Final Battle of Debneitz

Saturday saw the final battle in our Battle for Debneitz - Dark Elves vs Empire mini- campaign. With two victories under their belt the Empire felt they should try something new. We had loosely based the series of battles on some fluff in the Empire Army book. This mean't the final battle would see the Empire under Elector Count Gausser seek to push the Dark Elves back into the sea.

Dark Elf Hydra scared to get its feet wet !

 

We chose to represent this by playing the River of Death scenario from the rule book with the river effectively representing part of the Estuary. The challenge for the Empire was the tank had been massively overpowered in the previous battles, and it seemed a great opportunity to try something new. So Gausser rolled out a War Alter of Sigmar with Golden Griffin. (this is a multi purpose model which I can use as any of the Empire Chariot units as I have magentized the relevant parts). This would be it first run out in battled and it would be fun to see if it was any good.

 

Things started well when the Dark elves took the first turn but the Hydra failed to roll the necessary 3 to charge home. The scenario requires both sides to capture the two designated river crossings. I have placed a small objective marked on the crossing.

 

Face off across the Estuary

The Empire troops pushed forward on the left whilst the Elves on the right. The Elector Count can be seen in the centre with his household Knights looking to get across the river and behind the Elf Lines. But the Elves were to prove a very hard foe. The usually hardy Demi-gryphs charged across the river into a unit of Cold One knights only to be turned back and chased down. Panic set in and the Empire right flank suddenly looked very precarious.

Empire pushing forward on the right flank

Not ready to give in, our left flank pushed forward to take one of the crossings but the Greatswords in their haste pushed too far forward and were cut down by crossbow fire, although they had the crossing they were effectively a spent fighting force.


Great swords and spearmen secure the crossing

Whilst the battle raged on both flanks the cannons and bolt throwers on both sides traded shots with the cannons coming out on top only being silenced when the Elves had pushed a unit of executioner across the river slaughtering the crews. With the colds ones now across the river the Sacred band of Flagellants howled for Sigmar and charged in pulling down the evil dark elf sorceress. But they had thrown away their lives and were soon cut down themselves.

Things were getting desperate so Gausser tried to charge the Alter of Sigmar into the Hydra. Somehow the Warhorses were simply too terrified to charge home and they froze to the spot, only to be charged back in return in the next turn.


Altar of Sigmar trapped

Hard to see how this battle was going to be pulled out of the hat. With a final heroic effort Gausser himself sought to push forward to secure the left crossing. Urging his troops on they were swooped on by a Dark Pegasus Rider and although he managed to fight this off in one to one combat, the unit he had joined were lowly hand gunners and they were never going to be fast enough to catch a Pegasus when it fled the combat.

At this point with one crossing each but the Empire Army in tatters Gausser chose to concede the battle. (Officially the scenario falls to victory points if both sides have a crossing).


The last few hold on !

An excellent concluding battle to the series and it was only fair the Dark Elves got some revenge for their previous humiliation.

Empire 2 Dark Elves 1