#105 Battle XXIII - The Deliverance of Salas Nova
Despite the delaying tactics of the Brotherhood of Mannfred, Lady Beauvoir has finally returned to Barfunweltz to halt the Gravewalkers' razing of Salas Nova. She has brought with her none other than the Pontifex Surrexit and his Crusaders of the Rose. But have they arrived in time to save what little remains the Bloody Pilgrims' precious Soulblight city?
It's WHednesday! 1850ish points and a randomly-generated Open Play battleplan: deploy on the short table edges and destroy more points' worth of enemy units than your opponent. Simple, bloody and the perfect narrative for the Soulblight Gravelords fighting the Stormcast Eternals.
The Pontifex Surrexit surveyed the grave-strewn battlefield. Before him in the distance were the outskirts of Salas Nova, but closer at hand were the Gravewalker despoilers the Lady Beauvoir was so vexed about. It would be worth destroying them just to shut her up. Instinctively he identified the Stormcast forces in sight: two units of Liberators and a pair of Lord-Celestants, one riding a Dracoth, the other a mighty Stardrake. But he could also sense that there were foes waiting above, ready to descend with lightening.
"Hold!" he bellowed, knowing his Blood Knights were thirsting for the charge. But if they advanced too early, the Stormcast would descend behind their lines, surrounding them. Beauvoir had wisely placed her own knights, the Blighted Sisterhood, behind her Coven Throne. But all the same, he would rather have the enemy where he wanted them.
The large unit of red and black-armoured Blood Knights were restless but obedient. He had commanded the Obsidian Brethren to fight alongside his own knights, the Templars Ascendent. He was unsure of Kastellan Trutz's competence, and suspected her black-armoured retainers were loyal to Sir Jean de Majeure rather than to him.
Suddenly, he felt the amethyst winds of Shyish stir as one of the Lord-Celestants summoned an endless spell. An Everblaze Comet smashed to the ground just in front of the Soulblight lines, the blast destroying a few Blood Knights and damaging his mount the Ophanim and Lady Beauvoir's throne. It remained, embedded in the ground, smouldering with Azyrite fire and disrupting the arcane currents.
The distant Stormcast started to advance towards the Pontifex's lines but then, as he had expected, the heavens opened and three units of Annihilators crashed to the ground in front of them, accompanied by yet another Lord-Celestant. Their arrival itself dealt yet more damage even as their leader bellowed the charge.
But the reputation of the Crusaders of the Rose had gone before them, and all but one unit of Annihilators hesitated, and failed to charge the waiting Blood Knights. Those who did, cut down a few of the noble vampires, but they would pay dearly for their hubris.
Overcoming the comet's disruption of the winds of magic, the Pontifex caused his lance to burst into eldritch flame, while Lady Beauvoir summoned a forrest of ghostly pikes from the gravesoil to threaten the souls of both Lord-Celestant and the Annihilators next to him should they try to charge the Blood Knights. Meanwhile, her handmaidens cast about the scrying pool, sharing their tactical insights with the Pontifex.
Thus armed with both foreknowledge and a blazing lance, the Pontifex Surrexit finally bellowed, "Forward!"
The Ophanim and Coven Throne started forward. The Templars Ascendent trampled over the Annihilators ready to re-charge them, while the Blighted Sisterhood moved up from the rear ready to do the same. Simultaneously, the Pontifex's ambush appeared at the other end of the battlefield: Varghiests screamed down out of the bruised sky; the deathrattle Errant Knights of the Sanguine Rose burst from the grave below; and a band of brutish Blood Knights galloped out of nowhere towards the Stormcast rearguard. The Pontifex nodded in approval, Heisenberg's Panthers had indeed answered Sir Jean's call. His adjutant's influence was remarkably - perhaps even suspiciously - wide.
"Charge!" cried the Lord Crusader as he urged on his Zombie Dragon. The vampires around him smashed into the Gravewalkers' front line. The combined charge of the two units of Blood Knights did for the isolated unit of Annihilators who were cut down and joyfully exsanguinated by hungry vampiric knights. In contrast, despite multiple arcane blessings, both Pontifex and Lady Beauvoir seemed strangely hampered in their fighting. The self-styled Lord Crusader's flaming lance could not find its mark, and moments later, the Coven Throne had been vanquished.
Meanwhile, the next unit of Anihinators steeled themselves and charged through the soulpike thicket and into the Blood Knights. Witnessing the resultant heavy casualties, their leader decided to wait for the spell to dissipate before joining the fray. Alas, he waited too long and they too were isolated and destroyed.
Before the Pontifex Surrexit could recover his wits, the Stardrake thundered out of the sky and smashed into the Ophanim. Screeching in defiance, the zombie dragon fought desperately to defend its injured master. The undead pair survived, but were grievously wounded. The Ophanim summoned what remained of its strength to flap awkwardly out of combat in hope of regaining some strength before another assault by the Lord-Celestant and his terrible mount.
The Gravewalkers' front line was wavering, even as the Soulblight's ambushing force destroyed their Liberator rear guard. Despite the threatening presence of the Stardrake, the Annihilators were overrun. Deciding that Salas Nova was not worth such losses, the Stomcast were driven off.
A major victory to me, not least thanks to my zombie dragon rider's wise decision that discretion was the better part of valour. Having said that, we only had time for two turns and I'm not sure I could have maintained that lead if the game had gone on. It was my first time playing the Kastellai dynasty and it was cool watching the Blood Knights get even better as the game went on! Another highlight was the Soulpike spell. I'd never cast it before and it really messed with Owen's head as he tried to decide whether to risk charging through it!
* * *
Salas Nova lay in ruins and darkness. Most of the city had been razed to the ground by the Gravewalkers and acrid smoke blotted out the dim light of the Shyishian moons. The pitch darkness was lit only by the glowing forms of countless gheists, for the Foolish Martyrs of Salas Nova had joined Barfunweltz’s infamous Procession.
“This town,” sighed Lady Beauvoir weakly, “is becoming like a ghost town. All my cults have been closed down?”
“Not all my Lady.”
Wincing as she turned on her litter, Beauvoir saw a figure approach, bedecked in ecclesiastical robes.
“Father Ehrmantraut?”
“Yes my Lady, your Disciples of the Red Redemption remain at the service of the Bloody Pilgrims.”
“Well then,” smiled the Sanguinarch, “bring my disciples hither that I may drink deep and recover my strength.“
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