The Battle of Durin's Gap - part 1

Jean D'Noir stared out into the hazy morning light at the assembling dwarf host and cursed loudly she hadn't expected to meet an army coming west through Durin's gap but there they were anyway blocking her path east. She knew the Dwarfs must have come from Khazd-Norn but what were they doing here? It didn't seem to matter now the dwarfs were rapidly forming up for battle and if she was to complete her mission they would have to be dealt with. Durin's gap was a narrow strip of flat land traveling east to west through the southern grey mountains here at it's narrowest point there was no way Jean's army could carry on east with the dwarfs formed up in front of them. "It looks like we'll have to make them move" Jean sighed to the two undead warriors stood at her side.

Jean scanned the enemy lines and counted four regiments of dwarfs. She turned to walk away just as the dawning sun caught something large and metallic. Jean shielded her eyes and saw a large cannon being wheeled into place in the centre of the dwarf line she cursed loudly again. Turning to the two passive undead warriors at her side Jean spoke "return to your regiments and prepare for battle"

Thane Gudnam was woken with a start by a stocky dwarf in full armour "think we got a problem thane" said the dwarf. Grabbing his gear the thane followed the dwarf towards the edge of camp. Gudnam put his dwarven crafted spyglass up to his eye and scanned the western horizon as the undead host focused into site the Thane grinned "Looks like we won't have to march all the way to the plain of winds" he said cheerfully the enemy have come to us. He turned to Gomil the leader of the Hammerers regiment "Form the troops up, missiles on the wings, infantry and artillery in the centre" Gomil turnned sharply and hurried off.

Gudnam raised his spyglass again "These undead really are a foul sight" he mused to himself. Skeleton warriors stood eerily still tattered rags blowing in the morning breeze, rusted weapons and battered shields held firmly in their bony grip. Nearby a unit of zombies waited rotting flesh barely holding in liquefied inner organs. Gudnam fought back the urge to gag as one zombie lifted a severed hand to its mouth. Screeching on the breeze drew the thane's attention to the far end of undead battle line were a pack of feral ghouls scraped and bickered over a corpse. Next to the ghouls Gudnam saw a catapult it's skeleton crew working hard to load it with what looked suspiciously like a skull.

Gudnam turned towards his army "It's going to be a long day" he said to no one in particular.

Above the two armies deploy for battle.

Hopefully this will be the first of several battles in a little narrative campaign between my new undead and dwarf armies. I hope to get a full write up with pictures on the blog in the next couple of days. I have posted up a little background story for the campaign (see the post below this one) and this post gives you the background to the first battle a meeting engagement between two detached forces in a narrow mountain pass.

The rules used for this battle were WFB 3rd edition (not really a surprise there) and the two armies where 1000pts each. I used the Warhammer armies book lists as a guide but basically ignored some of the min/maxs and rules for low level characters as unit champions because at 1000pts these conditions where a little to restrictive. On to the armies

The Dwarven detachment from Khzad - Norn

General - Thane Gudnam -level 15 dwarf hero with heavy armour, double handed weapon and the book of grudges (level 1 enthuse spell)

Heni Trollsbane - level 10 troll slayer hero with magic axe (frenzied)

11 Hammerers (+4 shock elites) including standard,musician and leader equipped with heavy armour,shields and double handed weapons

10 thunderers with arquebus and light armour

10 crossbowdwarfs with crossbow and light armour

20 Dwarf warriors including standard,musician and leader equipped with light armour and shields

1 3 man cannon

1 baggage train of one cart and 5 camp followers



The Undead column of Jean D'Noir

Jean D'Noir - Level 15 necromancer

Kurt Ricter - Level 10 undead hero with light armour, shield magic sword (baneblade) leading the zombies

Harald Kruger - level 10 undead hero with light armour shields and magic spear (hellhoned)
leading the skeletons

3 man undead catapult with screaming skull ammunition

19 skeleton warriors including standard and musician equipped with spears, shields and light armour

29 zombies including standard and musician equipped with bones, clubs and severed limbs

20 Ghouls equipped with poisonous claws, teeth and a bad attitude

Next the battle as it happened............