies, heroes and generals, and this usually leads to some culling because army upkeep balloons out of control. I also gained another Legendary Lord - Boris Todbringer - effectively giving me four generals. As stated above, I could only really afford two full armies, and so I had to switch Volkmar out so Todbringer could help liberate Middenheim. Legendary Lords can't die, though, so any experience gained is never wasted, and you're free to sub in and sub out at any time (except when they're wounded). The priority is to create high level generals that can win crucial battles. I found in earlier campaigns that wherever Franz went we would win, but everywhere else was vulnerable. The goal then, is not just the acquisition of cities to fund armies, but also to create a few formidable generals who can win with those armies. This will allow us to open new fronts and free Franz from having to do all the heavy lifting.

Next: Mortal Empires, Part XII - Hochland and Nordland

Previous: Mortal Empires, Part XI - Crisis in Ulricsberg

With the Norscans driven back for the moment Franz took the time to meet with the Elector Count of Hochland, Aldebrand Ludenhof. A tall thin man with a passion for hunting and falconry, Ludenhof and Todbringer became bitter enemies in the aftermath of the Imperial elections, leading to a series of bitter clashes in southern Middenland near the town of Carroburg. The Norscan invasion put an immediate halt to their squabble, and Todbringer was forced to cede the town in order to withdraw his forces to defend his provincial capital. With the liberation of Middenheim Todbringer was eager to march south and re-capture Carroburg from Hochland, despite the fact that he had nominally agreed to make peace.

Another rendition of Karl Franz in action.

Franz made all this moot by meeting Ludenhof and extracting from him an oath of fealty. Appealing to the Count's sense of duty, he was able to persuade the Elector to serve the greater good and join the Imperial cause. Ludenhof was no fool - his province was sorely pressed from the east by the Varg, and with a combined Imperial army in the west, over a third of which were vengeful Middenlanders looking to avenge their humiliation at Carroburg, he knew that to fight was folly. The issue of who would have control of Carroburg was also solved by Franz, who placed it under Reikland administration. While this displeased both Todbringer and Ludenhof, the two Elector Counts were much more willing to let Franz control the town than each other and thus the issue was settled.

Ludenhof was able to extract one concession from Franz, a request that took the Emperor by surprise but one he readily acceded to. A passionate collector of hunting birds, Ludenhof had always wanted a griffon to raise and one day ride into battle. He was given a single griffon egg from the Imperial Zoo, and with that, Hochland became part of the Empire again. He was also awarded a position as the Emperor's Eye, the title of the Empire's spymaster, much to the discomfiture of Todbringer.

The province of Hochland.

Franz's overtures to Nordland, however, failed to garner similar success. Despite several entreaties for an armistice, Gausser continued his raids into Marienburg territories, much to the anger and disgust of Franz's court. After several weeks of fruitless diplomacy Franz finally lost his temper, and declared Gausser a traitor. Franz marched onto Salzenmund with a combined Reikland, Middenland and Hochland army. The garrison put up a spirited defense, but fell in a few short weeks, once again thanks to the demoralizing and deadly assault of the Emperor on the back of Deathclaw. After securing Salzenmund Franz moved on to the coastal town of Dietershafen. Here he fought Gausser's army which had hastily marched back from Gosling. Gausser was soundly beaten, and forced to retreat. His tattered army was pursued and finally destroyed in the woods south-west of Dietershafen. Gausser himself was denied a final audience with the Emperor. He met his end at the hands of Imperial assassins somewhere beneath the eaves of the Laurelorn Forest, and his remains never found. His family was stripped of their lands and titles, and a family loyal to the Franz dynasty, the Hasselhoffs, was proclaimed the new Elector and entrusted with watching the bays and coves of the Empire's most northern province.

The Empire (in red) after confederating with Middenland and Hochland, and conquering the rebel province of Nordland. Franz's army composition can be seen in the bar below the map, comprising of Franz, an Empire captain, a Warrior-Priest, 8 units of Reiksgard, 7 units of Free Company skirmishers and 1 Helstorm Rocket Battery.

More confederation! Hochland accepted my offer to confederate with the Empire, so I added Aldebrand Ludenhof to my list of generals along with his armies and territories. Ludenhof is not a Legendary Lord and can die, however, so I have to be careful with him until he reaches level 20. Once he reaches level 20 he can unlock a skill called Immortal, which as the name suggests, makes the lord death-proof. The same applies for all heroes, so it's incumbent on you to look after them until then. Once they hit 20 and acquire the skill, however, you can be as reckless with them as you like. Even if they should die they will return in 4 turns (less with special items, traits or followers). High level heroes seriously boost the power of your army, so you should always be consciously leveling them.

The Empire has a vested interest in forging an alliance with Nordland because Franz has a quest which requires him to do just that. Quests award Legendary Lords bonus experience and unique magical artifacts, and are well worth doing. Nordland refused all offers of peace in this playthrough, however, and so I just decided to wipe them out. The quest aborts the parts of quests which are no longer achievable, so I didn't lose anything by doing this.

We're now a medium-sized power, ranked 9th or 10th overall. This is the furthest I've ever been in Legendary in the sequel so I'm very chuffed at our progress. Franz has also hit the level cap (40) and acquired his epic weapon, Ghal Maraz, by completing his quest lines. He can now pretty much go toe to toe with any other Legendary Lord in the game, with the exception of maybe Archaon, the Chaos Lord of the End Times. Franz is equipped with a Potion of Healing in order to give him extra staying power in battle. I'm also training up an Empire Captain mounted on a Pegasus to become his wingman. Franz is tough enough to solo regiments on his own, but when he has friends he just cleaves through the enemy.

My next goal now is to level up the rest of the generals. While none of them will ever become the beast Franz is, they can come close. Balthasar Gelt is a support general whose spells can be devastating, but needs heroes to anchor his line. He can hold his own against low to mid quality enemy units, but can't go toe to toe with enemy lords in combat. Volkmar the Grim is a traditional general in the sense that he stays with the bulk of the army and provides leadership. He has a special mount known in Total War circles as the "Popemobile", which is essentially a war chariot. I've never actually used him that much, but will tinker with him and his army build as we keep expanding. He combos very well with Flagellants, which are a type of unbreakable fanatic infantry. They will fight to the last man, but they are slow, unarmored, and vulnerable to missile fire. They're also expensive to replace, and they die in droves in every battle, so I'm not sure if I like Volkmar's army composition design. Maybe when the Imperial treasuries are flush he'd be great, but for now his army upkeep almost rivals Franz, who has a lot of expensive units in it.

At this point of the game our main enemy are the Norscans, who are just ripping up the north-east parts of the Empire. By some miracle Stirland has been keeping the Vampire Counts at bay, and are still in the game. Things look good for the Empire, but this is largely based on fighting the Norscans only and avoiding any other wars. I've only been playing for 3-4 combined hours on the weekends to prevent my gameplay from outrunning the written account, but I'm pretty confident we can spank the Norscans and drive them back north. I'm just worried that the Vampires will turn on us before we complete this task. We shall see!

Next: Mortal Empires, Part XIII - The Treaty of Wurtbad

Previous: Mortal Empires, Part XII - Hochland and Nordland

With the northern provinces of Middenland, Hochland and Nordland united under one banner, Franz was finally able to turn his attention to the southern lands of the Empire. While the northern lords had been frittering away their strength fighting each other, the southern lords were fighting for their lives against enemies beyond the Empire. Stirland remained under the most duress, fighting for its life against the resurgent vampire counts of Sylvania. Alberich Haupt-Anderssen, the Elector Count of Stirland, was unable to save the Moot, the ancestral home of the Halflings, and was forced to evacuate the populace to Wurtbad, the provincial capital. Haupt-Anderssen conducted several defenses of Wurtbad to repel the Von Carsteins, and while the city held, Haupt-Anderssen's position remained desperately tenuous.

Stirland's plight was made worse by the erratic behavior of their southern neighbor. Ruled by the infamous Mad Lord Marius Leitdorf, Averland vacillated between solidarity and hostility depending on the mercurial moods of the Elector Count. Leitdorf was a formidable swordsman and able general in his more lucid moments, however, and he was able to resist the encroachment of the vampire counts for a long time. His failure to unite with the other provinces spelled his doom, however. His army was caught in the open by the armies of Manfred Von Carstein, and utterly destroyed. Leitdorf was mortally wounded, and given a choice by Manfred - turn or die. Hans Gruber, a surviving member of Leitdorf's personal guard, stated that the Mad Lord spat in the vampire's face, and shouted, "To me, Daisy!", before finally expiring at the vampire's feet.

The Mad Lord of Averland, Marius Leitdorf, atop his trusted steed, Daisy Kurt Von Helboring II.

Gruber was released by Manfred and bidden to ride ahead to Averheim and deliver an ultimatum to the city. With their army destroyed Averheim was defenseless against the ever-growing army of the vampire counts, and desperate pleas for assistance were sent to all Electors within the Empire. Franz and his armies were tied up in the campaign against the Norscans, however, and were unable to march south to relieve them. The other Electors were similarly constrained. Stirland could spare no men from its own defense, while Wissenland was being raided by orcs and goblins of the Crooked Moon tribe. Talabecland, Ostland and Ostermark were in the process of being destroyed by the Varg. Averheim was on its own.

Manfred Von Carstein, the most cunning of the Vampire Counts.

All was not lost for all the inhabitants crowding desperately into the city, however. The armies of the vampire counts differed greatly from the mortal armies in several respects. For one, the vast majority of the rank and file of the vampire counts needed no supplies, and did not sack or loot or commit murder or rape, unless specifically bidden to by their masters. Sustained by the dark magic drawn to the lands under the vampire's control, skeleton infantry and cavalry were given mobility and purpose by the eldritch rituals of necromancy. The price for this power was paid by the land itself. Forests and pastures withered and died, and life was leeched away from the countryside and its inhabitants, leaving darkness and desolation in its wake.

Secondly, only the leadership caste of the vampire counts could be reckoned as true vampires. The vampire counts kept their numbers down deliberately and actively fostered the relative well-being of the humans under their control, as they understood better than most the relationship between themselves and their prey. As the land withered and died, the night kin spared enough of the land from despoilment so that the humans could maintain a meager subsistence. The Von Carsteins did not want the end of humanity, because the demise of humanity also meant the demise of the vampire race. What they did want was the end of human resistance to their rule. To this end they permitted limited autonomy from their herds, gave incentives for talented and loyal humans to advance in wealth and position, and kept their atrocities hidden from public sight, lest it incite open rebellion.

The land under the Vampire Counts.

The Burgomeister of Averheim understood this, and with no aid forthcoming, he bowed to the inevitable and opened the gates to the forces of Manfred. In return Manfred spared the citizens from a bloodbath, and allowed the townfolk to go on with their lives. The occupation exacted a bloody tithe, though, in the form of the luckless citizens who were chosen to satiate the blood thirst of the vampire leadership. But by guaranteeing the safety and continuing prosperity of the merchants and aristocracy, Manfred was able to preserve the infrastructure of the city and at the same time make them complicit in the systematic slaughter of the powerless.

By the time Franz was able to return to the south Averheim had fallen, and the Von Carsteins were in Stirland, preparing to march on to Wurtbad. He wasted no time in reinforcing Wurtbad, and what remained of Stirland was confederated into the Empire. It was at this time that the young Emperor would make one of his most controversial edicts. Faced with seemingly endless numbers of Norscans pouring into the north Franz dispatched a message to Manfred, proposing a non-aggression pact. Franz faced widespread opposition to this decision, but his prestige was at an all time high, having successfully consolidated Reikland, Middenland, Nordland, Hochland and Stirland into the rump of a nascent Empire. When asked by Volkmar as to his reasons, the Emperor stated simply: "If we fight both the Norscans and the undead, we will lose everything."

Franz showed no surprise when an envoy of the Vampire Counts appeared at Wurtbad to convey a letter from Manfred himself several days later. The envoy, a stunning ethereal beauty with dark mysterious eyes, raven curls and a ghostly porcelain complexion, gave Manfred's reply. Not only would he grant the Emperor's request, but he was also willing to forge a defensive alliance between their "two great nations in this Age of Reckoning", provided that the existing boundaries were adhered to.

Franz knew that acceding to the vampire's terms meant abdicating control over Averland. But with Talabecland, Ostland and Ostermark still being threatened by the Norscans, and Wisseland plagued by greenskin raids, he saw the wisdom of sacrificing the province in return for time. And thus in 2504 IC, the Emperor signed the Treaty of Wurtbad, later known in history by its critics as the infamous "Blood Pact". In a small country estate just south of Wurtbad the Emperor would meet Manfred Von Carstein in person for the first time, and the two of them would affix their respective seals on this agreement. They also spoke at length, out of earshot of their advisers. Most of what they spoke about was lost, but both were unanimous in their declarations to their advisers that they would meet again.

