The Battle of Slavers' Lair Castle

Two years.  It has been a long two years.  All this while Lord Draken is trapped within his fortress,under siege by the Imperial army.  Now, with the news that half of the Imperial army will be leaving to fight Beastmen, it is time to sally out and break the siege!!!

Pointing at the castle gate with his sword, the Druchii Lord roared, "Today is the day, come on my brethen, let us ride.  Open the gate!!!"



The rebels charge out, as part of the scenario rules the cavalry get a free movement.  This implied that if they get the first turn in the roll off (which they did), they can charge the imperials.

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As the castle gate creak opened, the Imperial sentries immediately sounded the alarm.  Booooooo went the horns of war.  Soldiers off duty immediately got up and rushed for their weapons.  The Commander of the Camp, Emperor Basil too rushed out of his tent.  "This is great", he thought to himself, "the rebels has taken the bait!"  However Basil soon realised that other than his skirmishing infantry and cavalry, the cataphracts are the only shock troops at his disposal right now.  The medium cavalry will need more time to get ready while the ambushing loyalist druchii needed time to get here.  Basil could simply hope that reinforcements will arrived before the camp got completely overwhelmed.

The thin skirmish line is all that is available?

Naah, there's the cataphracts and some light cavalry.  Notice Basil is not in the units, he is hiding at the right hand corner of the map.

Turn 1

The Rebels got the first turn.  Cold one knights charge the javelin men who failed their fear test and flee.  The Dog of War Knights (let us call them knights from now on) charge the slingers who shoot and flee.  However no casualties are caused.  The light cavalry charge the archers who fled but were ran down.  The rest of the rebel army move forward except the crossbowmen who manned the castle (the chair).  Nothing is within range for shooting.

Imperial turn.  The Cataphracts charge the knights who fled far away, unfortunately they did not panic the corsairs.  The imperial light cavalry charge their rebel counterparts, kill 60 men losing 20 in return.  This being WAB ruleset, the light cavalry autobreak and fled with the loyalist in hot pursuit.  The Imperial javelin men rallied while the slingers fled off the table.  Cowards!

Turn 2

The harpies charge the javelin men who shot down 20 in a stand and shoot reaction.  The cold one knights charge the cataphracts.  With hatred and strength six on the charge and a druchii dreadlord heading them (readers may notice Draken was just a druchii master in earlier battles but I have promoted him since), the cataphracts jolly well pass many 5+ saves.  Meanwhile the rebel knights rallied (not in photo) while the corsairs move forward.

What were the rebel archers doing? Shooting of course, the imperial light cavalry are obliterated!!!

The cataphracts are totally outclassed by the cold one knights (and to tihnk that I forgotten the cold ones have 2A), the champion died in a challenge while another 100 cataphracts were absolutely murdered by the druchii knights.  The survivors fled off the table.  No one could fight these creatures!!!

In a strange case of fluke (or pure skill of the imperials), the harpies fail to kill anything and were destroyed by the javelinmen who ran down the survivors.

Imperial turn 2.  Haha, now the trap is sprung, reinforcements charrggggeeedddd.  To Basil's horror, only two units arrived, the spearmen who quickly proceed to charge the shades leaving 60 dead in a stand and shoot reaction, and the Byzantine medium cavalry to whom Basil quickly join for solace.  In the combat that follows, 80 spearmen were killed but 60 shades were taken down.  A lucky breaktest roll meant that the shades held.  Oh noes exclaimed the spearmen, we were using sword and shields and cannot change next turn!

Turn 3

During the rebel turn, the cold one knights reform and try to inch closer to the Byzantine medium cavalry.  The human knights place themselves behind the shades, ready to drive off the spears,  In the shooting phase, the crossbowmen shot the javelinmen, killing one-fifth of the unit.

In the combat phase, the spearmen did more damage to the shades and broke them.  However they fail to catch the latter.

Imperial turn 3.  The spearmen decided to be brave, sword and shield in hand, they charge the rebel human knights.  Meanwhile, the rest of the reinforcements are here.  The hydra, chariot and executioners were too far to do anything but the shades manage to climb up the castle wars and charge the crossbowmen (this is another campaign mechanic, if the shades came at turn 2 they will be unable to charge but appearing at turn 3 grants them a free charge)

The scene as the Imperial reinforcements arrive.

In the combat phase, the spears unexpectedly killed 20 knights at no loss.  The combat is a draw.

The shades manage to beat off the crossbowmen.  They outrun the defeated enemy and threw the survivors down the castle walls.

Turn 4

The cold one knights march as fast as possible to the Byzantines.  The rebels were reaching their break point soon (3 units left), they need to win the battle fast.  Meanwhile the corsairs position themselves.  In the combat phase, the knights unexpectedly lost 40 men, twice that of the spears and fled off the table.

In the Imperial turn, Basil wisely assign the hydra to block the way of the cold one knights.  The beast also spit fire at the elven knights, killing 20.  The rest of the imperials surrounded the corsairs and pepper the latter with crossbow and javelin shots.

Turn 5

The cold one knights charge the hydra, reducing it to a single wound while losing 60 of its members.  The monster broke and were run down close to the table edge.  At this point Lord Draken knows that all is lost, he has already lost his castle and his knights were too far to influence the battle at the center.  Leading his remaining knights, he left the field (from a fluff perspective of course.  In the game itself, the unit is far too awesome to be destroyed.  Nevertheless they were unable to make anymore contributions to the battle).

                                                         Imperial Turn 5 and Turn 6

In the imperial turn, all the units on the field save the javelinmen charged the corsairs.  Alas all the infantry failed charge leaving only the chariot and the medium cavlry.

The chariot, and the master riding it, racked up a lot of kills.  Although the cavalry did some damage, they lost five dozen of their troops too.  In the end, the corsairs broke but barely escape the pursuit.  At this point in time I decree that the rebels have not meet the break point yet even though techically they have...

Which doesn't matter, at turn 6, the corsairs rallied only to be charged again during the imperial turn.  The master was killed in a challenge by the loyalist master on chariot.  The entire corsair unit was killed save the last 20 warriors who were ran down.

This is it, the imperials have finally broken the rebellion and seize Slaver's Lair in addition.  Lord Draken may escape but he no longer has any resources to do a thing.

With the defeat of the rebellion, Chief of Staff Repanse De Lyonese can breathe a signof relief at last.  She can finally free up troops to other fronts.  Emperor Basil is temporarily assigned to garrison Slaver's Lair island with his surviving troops.  He was reinforced by those rebel forces who surrendered (the shades and human knights), as well as a numidian contingent and a blackguard contingent that were elsewhere on the island and never took part in the battle.  

Repanse's plan was to secure the island by hunting down Lord Draken and any other troublemakers while using the territory as a staging area to launch conquests overseas if required.  The island's resources was also quickly put to good use. A force of Norse cavalry and infantry were raised to fight in other fronts.

Meanwhile Lord Draken was never found.  It is likely that he escaped by boat.  Nevertheless with his home base conquered, it is unlikely that he will post a direct threat anymore,