IN THE DARKNESS OF THE NIGHT: TURN FOUR-SIX

no charges were declared by the Empire for the fourth turn, but the Halbardiers finally got off their F****** arse's and arrived on the field from the Nobleman's villa. the general instantly hoped into the unit and directed it towards the Witch Elves who were coming round the Chapel. the free company with the Warrior Priest by the Chapel reformed and moved towards the crossbowmen and the BSB's combat with the Flagellants, and the free company behind the town moved around the Blacksmiths to face the Shades. once again the wildform on the Flagellants was dispelled by the seemingly freakish yet non existent dark elf anti-magic field. with no shots to fire the Flagellants once again went for blood. although the BSB only killed 1 of the remaining 5, 1 more killed themselves to allow the last 3 remaining men to do nothing. 

end of the empire turn 4

TURN FIVE

again alot of the turn was maneuvering, as the shades and Witch Elves  moved to counter the Free Company and Halbardiers. the Crossbowmen shot 7 Militia out of the closest Free Company, who held, and the shades killed 3 from the men bearing down on them. the BSB excelled by killing all 3 flagellants  finally riding himself of such an annoying unit.

i need 3 kills from 3 attacks, easy my dear sir

end of dark elves turn 5, with everything to play for

the Empire now had a choice, send the Priest to kill the bsb or run into the teeth of the crossbow bolts as they try to assault the unit? 

who to attack... choices, choices

hoping to break the lonely BSB the Free Company went barreling straight for the Elf who had not dropped a single wound in four rounds of combat. the other free company managed to charge the large unit of shades, surviving the fusillade of retaliatory shots largely unscathed. the Halbardiers moved forward between the buildings as the Archer detachment moved into the Blacksmiths. finally, after 3 turns of failure, the wildform went off to boost the Halbardiers to S5 and T4. the Archers then compounded the good luck by finishing off the small unit of shades hiding in the wreck of the Hellblaster. however when the Warrior Priest decided to step up to the BSB's challenge, was slaughtered so quickly he didn't even get the chance to strike back. on a better note the shades were butchered by the Free Company who turned to face the Halbardiers  hoping that they will survive a round with Crone and her unit in order to get a rear charge.

TURN SIX
the Crone charged the Halbardiers, pretty much the only thing that actually happened in the Dark Elf turn. with no one to shoot the crossbows just sat back and got their nets ready for the inevitable haul of slaves that would be coming in. in combat the BSB once more carved more troops into ribbons, yet still they passed their break tests. Crone Helebron then went to work on the Sargent, who suffered 7 wounds at her hands. another 8  troops died to the blades of the seductress's before 10 were hacked down by the General and his unit. the stubborn men held out for the final turn

the remaining Free Company charged the rear of the Witches, hoping that their extra attacks could mean the difference between wiping the unit or possibly taking the Crone with them. with only 2 dice for the magic phase the wildform, back to its common form, failed to cast. the BSB once more killed in droves for no wounds in return, but once again the Free Company held firm. and so it was that the empire general finally stood before the Crone as the towns final hope. he failed miserably. even his ward save could not protect him from the avalanche of attacks placed against him.  the Halbardiers lost only 4 men, but the Free Company suffered far worse, losing 11 of the 12 remaining men. only 5 Witches died in return. as the game came to a close the free company was fleeing, the Halbardiers were only just holding. the village was well and truly in the hands of the raiders, who would be walking away with not that many slaves, but alot of body parts.

CONCLUSION
the scenario went almost as i had imagined it could, the foundation was perfect, the special rules played out well and their were many many great moments for both sides. however i had two thoughts by the end of it.

1) the Corsairs did not need the extra point for wall crawler. the situation didn't come up where it was actually necessary as the township was relatively open enough that the only thing they got to walk over was the tower. if i did the scenario again i would just give them wall crawler.
2) no special characters. this one completely went under the radar when i was writing the scenario. I felt that a Hackseer raid like this would be far bellow the station of a High Sorceress, and thought the special characters (apart maybe for Lorkhir Fellheart) would also be too Egotistical to bother with such a pitiful venture. im not sure whether i would regulate the special characters in order to make the scenario more thematic or just do a blanket ban. we shall see

however this is not the end, i have other ideas starting to trickle through into my head which may possibly turn into another scenario for us to fight over.