When two disillusioned, desperate armies meet the fight can be either brief and desultory or longdrawn and bitter.
It was to be the latter when the tired, homesick and battle weary men of Khaibar Ralf von Weppen's army met the Eagles's of Thain warlord Dagor'Kolja'gar. Ralf's soldiers had lost a devastating battle against a fear inspiring undead force, but the defeat at least gave them the chance to be sent back home to the Eastern provinces where their abandoned villages and farms were waiting for the few survivors.
Dagor'Kolja'gars warriors had failed to even reach the destination of their recent adventure, the green hill, so they were not even sure what they had missed in their defeat in the battle of the four armies - had they beenchasing an empty dream or had they missed to acquire the key to ultimate power and dominance over their foes? Would the undead use their newly found stones of power to crush their opposition, or had they failed in their mission, too?
It was in this depressed mood that the two armies met each other, and although both armeis wanted nothing more than just to get home to their camps and families, they put all their frustration into a bitter fight to the death on this day that lasted long into the night [the scenario rules say that after turn 6 night falls, reducing visibility and morale and requiring a morale check (failed on a roll of 1 or 2 even for units with very good or no morale at all from units to keep them fighting].
The Eagle tribe under Dagor'Kolja'gor had a core of savage warriors and spearmen supported by two heros, a unit of Eagle Archers and one of the special 'Eagle Arrow' ballistae, one of the mighty Gar'na'rog and a veteran [level two] shaman. Khaibar Ralf was commanding his imperial army with two units of pikemen, the Emperor's Guard cavalry under the dubious Franz von Krumetur and a unit of Knights of the Order of Purifying Light supported by Selageth and Jorghan.
The Thain units set up in a very compact formation on the right of the battle field. From left to right they fielded the spearbearers with Ogayin'xagor to secure the flank, the savage warriors with Magor'dak and the Gar'nar'og in the center to lead the attack, and the Eagle archers and ballista on the very right to provide fire support.
Khaibar Ralf's army set up in a very long line with the guard cavalry and some pikemen on their left, followed by the knights on foot and the cattle herd in the center and more pikemen on their right flank.
As hoped by Dagor'Kolja'gar the units on the imperial right flank took very long to march to battle, so the first melee was on the other side of the field as an Eagle totem moved forward to bind both the guard knights and the pikemen on Ralf's right flank in melee before they could reach their enemy. As in earlier battles, the savage warriors found their counter attack severely delayed by the damage done by Selageth's fireballs (the holes in their ranks kept them reforming slowly to close their ranks). They never did much damage evne when they did manage to contact the knights and soon fled fomr the field, frustrated by the toughness of the elite knights they were facing.
On the Thain left, the spearbearers quickly dispatched the cattle with a little help from the Gar'nar'og. The careful maneuvers of the Order's knights on foot meant they arrived only after the melee with the cow herd was over - maybe they were overly cautious trying to avoid the rear attack from the lonely Ogayin'xagor in their flank?
Selageth kept frying Thain warriors left and right with his fire magic, the Gar'nar'og also fell quickly to his attacks. Between his fireball attacks he managed to block most of the Eagle archers' and the ballista's line of sight with firewalls.
As night fell, the Imperials were slowly gaining the upper hand despite their slow advance. Thain still had slightly more forces on the field, but their general was doomed to fall soon, surrounded and alone among the Emperor's guard. The guard cavalry had hardly taken a scratch so far [only one element lost] and were set to roll up the remaining Thain line from their right flank.
But then the unbelievable happened: together with very few others (the already weakened and fleeing savage warriors come to mind) the guard cavalry seemed to be taken by surprize by the sudden nightfall, and, apparently unwilling to continue the fight, turned around and rode back to their camp.
This left only Selageth and a few broken remainders of the rest of the imperial force to defend themselves against the Thain survivors. The remaining Orders knights were quickly mopped up by the spearbearers, and Selageth knew he had no chance but to be hunted down by the Eagle archers or, even worse, the Eagle totem that was starting to chase him all over the field, keeping him from restoring his spent magical power. So he wisely chose to follow the cowardly guard cavalry back to the imperial camp.
Early in the next morning, a knight standing guard in front of the white command tent of the Emperor's guard had to step aside and allow a shady figure covered by a wide dark robe with a large hood to enter the tent. Only a few minutes later, the man emerged from the tent again and quickly disappeared in the undergrowth of the nearby forest - his quiet and noiseless way ofmoving reminded the guard of the Thain scouts he had watched moving around the barbarians' camps before. The man wasn't carrying the heavy bags anymore that he had brought into the tent, and soon after the sound of heavy coins being rolled out of the bags and being counted on the table could be heard from inside the command post of the Emperor's finest soldiers...
Leaving behind the bright white tent of Kapitan Franz von Krumetur, the scattered remnants of Khaibar Ralf's army started out on their long way home to the Eastern provinces, hoping that they would never again be called to serve and die so far from home.
Copyright Notice: This report (C) Klaus Herrmanns 2003. All rights reserved. Thanks for providing the photos goes to the Wiesbaden players group. Please only pass this on to others for private, noncommercial use. If you want to use this article elsewhere, let me know koljag@SPAMBLOCKyahoo.com (remove the SPAMBLOCK and the following dot before using the mail address. If you quote me as author and add a copyright notice like this, I'm perfectly happy to let you re-use this article.