Many Averlanders would see this as a betrayal of the Emperor's duty to protect his subjects, especially against occupiers as hateful, sinister and murderous as the vampires. But as Franz's coterie of Electors were learning, the Emperor was being guided by a sight which they were not privy to, but had thus far led them to victory after victory in the battle field. They were willing to follow his lead for the immediate future. In return for the continued security of Stirland, Haupt-Anderssen agreed to confederate with the Empire, joining Todbringer and Ludenhof as the third Elector to bend the knee to Franz.

Another confederation. Stirland joins the fold, giving me another general, Alberich Haupt-Anderssen. I have a surfeit of generals now - six in total - but only three armies. In earlier campaigns I would have fielded six half strength armies and tried to coordinate them to work together, but experience has taught me that fewer stronger armies is better than more armies that are individually weaker. It's all about the one on one match-up in the post DLC game.

As written in the fluff I've concluded a defensive pact with the Vampire Counts. I don't know how long this will last - this faction is notorious for breaking treaties, especially when your military strength is weak - but the focus now is to really go after the Norscans and drive them out of the Empire before we get stabbed in the back. Or before we stab them. I called the "treaty" the Treaty of Wurtbad, based on the historical Treaty of Westphalia, which ended the 30 Years War in the 17th century. The Empire part of Warhammer is based on wars of the Holy Roman Empire in the 1600s, when Germany as a united entity did not exist, and armies of disparate nations, factions and denominations marched all over Europe. The dress, weapons and units of the Empire is lifted from this period, but given a liberal sprinkling of the fantastic. The Thirty Years War was ceaseless, never ending war over religion and power, and by its end, according to the text books, over a quarter of the European population had died as a result of it. In fact, the saying, "Sigmar is with us" is a direct conflation of a common Germanic battle cry during the 30 Years War - "Gott mit uns", or "God is with us" - and the sad thing is that both the Catholics and the Lutherans/Protestants used it while killing each other.

Next: TBC

Previous: Mortal Empires, Part XIII - The Treaty of Wurtbad

The Treaty of Wurtbad allowed Franz to concentrate the bulk of his forces on the battle for the north and north-eastern provinces of the Empire. Before returning to the front he paid a visit to the ancient city of Nuln, the capital of Wissenland and traditional seat of the Imperial Gunnery School. The second largest city in the Empire, and Altdorf's rival politically, economically and culturally, Nuln also served as the biggest manufacturer and exporter of munitions and blackpowder war machines. Its reputation as a city of learning predated that of Altdorf's, and its sewer system and the great bridge spanning the River Reik were considered marvels of technology.

The city of Nuln, provincial capital of Wissenland and premier supplier of munitions and blackpowder weapons.

The Elector Count of Wissenland, Eben Von Liebwitz, was an old adviser of Luitpold who had seen the ascension of Luitpold's young son as an opportunity to expand Nuln's influence at Altdorf's expense. His ambition came to naught, however, when he was slain in an ambush by the Crooked Moon tribe south of Pfeildorf. To make matters worse his son and heir died in the same battle, leaving a power vacuum in Wissenland which left the province in disarray. Harried by vampire encroachment from the south-east and greenskin raids from the south-west the Wissenlanders were more than eager to consolidate with the growing Empire. The biggest squabble lay in who would succeed the fallen Elector. Without a clear heir a mad scramble for the throne ensued, and it appeared that the aristocrats were quite willing to let Nuln fall to the greenskins or the vampires rather than relinquish their claims.

Franz chose Emmanuelle Von Liebwitz, a distant niece of the late Eben, as Wissenland's new Elector Countess. His choice was controversial, and widely disputed. It was rumored that Emmanuelle, already an ambitious woman in her early 20s, seduced and bedded the young prince shortly after his 16th birthday. Only the two of them know the truth in this matter, but it is agreed that the Emperor's judgement, usually so sure in matters of war and statecraft, lapsed badly in the presence of Emmanulle. Franz could not deny her anything. A woman of astounding beauty, she was adept at navigating the torturous corridors of court intrigue. She was also an indifferent ruler, given to indulgent excesses and frivolity at the expense of the mercantile and agricultural classes. Her claim was weak, and her appointment opposed by many powerful families. Only the existential threat of the vampires in the south and Franz's successful reunification of four other provinces made it possible for the Emperor to have her confirmed as the next Elector.

With Wissenland provisionally secured Franz headed back to the front. The news from the other independent provinces was grim. No word had come from Wolfram Hertwig, the Elector Count of Ostermark, for weeks on end. The first inkling of his province's fate came when Varg armies appeared south-east of Talabheim. Outriders dispatched to Ostermark came back with dreadful news. The capital city of Bechafen was in ruins. Essen was occupied by the vampires. Norscan warbands and the undead roamed the countryside unchecked. Of the Count's ultimate fate no more news would be forthcoming.

The deluge of grim tidings continued unabated. Ostland's capital Wolfenburg fell to the Norscans, as did Talabheim shortly afterwards. Helmut Feuerbach, the Elector Count of Talabecland, died in the siege. Ostland's Elector, Valmir Von Raukov, died attempting to lift the siege of Praag. Even Ludenhof was forced to evacuate from his provincial capital of Hergig, prudently conserving his meager forces while waiting for the Imperial reinforcements to return from Nordland. It was truly the End Times. Never had the Empire been in such dire peril, nor had it ever lost such a number of its great towns in such quick succession. Middenheim, Talabheim, Wolfenburg, Averheim and Hergig had all fallen to enemies in 2502-2503. Not for nothing was this time known as the Age of Reckoning.

The provinces of the Empire, in a happier, alternate universe. This map is also dated 2522 IC, 20 years after the events in this post, so this may still be possible.

Reiklanders have always claimed that their province was the breadbasket of the Empire, and subsequent events would prove the truth behind this boast. The north and north-east may have been ravaged, but the industrial and agricultural centers of the Empire - Reikland, Stirland and Wissenland - were largely intact. Armed and supplied, Franz led a combined army comprising of Reiklanders, Middenlanders, Wissenlanders and Stirlanders to relieve Ludenhof's army of Hochland, who was fighting a rear guard action west of Hergig. Even Nordlanders were represented, albeit reluctantly as conscripts. Franz's conquest of Nordland earned him the enmity of the province, an enmity that would soften only after Franz showed his commitment to the defense of their home. Even then they would never really love him, not in the way that the Reiklanders and some of the other provinces would come to venerate the young Emperor after his many successful campaigns in the future.

Wissenland was about to be eaten by an Orc and Goblin army, so when I offered to consolidate they took it without hesitation. This time though I inherited no generals, just the city of Nuln and a couple of heroes. Still, Nuln will become a great defensive bastion to protect the south side of the Reikland, so I was happy to acquire it. As for the other provinces they no longer exist, having either been swallowed by the vampires or taken by the Norscans. The only Imperials left are under Franz's control. The Empire is finally unified, albeit in a somewhat diminished form.

Next: TBC

Previous: Mortal Empires, Part XIV - Empire in Flames

By the end of 2504 IC all Elector Counts who had been part of the Empire under Luitpold had either pledged their allegiance to the new Emperor, or were dead. Franz had finally re-unified his father's Empire - there were no other Elector Counts remaining who could make a claim for the throne. The territory controlled by Franz was smaller than his father's, however - Averland and the lower reaches of Wissenland remained in the hands of the Vampire Counts as per the Treaty of Wurtbad. Ostermark was a smoldering ruin. Nordland's coastal towns were constantly being ravaged by Norscans crossing the Sea of Claws and the Gulf of Kislev. The central Empire was dominated by an unprecedented host of Varg and Skaeling, in numbers never before seen in history.

The Norscan invasion of 2502-2504 was without precedent, and ravaged much of the north and central Empire.

Franz's great counter-offensive began from the staging town of Weismund in central Middenland. The army marched east towards Hergig and linked up with Ludenhof's Army of Hochland. From there the combined army swatted aside a pair of Varg armies and liberated the city of Hergig. Franz then headed south towards Talabheim. Crossing the River Talabec under the cover of mist and fog the Imperials made landfall on the southern bank at dawn and established a beachhead. Despite desperate attempts by the Varg to drive the growing number of troops back into the river Franz was able to hold thanks to the stout defense of the Middenlanders, and to a terrific cannonade from the north bank directed by Lennart Torstensson, a Dwarf artillery officer from Nuln. By noon most of Franz's army was south of the river. Swinging south and then looping around to the west the Imperial army hit Talabheim from the south, and drove the Varg garrison out of Talabheim. The Norscans showed time and time again their inexperience in siegecraft, being drawn to feints and demonstrations and failing to understand where the true point of attack would be. They also seemed to lack basic engineering skills, failing to repair breaches which they had wrought themselves. The Imperials took full advantage of these lapses at Middenheim, Hergig and Talabheim to win easy victories.

With Hergig and Talabheim once again in Imperial hands Franz took several weeks to rest and refit his army, as well as to impose order and secure his supply lines. In the meantime Ludenhof led the reinforced Army of Hochland north-east to recapture the capital of Ostland. A long and protracted siege ensued at Wolfenburg. The Varg had finally adopted the rudiments of siegecraft, and heavily fortified their position. Nonetheless the siege was finally broken when Franz's army came up from Hergig two months later. Franz astride Deathclaw was becoming a legend in the Empire. The sight of the Emperor flying overhead drew raucous cheers and raised hats from the soldiers. Wielding the mythical hammer of Sigmar, Ghal Maraz, and warded by ensorcelled artifacts and armor he was nigh unstoppable in battle. He was now supported by Imperial captains riding flying pegasi from the Grey Mountains. It takes a special form of madman to ride these flying mounts, but there was no shortage of volunteers in search for fame, riches and glory. At Wolfenburg Franz and his captains began the final assault by landing atop one of the walls and clearing away the troops stationed above. One of the captains was poorly secured in his saddle, however, and fell to his death, much to the discomfit of the troops watching below.

Franz was determined to weld the triumvirate of Hergig, Talabheim and Wolfenburg into a formidable bastion that would hold the center of the Empire together, with each town mutually supporting one another in defense. Supplies and troops were poured in from Reikland, Middenland and Wissenland to this end to rebuild the cities. Human and Dwarf engineers worked tirelessly to restore the walls. Famine and disease were the biggest issues, and great pains were taken to dispose of the dead and bring forward sufficient grain for the coming winter. Franz established Wolfenburg as his furthest north-east stronghold, and from here Franz and Ludenhof led sorties to destroy marauding Varg armies, and to shepherd terrified refugees to safety. The north-eastern approaches of Ostland became a bloody battlefield, with armies marching and counter-marching ceaselessly and townships and hamlets changing hands on a weekly basis. Beyond Ostland, the nation of Kislev lay in ruins, and its people were reduced to nomadic bands of armed cossacks, or desperate refugees fleeing south-west towards Hochland. Franz halted the Imperial advance at Bechafen. The capital of Ostermark was a shattered, smoking ruin, and Franz did not deem it prudent to rebuild the city. Instead his army rounded up whatever survivors they could find, and returned to Wolfenburg for winter quarters.

Major battles in the central Empire. Franz's counterattack took Hergig, then Talabheim, and finally Wolfenburg. The Imperials advanced as far east as Bechafen, but found it in ruins. With the onset of the snows Franz retired to Wolfenburg for winter quarters.

While Franz and Ludenhof campaigned in the north-east Todbringer oversaw the rebuilding of Middenheim and Salzenmund in the north-west. The Count of Middenland was also responsible for repelling reavers attacking the northern coast. Todbringer, still stung by the loss of Middenheim under his stewardship, was determined to make amends for the lapse. He pursued and destroyed reavers making landfall with ruthless determination, giving no quarter to the Northmen. In the south Haupt-Anderssen, unwilling to trust Manfred Von Carstein, controlled an army which routinely patrolled the border between human and vampire territory. His route took him from Wurtbad, his own provincial capital, to the newly confederated city of Nuln. He was kept busy by sporadic incursions by the undead. Whether it was due to the overflow of dark magic spilling from vampire territories, or deliberate probes by Manfred looking for human weakness the raids kept Haupt-Anderssen busy and wary of a larger attack. Having distinguished himself with the defense of Wurtbad in 2502 IC he was obsessed with creating a strong line of defense from Nuln to Grunburg to Kemperbad to Wurtbad. All settlements along this "Greater Stirland Wall" were heavily fortified. Walls and palisades were erected, artillery emplaced, munitions stockpiled and militia raised and drilled ceaselessly. Haupt-Anderssen was strident in his belief that a vampire attack was a matter of when, not if. He clashed frequently with the Countess of Wissenland over the direction of supplies and munitions, seeking to divert most of the wagons destined for the central empire to the south. Emmanuelle Von Liebwitz repaid the favor of the Emperor by studiously ignoring the Count of Stirland and sending the supplies to where they were intended to go.

