[Call of Warhammer - Rage of the Dark Gods 1.6] The End Times

[King Athelstan]

Sent

[AdmiralThrawn]

The war with the Orcs is won!

As the Warboss and his heir fled through the ravaged countryside of Sylvania, they were set upon on three sides by Averland patrols tasked with hunting them down. In a short and bloody battle the last vestiges of Orc leadership were crushed. The remnants of the great Waaaaagh that had so threatened the Empire disintegrated into a collection of mindless rabbles, incapable of making war on the domains of man!

At the same time, the remaining three cities of Sylvania were conquered one after the other by the, now exhausted, armies of the Golden Sun. With these last Ork bastions crushed, the task now falls upon Averland to mobilize it's forces north to face the oncoming threat of Chaos. The good news is that the immense wealth of Averland is being put to good use, recruiting more than an entire army every month! The bad news is that the wars with the greenskins have badly drained the strength Averland has in the field, and those armies are far from the northern front.

Therefore, the most important thing the Empire can do now against Chaos is delay. Don't risk everything on a large fight we are not certain to win. The longer this war lasts, the more armies can be sent north to aid in the fight. Given enough time, Count Marius expects that up to 10 armies can be deployed to defend the empire from the northern threat. Unfortunately, time is something we have little of.

Chaos up!

PS: Sorry for the delay. Also, all my battles this turn were vs the AI, and there were a LOT of them. Are screenshots necessary? Making 10+ of those gets kinda tedious, but if you want them I can make them.

[Mergor]

so what, did the orcs turn rebel?

[AdmiralThrawn]

Yeah, they are all rebels now. I believe this means they won't move/attack (though we should know for certain at the end of my next turn). I'm sending some men to retake the great dwarf holds in the World's Edge Mountains, since their wealth will aid us greatly in the coming war. Other than that, though, everything I have is coming north.

[General Dragon.]

Reikland up!
https://www.sendspace.com/file/b9ae4r

The legions of Chaos pushes even further into the Empire Lands with Archaon now coordinating the Chaos forces.
https://imgur.com/a/OQ8rGda

[paladinbob123]

bump

[Mergor]

I am aware, its just hard to pre coordinate everyone's armies Done buy the end of the week

[Mergor]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...senland_39.sav

[Ramble12]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c0b...ew?usp=sharing

Middenland

Turn sent to the new player

[Ramble12]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jg8...ew?usp=sharing

Nordland

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BE8...ew?usp=sharing,
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uRR...ew?usp=sharing

[Captain Melon]

Ostland

[paladinbob123]

The count elect of Valmir was slumped in a chair of the best manorhouse within the city of Fortenhef, his beard had grown long and white, his limbs trembled with age, his face, drawn , weatherworn, crinkled with lines of worry, with a large liverspot appearing on the side of his face. He drew his hand back , taking another swing of vodka, before , spitting most of it out, disgusted at the current level of alcohol that was being made in this new country, which the people
have carved out a stake in.

The door burst open as the old but still strong firm form of Leopold von Raukov in near full armour kicked open the door, with his familiar pleasantries, marching up to Valmir , his one eye [the other was patched] still shining with fervour and delight for action. Taking a knee before his count in salute of his position ,before slowly rising and marching to the side of his chair and whispering into the old mans ear.

"what did you say?", said Valmir, his old face suddenly becoming animated, turning his face to look directly at the grandmaster of the bull.

"The Emperor calls for action, Valmir!", said the grandmaster, "Aldebrand of Hochland has been surrounded by the force of Chaos who have sallied forth from Kislev!", he finished with a wild grin.

"The emperor calls? ", said Valmir spitting on the floor on front of him , "pfah!" ,he finished, thinking of the sacrifices he and his people had suffered.

"Come now Cousin!", said the grandmaster, "When have you ever shirked from a fight? Particularly one where a friend and ally is in need?"

Valmir took a deep draft of the vodka before hurling the goblet away in the room , using the fire that drove into his body, to fire his wobbling arms to lift himself up from the chair. Wobbling he took a few tentive steps forward, his knee popping as they began to move again. A little on the way to the door, his left leg began to fail him, and nearly falling , he was caught by his his cousin, who caught the movement before it fully begun, grabbing the oldman with still firm hands, keeping him stable. Then with a hand of his shoulder the two old men , departed the manorhouse .

