The Taste Of Victory (against All Odds)
By: Lothien
Today I led my first campaign against the forces of Destruction.
It all started as a small Warband, little more than a simple group, led by someone else. We took some battle objectives in the Imperial T3 front before the former leader left us, leaving me on command. Having barely half Warband around me, we kept on with the guerilla campaing until we hit the tower just west of Passwatch Castle. It was then that the men started to rebel against all leadership and decided to act by their own ideas, spreading around the field and engaging in unorganized skirmish against the forces of Destruction. Half the group decided to ride north, while the rest was left to die at the hands of the cruel enemy. I was among the few that tried to defend the rearguard. And when I came to my senses, someone else had usurped the de facto leadership of the Warband. Resigned that maybe I was not a leader as passable as I dreamt I was, I decided to follow the new leader's orders. And thus he ordered us into a series of easy victories, until we hit the northern castle where the Destruction forces was walled in. Facing defeat, we were lead in a forced march to the dark recesses of Thickmuck Pit Castle, beyond the lines of the Dwarven front, to fight on a desperate attempt to wrest at least one castle from the hands of Destruction. We numbered among 30 soldiers at the time, and I was given lead of the overflow Warband, formed by some loyal members of the Family and 2 other warriors. And we took war to the gates of Thickmuck, in a battle that quickly turned from apparent victory to bloody deafeat when a second contingent of Destruction forces managed to slip into the Castle and fortified it even while we banged our sore heads against its gates.
With the departure of the leader after a bitter defeat on the gates of Thickmuck Pit, I was left on the command of a group of dishreveled and demoralized warriors that just wanted to leave to Altdorf and forget about the defeat. But then I saw my chance to prove, against all odds, that I could lead them to victory. After evaluating it would be utterly impossible to take a fortified and well-manned Thickmuck Castle, we departed to the Elven front.
The situation there was grim! Almost all battle objectives were taken, and we had motives to suspect the conquering destruction forces where still around. And against the common sense, I made the decision to hit the battle objetives first -- Mainden's Landing and then Spire of Teclis -- giving up our chance for a surprise attack on the Wells Castle, and hoping to evaluate the strenght and daring of the Destruction forces roaming there. And as I half expected, half feared, they didn't come! Left with little else to choose than to hit Wells Castle, that we knew to be manned and somewhat fortified, we decided to knock on the door just to evaluate the size of the Warband that guarded it. And it was a terrible battle, with no chance of victory. But instead of giving them open combat, I ordered a quick retreat to Ghrond's Sacristy, which we stormed in a desperate attempt to get walled before the Destruction forces pursued our now irregular and scattered forces. Charging against the Sacristy's gates with all our might while we rallied all the outside forces we could, we finally managed to take hold of the castle just in time to welcome the pursuing Destruction forces with bubbling oil and a welcoming salvo of arrows and hellblasters. And then the fight began to turn to our side.
While we held the enemy at bay, killing left and right with arrow and magic, Jay and Othrakin -- the most loyal members of my Warband -- managed to muster enough warriors for us to strenghten even more our defenses, almost doubling the size of our forces. By the time Destruction turned the business side of their bodies to the south and ran from battle, leaving behind a trail of unlucky corpses, I knew we had a chance. Trusting my instincts, I asked Othrakin to lead the overflow Warband -- whose command was given to him -- in a quick attack to the Maiden's Landing, that had been taken back by the pursuing destruction forces that were at our heels minutes before. At the same time, I led the main warband into the Choppas, to a quick and clean victory against the few forces still there.
With half the battlefield taken in a single blow, I led my WB to the Sari's while I asked Othrakin to give battle to the enemy that was still roaming the middle of the fields. That was then that our scouts told us that the enemy was hitting the Spire of Teclis, giving themselves up in the open for our Warbands. But that was not the time for making mistakes, and ordered my Warband to stay at Sari's while we organized defenses (i.e. waited for the defense tick) and asked Othrakin to just scout the enemy until we could come to join him. That was when my men seemed to be unwilling to follow orders to not engage in battle, and rebeled again, charging headfirst into the enemy that was taking the Spire. I was left with 3 or 4 other warriors to wait for the arrangement of Sari's defenses, and when I arrived the Spire, there was no warrior of chaos standing.
But we were still far from complete victory, for now the enemy was holed up fiercely behind the walls of the Wells Castle. And again we had little choice but to attack the castle again, giving me a dreadful sense of deja-vu. But we had twice as much men now, and they were frenzied by the last victories, and we fought well at the Well that day. We fought really well, for after more than 10 minutes of struggle at the outer walls, we managed to destroy their oil cauldron almost at the same time their doors kissed the ground. The sounds of battle inside were deafening, and I did my best to coordinate the postern teams -- to keep them from getting reinforcements or trying to attack us from the flanks -- and the main attack team that hit the inner keep doors with a great thirst for Chaos blood. We killed them left and right again with our artillery, while the ram team worked at the door. We had a hard time trying to take out their inner oil cauldron, for they seemed to have a great number of people repairing it, and their door stood strong as a mountainside. It took us almost 20 minutes of fierce battle to break up the doors, while the postern teams fought with all their determination to cut their reinforcements. When we finally broke inside the inner keep, they were already defeated. Their numbers diminished by death and fleeing soldiers, and completely felled by our front warriors as we rushed in. The keeps Lord died in a matter of seconds, and then we took back the field to pursue them and defend our other battle objectives.
We were close to complete victory, but it still eluded us. After killing all the destruction forces we encountered on our ride back north, we killed the last of them on the shores of the Maiden's Landing, where they were unexplainably trying to take back the battle objective. And before my rebelious warband had time to blame me for not giving them complete victory "because of this and that", the victory horns sounded. We had taken the Elven front! Recrimination became salutation, while the Warband disbanded -- each combatant heading home with victory in their pockets, leaving me with the sweet taste of "see? we did it!" in my lips.