We've chased the Norscans out of most of the Empire, but to finish them off we would need to cross the Sea of Claws and take the fight to the Norscan homeland. I've made peace with the Varg three times, and they've broken the pact each time. Their word means nothing. The Skaeling are a little bit more reliable, but from the first game I know that regardless of whether a peace holds or not the Norscan tribes will immediately declare war again once the Warriors of Chaos come sweeping down from the north-east. So as painful as it is, I have to cross the Sea of Claws and torch a bunch of Norscan settlements to break up their staging area. I don't think I'll be able to create lasting settlements there - I've tried in previous campaigns, but was foiled by the long build penalties due to the land being inhospitable to our faction. But I need to do something, otherwise I'll just be locked in an eternal cycle of repelling raiders from the north. I'm worried about a backstab coming from the Vampire Counts. With so many of our armies heavily committed in the north Haupt-Anderssen is the only line of defense we have if the undead turn on us. If I commit to an attack on the Norscan homeland the situation gets even worse. Franz and company will be on a different landmass and many, many leagues away from the border with the vampires.

The good news is that having fought so many Norscan armies we know how to defeat them and what composition works the best. Franz and Ludenhof are both rocking large amounts of fast cavalry who have displaced the skirmishers we ran with earlier. The Norscans bring lots of foot infantry, no artillery and fast cavalry in the form of either chaos hounds or marauder cavalry. The game plan is always to take out the fast elements first, then run circles around their slow infantry and shoot them up, much like those old Westerns where Indians ran rings around wagons. The armies become dispersed and get taken out piece meal by our own heavy cavalry and by our Lords on griffons. Ludenhof is mounted on a griffon as well now, and he acts as Franz 2.0, using the same tactics as the Emperor. A traditional battle line works well too, but I prefer the cavalry armies because we take much less casualties and preserve our strength for multiple battles.

Next: TBC

Previous: Mortal Empires, Part XV - Counter-Offensive

The Age of Reckoning was a time of unprecedented strife. By the winter of 2504 IC however, the splintered factions were coalescing into powerful nation-states that would dominate the wars to come. The Empire, although diminished, was one nation again. Ulthuan was united under the banner of the High Elves. Naggarond was consolidated under the rule of the Witch King. Bretonnia also ended its civil war, but was hard-pressed by the Wood Elves emerging suddenly from Athel Loren. Flush with the magic flowing over the world the Wood Elves ended centuries of isolation and swept over the southern provinces of Bretonnia as well as the human nations of Estalia and Tilea. The Tomb Kings held sway over the Land of the Dead. In the southern jungles of Lustria the Skaven of Clan Pestilens spread pestilence and famine in their wake, obliterating the ancient nations of the Lizardmen. But as powerful as these nations were becoming, they were all eclipsed by the rise of the Vampire Counts. From their stronghold in Sylvania Mannfred Von Carstein's hordes poured over all lands in a ceaseless, relentless tide of death. The Treaty of Wurtbad allowed Manfred to strike hard and fast at the Dwarven kingdoms while keeping his northern border free of Imperial incursions. Franz, with his nation beset by Norscan raiders, signed the treaty as a matter of expedience. He believed that the mighty Dwarves in their mountainside redoubts could hold the Vampire Counts at bay while the Empire dealt with the Varg and the Skaeling.

The Dwarven Kingdoms, led by their King, Thorgrim Grudgebearer.

He was wrong. No news came from the Dwarf kingdoms for many months after the Vampire Counts cut off the Empire from the Dwarf capital of Karaz-a-Karak. Disturbed by the lack of messengers Franz dispatched bold adventurers to make their way through the vampire lands to make contact. None returned. Attempts at scrying by the Celestial College of Magic were defeated by powerful wards. A pall of silence descended over the World's Edge Mountains, and as the days and weeks passed the Dwarves living in the Empire and in the Grey Mountains grew ever more anxious about the fate of their kinfolk. The first inkling of their fate came when famed adventuring duo Felix Jaeger and Gotrek Gurnisson emerged south of Nuln, claiming that they had traveled from Barak Varr in the Borderlands. The tale they brought back was a grim one. One by one the Karaks had fallen, engulfed by teeming armies of the dead. The Border Princes and the Badlands were now vampire country. Orcs and Dwarves alike were being killed or subjugated, their blood considered too coarse and unpalatable by the vampire lords, and drunk only as a measure of last resort. The Vampire Counts, flush in their dominion over the world, could pick and choose their prey, and could have extinguished both races as they saw fit. But they had ambitions beyond simple sustenance, and saw the value of maintaining a work force which possessed both brute strength and stamina, as well as artisan skills.

Gotrek Gurnisson and Felix Jaeger.

Franz was under tremendous pressure to declare war against the Vampire Counts. The Empire had close ties with the Dwarven kingdoms, having been trade partners and military allies over the centuries. Many Dwarves lived in the Empire as artisans, stonemasons, engineers and blacksmiths, and had become naturalized citizens. They clamored and petitioned for the Emperor to intervene. But Franz was unyielding. He would honor the Treaty of Wurtbad as long as Mannfred respected the Empire's borders. For this he would be denounced and vilified by many Dwarves who called him craven and oath-breaker. The Treaty of Wurtbad was called the Treaty of Blood by furious Dawi, so-called because it was paid for by the blood of Dwarves. Lenart Tortensson, the Dwarf hero who commanded the artillery so masterfully at Talabheim, resigned his commission and deserted with his entire artillery corps. All over the Empire many of the Dawi did the same.

In truth Franz could do very little. His armies were heavily engaged in the war against the Norscans. The only army defending the southern Empire was Haupt-Anderssen's, and it was stretched to breaking point patrolling the expanse of the southern border. In addition Franz's settlements on the west coast of Bretonnia were suddenly attacked without warning by marauding Black Arks. The Druchii, colloquially known as the Dark Elves, inhabited the cold, wind-swept lands of Naggarond in the New World, having been banished there after being defeated in an ancient civil war from their utopian homeland of Ulthuan. Since that time they had cultivated a fearsome reputation as slavers, raiders and reavers, sowing fear and terror to all the coastal cities of the world. They were also the second greatest power in the world by 2504 IC, having secured control over the northern continent of Naggarond and parts of the Southlands. The attack on Lyonnesse and Moussillon was a declaration of their intention to invade the Old World, and add it to their list of conquests.

Faced with these threats it would have been madness for Franz to declare war against the Vampire Counts. He did everything he could up to the point of declaring war. When a horde of marauding greenskins surged into the southern Grey Mountains he sent Haupt-Anderssen to relieve the Dwarven fortress of Karak Norn, temporarily leaving the southern borders undefended. He pardoned the Dwarven deserters from his armies and let them go where they wished, on the condition that they maintain the peace. His greatest contribution lay in the care and housing of Dwarven refugees emerging from the south and east. The Dwarves were a hardy and stubborn folk, and many of them banded together into formidable groups and marched through vampire lands to escape to the Empire. Felix Jaeger and Gotrek Gurnisson were responsible for the creation of one such "underground railroad", which combined overland routes over mountain passes with secret Underways delved centuries before to create a highway from the lands south of Black Fire Pass into the south-west Empire. Another route extended beneath the World's Edge Mountains and ran directly north from Karaz-a-Karak and emerged near Karak Ungor, the northernmost remaining inhabited hold of the World's Edge Mountains. Imperial pickets were astonished to see a massive Dwarf army emerging through the snows from the east while wintering at Wolfenburg. The army, as it turned out, was a massive column of refugees guarded by a small detachment of Ironbreakers who had fled westward from Karak Ungor. The biggest surprise was in the number of women and children in the column, numbering in the tens of thousands. The Dwarves were a long-lived but infertile race, and the number of males outnumbered the females by ten to one. Dwarven children were almost rarely ever seen outside Dwarven holds, and the sight of so many convinced Franz of the scale of the calamity that had befallen the Dwarven Empire.

So, after 150 plus turns the game world has shaken out like this. The Vampire Counts are the strongest power in the game, followed by the Dark Elves, then the High Elves, then the Wood Elves, then Clan Pestilens and the Tomb Kings, and then finally me. Making the pact with the Vampire Counts saved me from the same fate I suffered in previous campaigns - that is, the Vampires crushing our armies, taking Altdorf and wiping me out. I've concluded treaties with the High Elves and the Wood Elves, and take great care in making sure these two are happy. Without these treaties I'm sure that the Vampire Counts will declare war on us in a heartbeat whenever it suits them.

The Dark Elves declared war on us and took our two cities on the Bretonnian coast. It was a blow because Lyonnesse was a built-up city, but I was never going to hold it for long because it was so far away from the Imperial heartlands. The Vampire Counts wiped out the Dwarves and most of the Orcs, which surprised the hell out of me. In 95% of my campaigns the Dwarves have always been one of the last empires standing. Maybe they were nerfed post-DLC? The Orcs are hanging on, but have been driven out of the Badlands in the south and are rampaging through the Grey Mountains south of the Empire. They haven't declared war yet, but I don't like a desperate rogue faction near my undefended southern borders. We're going to have to wipe them out. Luckily the undead are also squeezing them, so it may be an opportunity to expands a little bit southwards and increase the buffer between Altdorf and the Vampire Counts.

Next: Mortal Empires, Part XVII - Chaos Rising

Previous: Mortal Empires, Part XVI - End of Empire

During the winter of 2504 IC Franz took the opportunity to meet with delegates from the High Elves and the Wood Elves, and to sign trade agreements and conclude formal military alliances with these resurgent nations. The advantage of flying mounts was the unprecedented mobility they conferred, and Franz was able to leave his army wintering at Wolfenburg to fly back to Altdorf to be present at these negotiations. He was now accompanied by a personal bodyguard of Imperial captains on pegasi. Inspired by the Emperor's feats of arm, Ludenhof, Haupt-Anderssen and even Countess Von Liebwitz were breaking in their own griffon mounts in the hopes of emulating him. Ludenhof, a keen lover of hunting birds of all kinds, was personally raising the griffon he was given by Franz when Hochland bent the knee in 2503 IC. The griffon, now over a year old, was rapidly developing a close rapport with its master. Even at such a tender age Ludenhof was able to ride the beast for short periods. Other aspiring lords took note, and followed his example.

Todbringer was a notable exception. The old Elector was a valiant warrior and a formidable general, but terrified of heights. He feigned indifference at the sight of lords on their mounts. The Grand Theogonist also eschewed flying mounts, but for different reasons. Volkmar the Grim rode into battle atop his mobile pulpit, which itself was a formidable relic of power. Volkmar's armies attracted thousands of flagellants, penitents and fanatics, and the presence of the War Altar of Sigmar drove them into greater paroxysms of fury. The Supreme Patriarch of the Colleges of Magic, Balthasar Gelt, was already an accomplished flyer, and rode a pegasus of his own. With their leadership able to cover vast distances on the backs of these flying steeds, the Empire was able to meet quickly and often on matters of importance. Magic was another means of communication, but it was unreliable and prone to being blocked or interfered with by spellcasters inimical to the Empire. It could also be intercepted and read, or even altered. Handwritten messages under seal were still the preferred method of communication, conveyed either by horseback, raven or pegasi. The Empire husbanded its meager stable of flying mounts for two purposes - as winged steeds for lords and heroes in battle, or as mounts for important messengers.

Imperial lands in the summer of 2505 IC, stretching as far west as Gisoreux in Bretonnia to Erengrad in the north-east Troll Country.