Outside all was in movement, as the dwarfven company was preparing to leave, gathering gear , weapons and armour for a quick march, whilst the grandmaster's & Valmir's bodyguard were saddling horses , and readying their horses in preparation. When the two old men , made their exit from the manorhouse, there was some jubilation seeing the count elect, stumbling his way, forward, and his white mount was brought out of the stable , where it long had been held. The horse was bought down in the courtyard, where the count elect and his cousin hobbled out to , as two of valmirs bodyguard bought the horse close.

Once the horse was close, Vilmar waved off his cousins help and hobbled the last few steps to his horse, rubbing it down on the side of its head, running his hands over its face, greeting his friend, that had seen his though many battles and kept them both alive. The horse lifted his head in delight, at a chance of a ride out in the countryside , particularly after being stabled for so long. Seeing the eagerness of his mount, the old man patted the horse on the side of neck and whispered to it .

"One more ride to battle.... ,one more campaign then ...old friend before we are both put out to pasture", before calling for assistance to be lifted onto his horse, where he took hold of the reigns and using his knees , the horse and rider, became as one,the experience of both rider and horse clear to all, in that smooth motion, turning quickly as he rode towards the leader of the dwarfven company, and leopold who likewise had mounted his horse.

"Has the main force marched out?" he asked Leopold

"Wolfgang, your son.......received the message from the empire , a week before us, ..even now, his forces near the talabec river, to ford your forces across.....We will however,.... will have to ride hard and fast around to the east, to bypass the river, and hit the chaos forces in the flank."said the grandmaster , as he adjusted himself on his horse.

"...and you Uthogrut Beardigger" , said the count turning his head to a dwarfven company commander who was in a pose of ease, leaning on his grandaxe, "we shall have to ride fast to make this battle....can your dwarfs keepup?"

" Aye, laddie, we shall more than keepup...", said the dwarf nodding, and then pointing at the horses, " you might have a headstart with those beasties....but they too have to rest...and whilst you rest em..we shall be catching you up and making past you.....You might as well ask, ..will you keep up with us, and make the battle?"

The dwarf grinned at the old lord, and muttered something about hummies always arriving late, as he turned and joined his fellow dwarfs as they stood ready to move out.

"then let us depart then!", said the oldlord, nodding to the grandmaster, who still had a startlingly loud voice, shouted at the column of troops to move out.

-----------------

The battle was already in play when Wolfgang arrived with the main ostland army which mainly consisted of the golden clad mercenary troops whose front vanguard charged into battle taking full use of the surprise of their arrival. Apparently the chaos troops had surrounded the town and wasted little time, weakening a area of the wall keeping up a skirmish heavy battle in play, some-days they had arrived in force, contesting the breachpoint, slowly wearing down the men of Hochland, who had suffered badly particularly against the slaanesh daemonettes and bloodletters who could take some damage in melee, killing many of the human troops before withdrawing and healing up before doing the same again.

It was in the midst of one such raid , when the main golden troops arrived, and wolfgang seeing the situation broke part of the siege lines, killing a few companies of heretics, who stood little chance against the experienced golden clad army group which hacked and stabbed its way into the battle clearing a line of communication to the forces of hochland. Seeing a near full army group fielded by Ostland, the men of hochland ,morale surged, and men redoubled their efforts to hold the breachpoint ,seeing a possible hope for life and the future much to the fury of the demons, who had been seeking easy prey and taking delight in their fear.

Mounted daemonettes however arrived soon after the ostland push, as the ostlanders army formed up a battleline outside the city with oneside anchoring themselfs against the city walls, but by this time of deployment had given time by their mounted troops screening the battlefield to ready themselfs, as maraunders and chaos warriors had formed up a roughline of their own , and the two sides fell upon it each other with abandonment, and hate.



