Vern and his Wonderous Journeys

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Sunday, December 30, 2012

Repanse De Lyonese

HELLO.  Allow me to introduce myself, I am Repanse De Lyonese, the Chief of Staff in Vern's Human armies.  In a way I am a kind of Commander-in-Chief but I have not been leading armies to battles myself.  So far I merely assign generals and their respective armies around for the respective campaigns.  Not really a difficult job if you ask me as I simply distribute assignments based on who was available at the point in time rather than basing my decisions on ability

However, those leisurely days are over. I am now ordered to take a more active role and have to lead the human troops into battle.  In fact I was supposed to lead the expedition that was tasked to put down Hag Queen Hella's rebellion but fortunately the other generals (assigned AKA arrowed by me) managed to crush her forces even before I march out of Constantinople.  Unfortunately Hela escaped and now she is back with a huge army of Druchii slavers.  It is time for me to get my hands dirty and defeat her personally.

In addition to battle duties, I am not spared from the assignment of writing battle reports.  In the past we simply have to file hard copies but now with the advancement of mass media, the staff office is also responsible of publishing the materials for public perusal.  What tedious work!

So readers of this blog will see my face often.  Vern himself will no longer be writing about the battles unless it involves non-human troops (which is rare), or it involves matters of politics, morals andthe  economy.  Vern may also do some witnessing but he will avoid writing religious articles in general due to the sensitive nature of the subject matter.

Thank you for your kind attention.

Regards,

Repanse De Lyonese
Chief of Staff, Commander in Chief of Human Armies

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Saga of the Siege of the Two Islands


We manage to corner the forces of Beorix near the coast of Athens.  But while we are making preparations for the attack, we receive words back from Norsca that more time are required to train and equip the high end troops (aka cannot we are not allowed to age up to Age III or more if we want to achieve the bonus objectives).   We can thus only field spearmen, throwing axe men, raiders (light cavalry), javelin skirmishers and longboats.  Chief Verunder immediately call for help across the vicinity for the surrounding armies to provide reinforcements.  Fortunately we are at the Mediterranean and we manage to receive a lot of support from the neighboring regions.  Troops from Greece and Asia Minor (Persians) came to help, we even manage to get assistance from the Moorish people and Egyptians from the African coast.   Youths all over Europe gathered to serve as raider light cavalry. Most amazing of all we manage to obtain 200 Japanese warriors who are attached to the Persians at the moment.  Last but not least, the most exotic of all, 120 elven maidens and 120 dwarves throwing axe men.

So we proceed with the battle.  It was a tough fight.  The enemies were encamped at two islands, one just at the coast while the other a few miles further.  We fought real hard for the island fortress at the coast.  The enemy kept on launching attacks with heavy and light cavalry as well as archers.  We lost many men and Chief Verunder was killed early in the battle.  We then decide to send our navy to help only to discover that the waterways have towers in ambush…many of our dragon ships are sunk.  The tide began to turn when we send massive cavalry units into the fray, about 600 cavalry charge into the enemy camp to tear down the fortifications.  Heedless of casualties, the cavalry push on and were constantly fed by reinforcements.  Somewhere in the middle of the battle, we call off the cavalry and send them to clear the water ways from all the towers which they succeeded in doing so.  The waterways secured, we then send our dragon ships in again, together with the cavalry and fresh waves of infantry we manage to capture the inner island fortress.  We quickly secure the island and build a base there.

 Now to take the outer and final island.  We make an effort to build a power navy and push into the island.  Lo and behold, we manage to push into the main port area!  We are surprised by this success and we actually had hope to sneakily land an army but now it seems we can land a proper army right at the enemy doorstep.  Learning from past experiences, we sent the light raider cavalry right away and they succeeded in tearing down many fortifications and buildings.  We were surprised to find the Beorix had troll bodyugards!  However we manage to kill Beorix before his trolls and viking berserkers defeat our army.  All this while ships continue to offload more reinforcements form the Greek mainland, most importantly of all we landed the 120 elves and dwarves who proceed immediately to build towers to allow us to secure the beachhead, not caring about the arrows flying at them.  The elves and dwarves did well in building many towers but had to sell their lives in the end as the enemies were so numerous.  Nevertheless, we manage to secure the beachhead with many towers.  The enemies were strong and destroy our forces completely many times but the towers enable us to hold while reinforcements kept on coming.  We even lost control of the seas once.  This was soon solved by defeating the enemy with a replacement fleet and sending mass raider cavalry to destroy the docks.  Slowly but surely we manage to gather a large force at the beachhead.  Off to destroy the enemy!  Using the same old trick, we sent the cavalry to tear fortifications while the infantry went to eliminate enemy soldiers.  We finally prevailed!

However the cost of the entire battle is high.  We do not know how many Norse lives were lost but we believe it is in thousands.  So great was the cost that Vern declared that the Norse were to be relieved of all military duties for 10 years!

From one of the surviving Norse captains.

Friday, December 14, 2012

Unexpected findings by the Norse

We were defending the city of Arogs from Beorix and his lackeys when Norcaine raiders were found harrassing our rear lines.  We manage to beat them off and about 400 of them lay death.

On a separate note, we also spotted some trolls in the battle of Crete.  We manage to persuade 100 of them to join our side while the rest were slain.

