The Zombie War - Army Lists, Casualties, Outcomes & First Hand Accounts Of Two battles
.jpeg)
When we arrived at the medium to large island, we found a quiet bay to anchor the seven ships. We could see figures swaying drunkenly on the beach. They looked disheveled. Yet, they were not drunks. My telescope revealed the figures to be the Undead! They were immerging from jungle and swamp and heading for the beach.
The commander ordered a bombardment, and the numbers of zombies began to thin. Yet, the general wished us to establish a beachhead before dark. The infantry boarded the longboats and as we neared the shore we could see the strange greenish sands, but the worst was the rancid smell of death. A number of our men heaved up over the sides of the boats. Then we heard the moaning cacophony from the throats of the dead. They were staggering around, now on the beach itself.
Part of our forces prepared to land to our right of a river. The others were ready to land on the other longer side of the beach. Those of our men positioned to fire at the shambling zombie hordes and the skeleton warriors were ordered to do so and several rounds were sent into the monstrosities, a number of them falling.
Then we saw a steady and distinct figure in bronze and steel plate armor. He appeared to be in control of both the zombies and the skeletons on our side of the river. I shivered as his red eyes seemed to look right into mine.
The troops, our regiment and the grenadiers fired from the long boats. Our Wizard zapped them but his spell also backfired knocking him back and divesting him of spells.
REPORT FROM COLONEL SHNIEFER, GRENADIERS
Our Grenadiers and The Tower Regiment approached the shore on the enemy's left flank. We could see a unit of skeleton warriors, their bone polished and held together by some diabolical magic. Their ancient, light armor and rectangular shields were copper, bronze and bright blue. Despite their devilish nature they did appear well drilled and presented. Leading them was a bony chap in plate armor and with a gold crown upon his head. Our wizard informed us that he was a Wight king.
The Tower Regiment originally guarded and garrisoned a tower North of Castle Jameswick. It distinguished itself in the recent big war against the Undead.
Before landing we decided it was best to put some rounds into the blighters, which we did. That gave them something to think about as their ranks were diminished. On landing, we fired again and our wizard sent a thunder bolt into them, before staggering and holding his head; the magic had succeeded in carving out a space in the bony ranks but the recoil from the warp had smashed him, robbing him of his magical power!
Fortunately, we were able to 'kill' the Wight King, skeletons and zombies on our side of the river. On the other side I saw two of our units pushed from the field of battle. Some men there were being eaten by the ravenous zombies.
THE ARCBISHOP"S ACCOUNT
As we neared the shore a green beam of light hastened from the vampire's hand straight towards us; then it dissipated. I could see the anger and pure hatred on the vampire's ugly face. His two large fangs were not the canines but his upper middle teeth. Three times he made the utterances and sent the beams of magical energy but each time I foiled the diabolical attacks with the power of prayer. I was desperately scared but I kept my faith in the Lord..
Finally, we landed on the beach, two regiments, The Bastards and the Tricorne Regiment with the Sacred Whale flag. The Undead wasted no time but charged us. They were totally oblivious to casualties caused by our musketry. We were holding them off at first, but the bayonets did not necessarily kill them until we found if they were sunk into an eye socket or a mouth the horrors 'died'. Otherwise, they just squirmed on the ends of our weapons. They incessantly clicked their teeth together and drooled green slime. Their skins were patchy and hanging off their greenish and pinkish flesh.
Meanwhile our heavy cavalry had swum to shore and charged the enemy. At first, they pushed back the zombies. Although the zombies were fearless they did not 'die' so easily. The addition of the relentless vampire and the deadly coach were two much and the cavalrymen's breast plates did not protect them. They were wiped out and not even a horse survived!
We had failed to keep the hordes at a distance as they outmaneuvered us, forcing us to turn before the men could have any chance of firing. Then the vampire joined the fray, followed by a pumpkin shaped Black Coach. The vampire was frightening enough. The coach was driven by a skeletal figure was in black robes and wielded a scythe as he controlled the two blue-green horses. These also had bony faces surmounted by bronze spikes. Their teeth were pointed, sharp, unlike any real horse's teeth. Their red eyes bulged and the beasts lashed out with brass hooves. Steam came from their nostrils.
So far, the men had stood fast as some of the older ones had fought such nightmares before. The heroic officer, Axel, charged, singlehanded, the vampire. Although he took the night creature by surprise the attacks failed to get past the plate armor and the black shield with its fanged face. The vampire replied with a flurry of sword strikes that left our hero on the ground. Then the combined zombies, vampire and coach pushed us back and away, into scrub land away from our comrades on the other side of the field of battle. from the field. The men were dispirited and crushed. We ran and stumbledaround. The zombies and their leader, I learnt later, turned to deal with the rest of our army.
CAPTAIN BLOOMENDORTH's ACCOUNT
We were, for obvious reasons, among the last to disembark., the last being supply wagons that were also only partially assembled. Our two 12 pounder cannons, Bubble and Squeak, were partially dismantled and had to be loaded on to boats using pulleys and chains. By the time we landed most of the fighting was over. Half our landing force had disappeared. The other half was safely on the right side of the river. After reassembling the guns we advanced, over a creek and were tasked with finding targets near the far jungle. The Grenadiers and Tower Regiment looked for a crossing point on the river . We found a large target in the enemy's curious black vehicle. It appeared to partially float over obstacles and its draft beasts were hideous and unnatural. Bubble and Squeak opened up and a cannon ball passed through it. We heard an unearthly scream but the coach remained, apparently intact. We learnt later that we had weakened it. We also sent a ball into some zombies that were consequently reduced to harmless small pieces.
When the fighting stopped we were tasked with disposing of the Wight King and the other undead. We made a huge pyre of them and the stink was abhorrent. We found the skull of the Wight King still intact. Although we had removed the crown and stuffed it in our loot sack we knew it was his head as it was bigger than the rest and had some rusty chainmail embedded in his bone. We faced a cannon out to sea and shot the skull into the deeps. We did cause a stir among our ships who thought the enemy must have a battery. Our signalmen used their flags to indicate they were not being fired upon! We also saw to the care of the unconscious priest who had been harmed by the vampire's magic.
SECOND BATTLE
The Undead had withdrawn and two days later we pursued them and found them! Our missing men and archbishop had not returned but we were determined to eradicate the evil and to claim the island for our great King.
Unfortunately our Wizard suffered another spell miscast and was largely out of the battle. We were also without our archbishop who was missing with the others. Our hero and priest had recovered from loss of consciousness from being knocked out by the vampire's magic last battle. He was very brave and joined the second battle.
Our musketry and our cannons finished off the Black Coach. The vampire generated more zombies but we double killed most of them, He then withdrew into the jungle with a small number of zombies. Our infantry were close to the jungle but were in no hurry to enter. Yet, on the morrow that is what they must do.
For creatures of the night' they did not attack at night. Perhaps the vampire was drained of some of his power and was regenerating. It was, though, clear that the daylight did not stop him. Black clouds did gather over him, blocking sunlight but he might also have had some magic cream. We don't know. However, we were kept awake by the wretched mumblings of the shambling zombie BATTLE
THE SECOND BATTLE PICTURES
The troops on the near side were destined to be driven off in the First Battle
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
They hoped to stay well away from the Undead hordes so they could engaged them with hot lead instead. However the Undead moved forward and partially attacked from the flank. They also were out of range of the infantry on the other side of the river.
.jpeg)
NOTE Final figures include a portion of recovered casualties
Comments
Post a Comment