The goldern regiments , adopted a phalanx formation with interlocked shields, bearing the brunt of the combat, buying time for something...anything to happen, for despite the early surprise , they had not the numbers to flank the enemy or the time to make special attacks. The forces of hochland however, waited for no such providence, and the besieged men, swarmed out of the breachpoint attacking the suddenly stunned, daemonettes and bloodletters, attacking with incredible furiosity , seeing perhaps this was their last chance against defeating the foe in front of them , perhaps for the last time. Bloodletters and daemonettes had incredible unhuman strenght, but when overwhelmed by hundreds of men to their tens of numbers, it quickly became a battle of attrition. Bloodletters swung their massive axes, killing a man there or bisecting a man there, before another empire trooper would appear jumping on their back, sliding their blade in. That pest would be plucked or crushed only to have another three or more men appear, stabbing halberds into their form.

Slowly by blood and by sacrifice, the demons fell, but at a massive cost for hochland, their strenght exhausted , didnt have the energy nor competent manpower to exploit the win at the breach ,whilst the main battleline in the field, continued on. it was into this mess of a battlefield that two oldmen arrived , bodyguards at their backs and a host of dwarfs, charging out of the east, slamming into the chaos open left flank.

-----------

Valmir yelled for joy , his sword arm aching from overuse, as he hit out,as his horse ran on by, bisecting another head, from its body of a chaos cultist. It sailed upwards in a spray of blood, that covered all nearby as its body sunk to the ground. Strike after strike thundered into the flank of the chaos army as the cavalry under his and the grandmaster performed circle charge after circle charge on the open chaos flank , tearing away sizable quantities of the heretic manpower. The dwarfs under their enterprising commander, moved further behind the chaos lines, spreadout into a three deep line and then with shouts and oaths , they lifted hammers and axes high ,before charging into the rear of a chosen chaos warrior unit which was deep in battle against the golden clad mercenaries.


Hammers swung, axes cleaved , and even against the mighty armour of the chaos warriors , the dwarfven attack bit deep, felling more than a few of the chaos warriers in the intial charge before they knew they were there.The heretics on the far left flank, being sliced to pieces from the cavalry , seeing chaos warriors falling to their right ,was probably the turning point, seeing those giant behemoths of battle, falling, proved perhaps the weakness of chaos faith at that moment, and seeing no hope or victory, they began to break from the battlefield.


The left flank of the chaos army began to disintegrate, with all the routs that where occurring there but the chaos warriors in the centre, held their own, as the golden clad warriors couldnt break them but they began to enfold and partly flank those areas of resistance.

"Keep back old man! ...You cant fall today!" , yelled the grandmaster, his armour now red, with gore, hs face lit up with delight at the song of battle that was within him.

"fekk you" , replied back Valmir ,killing another heretic who was trying his damndest to flee, and falling to a slash from valmirs sword on his back, before there was a clatter on his armour as a heretics thrown dagger rebounded from his back , both startling the count . The sudden fright of a unknown attack, his body started to lose its adrenaline that had kept him in the fight, and he faltered on his horse, but with a great effort of will, he kept his seat, and stabbed the heretic in the neck, " Perhaps you have a point" , as Valmir turned his horse sideways and moving out of the main combat knowing his limit had arrived ,and it was best to keep the morale of his troops high with his life in safety.

Hochland troops had rerallied by this time, and surged again out of the breachpoint , tearing up into the chaos rightflank, the chaos warriors were still holding firm but seeing their right and left flanks collapsing around them saw a possible trap being formed and decided to fight a withdrawal to the north, as the rest of the heretics broke and ran. The golden clad mercenaries held back at the sound of the wardrums changing tunes, as the pursuit was left to the mounted troops.
The cavalry followed the chaos army as it ran, hacking and slashing at those that began to lag behind , lancers pierced enemy troopers from behind, swords slashed down killing those with backs to them, and the warhorses trampled those too slow or too tired, as the chaos warriors finally broke and fled the field , with all pretense of a orderly withdrawal collapsing, as the chaos army was wilted down , every league they retreated the chaos army was depleted a little more, as they bled piece by piece until they finally reached the river, and the survivors embarked onto the chaos shipping on the river, as the mounted ostland troops looked on.



"Onwards to Kislev", rumbled the words of Grandmaster Leopold under his breath, seeing the giant city with its clear domed spire roofs shining in the sunlight ,across the river, well within their grasp , perhaps the ultimate prize, that Ostland could take, with its wealth & manpower that would even solve their dire situation.



