Blood in the Badlands. Game four. The battle of Mount Bloodhorn.

Being four weeks into the 'Blood in the Badlands' campaign it was time to play the spring specific  scenario to close out the season.

This would be the 'Siege of Mount Bloodhorn'.

Take a seat, this one is going to be a bit of an epic!

This battle report is going to be a bit choppy as it will flash between the two simultaneous battles.

Lee (my ally) would assault Mount Bloodhorn's, Castle Ekrund, held my Lano's High Elves.

Phil's Skaven (Lano's ally) would be holding the 'Stonemine bridge' in an attempt to stop my column of reinforcements joining the Ork assault. 

If Phil managed to see me off, his surviving forces would race to relieve the besieged Elves!!

This would be a race against the clock for Phil and I!

Phil sets up within 8" of the bridge and I set up at least 20" away from his forces.

Phil places his Jezzels on the bridge and uses the rest of his forces to block access to the bridge.

I decide to use my Firebelly as a fireball cannon and will use my leadbelchers (shielded by my Gnobblars) to blast away at his battle bus.

The calm before the storm!

Over on the main table Lee's three thousand points of Orks breaks camp and moves forward to assault the castle!

Lano's 'starvation' casualties are crippling!

I thought Elves lived on lettuce leaves and morning dew. . . . . apparently not ;0)

 The Elves steel themselves for the coming of the storm!

I sort of imagine this playing in the background . . . . .

The Orks march forward wondering which army (if any) will appear at their rear.

The Elven casualties start to rise and one of their precious bolt throwers is destroyed. . . .

The first of the Ork underminers successfully collapse a section of the castle walls!

Back at the bride my Firebelly casts it's first fireball and REALLY wants it to go off!!
 

Unfortunately I then roll only two wounds. . . . both of which fail to wound!!

Then my Firebelly loses all his wizard levels. Luckily he still has a couple of surprises up his sleeves!

On the main table the siege towers make it to the walls!

At the bridge Phil commits his Storm Vermin and Rat Ogres against my Tyrant and Ironguts.

Apparently Phil has been waking up in the night smiling to himself about what his Fell blade armed, hero is going to do to my Tyrant and issues a challenge!!

To Phils horror my Tyrant is armed with the 'swords of swift slaying' and therefore has the 'always strikes first' special rule. . . . . it does not go well for the Skaven hero!!!!!!!  ;0)

To add insult to injury my Butcher gobbles down his 'Hell heart'' and causes the Grey Seer to miscast. The following magical detonation causes the death of 14 storm vermin!

Back at Castle Ekrund the Goblin arachnid scales the castle walls [The siege of Helms Deep has nothing on this game! ;0)].

Somehow back at the bridge I manage to see off the Rat ogres and the Skaven battle bus is decimated!

Then one of my Sabretusks manages to line up a charge on the fleeing Rat ogres and runs then from the field!

Yep that's a lot of casualties below!!

Regardless who wins this battle the relieving forces are going to be negligible!

With my left flank wide open I make a break for the bridge with my Mournfangs.

Mostly to silence the poxy Skaven catapult which has not missed a bloody shot yet!

Thanks to the 'ice breath' from the Irongut banner I manage to whittle the Skaven battle bus down even further!

Lacking any Skaven to push it, it is now immobile!

My Ogre Bulls recover from the shock of being hit by the Skaven catapult and return to the battle.

Back at Ekrund castle the Elves are forced to rush reinforcements to the walls cleared by the rampaging Orks!

Both Lee and Lano cast furtive glances towards our table in the hope of immediate relief!

As seen in the background of the photo below, casualties from both sides are sky rocketing!

Not understanding the random movement of the Skaven abomination I leave my surviving Ironguts open to a devastating flank charge!

Once again the advange swings and the battle remains balanced on a knifes edge!

More Orks stream onto the walls to stop any of the Elven relief forces.

Lano fails to enfilade the Orks with his bolt thrower and uses language not suited for Elven ears ;0)

Back at the bridge the abomination rips through my Gnobblars and crashes into my surviving Ironguts!

This shock attack finally swings the stalemate and my Tyrant flees from the fight. . . . My flee roll causes my unit to JUST clip the table edge and flee from the battlefield!

The exhausted remnants of both forces stare at each other across the deserted battle field but this isn't over yet!

My Firebelly decides to hunt down the abomination on his own while the Leadbelchers rush towards the bridge!

The Skaven BSB desperately rushes out of his unit to stop them. . . .

With my 'Ruby ring of ruin' disintegrating last turn I make the lethal error of deciding to charge the abomination with my Firebelly rather then just sit back and use my 'breath attack'.

I figured he could weather the storm and cause additional damage with his flame attacks. Unfortunately he would not survive the initial Abomination assault!

At this point I made another devastating mistake when I decided to stop the Grey Seer casting 'scorch' but forgot he still had 'Cracks call' up his sleeve!!

Phil got Cracks call off with room to spare and completly enfiladed my Leadbelchers and Gnobblars!

This completely wiped out my Leadbelchers and caused the surviving Gnobblars to flee from the field!!!!!

Once again the battle balanced on a knifes edge!

At the castle, the slaughter continued with Lee now being forced to keep back his 'fanatic' bearing Gobbo's in case a relief force of Skaven were to suddenly appear from the bridge.

At this point an unknown Elf mage decided this was his time to shine and stormed into the fray to cause carnage, pulling down the Goblin General.

On both tables the battles were finely balanced with both battles still up for grabs!

Possibly inspired by the unknown Elf mage the Skaven engineer tries to single handily stop the last of the Ogre relief forces . . . . . .

This does not go well ;0). . . .

But it allows the Abomination to try for a charge. . . but Phil rolls short much to my relief!!

The Orks have once again gained the ascendancy and stop the Eleven rally in its tracks!

The victory goes to the Orks!!!!!

Not knowing this, the relief forces desperately continue to try to break the dead lock.

My Mournfangs FINALLY get to grips with the Skaven Catapult and rip the crew to pieces to silence the bloody thing!

My Orge Bulls can only reform and staredown the approaching Abomination!

Back at the castle the surviving Orks stare over the deserted battlefield!

Casualites on both sides were horrific and contest to both the verve the battle was fought with as well as the closeness of the battle!

Yep thats all casualties!

Back at the bridge the casualties are just as bad with my 6 Ogres and the Skaven Abomination and Grey Seer (and some rats) being the only survivors!

So much for a relief force.

Thats a LOT of dead Ogres!

Same goes for the Skaven!

All four of us decided we needed a sit down and a cup of tea after this one and I was personally drained when the final whistle went!

Here is the map as it currently stands at the end of the Spring season.

Phil's Skaven = Red, Barbarians = Black, My Ogres = Yellow, Lee's Orcs = Green, Lano's Elves = Blue

Next week kicks off the Summer season. . . . . . .Can't wait!