Border Princes: Turns 18 and 19

There is little as satisfying in wargaming than outthinking and outmaneuvering your opponent. Map campaigns allow for this on a much larger scale than one-off battles that exist solely on a gaming table. Unfolding dastardly plans over the course of weeks as your enemy can only guess at your goal is the ultimate rank and flank experience. Real general shit, sitting in the dim lighting of my office as I stroke my beard and plot. This is what I wanted to share with my friends by running and writing about the Border Princes and turn 18 sees it all come to fruition.

While the Covenant of Blood and Gnawing Hunger held their frontlines and reinforced them, the Crimson Host of Maltherion and the Barrow Legion marched to war. The Crimson Host's forces were prepared to engage in multiple battles across the border between the two factions, but the front the Barrow Legion showed was a ruse; a feint. Their northern army withdrew to a supporting position while the forces that had surrounded the Skaven maneuvered to support the Old Silk Road. Here, the banner that had swelled its ranks with the dead Ratmen marched to war against the unsuspecting Dark Elves. 

At the gates of Malko, 9 armies battle for control of the Old Silk Road.

Crimson Host of Maltherion - +300 points from 2 supporting banners
The Barrow Legion - +900 points from 5 supporting banners and the Vampire Counts army trait.

Dark Elves start the game defending from a massacre.

The Crimson Host of Maltherion (and Alex himself) accepted their fate with honor and tenacity. The game was uphill the entire time but Alex used every trick he had to forestall the inevitable, including keeping my ghoul king on bat dragon shaken during some critical turns. A few good decisions saved his Dark Elves from being tabled, but in the end they were massacred. 

Another of the many changes in AoF:R 3.5 is a very solid buff to artillery, so I took two Mummified Undead skull catapults to see how they felt. Now the artillery rule gives a unit +1 to attack rolls against targets more than 9" away. Many armies have Q5+ artillery that was of questionable usefulness considering their abysmal hit rate and inability to move. Hitting on a 4+ felt powerful and brought their damage up a lot. The Mummified Undead rule adds 3" to their range so I was shooting out to a very comfortable 39". That's some Warhammer 40k shit and it made their lack of mobility almost irrelevant. They have a 25 point upgrade that allows them to make an enemy unit within 18" count as being in difficult terrain; that should lead to a big increase in their survivability and utility. My dice were definitely hot when firing so I want a few more games with them before I decide if they are 'good' or 'fucked up'.

The Barrow Legion's ranks grew with a new banner spawning. The Dark Elf banner respawned at their fortress, embarrassed but ready to reinforce their front lines, and we were on to turn 19!

The Covenant of Blood, desperate to hold onto their hard fought land, made some expansions on the edge of the Border Princes. Their incursion into the realm of the Skaven seems to have gotten some attention!

The forces of the Gnawing Hunger shuffled west to defend their borders from Chaos and maintain vigilance against the Barrow Legion.

Stunned by the second massacre against the Barrow Legion in as many confrontations, the Crimson Host of Maltherion fortifies their borders and gets ready for a long winter. 

The Barrow Legion pushed forward to expand their front line after routing their foes. With the Gnawing Hunger contained, they turn their sights to the worshippers of Khorne. The Legion's necromancers have grown sick of reanimating corpses only to discover the skulls have been stolen to decorate a silly throne! Their new banners from recent conquests scoured the edges of their domain for easy conquests before snow falls and war cannot be made until spring.

One turn remains and it seems the foul creations of Undeath will reign supreme!