Turn to Talabecland.

[paladinbob123]

Count Sigismund got the order from the emperor to return to pooling of troops around the fortress of ertburg , but with the forces of Chaos taking both the cities of wandergart and wurzen , he now had both threat and opportunity on his border . Both cities had been stormed by large forces of Chaos , smashing the meager forces of ostland that previously controlled held them , Sigismund knew that both were within the range of his attacks especially with a near full army group and a cannon company within his ranks.

The aide de camp looked at the count elect,sighed to himself , for he knew what his lord would do and how he would react to such a chance to blunt the forces of chaos, particularly when the budget to cover the forces was losing his treasury more money than he could afford to payout, and that losing some of his forces for a victory would be a double win for the lord.

"lets attack!" , piped up Sigismund leaning over the map in the war leaders tent, and nobody at the map table was surprised at the words, one person even yawned with the predictability of his words.

"I have already rerouted the shipping to ferry the army across" , said one of the aides.

"Provisions have been assembled ready for transport to the ships, and reinforcements are just now arriving to replace losses from last season" , said another.

Sigismund looked around at his staff, who all grinned back , as they had been so efficient not only in predicting their lords will, but in making preparations for it to happen.

"Well then...", said Sigismund , "Prepare the army for a crossing! ,..and lets kill some chaos scum!"

----------------

Lord Stenger of the warhost of Chaos looked over the imperial troops making a crossing of the river talabec from the walls of Wurzen , contemptuous of their efforts, content with the superiority of his forces. With a full warhost at his back its ranks filled with chaos warriors and a hell cannon ,with only a fifth of his host maraunders, his position was very strong. He had been given the position to pushsouth to control the banks of the northern bank of the river talabec and to help take the two remaining ostlander cities which had both now fallen , the remaining populace pitifully asking for mercy, which hadnt been given, for their was no mercy for the weak.

One of the senior chaos warriors spoke to Stenger asking him to strke down their enemy now ,whilst they were unloading their troops and disembarking , but Stenger was quick to point out the lords army commander had been wise, for they had disembarked their cavalry first, which provided screening for the movement. Also behind them , engineers now dug points to make a defensive wall , their troops could resist any attack from ,whilst the disembarkation continued.

Stenger was annoyed as the other warriors were of course, trained and augmented in service to the lords of chaos , his blood hungered for war, for a a release to show his enemy his power, and bring them pain and suffering, but equally he had been belittled, in being asked to attack the flank of the main attack , and not given the honour to join the main frontal attack against the heart of the empire. But this anger did not override his contempt for the weak pitiful armies of the empire and he turned away from the walls of the city, thinking little of the empire troops and any effort they might try.

---------------

It had only been a week since the river crossing but the men of the empire worked swiftly, spies and informers who had escaped from the city, told the attackers of the quality of the cities defenders, and Count Sigismund , although eager to attack , was not one for rushing into a fight until he knew he could win. The city was surrounded , and trenches were dug, providing the siegers with some defences. Every day it seemed, the men of Talabecland , moved to improve their positions, woodcutters and the engineer companies worked in double shifts and some experienced troops oversaw empire military companies to act as temporary engineering companies , as the work piled up. Firstly minor defences were builtup with small towers, small anti personnel defences where built into the banks of the trenches, making a truly significant defence against any of the chaos warriors , if they choose to sally out and attack ,but then the cannon company they had bought with them did its work. The cannons were placed on a builtup of earthworks giving them complete range of the enemy walls, where they proceeded to smash walls, towers, and any concentration of chaos troops they observed within the city, keeping up a bombardment with regularity, much to the forces within the cities annoyance. Supplies were transported at regular intervals ,keeping the cannon well stocked with ammunition, so that regular fire , could be maintained , and the guns fired at least four hours everyday , with a day off for maintenance after three days of fire.

After the third week, the siegers advanced things, storming the first breachpoint, during the night, but instead of exploiting the breachpoint they had captured , they fortified it, buildings and alleyways became blocked with obstacles, archer positions, for snipers and longbowmen were placed with defences giving them full scope to snipe into the city, and then the cannons was moved forward into the city, installing them , on a levelled out building , on secure footing.