The alliances with the High Elves and Wood Elves gave the Empire some much needed security. Wary of the Vampire Counts Franz hoped that these new agreements would act as a deterrent to Mannfred's ambitions while the Empire set about the task of ridding the Old World of the Norscan scourge once and for all. The Dark Elves also rebuffed every diplomatic sally sent by Franz. By all accounts they were the undisputed masters of the sea, and raided and pillaged wherever they pleased. Ulthuan was a nation under siege, and its trade routes to the Old World were in constant peril. The destruction of the Dwarf Empire came as a complete shock to the Forces of Order. Even the High Elves with their millennia long enmity acknowledged the role of the Dawi as a bulwark against the Orcs, Chaos and all the other agents of darkness and entropy. That burden would now fall on the Empire. Indeed, the Empire was serving as the last bastion of free Dawi, and the provinces of the Empire were hard-pressed to provide food and shelter to accommodate the thousands of refugees streaming from the World's Edge Mountains. The Dwarves were joined by Tileans, Estalians and men and women from the Border Princes all fleeing the dominion of the Vampire Counts.

At the onset of spring 2505 IC Franz began a new offensive against the Norscans. Using Wolfenburg as a staging area Ludenhof and Franz attacked and captured cities in the Troll Country and the Oblast region. These settlements were poorly defended and easily taken, and Franz was able to secure the port of Erengrad, a crucial harbor in the Sea of Kislev. Ludenhof split from Franz and headed east towards Kislev. With the aid of the cossacks and exiled Kislevites his army liberated the towns of Praag, Kislev and Volksgrad. Ludenhof drew up ambitious plans to rebuild the shattered nation of Kislev, and re-tasked the Imperial engineers who had rebuilt the central Empire in the previous year towards this undertaking.

In the north Todbringer crossed the Sea of Claws in ships built during the winter furlough, and took the fight to the Norscans in their own lands for the very first time. Todbringer was merciless in his desire for vengeance. Norscan settlements were torched, and their inhabitants butchered. No quarter was given, and non-combatants suffered terribly for the sins of their marauding menfolk. In late summer Franz also reached the lands of Norsca by the overland route through the Troll Country. Between Todbringer and Franz the Varg and the Skaeling reaped the Empire's retribution as settlement after settlement fell to the avenging generals. The aim of both generals was simple. They would wreak such havoc on the Norscans that future generations would think twice about ever reaving in the south again. As winter approached Franz and Todbringer found their advance slowed to a crawl by the inclement weather on the Norscan peninsula. Both armies had prepared suitable winter quarters, but all plans to continue the offensive were discarded when the first true Chaos armies appeared north-east of Volksgrad in Belyevobota Pass.

The Chaos invasion begins.

The Norscans were known worshipers of the Chaos Gods, but for the most part were humans like the citizens of the Empire and Kislev. True Chaos armies were another thing entirely. Warped by the corrupting power of the Chaos Wastes the rank and file of Chaos might have been men once, but who knew what vestiges of their humanity remained inside their all-enclosing armor of black meteoric metal, and in the hideous deformities they bore proudly as favors from their dark gods. The Skaeling and the Varg were beaten, but it seemed that they were merely a vanguard in a larger invasion.

Chaos appeared in my campaign around turn 190, which is 70 turns longer than in the first Total War game. This marks the first time that I've seen Chaos in Total War 2 in the Mortal Empires campaign. It looks like Chaos armies have appeared all over the map, not just in the traditional spawn point north-east of Kislev, because I can see Chaos armies marauding in other continents. When Chaos comes they come as four distinct factions. The Warriors of Chaos and the Warherds of Chaos appear in the Chaos Wastes as they did previously in the first Total War title. In Total War 2 they are joined by the Servants of Chaos, who appear in the seas north of Ulthuan and east of Naggarond. Another faction called Puppets of Chaos also joins the fray, but to date I don't know where they spawn. I'm betting they spawn either in the Lands of the Dead or in Lustria.

Just a note on time and dates. The Warhammer world has a 400 day year, and its weeks are 8 days long. Since game time in Total War 2 is reckoned in turns, I've taken the convention that each turn is a week. Thus 50 turns in game equals one year in the fiction. Karl Franz was crowned in 2502 IC in Warhammer lore, and over 150 turns have elapsed, so by that estimate it is now sometime in 2505 IC, three years after Franz's coronation. My reckoning goes something like this:

Turns 1-50 = 2502 IC

Turns 51-100 = 2503 IC

Turns 101-150 = 2504 IC

Turn 151-200 = 2505 IC

Chaos appeared around turn 190, which would make it the winter of 2505 IC by my crude calendar system.

Next: TBC

Previous: Mortal Empires, Part XVII - Chaos Rising

2506 IC was the complete reverse of 2505 IC. All the gains made by the Empire in the previous year were wiped out in the face of the Chaos invasion and the encroachment of the Dark Elves. Franz and Todbringer were forced to retreat from Norsca to defend Nordland and Marienburg. All the territory liberated from the Norscans by Ludenhof in the eastern Oblast and Kislev was destroyed by the marching Chaos armies. Erengrad had to be abandoned. By summer the Empire had been driven back to Wolfenburg, the capital of Ostland and the staging point for the offensive the year before. But in retreat Ludenhof exacted a heavy toll on the Chaos hordes. By the time they approached the walls of Wolfenburg no less than three Chaos armies had been destroyed by the Elector Count of Hochland. Using hit and run tactics mastered by the light horsemen of Kislev, and combining these with the gunpowder armaments of the Empire, Ludenhof was able to surround Chaos armies and pick them apart with firepower. The warriors of Chaos were formidable fighters, able to withstand a cavalry charge and hack mounted knights to pieces. Ludenhof's answer to this was to avoid combat entirely. His entire army was composed almost entirely of outriders and pistoliers, and their combat doctrine consisted almost entirely of riding into range, unloading their blackpowder weapons, then riding away to reload. Ludenhof, now mounted on his two year old griffon and accompanied by Imperial captains on pegasi, struck surgically and swiftly on the battlefield, eliminating enemy fast cavalry and daemonic artillery and then flying away before the enemy could exact retribution. Once the enemy was reduced to their slow but powerful foot infantry they could do nothing except rage at the fast cavalry surrounding them, who stayed beyond the range of their wicked halberds and blasted them into oblivion.

Pistoliers and outriders were the mainstay of the Imperial armies fighting in Kislev and Ostland.

At Wolfenburg Ludenhof was finally brought to bay by two more Chaos armies, but he simply retreated behind the fortified walls and waited for relief. Ludenhof and Franz were in constant communication, and Franz's army, returning from Norsca, caught the Chaos armies in the rear. Sandwiched between two armies the Chaos armies were thrown into disarray and routed. It was a great victory for the Empire, but tempered by reports from scouts near High Pass that more Chaos armies were sighted coming down from the Chaos Wastes.

Ludenhof about to apply the coup de gras to a decimated Chaos army. Ludenhof's army is composed almost entirely of pistoliers and outriders.

Worse news was to come. Franz and Todbringer left Norsca in ruins in their campaign of 2505 IC, but in 2506 IC those ruined settlements were taken over and settled by marauding Dark Elves. The establishment of Druchii ports across the Sea of Claws was grim news for the Empire, as now Malekith and his slavers had several staging points close to Nordland and Marienburg. The frequency of raids grew exponentially, and this was soon followed by full scale invasions into the Empire itself. Marienburg was besieged twice, and was only able to repel these attacks through the tenacity of Volkmar and the great sacrifice of the flagellants and penitents flocking to his army. The coastal towns of Norden and Dietershafen were sacked and razed. Salzenmund was besieged, and only Todbringer's timely return staved off disaster. The Dark Elves were not Norscans or Chaos - they brought disciplined soldiers supported by missile troops, repeating ballistas, fast cavalry, scouts and dark magic. They also brought their own flying troops. Grotesque harpies darkened the skies, and most terrible of all, great black dragons belching poisonous fumes shattered the Imperial lines wherever they went.

The Empire and its list of generals.

By the end of 2506 IC the Empire had held onto the key cities of Salzenmund, Marienburg and Wolfenburg, and destroyed several Chaos, Dark Elf and Norscan armies. The victories appeared to be for nothing, however, as yet more Chaos armies appeared in High Pass, and more seaborne Druchii armies sailed up and down the Sea of Claws. The skill of the Empire's generals and the valor of the common soldier was keeping the enemy at bay for now - the only question was whether they could keep it up in the face of seemingly unlimited numbers. But help would be coming from a most unexpected quarter. As weary Imperials waited for another wave of Chaos incursions, outriders were astonished to see the Chaos armies being set upon by the dead. Mannfred Von Carstein had arrived.

I made a mistake in advancing so far to the north-east. I'd basically allowed myself to take the full brunt of the Chaos invasion in the Old World by advancing all the way to Volksgrad, because that's the avenue through which Chaos enters the Old World. Eight armies in total just plowed through the territories we'd recently acquired, and I was forced to fall back all the way to Wolfenburg. By retreating to Wolfenburg, however, I'd left a channel open to the south by which the Chaos armies could enter Vampire lands. After repelling them at Wolfenburg the Chaos armies decided they didn't want anymore of Franz and Ludenhof, and started sacking Vampire cities instead. The Vampire Counts didn't like this at all, and started bringing up armies to fight Chaos as well, so we actually ended up working together. We wiped out the first wave completely, but this was my second mistake. As soon as the last Chaos army was defeated eight more spawned in the Chaos Wastes. The exploit which Total War players use in both the first and second titles is to almost wipe out a wave, but leave one army alive and limping somewhere on the map. This stops a respawn, and keeps Chaos numbers manageable until Archon arrives for the final invasion.

I am essentially being double teamed by Chaos and the Dark Elves, who are allies. I thought Chaos hated everyone, but apparently not in Total War 2. I am just hoping that my alliance with the Wood Elves and High Elves is enough to deter the Vampire Counts from stabbing me in the back. There are three points of attack I have to defend - north-west, through Marienburg; north across the Sea of Claws; and north-east, in the Oblast region. Everything I have is committed to these theaters, and there is a long and empty expanse to the south without anyone guarding it at all. In addition the Dark Elves, being the second most powerful faction in the game, are fielding top tier armies composed of their best units. These include Dragons and War Hydras, and they are frequently led by generals also mounted on Black Dragons. One on one Franz can kill Dragons at a cost of perhaps one-third to one-half of his health. But more and more Franz is finding himself outnumbered at least two to one, and usually three or four to one. It's fortunate that the AI is still dense and you can implement hit and run to isolate individual Dragons, kill them, then run away to repeat the process. But you can't make a mistake. If Franz gets double teamed he will die.

Not all armies are led by Franz, however, and so I'm finding myself ceding ground whenever I don't have Franz on the field. Ludenhof can fill in for Franz at a pinch, and he's probably my second best general. Todbringer is tough, but he can't fly, so he has wait for the Dragons to pick their spot before he can counter. Same applies for Volkmar. Gelt is great at sieges because his spells can decimate defending infantry garrisons, but they're not very efficient at taking out large targets. He struggles against the monster heavy armies. Our armies can smash Norscan and Chaos armies with ease using our fast cavalry composition because they don't have many missile troops, artillery or flying monsters. The Dark Elves have these, which makes them much, much tougher to crack. Even when we win we take heavy losses, and they have more men (elves?) than we do. At the moment we're at a stalemate, and I'm in a bit of a loss at what to do next.

Next: TBC

Previous: Mortal Empires, Part XVIII - Bastion of Mankind

The entry of Mannfred Von Carstein's forces tipped the battle against the Chaos hordes decisively in the Empire's favor. The undead armies were slow, unskilled and easy fodder for the supernatural skill and strength of the Chaos soldiers. But the undead numbered in tens of thousands, and they were relentless. They never tired or became discouraged, but simply marched to their deaths without fear or reservation. Even then a corpse had to be dismembered to stop it from being raised again in the unholy rituals enacted by the night aristocracy after every battle. They swamped the Chaos armies, bogged them down, and wore them down through pure attrition.

Mannfred Von Carstein.

Karl Franz met Mannfed Von Carstein a second time in the ruins of Bechafen, after the Empire attacked a Chaos horde engaged with the undead in the rear. Once again whatever conversation the two had is lost to history. After the talks, however, the dead and the living simply stayed out of each other's way as they engaged the Chaos hordes sweeping southwards from High Pass. On occasion an Imperial army would apply the coup de gras to a Chaos army routed by the undead, or vice versa, but at no point did both armies ever directly work together or fight side by side. Mannfred's movements were conveyed to Franz by means of his envoy, Isoulde Von Carstein, whom Franz had met previously in Wurtbad.

