Breakthrough!

The other day more troops for my Empire army rolled of the production line; the first two regiments of Horse - Pistoliers and knights of the White Wolf , and some reinforcements for the infantry and artillery. The guns were brand new, the rest had been waiting for attention for quite a while, and included some of the first figures I bought for my Empire Army...some twenty -odd years ago!  There are still a few more units to paint- Knights of the Blazing Sun, Knights Panther, a Steam Tank, and a few more heroes, but it felt like a milestone of sorts had been reached, which could mean only three things: First, a celebratory cuppa. Secondly, some pics should be taken, and thirdly, the Empire must go to war!  A challenge was laid down, and Chris foolishly accepted !

Pistoliers and knights of the White Wolf- the Pistoliers Standard has to
set some kind of record for longest time taken over the simplest conversion:
the  pistol was cut to make way for the staff 20 years ago. The staff was added
last week!

The entire force arrayed

 So, to war!  We agreed to play a 2500 point game, with no special characters. Scenario selected on the night was Breakthrough, with me attacking, and we rolled 5 turns.

 I wanted to fit in as many of my painted units as possible, so I chose all of them , and then worked out what heroes I could have with my remaining points. I ended up with the following:

Captain-General von Drakmoor w/ Runefang, Armour of Fortune, pistol, barded warhorse.
Sergeant-at-arms Owen Grimace ;  Battle standard w/ Warbanner, heavy armour, pistol, barded warhorse
Hildegard, Archsorceress of the Menificent Order of the Umpth Wuncicle: wizard, level 3, warhorse.
Knights of the White Wolf ,5 inc Standard bearer w/ Standard of Shielding, Champion w/ Jade Amulet.
The Nordreik Horse; 9 Pistoliers, inc standard.
The Werberg Regt. of Foot: 25 halberdiers, inc standard, musician and champion
The Innleigh Guard: 15 halberdiers, inc standard, musician and champion
Freikorps,  16 inc musician (count as halberdiers)
The Soerheim Company of Archers, 21 inc standard.
The Froddasheim Greatswords, 12 inc standard, musician and champion.
Borther Stumptickles Company; 18 dwarf crossbows, inc standard and musician.
2 greatcannons
1 mortar
1 hellblaster

The Chaos Horde deploys whilst its commander contemplates his
'blurred hands' mutation.

 The Chaos Horde (all 37 of them !) consisted of
A lord of Slannesh on chariot  (the big palanquin thing)
a daemon prince
two units of 10 warriors
5 knights
10 horsemen

The chaos force was deployed across the road to Hargendorf, covering their brethren in the siege lines encircling that town. Von Drakmoor has been tasked with breaking through , and raising the siege!

The first turn was awfully dull. Von Drakmoor ordered a general advance, but none of the artillery found it's mark. The Chaos force retreated slightly. Magic played little part, but the Nordreik Horse caught some sort of pox that made it hard to walk !

Encouraged by the lack of inappropriate behaviour from the frottage squad the Imperial advance continued, the artillery finding the range and sending the marauder horse flying from the field. Archsorceress Hildegard spurred her horse forward and hurled a fireball at the chaos knights. To a cry of "I'm not wasting a dispel on a power 1 spell!" all but one of the regiment was immolated!

In retaliation a large pink daemon prince dropped from the sky in front of her, keen to avenge the fallen and find out what a Wuncicle was when it was at home; distracting the giant pervert with a well timed "look; behind you !" the Archsorceress rode safely away, and the Imperial line wavered, but held firm under their commanders eye !

That'll be Terror tests all round then?

 The great cannons roared, their shot tearing the Princely One asunder, but it was able to Escape! and staggered back on to the battlefield to general dismay!  The Chaos Lord rode in to the fray, scattering the Soerheim Archers, shrugging off  their attempts to slow it down!

chap with wings, five rounds rapid!

 The hedonistic headcase rode on in to the Innleigh Guard, but received a flank charge from the mighty Knights of the White Wolf. A spirited duel began between the knights champion, and the chaos lord. The rest of the Imperial troops turned his pimped up ride into firewood. Enraged by this vandalism he refused to flee!

CHARGE!

The Pistoliers came under attack from the injured Daemon Prince ,but despite its only having one wound their pistols were unable to find their mark . With chaos halberdiers loitering with intent on the far side of the village the advance of the  Freikorps and Greatswords was suitably cautious.

Freikorps on a pub crawl  

  The Werberg Regt. charged the last chaos knight, hoping to break it and thus hasten their egress. Alas, even a single chaos knight was a match for an entire regiment of men, and they were soon outflanked, and destroyed.  Meanwhile, the Chaos Lord had felled the Knights champion , and turned his unwanted attention on Von Drakmoor, who whacked him mightily with his Runefang! The gods of chaos attempted to resurrect the chaos knights, but there some sort of administrative error and three the Nordreik Horse staggered back to their feet and returned to the fight, albeit briefly!

 Seeing the horrific fate of the Werbergers, Hildebrand spurred forward once more , incinerating the last chaos knight. Sporadic shooting accounted for a few more chaos warriors, the last Pistolier held his ground, and von Drakmoor tried to finish off his opponent but only managed to tickle him with his mighty weapon!   But the followers of Slaanesh had had enough; realizing a break through was inevitable, they fell back in good order to buy what time they could for the besiegers of Hargendorf.

I love the smell of burning chaos knights in the morning ...
smells like...my wifes cooking.

And that was it. A 10-6 victory for The Empire ! Though Chris loudly proclaimed a moral victory (on the grounds that I'm immoral ) ...until he realised he hadn't paid for a retinue for the Daemon Prince and his army was technically illegal ...whoops.

So, after all that...time for a campaign I think.