Janus Turkov, the grotesquely hideous Necrarch Vampire, dropped the corpse he was draining of blood, and paused to reflect on the day's battle as only an immortal Lord of the Night could.

He had been mildly surprised to see the humans of the Empire province of Ostland barring his path into the hills where his tower was secreted. But they were proud, and foolish in their arrogance.

He had deployed his troops in a manner to rival his Blood Dragon cousin Jhim: a solid horde of skeletons and Grave Guard, led by his acolytes Alric and Heinrich, backed up by his on personal retinue of zombies. The Banshee's and ghouls were sent to take the left flank.

The Empire had deployed predictably. Handgunners were arrayed in front of his massed blocks of troops, with mortars and a hellblaster on a hill to the left. The Wizard Lord, battle standard and battle wizard were cowering in the woods to the right, behind a screen of huntsmen.

As the battle commenced, the slavering packs of Dire Wolves were the first to be cut down by a hail of lead pellets. In response, a new unit of zombies was raised and moved into combat with the hellblaster. The banshee's were struck down by magical lightning arcing down from the sky, but the ghoul's made it to the war machine crews, and slaughtered them towards the end of the battle.

Meanwhile, Janus closed with the pitiful Empire troops. One regiment of skeletons dissolved under the withering fusilade, but the others swelled up to twice their size as Janus and his apprentices cast Invocation of Nehek again and again and again.

At last battle was joined. The Handgunners proved easy prey for the Wight Lord and his skeletons, whilst the Swordsman led by the Empire Wizard general was hit simultaneously in the front and rear by Janus and his zombies and the magically-moved Grave Guard.

Seeking out his equal in the melee, Janus tore the spine out of the pitiful weakling human magic-user, as the rest of his troops tore the men to bloody pieces. As the sun set, a lone huntsmen hiding in the trees was all the remained of the once proud army.

Janus was pleased. He had plenty of new recruits to join his unliving horde, but more importantly, he hadn't been delayed sufficiently for the Carnosaur he was transporting to his laboratory to begin to decay. He had big plans for that thing.... oh yes..... BIG plans (breaks down into maniacal laughter).

Well written. What kind of victory was it?

It was a solid victory. I won by about 1200 points. Great game though. Will write up another one a bit later on.

DLJ