Tuesday 25 March 2014

Jarl: Thick Fighting in the Thornwood

Jarl looked through the bushes: the Khadorans mechanics were still shovelling coal in the Warjack's furnaces and he could ear the chief complain they were lacking enough coal to have more than one Spriggan to be ''combat ready''.

The Kommandant, a black-haired woman wearing warcaster armor, nodded and then said with a cold voice that if these warjacks could'nt be battle ready then maybe the Trollblood's beast could help them...As she spoke that last sentence she turned her gaze to Jarl's hiding spot and looked in his direction as if she had pierced his camouflage.
Could she sense him?

He'd ask her the question later, Jarl stood up and walked slowly toward them with his arms open to try and convey his pacific intentions, he then used all his memory to try and make good khadoran sentences and, looking at the woman, offered to make an alliance against the Cryxians.
As much as he hated the Khadoran invaders, these days they were less numerous than the Cryxians in his beloved Thornwood and at least he got to grow back wounds from their weapons contrary to the necrotite-fueled weaponry used by the Dragon Empire's Helljacks.

Cryxians by Jonathan B. Although only the necrosurgeon appeared in this game, they were too cool for me not to post.


Looking at her battered Destroyer, Kommandant Sorscha saw no other choice but to accept the Troll Bandit's alliance, that decision might have been influenced by the Dire Troll Bomber's heavy footsteps as he started walking behind Jarl.



----

It had taken them some time to get to that part of the woods, but Jarl was sure it was worth it as he knew the terrain quite well and it would prove to be good grounds for their ambush.
The nearby thickets had changed since he had last visited them, now burning with green fire, reminders of the devastation wrought by the undead on his beloved Thornwood. Gritting his teeth, he swore he'd make every invader pay with their blood.

He nodded to his Fell Caller Hero who unleashed a guttural battle cry as he rushed to the right side of the Cryxian flank.



The raving madmen equiped with doomblades ran in front of the Fell Caller, seemingly without any cohesion or semblance of order in their ranks, only bloodthirsty owls.

The sound of Khadoran widowmakers' 'Vanar Liberator' rifles made it quite clear the fight had started. In front of them a sea of undead, only slightly perceived in the darkness of the night.

Sorscha turned toward Jarl and pointed toward a looming figure on the opposing hill and another one on the far right behind a large group of Satyxis. She had already spotted the enemy generals in charge of this large force.
As they observed, the cryxians were seemingly doing nothing but walking forward, there force apparently devoid of any long range weapon able to compete with the Khadoran's.



The Spriggan walked slowly and launched a red-orange flare into the midnight sky, illuminating some of the incoming undeads, it then launched some grenades but to no avail.
The undead were now getting very close and only the cover of darkness seemed to be saving them from Jarl's shot, feeling they were close enough, Sorscha gestured, a Black Dragon's officer nodded and soon they charged into the line of Bane Thralls, killing three with their lances.



On the right, the Doomreavers were being slaughtered by the Satyxis while a various assortment of mercenaries and minions hired by the Trollblood and Khadorans were proving a little harder to deal with.
Everything seemed to go according to plan on the left as the widowmakers unleashed more shots, felling more mechanithralls while the three Gatormen Posse recruited earlier that week moved into position to screen them from a potential charge from the undead.


The frail Kayazy Eliminators jumped from targets to targets into the mechanithralls' ranks, hoping to get to the Necrosurgeon.



Jarl felt no sympathy when he saw them get caught by thralls and squished. After all, Khadorans were just the previous invaders.

What was more demoralizing though was to see the Bane Thralls cut down Black Dragons' men and with some kind of unholy magic, reform their ranks. Clearly the Cryxian warcasters were waging a war of attrition and neither him nor Sorscha had the means to win it. He talked quickly to her and devised a plan to try and remove both generals before the enemy could realize what was going on.

The Khadoran warcaster moved forward and unleashed a wave of extreme cold, freezing many Bane Thralls on the spot and coating the enemy warcaster on the hill facing her with a thick sheet of ice on his armor.
Jarl could see him already breaking slowly through Sorscha's spell though his blade seemed to radiate pure cold itself. He had mere seconds to act or it would be too late.



Ditu lent him his primal power and Jarl saw his vision and accuracy increased, he fired two shots at the enemy caster, both found their mark and seemed to wound the warcaster but he was still left standing, more and more ice falling as he tried to free himself.
Jarl's backup plan had been reserved for the Iron Lich in the back but considering how desperate the conditions were, he saw no other choice than to unleash Relk, his Dire Troll Bomber, firepower upon the unholy thing.



Relk lobbed a bomb, which, aided by Jarl's guidance, found its mark and after the smoke had dissipated, no trace of that Cryxian General could be seen.
Sorscha smiled to Jarl.

She never saw the Bile Thrall coming.

Thankfully, her loyal War Dog did and jumped at the incoming Bile Thrall, tearing it appart with its massive jaws and then moved back next to its mistress.



 Sadly for that poor dog, another non-frozen Bile Thrall walked down the hill and exploded, killing the dog outright while sending ripples of necrotite acid on Sorscha's armor.
While the Bane Thrall's shook the Khadoran warcaster's spell, using the power of their cursed banner, a shadowy figured appeared not too far from Sorscha, green runes glowing in its hands.
Jarl realized with horror he had forgotten to throw his precious smoke bombs and now the life of the Khadoran warcaster was in the balance because of his mistake.
As if to emphasize how important hiding his forces would have been, the Thralls proceeded to charge unto Relk and cut it down with their powerful axes. Severly damaged and unable to regenerate upon eating undead flesh, Relk started retreating to the woods escaping narrowly an untimely death.



Nonetheless, Jarl was now without the heavy firepower brought by his Dire Troll and, as he looked were Sorscha had been, without the help of his Khadoran ally.
The Lich had just finished casting a spell and Sorscha was laying on the murky ground, green runes washing her pale body.



Jarl gasped for air, he looked around, both hands on his throat and saw Trollkin and humans were all trying to catch their breath. It was gone in a moment and everyone seemed to survive this incident, but somehow Jarl could feel their Lich's opponent had just gone much stronger.
As he grabbed his pistol to aim and shoot at the metallic silhouette, a bullet flew past him, turning his head on the right he noticed most of the flank was being overrun by Bane Knights and that a Pistol Wraith was trying to shoot at him.
While sidestepping on the right to get out of reach of the Wraith's weapons, he realized the right flank wasn't looking any better with the elf warrior they had hired getting killed by a Skarlock's spell and the Croak Hunter dead. The Fellcaller had managed to wreck one of the Cryxian Bonejack but looked to far on the right to be of any help.



Jarl fired both pistols at the lich and watched as the bullets got absorbed by the foe's power field, a spear from Ditu, his Troll Impaler sent the metallic warcaster flying back and knocked it down and while it too, caused no apparent harm, it helped put the enemy warcaster out of Jarl Champion's reach when they jumped out of the woods to try and attack the caster with axes and hammers.

Unable to stand the sight of such a fiasco of an ambush, Jarl grabbed the horn of a dead Black Dragon officer and sounded the retreat, gesturing to one of his champion to grab the body of the human warcaster.

 If she was still breathing maybe he could ransom her and make at least some coins out of that horrible defeat.

1 comment:

  1. Le knock back - knock down réussi après les tirs de Jarl plutôt qu'avant. Et les champions hors de portée de charge ensuite... Priceless! Ça c'est du WarmaHordes comme je le joue. Ma dernière partie c'était ça tout du long! :o))) ça et des dés pourris en prime!

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