Franz greeted Isoulde with warmth and familiarity which surprised both the envoy and Franz's circle of advisers the first time they'd met. Noting the Emperor's reaction, Mannfred instructed Isoulde to encourage the Emperor's interest in her for his own purposes, and the next time she met Franz she was more open, flirtatious and receptive. Franz, for his part, seemed to expect this. Franz was honest, open and sincere in his frequent talks with her. He seemed to know a great deal about her, and his candor was soon reciprocated. The two of them began spending a lot of time in each other's company discussing philosophy, politics, literature and strategy, much to the dismay of the priests and witch hunters of Sigmar. Isoulde was over a century old, but retained the wits and sharpness of her youth, as well as her looks. She also possessed the unnatural strength and speed of her kind. Eschewing any form of armor or protection she was a terror on the battlefield, and serenely unchallenged by the mightiest human warriors who dared bluster to her face. In the battle of Norden Franz was knocked off Deathclaw by a mighty Dragon Ogre and stunned. Only the intervention of Isoulde saved him from being impaled while he lay prostrate on the ground. Isoulde and Deathclaw held off an entire herd of Bestigors and protected the stricken Emperor until the Reiksgard could decisively intervene.

Isoulde Von Carstein. OK, no, it's actually Kate Beckinsale from the Underworld vampire movies.

It was no wonder that Franz, still in his twenties, unmarried and unbetrothed, would be drawn to Isoulde. Such a liaison would be unthinkable in a different time, but the two were careful to avoid acting inappropriately in public. On the campaign it was a different tale however, and soon the two of them were sharing their nights under the same tent. Franz's reputation was such that he was now beyond the reach and reprimands of the Cult of Sigmar, and the Reiksgard, loyal only to the Emperor, took great pains to conceal his nocturnal activities. Still the whispers continued and grew louder, and those who resented Franz for the Treaty of Wurtbad and his perceived desertion of the Dwarf Empire were given more fuel to their fire. Volkmar was particularly wrathful, and he gave the Emperor a dire warning. If ever the day came when the symbol of Sigmar's Hammer caused the Emperor to recoil then Volkmar himself would drive the stake through Franz's heart. Such talk was high treason and punishable by death, but Franz merely nodded his head and assented.

Balthasar Gelt was less worried about the Emperor's eternal soul and more about his physical well-being. The Supreme Patriarch of the Colleges of Magic was frank and open about his fear of Franz's assassination. Franz waved away all the warnings of his advisers, however, and Isoulde soon became a familiar sight in Franz's court, always appearing after dusk and disappearing before the dawn. She displayed the ability to move around during the day, appearing in major battles at Franz's side, but only when it was overcast, raining or snowing. Even then it was apparent that this effort taxed her and diminished her powers. On the days when the sun shone brilliantly overhead she was conspicuously absent. The fact that she made the effort to appear during the day made Franz love her more, however, and the bond between the two grew ever stronger. Many were convinced that the Emperor was bewitched. In a moment of candor with Gelt and Volkmar, however, the Emperor confessed that he knew Isoulde from the past lives he had lived in his visions. The same visions and experiences which allowed the Emperor to see the future and anticipate his enemy's moves had also allowed him to live several lives in the company of his paramour. He declared that he knew Isoulde in her various incarnations, and while she had betrayed and killed him in some, she had also broken free of Mannfred's influence and grown to love him in others. This was cold comfort for Franz's advisers, who did not know what incarnation of Isoulde awaited Franz in the future.

The intervention of the Vampire Counts in the north-east theater has been decisive. I've been trying to keep a handle on Chaos numbers by leaving one army alive so as to prevent a full wave respawn, but failing spectacularly because vamps would end up killing it and triggering the respawn anyway. But with the Vampire Counts in the fight it's been easy to smash the Chaos incursion. They don't have a chance against the fast cavalry army. They're only dangerous when they attack a city, because in sieges we don't have the space we need to make the fast cavalry style of battle work, and Chaos can leverage their core units - their tough as nails infantry - into battles that favor them, i.e. climbing walls and spanking other infantry. I now have three or four Witch Hunter heroes in play in the theater, however, and they are pivotal in separating the Chaos armies and slowing them down. These heroes have the Block skill, and successful application of Block significantly slows down an army. This means you can separate and string out the enemy advance and then destroy each army in detail, which is what we have been doing. Delaying the Chaos armies also allows the Vampire Counts to catch and destroy some of them, too.

Next: TBC

Previous: Mortal Empires, Part XIX - Star Crossed Lovers

With the Chaos invasion well in hand, Franz turned his attention to two other pressing matters. The first of these were the greenskins marauding in the southern parts of the Empire. Displaced from the Badlands in the south by the remorseless advance of the Vampire Counts, the orcs were now trying to carve out a new demesne in the Southern Grey Mountain range near the Dwarf hold of Karak Norn. Haupt-Anderssen and Ludenhof were tasked with destroying the greenskin menace, and the two generals agreed on a strategy. Haupt-Anderssen would hold the line near Nuln, and destroy any greenskins that strayed too close to the Empire's borders. In the meantime Ludenhof, whose fame had rocketed after his victories over the Chaos hordes, would advance into the Grey Mountains with the ultimate aim of liberating Karak Norn.

Malekith, the Witch King of the Dark Elves.

The plan worked flawlessly. Ludenhof's Army of Hochland was a seasoned, determined and cohesive unit made up of veterans who had been fighting together for four years. They were accustomed to victory, and feared no enemy. The disorganized greenskins were routed over and over by the same tactics used against the Chaos hordes. Grimgor Ironhide and Wurrzag, two notorious greenskin warlords, were beaten in subsequent battles by Ludenhof. Karak Norn was liberated. Haupt-Anderssen destroyed the remnants of the orc armies south of Nuln, putting an end to the greenskin threat for decades to come.

The second issue Franz faced was the more pressing one. The Dark Elves fielded professional armies armed with missile troops and ballistae, and their scouts and fast cavalry rivaled those of the Empire. The Dark Elves also fielded powerful sorcerers and witches, in addition to massive monstrous beasts such as Dragons and Hydras. They were an entirely different foe to the ones the Empire had grown accustomed to, and an urgent rethink of doctrine was called for after Marienburg was almost lost to a lightning strike by a Druchii army. The Army of Hochland suffered its first loss in many battles against the Druchii.

To counter the Dark Elves Franz directed the forges and armories to produce dozens of great cannons. The first cannons were poor imitations of the weapons first made by the Dwarves. By Franz's era however, cannons were much more accurate, and when coupled with the cantrips and enchantments bestowed upon the ammunition by the Colleges of Magic, cannons were able to target fast moving targets and bring them down. The cannons just had to be aimed in the vicinity of the target, and the ball would home in towards the enemy as long as it possessed the right enchantment. Franz also laid down a great bounty, promising a substantial reward to anyone who could recreate the designs of the genius, Leonardo Da Miragliano, who was responsible for inventing the steam tank. Only eight of the twelve original tanks remained since the passing of the inventor, and these great behemoths of war had proved their worth time and time again on the battlefield. In the steam tank Franz recognized a weapon that could change the face of warfare forever, and establish the Empire as a great power for the foreseeable future.

The Imperial Steam Tank supporting a cavalry charge.

Cannons in Total War 2 are the equivalent of sniper rifles in their ability to target flying creatures. In real life there is no way in hell a 17th century cannon from the Holy Roman Empire, with their smooth bores and uneven sized cannon balls, could single out a fast moving target, much less a flying one. They were used to blow apart stationary fortifications, slow moving columns of infantry, or engage in counter-battery fire against other artillery. In Total War 2 and in the Warhammer tabletop game, however, they have laser like precision, and are the anti-large units of the Empire, which is why I had to resort to magic as a means of explaining their uncanny accuracy.

Unrealistic or not, we started producing cannons by the bucketload, and giving two to three to every army facing the Druchii. The results were fantastic. The cannons could snipe one to two Dragons while a third could be engaged by our flying Lord. Once the giant fliers were dead we could defeat the army through conventional means, i.e. spreading their infantry all over the battlefield and destroying them piecemeal. Cannons are also amazing for counter-battery fire, and can chew up infantry formations as well. The only problem is keeping them alive - cavalry, fliers and monsters all make a beeline for cannons, which means that I've had to include infantry formations to act as guards.

The ideal unit against armies with lots of large monsters is the steam tank. Not only does it have a more powerful cannon, but it's also tough, armored and can charge into melee. The only downside is that they're expensive to recruit and maintain, and so I need to beef up my economy if I'm thinking of fielding multiple tanks in the future.

Next: TBC

Previous: Mortal Empires, Part XX - Druchii Incursions

2507 IC marked the sixth year of fighting of the Age of Reckoning. While the Empire remained more or less intact, it was beset on all sides by large powerful empires. The Dark Elves were far and away the most powerful nation, but fortunately their incursions into the Empire were more raids for slaves and plunder rather than fully fledged invasions. The bulk of their forces were tied up in the invasion of Ulthuan. The forces of Chaos still swept down from the Wastes, and only the alliance with the Vampire Counts kept their forces from spilling out further into the Empire. The Empire also had two more powerful defensive alliances with the High Elves and the Wood Elves. By virtue of these agreements the Empire was only fighting a war in the north along the Sea of Claws on a front stretching from Marienburg all the way to Erengrad in Kislev. The Grey Mountains had been secured against the greenskin refugees fleeing the Vampire Count dominions, and now the Empire's western and south-western flanks rested comfortably against the Wood Elves dominions. Franz trusted the insular and reclusive woodland folk much more than he did the Vampire Counts, and the eastern and south-eastern flanks of the Empire were always watched and patrolled by Haupt-Anderssen even as the Emperor made plans to move against the Dark Elves to the north.

Karl Franz on Deathclaw.

To combat the Druchii the Emperor had moved his nation to a total war footing. No Emperor had ever had more centralized control over the Empire's means of production as had Karl Franz, and he turned the nation's considerable creative energies into manufacturing weapons from the Imperial Engineering School. The collapse of the Dwarven kingdoms had inundated the Empire with refugees, and among them were highly skilled engineers from Zhufbar and Karaz-a-Karak who could improve on the rudimentary designs used by the humans. The steam tank, originally designed by the genius Leonardo da Miragliano and of which only twelve were initially made, had proven to be decisive against the Dark Elves' beast heavy armies. The ensorcelled cannons mounted on the lumbering machines honed in on the Black Dragons of the Druchii, tore through sinew and flesh, and knocked them out of the skies. With the help of the best Dwarven engineers the design for the steam tank could finally be recreated and put into mass production.

In addition to the steam tank the Colleges of Magic were able to produce another magical wonder, a mounted platform called a Luminark of Hysh. It functioned almost like a cannon, but instead of shooting ensorcelled balls it fired pure bolts of Light energy. Unlike the steam tank, the Luminark could not be fielded in large numbers, but whenever they were present on the battle field they wreaked terrible havoc on the enemy. Once again the fell beasts of the Druchii were ideal targets, and many such creatures fell shrieking from the sky as their wings and bodies were blasted by iridescent rays of arcane power.

A steam tank on the battlefield, flanked by a Luminark of Hysh.

With such wonder weapons in his grasp Franz made bold plans to take the offensive to the Druchii homeland. The Asur were hard pressed by the Dark Elves, and the High Elves had been forced to retreat to the inner strongholds guarding the approaches into central Ulthuan. By landing a force in Naggaroth itself Franz hoped to remove some pressure from his ally, and to put Malekith on the defensive. Such a stratagem was fraught with danger. The approaches to Naggaroth were heavily patrolled by corsairs and all manners of fell beasts. Even if the Imperial navy could make a landing in the New World, such an expedition would be on its own, cut off and beyond support. Nevertheless there was no shortage of bold commanders willing to take the risk. Chief among them was Boris Todbringer, the Elector Count of Middenland. Still seething over the loss of Middenheim, and jealous of Ludenhof's rising fame and success as one of Franz's premiere generals, Todbringer hoped to eclipse his rival's achievements by staging an audacious landing in the New World. Todbringer was finally able to get the Emperor's backing for such an expedition, and soon the docks at Marienburg and Altdorf became centers of industry as the invasion fleet was prepared for this dangerous undertaking.

It's been almost a year since I last updated this blog, and somewhat longer since I played my Mortal Empires game on the PC. I have recently started playing the game again, and with the renewed interest in the game I've also found new found desire to complete the account of my Total War Legendary campaign. I apologize to anyone who was left hanging by my long inactivity on this blog. This will be the second time I've done that - the first being my X-Com fan fiction piece, which petered out and was never completed - and I'm hoping that I will at least be able to complete this one. It helps that Total War 2 has had some significant changes since I last played. The Norscans are now a primary faction with their own Legendary Lords, and the latest DLC introduced the pirates of the Vampire Coast, which made sea travel less lucrative and more perilous. I'm having fun playing again, and I hope that translates into more work into the blog.