Another matter was that 200 mercenary knights and 240 crossbowmen have defected to us.  These were mercenaries formerly serving then enemy.  I am sending them to the capital in the event you guys want to keep their service.

Seems like we have beaten off the Spellforce invasion force for good.

Glory to the Norse Army.

-report by chief Verunder

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What really happened in Argos.

I was playing a city defence quest (yes I defended 30 cities and won a trophy!), when some sea people were found coming our of the houses in the city too attack me.  I am amused and decide that there are Norcaine corsairs (they were holding 2 HW also) from the previous battles that have joined forces with other factions to weaken the Empire.

With these, the Spellforce units were totally wiped out.  I am not sure if i should orchestra another invasion in the near future.  As mentioned earlier, this invasion thingy was arrange to serve as a background story of my floorhammer battle but due to real life commitments it got called off.  I have to use these AOE missions to serve as a proxy to resolve the war and write some fluff.  I did enjoy myself though as it gives me the chance to play some good old AOE missions.  The Rescue Mission which I used to represent the storming of the rebel base turn out to be very fun.

As of now, the rebels fluffwise are largely defeated.  What's left are some dark elves with 2 HW and crossbow, executioners and cold one knights.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

To the Chief Officer of Staff,

It is my pleasure to report to you the successes of the front.  As tasked by yourself, an Egyptian Corps and a Greek Corps were sent to storm the stronghold of the Dark Elven rebels and their misguided allies. 

The Greek forces under Theodoros blockaded the enemy in their fortress while my forces went about constructing siege engines.  I have no access to the elephant troops in this battle as they were all in the far south.  Theodoros manage to bring a variety of Greek troops for the task but his army is smaller.

The enemy were divded into two camps, the North consisted largely of their wood elf allies and human infantry while the southern camp consist largely of the Dark Elves, with some wood elf archers and human cavalry.

I quickly ordered my engineers to set up additional towers in the south which severely hampers the effort of the dark elven troops as they sally out.  I also sent 3 teams of triemes to sail up the river to raid the enemy foragers, weakening their supply lines while I mustered my forces.  I then launch two attacks into the southern camp.  The first attack was made to test out the enemy defences, it was conducted by a force of 480 axemen and 240 slingers.  We took out many enemy fortifications but eventually had to retreat.  The second attack was more significant as I have also assigned 240 camel riders and 2 teams of siege engines into the assault.  We manage to break through and destroyed the camp but the rebel river fleet manage to cause many casualties, forcing my troops to evacuate the camp.  The enemy fleet then sail to attack my camp but my own river fleet was assembled and our superior navy was able to destroy them.  I then assign a token force to re-occupy the Dark Elf camp.  According to my troops, we eliminate many enemies but a significant force manage to board some ships and flee.

The southern front subdued, I then sent my troops to take out the northern camp.  My earlier naval raids have been effective and the enemy were weak.  To make things worse for the enemy, I have also commited more war machines, two teams of siege engines and 3 teams of cataputlt.  I have also send an elite chariot archer corps.  The enemy were defeated with ease.  I can confirm that the wood elves were out of this war for good and will no longer contribute forces to aid in the rebellion.

This is a great victory.  The enemy stronghold was conquered.  I have also made a point to tear down its wars as this fortress has been a rendevous point for our enemies for years.  We estimate that approximately 3000 rebels have escaped, most probably out of our borders.  They comprises mostly of Norcaine Dark elves instead of Druchii.  There are also some human mercenaries.  We did not find Hag Queen Helle among the dead so we assume that she escaped.  We are unsure if she will still be the leader of the coalition since the power of her people has been broken.  We do not believe that the Norcaine will simply pack up and go home for we know that they have been trying for years to claim a foothold in the Empire.

After action report by Commander Ahmose completed.  Signing off.


Evaluations by Chief of Staff:
My team assessed that the enemy forces will not trouble us for quite sometime as their forces are largely spent.  Reports have shown that the Norcaine were no longer able to enlist the help of sympathizers within the empire.  Thus we do not expect the enemy to be able to build up its forces for quite some time.  I hereby assign General Thrall and General Whisperwind to conduct seek and destroy missions along the northeastern border of the Ancestral Homelands.  If needed, they can also requisition the assistance of the Rus warriors in the south.  Let us monitor the developments for two years before we stand down.



Tuesday, December 11, 2012

War with the Cult of Khaine

The rebellion is underway.  Instead of sending its elite forces, the Empire sent two armies, comprising of Norse and Persian troops respectively to subdue the foe.  The relatively green Norse army were severely defeated while the Persians manage to secure a quick victory.  The Khainate forces were forced out of the borders of the Empire but with reinforcements streaming in from overseas, they were not done yet!!!

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Unfortunately real world commitments (IPT) meant that I can no longer have my trial game of floorhammer.  So I decide to settle this rebellion electronically using computer games as a proxy.  Using AOE software, I suffered 1 defeat and 1 success with the Norse and the Persians respectively.  Norse are really slow to build up in the RTS Skirmish game.  Anyway storywise, the rebels suffered heavily under the Persian forces and they had to retreat beyond the borders to regroup, however thanks to the victory against the Norse, many warriors have flocked under the banner of the rebels!

Meanwhile the elite Byzantine force is still slowly mustering its strength...