After that Count Sigismund ordered the cannon to smash any buildings with chaos warrior concentrations in, smashing any buildup of their forces, this was helped by the children of the city, long since , hiding out in the sewers ,who only surfaced to find out where the chaos warriors were, before they disappeared, only to surface again to provide the men of talabecland the information they desired. Such children were named the gutter slinkers brigade, and were honorably rewarded with hot food , taken from the armies stores in thanks for their efforts.

--------------------

Stenger was raging inside, unprepared for this type of fighting, of this sneaking in , buildingup defences, and then shooting the hell of out his forces, but everytime he looked for a advantage for a fair fight which he knew his troops could win at , none was available. These imperial troops didnt fight like warriors they fought like badgers, occupying a area, fortifying it , biting off chunks of the city, and then waiting for him to walk into their advantages. Perhaps , he thought..perhaps if they still had the hell cannon..but that had been lost on the second night, after the imperials troops had entered the city. A sudden night attack had occured with a sucide squad of imperial troops had sneaked into their lines, some of them had carried barrels which they deposited under the cannon, and although spotted they had detonated the barrels of black powder with desperate shouts of "The emperor protects" before the cannon and its nearby crew, had all been destroyed in the blast. Even the mystical forces controlled in the cannon raged uncontrollably for weeks afterwards, causing mutations and casualties amongst his own troops.

The first few times, he let his troops attack the imperial positions, his chaos warriors charged at the talabecland bulwarks, but it was a bloody disaster. Long before his troops got close to the defenses they took fire from the cannons they had elevated , which fired off, well placed shots into their ranks with exploding ammunition, which exploded in the air, raining down steel splinters, which took legs, arms, or even heads of their advancing troops. Even chaos warriors fell from near misses from this fire, making many of them , certainly less enthusiastic for frontal charges. Then when they got close, there where the traps and defences, metal spiked caltrops , scattered across the ground, with bear traps, grenades with string cords to detonate them , which detonated when the warrirors pasted. There were areas soaked in oil , lit up from fire arrows, spiked javelin grouped together on wooden boards which flicking down from inside the buildings , it was incredible , stenger thought , about the number and variety of devices they had created. The would of course not stop a complete chaos warrior charge, but then as they reached the talabecland main line , with walls, spikes in the floor, gunners , crossbowmen and longobwmen all opened fire ,on all the main routes to the enemy battleline , all wore down his troops bit by bit. One charge nearby tore down a section of wall , that the talabecland engineers had put up ,which would possibly openup a full allout charge on the talabecland positions, before all that could occur, those chaos warriors involved had been hit by the imperial cannon. It had lowered the firing position from its elevated standing , firing a sequence of small metal balls in a spray, and the-se made mincemeat of all those warriors that were making a difference. Fired at high velocity, the small metal balls, either had the power to break armour or at the very least, break a persons bones, within the armour.



Frustration mounted within his troops, as food, and water had been cutoff, tempers were lost as his own warriors, not the most stable at most times to obeying orders, turned on each other, in the hunt for those that had food, and it took severe differently in keeping his warriors, to remember that the enemy was those that had trapped him and his men within the walls.

-----

It took over a month for the end to come, as the talabecland forces, took the city back inch by inch, as they bit out each area of the city in systematic battles, and apart from a near run thing when some of the chaos warriors managed to reach the cannon team , forcing many of them to hand to hand combat, where luckily the snipers had felled their opponents, before all of the engineers had been killed. Such a thing thou was generally a rarity as this battle progressed in talabeclands favor, as the chaos troops had finally been penned into one last area of the city. This small area, was heavily populated by chaos warriors and it was deemed that to finish them in melee would cause many casualties. Instead they were walled up, and contained, whilst engineer companies dug under their position, digging a mass of mining operations under their position ,with explosives, which were readied to be ignited, leaving the whole area to be detonated from safety, and destroying a whole area of the city in a giant explosion of dust,stone and timber, whilst taking out their opponents at the same time.



