Third Siege of Jameswick & The Undead Army Will Rise No More
Today Mat and I played the third siege of Jameswick Castle. Mat's army consisted of many zombies plus a unit of skeleton warriors and a unit of Grave Guard in plate armor. He no longer had a Wight King as it had perished in an earlier battle, but his Vampire Lord and a lesser vampire were present.
For my part my sorcerer and priest were unconscious from the previous castle battle, but I still had my archbishop. My two cannons no longer had trained crews but were manned by members of the Tower Regiment. This meant they shot at a penalty and had a greater chance of misfiring and blowing up.
We used our own version of the 8th edition Warhammer rules. One difference is that when a unit other than zombies attacks first it gets to go first, regardless of its initiative stats. Subsequent melee turns revert to character or unit initiative stats. Characters usually have higher initiative and vampires more so. Like the Warhammer rules characters have multiple wounds, usually two or three. Unlike in Warhammer, when our characters or creatures lose wounds, they might also lose some of their multiple attacks.
DISPOSITIONS & Game Setup
I lost the dice roll for making the other player set up first. As Mat's Vampire Lord had higher Battlefield Initiative, he could make me reroll a successful roll. I had to set up first. I placed my Tower regiment (diminished from last battle) on the Eastern wall and manning the two cannons, one which was in the North/East tower. Captain Scarlet's longbow men occupied the remainder of the Eastern wall and South/East tower. The archbishop was placed nearby on the South wall and behind the South/East tower. King James 3 decided it was better for his kingdom if he avoided becoming a casualty and he issued directives from the castle courtyard.
Extending out from the Southern moat was a column of halberd armed plate knights led by the hero Ostberg, followed closely by General Ziggy, mounted on his best warhorse and recovered from his melee last castle battle, with the vampire lord. The Bastards infantry regiment were in battle formation and had been joined by the hero, Hamburg. Axel had donned his old dress uniform of red with yellow britches and facings, along with a grey tricorne, all trimmed with gold.
Mat also won the roll for the first move, but he was not yet in charge range. However, with his magic he created a new unit of zombies. He plainly intended to stay at maximum range or out of range and to just keep creating more zombies. For this reason, I advanced my regiments that were outside the castle. This was risky as they were away from the protection of prayer from the Archbishop, and the castle chapel. It also meant that the Undead could advance within charge range. One cannon made an ineffectual shot. The longbows shot their arrows and managed to knock off a couple of zombies at long range.
Then Mat advanced his Undead, straight towards my troops below the South wall. The Bastards fired a volley into a small group of zombies that were shuffling towards them and a few dropped, double dead. The archers struggled to find targets but managed to pot a few more zombies. The Undead were avoiding being shot from the castle wall. The Tower regiment muskets were out of range. The vampire with the Grave Guard tried to cast a magic missile on my knights but I dispelled it.
The shambling zombies closed with the Bastards but the latter, with disciplined bayonet thrusts to the eye sockets pierced their brains and wiped them out. But then the full skeleton regiment behind the destroyed zombies closed in on the Bastards and a desperate melee ensued. After some initial success from initiating the attack and the cover of their shields the faster responses of the human soldiers began to win out. Two small units of zombies were also converging on the area. Formerly they had been in front of the castle but they had veered South. The halberd knights charged the zombies on the road but Oswald separated to singlehanded attack the zombies on their flank. Initially, the courageous knights were successful but then the vampire led Grave Guard turned and attacked them in the flank. Things were starting to look grim.
The troops in the castle had few targets available as the swirling melees made it too difficult to shoot without harm to their own troops. But what was that note in the distance? The sound of trumpets! On another two occasions they had been hunting down Undead supply wagons but now they had followed the spore back to the capital. Three regiments of Beersteiner cavalry. led by the hero, arrived BEHIND the Undead. Two of the regiments were plate armored crusaders, fearless and somewhat protected from magic, by their faith. They were dressed in white, with white horses and black crosses on their tunics, shields and horse covers. In close range were the two Black Coaches One regiment of crusaders attacked one coach and prepared to burn it. The redcoats, on the other hand, were temporarily overcome by fear of a sickening miasma emanating from the second coach. This coach began to move away. the other crusader cavalry advanced towards the Vampire Lord. The latter was imposing with his red armor, dragon banner and armored Nightmare but this phased the crusaders, not.
However, the Vampire Lord had joined the melee of the zombies with the hero, Ostberg. General Ziggy repeated his bold move of the First siege and charged the Vampire lord. Alas, bravery was not enough and both he and the hero were knocked out by the speedy and strong vampire attacks.
The hero, Fin Mansfield, attempted to charge the Vampire Lord but he was intercepted by some slavering zombies. Fin's magic sword. Soul Drainer made the shambling creatures even more inept than usual.
Meanwhile, as the Undead ranks diminished the Vampire Lord fell, double dead, His minions then began to crumble, until the lesser vampire could gain the control of the Necrolians. Yet then he also fell and again the skeleton and zombie warriors fell in droves. archery from the castle added to the carnage until not one of the creatures stood.
With no survivors to try to rescue the downed vampires the Archbishop, with King James; ready agreement, ordered that the vampires be doubly disposed of. Wooden stakes were driven through their hearts and their bodies thrown on the burning coaches.
Fin Mansfield led the relief force
Priest, Linus (unconscious)
17 Longbows 17
17 Tower regiment 17
11 Mounted Crusaders
Vampire
Additional small Zombie unit generated during battle.
1 supply 'Blood wagon'
The Beersteiner cannons caused no casualties and neither did the out-of-range Tower regiment.
The destruction of the Black Coaches would have forced the vampires to flee but by this stage they were 'killed'. (The black Coaches, unlike Warhammer ones are not like super chariots but simply the vehicles to carry the vampire's grave dirt and coffins that must follow them. Without their proximity the vampires must return to their starting point).
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