IN THE DARKNESS OF THE NIGHT: TURN TWO-FOUR

so it came to pass that the Empire now got a chance to roll for their reserves to come in. and in a shocking turn of events it was not a trickle but a flood! the general and his Halbardiers failed to rouse themselves, but that was it! every other unit was out of bed with weapons ready. the Bright Wizard moved to blast the corsairs and all the other characters bunkered up, except for the warrior priest who walked as fast as he could towards the nearest block of free company. the knights moved towards the witch elves, thinking them easy pickings, and the gunners ran to their machine preparing for the inevitable onslaught of the shades.

the township erupts into activity

come the magic phase the fire wizard took all 6 dice and rolled for a 3D6 fireball, and without miscasting just pulled off the necessary 18+. 7 Corsairs were consumed in the raging fireball that followed. with no eligible shooting or combats it was looking up come turn three

TURN THREE

the Dark Elves were reeling from the unnatural luck i had managed to pull out my arse. the Dark Elves decided not to charge anywhere, surprising me immensely. instead the Corsairs moved to just within range of the Bright Wizard, and the unit of shades in the vilage passed their march block and ran round the building away from the free company moving to combat them. come the shooting phase and the Bright Wizard found out what it felt to have 40 crossbow bolts fly into your face, fatally so if you couldn't guess.

it sounded like a good idea at the time

the Crossbows and Bolt Thrower lined up the knights and felled 4 of them, but they were quietly confident that they would steamroll their opposition so they held firm.

The Empires turn three saw the general get out of bed, yet his big block of Halbardiers stayed put. The Knights raced across the field and into the very vulnerable looking Witch Elves and the flagellants threw themselves onto the blades of the Corsairs. the rest of the empire forces made some uneventful maneuvers around the village. the magic phase was uneventful as both the savage beast and wild-form were blocked or failed to cast. however...

goodbye, pork pie

 with a roar the Hellblaster opened up. with 7 shots. 3 shades get thrown into oblivion by the "hail" of shots. i was a bit disappointed but was sure the knights could make up for it. it was here that, after the challenge had been called, that i realized that his use of the term "the crone" actually referred to the infamous CRONE BLOODY HELEBRON! not to make a long story short my BSB went from this

to this

in the space of less than 10 seconds.... yeeeeah. to make matters worse another 3 knights died failing their 2+ armour saves... the one remaining knight decided to promptly flee... 6". he died screaming as the witch elves overran. however the Corsairs and BSB hit hard against the flagellants  killing 11, but with one sacrificing himself for the greater good the mad men killed 10 of the pirates, leaving just 3 of them to protect the Noble. since the unbreakable crazies did not care the raiders were not looking like they would be able to hold on.

yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah....

TURN FOUR

well the cream of the crop of the empire forces were fighting, dead, or in bed; so i was once again reeling. the Witch Elves moved up the now very very exposed flank and the remaining two shades charged into the Hellblaster. 

shades line up the artillery

the repeater crossbowmen once again fire against the unit of free company, but do very little damage. in the combat phase the shades, thanks to hatred, carved both of the remaining crewmen into tiny little pieces.

the Corsairs and BSB only kill 5 of the remaining 14 flagellants. however 3 jump on their swords allowing their friends to slaughter the remaining 3 Elves, leaving the Noble on his own facing the last 5 crazies.