Count Sigismund looked at the devastation of the enemy chaos army with approval, one more chaos army with its hell cannon gone, he grimly nodded at the high butchers bill he had to pay losing a third of his force, but the deed was done ,with near two thousand chaos fighters dead. Ash and dust covered many of the walls,in the aftermath of the giant explosion and more than a few of the talabecland troopers coughed and spluttered in the dust in the air,as they looked at the giant crater within the city, but scouts were sent out just to make sure none of the chaos warriors had survived the blast.



-----------------

It was the next day , when Count Sigismund ordered the withdrawal , no time was to be spent in dismantling the defences, the young children of the sewers[those that could be found] were allowed to move-out with the army, as it moved to retreat south of the river, the raid complete on the chaos attack line flank. Yes , this siege had shown perhaps ,the better grasp , that some of the human races had of war, where engineering proved better than the augmented forces of chaos, where shear thinking power, and the strength of the defence, the use of high explosives have proven their value over, the corruption of chaos......Chaos perishes against order....So should it be....the emperor protects , Sigismund murmured under his breath, as he took one more look at the devastated city, before he turned away , his eyes looking south as he returned home.

turn to League of Ostermark&stirland tommorow

[paladinbob123]

With the forces of Ostland fighting for survival in the east, and the forces of talabecland conducting raids along the central plains near the talabec river , the league of ostermark and stirland took over the intelligence gathering duties as the chaos efforts pushed steadly ever westwards, making no secret now of there advance on the capital of reikland, and the empire, Altdorf. The chaos forces had broken off into to two great columns of chaos armies which trampled over any resistance in their path. The northern branch of this chaos march , now was but a few leagues from the hochland city of Krudenwald, which lay all but deserted apart from a lone few companies of troops and peoples who couldnt bear to leave or couldnt accept the currrent path of events. The southern attacking army of chaos had just smashed the fortress of Schippel and the town of Gyurden which both lay in ruins as the chaos armies camped for the winter and the armies to congregate together before moving onwards whilst they had sport with the surviving imperial populace that remained.



But there was hope, against oblivion, as Reikland under the emperor himself, prepared the main stay of his armies south of the great river Talabec, near the town of Volgen , with the forces of the southern forces of Wissenheim with the winter knights within their ranks . On the western reaches near the city of Delberz , the forces of middenheim and middenland gathered their strenght , as the forces of the empire prepared themself for the very existence of the empire against the might of chaos , who sought to bring a end to the ages of man.


{ Red - Chaos main lines of attack..., Black - forces of the emperor, Grey - forces of Wissenheim , Blue - forces of Middenland&Middenheim }



There was some sighting of a few loose chaos armies in the north of what was ostland, but of news of nordland, there was none, as all knowledge and lines of communication had been severed from the south , and so none here knew of their fate, but there was news of success, as Averland bought the campaign in the south, to the end, severing communication from the orcish homeland. The waaaargh in complete disarray random loose disconnected armes roamed the lands, acting on their own interests as seperate tribes with no cohesive thoughts or ambition, given some time for the now desperate forces of the empire to receive reinforcements from the forces of averland as they hurried north , but wether they would arrive in time, was in doubt,as they had some distance to travel. Some areas in the centre and south were more dangerous to travel than others, such as the area around Kiel, which had three orkish armies completing for the rich land, which the empire could'nt contest against such power, as all of its might was bent towards the forces of chaos.

Turn to averland
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o57ass5i66...nd_39.sav?dl=0

[AdmiralThrawn]

With the threat of Chaos raging, the armies of Averland pour north to meet the foe. With a vast and unassailable economy at their back, the goal now should be to halt and contain the Chaos invaders. They have over-stretched their supply lines and are vulnerable to encirclement. Every turn we can delay a new army marches north from Averland. Good luck!

Orcs up!
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...T_Chaos_39.sav

[paladinbob123]

bump

[General Dragon.]

Apologies for the lateness. Reikland up!
https://www.sendspace.com/file/0h76ax

Further Chaos pushes and the Famous City of Middenheim now burns in the fires of the Ruinous powers!
https://imgur.com/a/UjrzRAz

[paladinbob123]

bump

[Mergor]

Done before new year

[Mergor]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...senland_40.sav

The Chaos horde is closer and closer to Altdorf... Here, the Empire must make it's stand!