Blood in the Badlands. Game 9. It's so strange that Autumn is so beautiful yet everything is dying.

A stiff wind blowing from the north roused Grendeff the Slaughter Master from his reverie and he glanced up towards the sky.

The stifling Summer had passed and Autumn approached.

Soon 'Geheimnisnacht', 'Twilights Tide' would occur and all knew when Morrslieb hangs full in the sky it can only bring ill will and more blood to the war-torn Badlands.

Their Orc 'ally' had called for aid and now Grendeff found himself trudging across the Badlands to his aid.

Maybe he could succeed against the Fey Folk where Captain Guthook had failed? Could this be his moment of ascension?

This Sunday saw the four generals of the Badlands campaign once again converge in Lano's garage to contest the Badlands.

With Phil's Skaven assaulting Ekrund (controlled by Lee's Orcs) it was decided that Lano and I would fight it out.

2000 points (plus 300 points extra for me) were deployed.

With the sun setting into their eyes the Ogres march forward into a hail of arrows!

As my Ogre Bulls crest the hill they are decimated by the Bolt Throwers they have been sent to destroy!

My new unit of 'Maneaters' recover from the shock of being peppered with arrows in the first turn and return to the fight. I decide to tuck them in behind the Leadbelchers as I have a cunning plan for them.

This game I am having a nightmare with the die rolls and I have yet to cast more then one successful spell. The only thing keeping me in the game is the fact that Lano is rolling just as bad for his three Bolt Throwers!

I am finally in a position to make a big dent in the Elf forces but apart from a flame attack on the Elf archers I fail to make any kind of impact on the Elves.

The Elf arches rally and I fail to make a charge on the Elf Bolt Throwers with my Ironguts.

My Fire belly gobbles down his 'Hellheart' but once again I am an inch out on my roll.

The only good news is 'Carlos and his Jackals' finally get into range and 'snipe' out the Elven BSB! I will need to think harder about how I effectively employ this technique much earlier in the game.

The 'sniping' of the Elven BSB is small comfort as the majority of my forces are within close range of the Elven shooting and Lano finally gets his eye in and DECIMATES my forces!!

Truth be told this should have happened much sooner and Lano pretty much deserved the win from the off!

I REALLY miss my ogres being the 'bogey' army of the Elves! ;0(

Over at Ekrund the Skaven lined up in force to assault the Orc stronghold.

The Skaven use their nice shiny, new, battering ram to assault the gates.

The Skaven bell also adds to the chaos.

The Orc forces valiantly try to hold the walls while they wait for relief from the rest of Lee's army!

The walls are breached and the Skaven forces begin rampaging along the walls.

So far Lee's relief forces had missed their reinforcement roll by one every turn!

Without the arrival of their relief forces, the undermanned garrison is soon over run and Skaven pennants can now be seen flying from the towers of Ekrund!

My run of poor luck rolls over into the post game rolls and my Slaughter Master army scatters to the four winds and will not be able to muster a new force until next season!

Phil also makes a land grab on one of my territories thanks to a random event roll. To add salt to the wound one of my mines also collapsed !

Can't lie. I have had better days in the Badlands ;0)

Here is the map as it stands in week nine.