In the interests of full disclosure, I was winning the Legendary campaign this account was originally based on, but ended up stopping after it became clear to me that I had passed the point where all that was left to do was to go through the motions and mop up remaining resistance. I've started - and lost - several new campaign using the latest DLCs, and the new distribution of foes, both old and new, has truly reinvigorated the game for me. To keep my interest up I've set the following house rule for myself - once I get to the point of unifying the Empire - which I've yet to do in Legendary in the current build of the game - that game will then determine whether Karl Franz and the Empire prevails or not in the story I'm writing. That at least will make my gameplay tie in with my written account, even if I'll have to fudge some details as past and present playthroughs merge together in a weird pastiche of alternate realities.

Next: TBC

Previous: Kings of War/Warhammer - Orcs and Goblins, Part I

It's been over seven months since I last updated this blog, and to be honest I've spent hardly any time on the hobby I so enthusiastically re-embraced last year. The first part of this year has been spent on a martial arts binge. I love martial arts, and this year I've been doing boxing and aikido simultaneously. This has left little time for miniatures, which is not a bad thing. Breaks are good. I passed my last aikido grading on 15 July, and on the very next day I was back playing miniature games. I've also quit boxing after two years. I'm too old to fight in amateur bouts, and even if I were I lack the discipline required to make weight, not to mention the skill or the prerequisite toughness. I've been sparring at half to three quarter intensity, but that's not the same as full contact competition where someone is really trying to take your head off. The upside is that I have more time for minis!

My proposed 1000 point Kings of War army.

On to updates. The Fantasy skirmish league proposed by Erik at PubCon has died an ignominious death. Steve and I played one game and that was that. I've decided not to spend any more time trying to ingratiate myself with the Bolt Action crew. They're a nice enough bunch, but I'm not a big enough fan of the game to put in the time and money to enter the club, so to speak. If I have to stop playing with miniatures for lack of players, then so be it. I've made contact with a very small circle of four players who play Warhammer. I've already played one game with a Russian-Finnish chap named Rodian, and had a pleasant game with his High Elves in Koganei on 16 July. We used The Ninth Age (T9A) rules, a rule set made by a couple of Swedish chaps to fill the hole left when Games Workshop destroyed Warhammer 8th edition. We ended up drawing, thanks to a lucky shot by my cannon which killed Rodian's dragon.

I've been thinking that it would not necessarily be a bad thing if a fire consumed my apartment and destroyed all my miniatures. It would put a definitive end to the hobby. But barring such a catastrophic event, I'm still committed to putting the O&G on the table for at least one game before the year is out. My plan is to take the army to Nerima on 2 September, and my painting goals have been aligned with this in mind. I don't expect to be able to field a fully painted force. But at the very least it will have green bases, and three colors per miniature, just enough to make it legal under Australian tournament rules. I'm assembling the army under Kings of War (KoW) rules, because hopefully I'll be able to organize a game with Omata-San or Takatori-San on the day.

For this army I'm using two Horde units as the base of the army, augmented by a battle standard bearer (a.k.a. Flagger) and a musician (a.k.a. War Drum). The Horde units have a high Nerve score which is further increased by the War Drum, and the Flagger will allow them to re-roll failed Nerve tests, further increasing their durability. The weakness of this army is that it lacks artillery or strong ranged options. I plan on just marching forward until I make contact with the enemy, and see what happens. This is my first version of an all foot army, and it will be interesting to see how it fares on the battle top. It is a hodgepodge army comprised of very old plastic models from the 4th, 5th, and 6th editions of Warhammer, as well as Warhammer Quest. The older models look like crap compared to the more modern sculpts, but thankfully they get lost in the horde and don't stand out unless closely scrutinized. There are also some old metal models in the mix, dating back to the 1990s, and there are even some models from the original Milton Bradley HeroQuest game, the game that started it all for me. The War Drum and the Flagger are ogre models from the HeroQuest expansion "Against the Ogre Horde". Sadly I threw away most of the other models thanks to a lack of foresight and an inability to appreciate the conversion opportunities afforded to me by Mantic's rule set. As it stands, though, the army is a time capsule of sorts dating back to my childhood.

For my army general I've chosen a shaman (a.k.a. Godspeaker) because he gets a boost to his spellpower when lurking near the Horde units (of which I will have two). Sadly his ranged attack is limited to 12', but to increase his utility I've also purchased the Heal spell for him, which will allow him to heal nearby units when he can't zap anyone useful. This will also mark the first occasion that I've fielded a character in my KoW armies (with the exception of Tomb Kings/Empire of Dust, which need characters to function properly). My Empire/League of Rhordia and Dark Elves/Twilight Kin functioned fine without any characters in 1000 point games. I haven't really used magic at all in KoW, so that will also be a first.

Second iteration of my 1000 point army. The Boar Boyz have been removed and Trolls added. I bought four more Boar Boyz from Ebay, but didn't end up using them. I also added a Flagger, otherwise known as a Battle Standard Bearer under Warhammer rules.

Thematically, my Godspeaker/Shaman shares a similar history to GW's Wurrzag. Kicked out of his tribe by a jealous older shaman and left to die, the young orc manifested his powers and learned to survive in the wild. He amassed a coterie of monstrous followers - Grogg (the Flagger) and Trogg (the War Drummer), along with a few trolls and the odd minotaur or two. He returned to the tribe, killed and ate the shaman who kicked him out, and became leader of his clan. Now he's making his mark, leading his clan to bigger and better things, using his connection to the Greater Green to keep his rowdy boyz in line and lead them on a great WAAAAAAAGGGHHHH of his own.

Next: Kings of War/Warhammer - Orcs and Goblins, Part III

Previous: Kings of War/Warhammer - Orcs and Goblins, Part II

The greenskins have finally made their tabletop debut, and they acquitted themselves with honor, grinding out a major victory against a Forces of Nature army led by Omata-San. I was forced to field a few unpainted miniatures, chiefly because Omata-San wanted to play a 1500 point game, and I had only been preparing a 1000 point force up until Friday. 1500 points is actually quite a decent sized force, probably equivalent to a 2000 point Warhammer army circa 6th edition.

My 1500 Orc Kings of War army. The Orclings (Snotlings) aren't part of the army, they were supposed to go in the 1000 point list.

We played on Sunday 2 September at the Nerima club. We played the Push scenario out of the Clash of Kings 2018 supplement, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that my Orcs had been given a buff in this latest Kings of War supplement. Chariots had been given the Nimble rule, which meant that they could act much like fast cavalry. Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I included an Orc Krudger (Hero) mounted on a Chariot in the extra 500 points I would be adding to my army. I also added a Regiment of 10 Gore Riders (Boar Boyz) and a Giant. My final army looked something like this:

1 Godspeaker (Orc Shaman)

1 Flagger (Orc Battle Standard Bearer)

1 Orc Krudger on Chariot (Orc Hero)

1 War Drum

40 Ax (Orcs with hand weapons and shield)

40 Greatax (Orcs with two-handed axes)

10 Gore Riders (Boar Boyz)

10 Skulks (Orc Arrer Boyz)

3 Trolls

1 Giant

Sadly, thanks to the short notice I was only able to splash the most rudimentary of paint jobs on my Chariot, Boar Boyz and Giant. Both the Chariot and the Boar Boyz are GW miniatures, while the Giant is from the Rising Sun boardgame.

My opponent, Omata-San's Forces of Nature army. I guess they're like Wood Elves mixed with Beastmen in Warhammer terms?

When we deployed both armies it became clear that Omata-San had gone in for pimped out units with magic items. My horde army looked so much larger than his, thanks to the bigger base sizes and the fact that I eschewed all magic items in favor of more troops. Appearances were deceiving however, as he had two Hordes in his army, too. Horde units in Kings of War are powerful bulwarks that serve as an army's center. Having the highest Nerve out of all unit types they can hold for a long, long time frontally, and can dish out massive amounts of damage. Their large table footprint makes them vulnerable to flankers, however, and they also struggle with maneuvering, especially when the table starts to get crowded.

The first few turns were spent jockeying for position. I tried to flank the Nature forces on both flanks - the Boar Boyz made a wide sweeping approach on my right, while the Krudger Hero on the Chariot used his newly found Nimble skillz to get behind the leftmost edge of Omata-San's line. Both armies were almost completely devoid of shooting or offensive magic, which meant this battle was going to be all about maneuver. Omata-San had a lot of monsters in his army, and his plan was clear - he was going to line up a bunch of combined charges and try to break one of my Orc Hordes by simultaneous charging with two or three hard-hitting units. This would be made possible by my Horde's extremely wide frontage, as well as the high speed and mobility of the Nature forces. His Centaurs or Wyrmriders, supported by one or both of the Beasts of Nature he deployed in the right flank, appeared to be setting up a combined charge into the Orc line to try and break through my line.

My two Horde units hold the center, supported by a Flagger and War Drums behind. On the flanks my Skulks shield Trolls and Gore Riders from nasty charges.

I couldn't permit this to happen, so I fractured his charges by pushing forward and sacrificing smaller units. The Horde unit can take on any unit and win as long as it doesn't get double or triple teamed. To avoid this scenario I pushed my Skulks forward to take a charge. They wouldn't survive, but that wasn't the point. There are no overruns in Kings of War, which meant that if they were charged and killed, the charging unit would then be in position for a retaliatory charge by the Boar Boyz. More importantly the Skulks were preventing a potential triple charge on my Horde unit. I also pushed up my Giant to within charge range of Omata-San's flying monster, but out of range of his Centaur cavalry unit. The Giant had a high Nerve value, and I was confident that he would tie up one unit for at least one turn even if charged, as long as it was by a single unit.

Omata-San, seeing that the frontal dog pile was no longer possible, postponed attacking the Horde units and told me that he would try to crush my right flank and sweep my line from that direction. My Skulks died as predicted, and his flying Beast of Nature smashed into my Giant but failed to rout or even waver the massive beast. On my left flank my Krudger on a Chariot was making one of his Horde units turn like a merry-go-round as it kept maneuvering around to its flanks, while his Hydra chewed through another unit of sacrificial Skulks. Only his Earth Elemental Horde unit, with its high Defense of 6+, advanced fearlessly towards my Orc Boyz.

On the following turn my Trolls charged the Hydra on the left flank, and my Boar Boyz attacked his Wyrmrider cavalry on the right. The Hydra shrugged off all the Troll's attacks, but the Boar Boyz routed and destroyed his Wyrmrider cavalry. The Earth Elementals and the Orc Boyz fought a titanic battle in the center, but neither could budge the other as their high Nerve values cancelled each other out. The Giant was able to beat back the flying Beast of Nature, but another Beast of Nature (of the non-flying variety) crashed into him and pulled him down.

Meanwhile, the Centaurs were rendered ineffective by the logjam in the middle. Without support Omata-San did not want to charge the Horde unit in its front, but could not position itself to charge the Boar Boyz chewing up the Wyrmrider cavalry. In the end it did the worst thing it could do, which was to dither in the middle while the Boar Boyz advanced from the right, and my second Orc Horde marched straight up the middle. The Centaurs were cornered, charged and destroyed. My Godspeaker (Shaman) finished off the flying Beast of Nature with a Fireball, and the non-flying Beast of Nature was sandwiched between my Boar Boyz and Orc Horde and annihilated, leaving us in control of the right flank.

Omata-San wanted to triple team my right Horde with Centaurs and two Beasts of Nature, but by pushing forward the Giant and the Skulks we broke up his planned assault.

The left flank was all Omata-San's, as my Trolls proved completely ineffective at neutralizing the Hydra. It could have been worse, however, if my Krudger had not been able to distract Omata-San's Naiad Horde. My Chariot basically kept the Naiads out of the fight by virtue of simply riding around it. The Naiads kept turning to keep the Chariot to their front, and after three or four turns my Chariot suddenly peeled off and charged the rear of the Earth Elementals tied up in battle with my Orc Boyz in the center. This was decisive - the rear charge coupled with my Boyz to the front wiped out the Earth Elementals. To add insult to injury, the vengeful charge of Naiads failed to break the Chariot, and in its subsequent turn, it skipped away out of the Naiad's charge arc and escaped.

