|
vs Living Dead In a massive siege, 5000 points of Living Dead attacked a castle defended by an alliance of Beastmen and Chaos Dwarves. The defended castle consisted of two large keeps connected via a causeway. The Beastmen controlled the west keep and the chaos dwarves controlled the east keep. The Living Dead had two siege towers and a siege battering ram with which to assault the castle walls. The undead concentrated their attack on the north wall and the south-west wall.  West castle fortifications A rather heroic Beastmen chariot rumbled out of the castle, no doubt intnent on holding up one of the advancing seige towers. Meanwhile, a unit of skeleton archers opened fire on Beastmen guarding the south gate and managed to eliminate quite a few...  Beastman chariot rides out to confront the Living Dead The Living Dead horde marched closer to the castle walls each turn, zombies and skeletons jointly pushed the siege machines at their top speed. The lack of ranged attacks from the castle was encouraging for the undead leaders and they pressed on with all haste.  Zombies and skeletons advance a battering ram Having lost most of their comrades to skeleton arrows, the last remainign Beastmen guarded the south gate.  Beastmen warriors and a Shaman guard the south gate The west wall was coming under pressure from the Living Dead Vampire General and his detachment of skeleton warriors. A unit of heavily armoured skeleton warriors was moving up alongside carrying assault ladders and lead by a nasty Vampire Peon beast.  The Living Dead General commands a skeleton siege tower to advance To the north, the main body of the Living Dead was gradually getting closer and another Vampire Peon beast was ready to attack the rampart defenders.  Ghosts reach the north gate and the siege tower follows up The siege ladders of the Mummies and the Craven Ghouls were to prove very useful...  Mummies, craven ghouls and bats prepare to advance Chaos Dwarves armed with Blunderbuss on the north wall traded fire with the advancing skeleton archers. Although behind plenty of hard cover, the volume of undead arrow fire gradually took their toll on the Chaos Dwarves  Chaos dwarves man the north wall of the east castle fortification Meanwhile, outside the south gate, the Beastmen chariot was charged by the ethereal ghosts. After several rounds of intense combat, the chariot was destroyed and the ghosts were free to move through the castle walls.  Ghosts and a shrill attack the beastman chariot The connecting structure between the main castle fortifications was assaulted by Living Dead Bats. This provided time for the Mummies and the Craven Ghouls to reach the base of the walls and deploy their ladders.  The bats swoop in to attack the chaos dwarves At this stage, it was looking like the tide had indeed turned in the favour of the Living Dead. The siege machines had reached the walls with minimum losses and the full assault on the castle was underway.  The living dead battering ram makes contact with the south gate The north wall was reached and the Beastmen fought a desperate battle to keep the undead from gaining a foothold.  The siege tower breeches the north rampart The Armoured Skeletons climbed their ladder and joined the attack on the Beastmen.  The west wall comes under attack from skeletons and armoured skeletons The Bats had given the Craven Ghouls the time needed to climb the walls and attack the Chaos Dwarves. With their two attacks they were able to take down a few of the enemy, but eventually, the superior armour and skill of the Chaos Dwarves prevailed.  Craven ghouls climb the wall to confront the chaos dwarves The Mummies came under attack from the north tower as boiling oil was poured on them from above. The survivors climbed the tower and despatched the Chaos Dwarves and took control of the tower.  Mummies take the central north tower The Vampire Peon Beast was pushed from the ladder as he tried to gain a foothold on the castle walls. He quickly jumped to his feet and renewed his assault. With so many Skeletons on the ramparts of the castle, victory was assured for the Living Dead.  Vampire peon beast prepares to assault the west wall  The Vampire General controls the west wall with his skeleton horde As the Chaos Dwarves fell back to counter the advance of the Mummies on the north wall, the skeleton archers to the south charge the wall unhindered. Once on the ramparts, they were able to fire at will at the Chaos Dwarves on the opposite side of the fortifications.  Skeleton archers take the unguarded south wall With the walls breached and the gates open, the horde of Zombies and Skeleton warriors burst into the court yard to attack any remaing Beastmen and Chaos Dwarves.  The final battle takes place inside the castle Hakash, the mighty icon of the Living Dead only had to stride through the open north gate to survey his victory.  Hakash makes his entrance to survey the Living Dead victory In retrospect, the castle defenders did not have enough ranged weaponry with which to reduce the undead numbers in the early stages. The siege machines mostly arrived at the castle walls with a full complement of warriors. In some cases, through use of the Summon Undead spell, there were more skeletons in units than at the start of the battle. Perhaps next time the castle defenders would fare better. Thanks to Tim, And and Rob for inviting me to join in their days battle and I hope they enjoyed it enough to invite me back again in the future. |