Dark Copse

Continuing the "Dark Conspiracy" campaign, here's another 'battle' (as opposed to skirmish)  this week, and if you missed last week's ECW bust up, you can check it out on The Emerald Musketeers blog here :-   Uffeton Fight  )

When Nicodemus left Shanaera and her group in Kislev (click on the "Dark Conspiracy" tab in the side bar if you want a refresher), he wasted no time making his way directly to Tancred Castle in Couronne. Here, he followed a hunch and sought out the works of  Bretonnian authoress Catherine d'Mann which he knew was kept in the castle library..

Within moments of studying the tome he sought, his heart and head raced as he fought a terrible sinking feeling in his soul. Dashing from the library, he called for the swiftest rider from the troop of Knights Errant garrisoned at the castle and despatched him post haste to the dwarf hold at Karak Kadrin with a simple message...
"March in strength immediately up the Peak Pass to the ruins of Dark Copse Tower and deny it to any who attempt to occupy it!"

So it was that Okaghord Branehelm led three companies down from the foothills of the Worlds Edge Mountains onto the plains of Drakenmoor, where the blasted remains of Maeldoraz's tower stood alongside "The Dark Copse", while a Liche advanced towards him with an army of undead intent taking the tower by force.
Okaghord placed his housecarls in the centre, with his veteran (first generation GW mono pose plastic!) shieldwall on their left by the copse, and the Kadrin militia covering the open ground on his right.

As the dwarven line prepared to defend the ruins, the skeletal cavalry maneuvered for the charge,

and the rest of the undead host advanced.

Suddenly battle was joined across the entire line,

the slower moving ghouls on the right wing had no time to deploy into line before crashing into the dwarf veterans.

In the centre, the housecarls repulsed the skeleton horde which had attempted to fight their way over the remains of the tower walls.

The mounted charge had failed to break the militia, but neither had the dwarves managed to force their mounted opponents to recoil and a standing melee had developed.  

The second unit of skeleton foot warriors charged the housecarls while the first unit re-ordered themselves,

and the ghouls were now also embroiled in a standing melee with the dwarf veterans, neither side achieving an all important 'push back'.

The skeletons were once again driven away from the ruins, and now the ghouls recoiled from the solid shieldwall. Things seemed to be going the dwarves way, however, the mounted warriors on the left flank still refused to give ground.

Within moments, the undead surged forward again! The militia STILL standing toe to toe with the tenacious cavalry.

Skeletal warriors were once again scrambling over the ruins,

and the ghouls began a renewed attempt to break to dwarf left flank.

The tide of battle now looked to have swung the other way,

even though the militia were clearly winning the 'war of attrition' against the mounted warriors, and the veterans had once again pushed back the ghouls,

both units of skeletal foot were now inside the perimeter of the tower ruins!

At this point the remaining ghouls failed to rally and shambled off,

but it was Okaghord Branehelm's last gallant stand at Dark Copse Tower. As he fell with the remaining housecarls, the rest of the dwarf retinue fled the field when the liche stood atop the blood drenched ruins and let out a spine chilling cry of victory (caused a "Fear" test which the already shaken dwarf units failed).

Over in the depths of the Dark Copse, a helpless Nicodemus could only look on in anguish.

He didn't recognise him from his human form, but there was no doubt that the liche was Maeldoraz!

The realisation that the necromancer's followers had succeeded in reanimating their master also meant that Beska and his party of adventurers had not only failed, but most likely perished.

As he slunk away and began his journey to Altdorf, he wondered why Maeldoraz had returned to the tower. Did he intend to rebuild his former stronghold? Or, as he now suspected, did he want the site for some dark secret that it might still hold buried in it's depths?

As events continue to unfold in the campaign I needed to resolve this battle before I could move on, so I set up the table and used it as an excuse to try out the latest version of "One Page Rules" Fantasy Battles. I knew from previous releases that it would give me a quick and enjoyable game with the bare minimum of effort 'admin-wise'. The A.I supplement worked extremely well and I'll definitely keep these rules to hand for future use.

I sincerely hope that everyone is doing OK, and that you are keeping your spirits up through these challenging times.
As always, I'd love to hear from you if you'd care to leave a comment, and especially if you have any observations or queries to post.