I was very happy with the performance of the Boyz. They are a completely different army to my Empire mounted force, but are equally satisfying to play. The Orc Hordes were tough as old boots, repulsing every attempt to dislodge them. They were never really tested, either - I never needed to use the re-roll from the Flagger (battle standard bearer) or the extra Nerve provided by the War Drums. I thought my Godspeaker (Shaman) was also a waste of points as he did nothing except finish off the wounded Beast of Nature, but after a postmortem with Omata-San I was told that the threat of the Fireball had a stifling effect on the movement of Omata-San's character, who spent most of the battle hiding to avoid him. Area denial can be just as effective as hurling green balls of flame. The same can be thought of my Skulks, who never fired an arrow in anger. Their role is to be sacrificial goats, protect flanks, or redirect charges. If they kill anyone it's a bonus. Plus their Vanguard move comes in handy because it immediately forces the opponent to react to them at the start of the game.

End of the battle. Both Hordes are intact, as are the Gore Riders. Only the Hydra and the Naiad Horde are left. The Naiads are still chasing their tail as my Krudger on a Chariot keeps riding to the flanks.

The most important part of the day was that the Orcs have finally seen a game on the tabletop after two decades of being the forgotten "sons" of my Warhammer collection. I have five armies - Empire, High Elves, Dark Elves, Tomb Kings and Orcs - and I can now say I have played each one of them. Next month I hope to play another game with them - doubles if possible - and by then I'm hoping I'll be able to make more headway into painting them up as a finished force.

Next: Kings of War/Warhammer - Orc and Goblins, Part IV

Previous: Kings of War/Warhammer - Orcs and Goblins, Part III

The final day for my greenskin project will be October 7, on which day I will take them again to Nerima to play a final game or two before setting them up on my display case for who knows how long. Two or three games doesn't seem to be enough of a pay-off for all the money and time I've spent on them, but such is the hobby. I've derived a quiet satisfaction at seeing them progress from a mass of plastic orcs to something resembling an army. They still won't be complete by the time I shelf them, but at least I can say I have played them.

Orcs in progress.

My attention is already wandering further afield from the Orcs, and I've been finding myself assembling other armies. First it was a Tomb Kings army, and then it was the High Elves. I've got to stop this. I don't know if this hobby is a means of procrastinating for me - further psychoanalysis is required - but building an army is like trying to drink the ocean, especially when you have a few of them. Boundaries are needed. I bought Rising Sun and all its expansions in Australia when I went home this August, and that has increased my miniature count by about 100. I want to make a fantasy samurai army one day, and I bought the game for this end since it contains so many fantastic looking miniatures. I've also been contemplating getting the Doom board game, because the demon miniatures inside would make a great strike force for Deadzone. This is despite the fact that I already have Star Saga, which I acquired midyear, and which I still haven't played. Not to mention all the Raging Heroes models, and the Deadzone proxy project, which has gone dead in the water.

Rising Sun miniatures.

Get a grip, son.

So October 7 will bring a definitive end to the greenskin project, but they will at least go out with a few more games under their belt before they retire. I played an introductory game of KoW with Gareth at my home last Sunday, in which the greenskins lost. I don't feel too bad, though, because the greenskins were taking it easy on my Empire, which I lent to Gareth to use. It was 1500+ points of Empire (Kingdoms of Men) versus 1300+ points of Orcs (I didn't field my Giant) and we almost won. I don't know why I keep trying to lure Gareth to play 28 mm games, especially when he shows such disdain for it. In fact, that game will be the last time I play fantasy with him. I'd rather not play at all than pander to people who don't really want to play. I felt like a cheap salesman hawking my wares hoping for a prospective customer.

First home game ever, using a sliding door as a makeshift table.

Instead I'll focus my time on playing with folks who actually like fantasy wargaming. This is no slight against Gareth - when it comes to historical games he is the man, and I should place him squarely in that category. No more ill-advised tourist detours into fantasy or sci-fi. But I like fictional settings more, so I should strengthen my ties with my fantasy brothers, both Western and Japanese. This Sunday I'll be playing my second game of The Ninth Age (T9A) with Rodion, and possibly some Warhammer Warband games with Steve as well. For T9A I'll be taking my greenskins for a 4000 point game. Whoa. That's a lot of painting between now and Sunday, but I'm actually really excited. It expands the scope of my greenskin army dramatically beyond my KoW force. It also gives me a chance to field almost my entire collection. By the time the greenskin project wraps up I'm hoping to show a before and after photo at the conclusion of this series to see how far I've come.

Next: Kings of War/Warhammer - Orcs and Goblins, Part V

Previous: Kings of War/Warhammer - Orcs and Goblins, Part IV

I played Rodion in my second game of The Ninth Age (T9A) on Sunday 23 September, and got my ass absolutely handed to me. Once again he fielded a very concentrated list, dumping the bulk of his 4000 points into three pimped out characters. This time he eschewed the Dragon, but the list was quite similar to the army he fielded in Koganei in our first T9A game, with the Dragon Princes acting as a hammer unit supported by some fast cavalry. He also had a small unit of Swordmasters, but the most decisive unit would be a flanking unit of Lothern Sea Guard, which utilized an Ambush rule to appear behind the greenskins and wreaked havoc on my battle line.

My Orcs versus the High Elves.

My army, in contrast, was a classic horde. At first glance it looked like a mismatch, but events would prove otherwise. Rodion is a Magic: The Gathering player, and he showed his aptitude for creating strong combos in his unit and character selection. I, on the other hand, had so many units that I was overconfident, and paid the price. In retrospect I made several crucial mistakes which led to the greenskin's demise. First of all, I failed to take appropriate steps to counter the threat of the ambushing Sea Guard. I completely ignored them and just hoped that Rodion would fluff the roll to bring them on the table. Praying for someone to roll 1-2 is not a good tactic, and was idiotic on my part. I wasn't lacking for units, that's for sure, and all I needed to do was to put a Giant in a sweeper role and much of their effectiveness would have been neutralized. Ambushing units cannot charge on the turn they appear, but by ignoring them I basically gave them the initiative because my units would be reacting to them rather than dictating where they would appear. The net effect of the Sea Guard was that my main units of Orcs containing my General spent the entire game turning and turning in response to the threats to the front and behind.

Secondly, I pushed my center units too far too early. I had so many units that my ideal formation would have been a concave. The left flank was all mine by turn two, but by simultaneously advancing my Orcs in the center I didn't give the flankers enough time to get behind the Dragon Princes. I was able to launch a premature flanking attack with Boar Boyz but couldn't get my Boar Chariot into the combat due to weird LOS issues. The decisive combat played out with Rodion charging with the Dragon Princes, the Orcs holding easily (Steadfast and a Battle Standard Bearer nearby gave them Leadership 9 and a re-roll despite horrendous casualties), and then the counter-charge being as effective as a wet noodle. If I could have waited one more turn I could have completely encircled the Dragon Princes. To be fair, the appearance of the Sea Guard provoked the advance, which meant that my first mistake dovetailed into my second.

Deployment.

Thirdly, I think my Giant was too timid on the right flank. Rodion won the battle for the right flank with two units of five Ellyrian Reavers against a Giant, a Grotlings unit and a Goblin Wolf Chariot. That was just poor play on my part. In the future I think Orcs with crossbows might serve as flank guards if I play Rodion again. His army is actually quite vulnerable to shooting because it's so small, and more missile fire will provoke him into bad positions and obviate the need to maneuver against fast cavalry. Fast cavalry are amazing troops, and Rodion utilized their mobility, shooting and ability to rally and move after fleeing to good effect to win the battle for the right flank.

Fourthly, my night goblin frontage was too wide. I deployed them Kings of War style (10 model frontage) and they just blocked everything in the middle, and made it impossible for Orc units to support them. In fact, the center was a debacle - we had four units facing off against two, and we couldn't support each other because we were tripping over each other and blocking charge lines. Rodion had no such problems - he just pointed his elite units where he needed to go, and they did their jobs. I, on the other hand, was derping all over the place. Derp derp.

The center was just a mess. My units kept getting in each other's way.

To summarize, I played very badly, and Rodion played very well. Kudos to him for keeping the Orcs turning and wheeling while his elite units did their jobs. I underestimated magic as well. I didn't bring any magical protection, and paid the price. In turn two our Fanatics and Bolt Throwers caused four casualties in his Dragon Prince unit - almost half his uber unit - and in the subsequent Magic phase he resurrected them all. Doh.

Some other thoughts:

Grotlings (Snotlings) are not as good as their Warhammer equivalent, because they are not Unbreakable. All they really did was get in the way of the units behind. However, I did not use their Scout or Vanguard abilities (too many rules to keep track of!), which means I did not utilize them optimally.

Giants are not as good as they first appeared. They were horribly vulnerable to missile fire, eventually being taken down on the right flank by a total of 10 Ellyrian Reavers. Swapping them out for missile troops might yield better results. Then again, maybe they're meant to be missile magnets. If so, they did their jobs admirably!

Fanatics are great, but random. They are so characterfully greenskin, though, and with the removal of animosity, only the trolls with their Stupidity and the fanatic's blind, crazed random movement carry over the anarchic traditions of Orcs and Goblins from Warhammer into T9A. The fanatics killed more of my guys than High Elves, but that's why they're so funny and cool. We also forgot to bring scatter dice, so Rodion was spinning a pen to determine where they would go. By contrast, Orcs in Kings of War are ridiculously disciplined and retain none of their greenskin flavor in terms of playstyle. They're more like Chaos in the way they play.

The Steadfast rule really gives value to Core infantry. My Orcs took the charge and held against Rodian's uber unit of knights - it wasn't their fault that the countercharge was weak and pitiful. They did their job. Giving them shields will make them more durable, as the hand weapon and shield combo in T9A gives the Parry rule - hit rolls against them are capped at 4+. That will immediately cancel half of all enemy attacks coming at them on average. Steadfast also makes large blocks of Goblins quite durable, as long as I can keep my General and Battle Standard Bearer within range. I need to field 45 models per unit to field three Fanatics, and that's a lot of killing to get done, even for death star units. Giving them shields will also increase their staying power.

Trolls are a liability. At a crucial point in the game they went stupid, and blocked my general's unit. I was thinking of swapping them out, but they're like fanatics in that they give the army its flavor. Why play Orcs when you can't have dumb stuff happening all the time? As a plus my Troll in my Warband game against Rodion vomited on his Dragon Prince, and turned him into a steaming pile of elven goo. That there is reason enough to keep them.

Despite the crushing loss I did have fun. I learned more about T9A, and am starting to appreciate its detailed ruleset. It's extremely thorough, which makes it hard going to learn, but it also seems extensively play tested, because it goes into the nitty gritty of many of the fuzzy situations that can crop up in a game of Warhammer. I also got a measure of revenge by defeating Rodion in our subsequent Warband game, which I will write about in another post. My Orc and Goblin project is drawing to a close, and I'm glad to have had the opportunity to play at least a few games with them. My next game for the greenskins will be in two weeks, where I'll go back to Kings of War. After that the greenskins will be retired, with only my Warband coming out on occasional forays whenever Steve, Rodion and I can arrange campaign games. I ordered more Goblins on E-Bay, because I need at least 90 to field two units with three Fanatics apiece under T9A rules. In hindsight it seems dumb now, since I'm about to shelve them, but I also ordered more High Elf Lothern Sea Guard and White Lions to complete my High Elves. After the greenskins I will be working on the High Elves until the end of the year. I have to because I went on a spending spree on E-Bay buying up cheap High Elf models, and I need to put in some work on them to justify my purchases. I feel like an idiot, but I've always had poor impulse control. Ending the Orcs and Goblins project doesn't mean I won't be playing with them anymore - it just means that they get taken off the top of the painting priority list. I like their savage goofiness, and will definitely field them more times on the tabletop now that they're no longer just grey chunks of plastic.

Next: Kings of War/Warhammer - Orcs and Goblins, Part VI

On Sunday 23 September Steve, Rodion and I played a series of games in a second attempt to get a Warbands campaign off the ground. In December last year Erik proposed a similar style escalation league, but unfortunately it never got going. Steve and I played the sole game in that league before the Shimo-Kitazawa PubCon event disintegrated - the organizer left due to clashes with the venue owner and the JIGG management, and the player base was scattered to the four winds. I stopped playing for six months or so to do other things, and the whole thing just dried up and blew away.

My Empire Warband.

With a new organizer now in place (cheers, Robert!) we headed on down to Yoga to play Warbands again. We were playing with Warhammer 7th edition rules and army books (power creep be damned) just to make things easier. I'm going slightly insane trying to keep track of all the rules in my head. Originally I started brushing up on 5th edition rules because Joshua had proposed a 5th edition game in Kashiwa, but that fell through so Rodion and I arranged a 9th edition game in Yoga instead. 9th edition is very dense - it's like the Advanced Squad Leader version of Warhammer if you've ever played that monstrosity - so it's hard going, but I'm starting to come around to its particular brand of anal retentiveness. Unfortunately I also had to brush up on 7th edition Warhammer for Warbands, so I was having bouts of schizophrenia flipping from one edition to another. All this bouncing back and forth on Warhammer editions is making me yearn for the simplicity of Kings of War. It doesn't have the granularity of Warhammer, but in the end it's still about fantasy armies so it gives me my miniature gaming fix. I would love to convert some of the Japanese KoW players over to Warhammer or to T9A, but the sheer detail required to explain the game would overload my Japanese and make my head explode.

Anyway Warbands was refreshingly simple, fast and most importantly, fun. Games took less than an hour - probably closer to 30 minutes - for each one. In comparison my T9A game with Rodion took four hours to play three turns, as we kept bogging down on rule details which could only be clarified by looking up the rules on my iPad Mini. We did play 4000 points, which I thought was huge, until a visit to the T9A forums seemed to indicate that a standard game was 4500 points. Jeebus.

Playing Warbands, by contrast, felt like slipping into an old, well-worn sweater. I stopped playing Warhammer before the release of 7th edition, but the rules were quite familiar, queries were quickly dealt with, and turns were lightning fast. I liked that we were playing campaign rules, too, which means an ongoing narrative for each warband. In fact, the fun for me in most narrative Ameri-trash games is the quasi-narrative supplied by the dynamic between the players, the scenario and the dice rolls. A lot of that would be forthcoming in the three games we played on Sunday.

My Orc Warband.

Game 1: Chaos versus Empire

The first game we played was a tussle between my Empire band and Steve's Chaos Warriors. My warband was composed of a Warrior-Priest, a small unit of halberdiers with a standard, a unit of four huntsmen and four handgunners. Steve had a Chaos Hero, two small units of three Chaos Warriors apiece and a single Ogre. For my Archetype I chose Intellectual for my Warrior-Priest and dubbed her Grunhilda. She's armed with the Armor of Meteoric Iron which gives her a 1+ save. She also has a great weapon to give her a little bit of clout in close combat.

The Empire did amazingly well. For some reason I thought Steve was a Warhammer veteran, but it turned out that the bulk of his experience was in 40K. My halberdiers saw off the Ogre and one unit of Warriors. The other unit of Chaos Warriors chased and destroyed my handgunners, while his Hero, the dude I most feared in his list, went off and chased off my huntsmen. Both units then turned around to engage the halberdiers, but the halberdiers, augmented by Grunhilda, standard and outnumbering bonuses, saw them off in the final combat of the game. In the end the Empire won a Massacre victory and earned 100 Experience points. After rolling for casualties - each model that falls in game dies on a roll of 1-2 during a postgame sequence - I found that the Empire had lost four men. We had 101 Experience points in hand, and after spending 33 points to replace our losses we had 68 points left to purchase more troops or upgrades.

Steve's warband on the other hand, was decimated by a spate of poor casualty rolls. He lost his Ogre and two Chaos Warriors. In his addition his Chaos Hero suffered amnesia (Heroes roll on a separate casualty table), which meant he lost his Hero's Archetype abilities and the capacity to gain new ones. Ouch. Defeated warbands still get 25 points, but his warband had been badly diminished.

Game 2: Chaos versus High Elves

Since Steve's warband had been so badly mauled we agreed that starting a new warband could be an option. The next game was Steve's new warband (exactly the same roster) against Rodion's High Elves. Rodion had an Elven Mage, two units of three Lothern Sea Guard apiece, and two mounted Dragon Princes. The High Elves would try to blow Chaos apart as they advanced, and they very nearly did. Steve was slumping lower and lower in his chair with every magical and missile casualty. One Convocation (?) by Rodion totally annihilated one Chaos Warrior unit. I was trying to pump him up by saying, "Just get into combat, dude!" Once his Chaos Hero made it into combat however, he tore apart the Sea Guard. The Ogre with one Wound left somehow survived a charge by the Dragon Princes and drove them off, then limped into combat against the other Sea Guard unit and broke them. In the end the whole Elven force was fleeing or destroyed, and despite his casualties, Steve came away with a Massacre victory.

The survivors of the battle versus the High Elves. Only one Chaos Warrior died, but he was clearly too weak to live and was claimed by Khorne.

More good news for Chaos was that all his fallen soldiers passed their casualty rolls and came back to life. Rodion's force, however, couldn't roll higher than a 2, and in the end all that was left of his warband was his mage, one Dragon Prince and two Sea Guard from separate units. According to the rules if you can't replenish your soldiers to minimum sizes (three for infantry) then they are disbanded. This meant that Rodion would also lose the other Sea Guard, as his 25 point allotment could only buy back one soldier, which would not be enough to replenish either unit. Brutal.

The High Elves were decimated by the Orcs.

Game 3: High Elves versus Orcs

The final game of the day would be my Orc warband versus Rodion's High Elves. Like Steve, Rodion opted for a brand new warband after the horrendous casualties his first warband had suffered. After seeing the shooting gallery of the previous game we started the game on the reverse slope of a hill to avoid first turn shooting. The Orc advance was further delayed by an outbreak of Animosity and Stupidity by the Troll, but once the boyz got underway they started getting peppered by the Elves. Fortunately the Orcs were very resilient to shooting, and also Rodion's magic phase was not as lethal as it had been in the previous game against Chaos. Rather than direct damage spells he had opted for re-rolls and buffs, and bow fire, even when augmented, were not as effective against the Orc's high Toughness. The Orcs were able to cross the field without taking any casualties and drove the Sea Guard off the hill. The only iffy part was when the Dragon Princes charged my Troll, which I pushed up to protect the chariot's left flank. The Dragon Princes needed to score three Wounds to kill the Troll, but they were only able to inflict one thanks to Regeneration. In return the Troll vomited and killed one knight, and auto-broke the last one due to Fear.

The Orcs advance on the Elves.

In the end the Orcs came away with a Massacre win without taking any casualties, and Rodion's Elves took another shellacking. I don't think Rodion did his casualty rolls for his second warband, as we had to get out of the venue pretty quickly, but the Orcs are sitting pretty with 100 Experience points in the bank and no casualties to speak of.

The only question now is whether we can keep this campaign rolling in the future. Both my warbands performed quite well, but I'm quite happy to scratch them both and bring new ones as long as we keep playing. The best thing about warbands is that it gives me achievable painting goals. If I don't play I don't paint, and warbands allow me to paint different factions. If we play again I could perhaps prepare a Tomb Kings, Dark Elves or High Elves warband. I could even put together a makeshift Ogre Kingdoms warband, but that's the beauty of this format. Given the small model count you can paint the models up to a high standard as opposed to painting an army. My Orcs are still largely composed of three color models, but warbands can become based, shaded and highlighted. It's a different mode of painting, and variety is the spice of life when it comes to wading into a seemingly endless sea of miniatures.

Next: A Tale of Three Warbands, Part II - Lizardmen Blues

Now for a quick digression into the world of 40K.

Azrael versus Abaddon. It was no contest.

I've never played a game of 40K in my life. I've had a Dark Angels army since I was a university student. Bought secondhand from a fellow gamer exiting the hobby I can still recall them sitting in my bedroom for the longest time. My parents had a silverware bureau composed of 10 or more drawers which I coopted for miniature storage. The Dark Angels were laid down in in neat rows where they waited in vain to be deployed on the battle top. My attention was always devoted to Fantasy however, and I never took the plunge to enter the world of lasguns, bolters, and gibbering beings from the warp. When I left home the Dark Angels relocated a storage locker in the Central Coast in Australia where they resided for quite a few years, before being moved into my brother-in-law's father's garage for storage (it's a long story). Two years I ago I pulled most of my stuff out of there, and now they're here with me in Japan. Like my Orcs up to September this year, they had never seen battle.

My first 40K battle line. I'm so proud.

That changed today (30 September) at Sangenjaya. Steve was a 40K enthusiast and I thought, why not, and asked him if he wanted to play a game. He readily agreed, and his Chaos army squared off against my Dark Angels in a 1250 point battle. It ended in a crushing defeat for the soldiers of the Emperor, but that was OK. I expected to be crushed, and specifically asked Steve not to spare me an ass whipping. He took great pains to explain the rules, both general and codex-specific, and was repeatedly generous in giving me mulligans and do-overs. He also offered advice on deployment and tactics, although most of it went over my head and would not crystallize until I saw the units in action and how they interacted on the tabletop. My army was largely made up of vanilla marines in 10 man squads, and I needed to see how they played to establish some sort of baseline in my head.

Steve contemplating the battlefield.

What did I learn today?

Never fight Abaddon in close combat. He is a monster, and he shredded my Chapter Master and supporting marines in one round of combat. Run away, or shoot him. In fact, just run away. I can get more value shooting other targets than wasting shots on Abaddon's damage reducing abilities.

I learned the importance of denying Deep Strike units places to deploy. I have to cover my deployment zone in overlapping 9 inch bubbles to deny them places to land.

I need to learn to use screening units - chaff - to absorb charges and buy my shooting units more time. In the future I will divide all my squads into 5 man combat squads. None of my 10 man squads, even when bolstered by characters, survived any of the combats against Chaos, so it's just better to concede half a squad and buy the other half another turn of shooting. When my units shot, they shredded, so I should just play to my strengths.

A truckload of demons teleport into the middle of the battlefield.

Stratagems. I need to study them as they are situational and can turn the tide of battle at crucial points. 40K is kind of like a card game like Magic or Hearthstone in that you can play stratagems like cards at any point during battle, as long as you have Command Points to do so. This also means that I need to know the stratagems my opponent has in hand as well. Geez, another meta to learn.

In the future I would like to experiment with Ravenwing and Deathwing units, both of which I did not include in the army. I deliberately left them out because I wanted to see how bog standard marines performed. Since they're the most common unit in 40K it was helpful to see what an average soldier was like in the game. Plus I didn't want to get overloaded with rules, which still happened, but not to the extent it would have had I included bikes and terminators into the mix. They will be included in future games.

The Predator was awesome. It took a beating, and dished out a lot of damage in turn.

I need some kind of battle mat, or at least a green tablecloth. These naked tables are hurting my eyes.

Ezekiel, my Librarian, about to die surrounded by demons.

A newcomer to Robert's Meetup, a chap from Leicester who also turned out to be a 40K player, made a comment that made me laugh. He said my basing was very classical - i.e. Goblin Green topped off with flock. It's a backhanded way of saying that I was a retro miniature collector. He was right - these models are over 20 years old.

I had fun playing 40K and will definitely play it again. The Japanese gamers at Nerima play it a lot, but I never really felt confident playing them because one, I was a neophyte, and two, my Japanese sucks. It's enough for rudimentary conversation, but not as effective as I would like when negotiating rule clarifications. A few more games under my belt with Steve, and I'll be happy to go at it with the lads. I'm more happy that models that I've had for years finally saw some use on the tabletop. All the board games I own - all the miniature armies I have - have now all seen action or have been played at least once. There is only one exception - Star Saga - but that is a recent acquisition and I'll get around to that once I paint all the furniture and models for the game. Looking back though I must be a fucking lunatic - the time and money invested into miniatures compared to the time spent actually playing is staggeringly disproportional. Fielding stuff I've had for years, however, is weirdly satisfying, and is kind of like of filling in a sunk cost pit in my psychological makeup. Now there are no more holes to fill - unless I buy more miniatures.

Oh no.

Next: For The Emperor, Part II - Red Scorpions

Mortal Empires, Part VIII - History Repeating

Mortal Empires, Part IX - Recurring Nightmares

Mortal Empires, Part X - Mousillon

Mortal Empires, Part XI - Crisis in Ulricsberg

Mortal Empires, Part XII - Hochland and Nordland

Mortal Empires, Part XIII - The Treaty of Wurtbad

Mortal Empires, Part XIV - Empire in Flames

Mortal Empires, Part XV - Counter-Offensive

Mortal Empires, Part XVI - End of Empire

Mortal Empires, Part XVII - Chaos Rising

Mortal Empires, Part XVIII - Bastion of Mankind

Mortal Empires, Part XIX - Star Crossed Lovers

Mortal Empires, Part XX - Druchii Incursions

Mortal Empires, Part XXI - Total War

Kings of War/Warhammer - Orcs and Goblins, Part II

Kings of War/Warhammer - Orcs and Goblins, Part III

Kings of War/Warhammer - Orcs and Goblins, Part IV

Kings of War/Warhammer - Orcs and Goblins, Part V

A Tale of Three Warbands, Part I - Once More Unto The Breach

For The Emperor, Part I - Black Legion