The Battle of Drachenfels

 The Battle of Drachenfels

There's nothing like a good old grudge match to start off the new year, and the Dwarfs are back to settle a score against Dieter Helsnicht and his Winged Nighmare.
(6th edition ruleset)

The Necromancer spies his foes from afar and wastes no time in assembling his undead troops. The Doom Wolf is sent on ahead, while the Vampire bats fly off to a rocky outcrop in ambush.

The Dwarfs, led by Master Engineer Burlock Damminson move the cannon into position as the gyrocopter whirls by. The Runesmith and Giant Slayer locate the Winged Nightmare and order the troops of Longbeards and Thunderers to assemble in formation.

Dieter summons a banshee and raises skeleton archers, spearmen and a unit of filthy zombies.

The zombies are eventually cut down by fire from the cannon and the thunderers, but the Doom Wolf gets past with a little help from Danse Macabre and leaps up to attack the gyrocopter mid flight. The pilot stuggles to keep the machine airborne whist kicking away at the snapping jaws.

The Slayer chases down the banshee after the screams do little to rattle the longbeards and in one fell swipe, send the spirit to her final death with his rune axe.
Meanwhile, the copter pilot pulls away, lining up the vampire bats with the steam cannon and the Runesmith terminates the Doom Wolf with a single blow of his hammer.

The remaining bats charge the thunderers, nearly breaking their nerve, however the eyes of the longbeards are upon them and they regain their nerve, and shoot one of the bats on approach. The wicked claws of the beast rend one of the thunderers to shreds. The longbeards seize the opportunity to charge the bat in the flank and kill it instantly.

Dieter sees his window of opportunity and charges the copter, the pilot throwing a bomb against the beast, but to no avail. The Runesmith charges in to support and a vicious battle between Necromancer, Runesmith, pilot and beast ensues. In a fleeting moment, Dieter casts the Gaze of Nagash at the Dragonslayer and rots the flesh from his bones until all turns to ash, the rune axe falling to the ground while the Necromancer drags the magic out of the Runesmiths' amulet.

Burlock and the cannon crew cannot get a clear shot at Dieter, so instead blow the archer skeletons to splintered bones. The rest of the skeletons charge the thunderers and are in turned charged by the longbeards and the clash of arms and shields sounds all around the battlefield.

Eventually, the longbeards win out against the skeletons, amid the loss of several thunderers.

With the battle turning against him, Dieter again casts the gaze and this time turns the Runesmith to ash, regaining the upper hand with the winds of magic. The beast rips into the gyrocoper boiler and the pilot breaks away from the battlefield, the copter trailing thick black smoke and making alarming engine noises.

Free from combat, the Necromancer turns the nightmare to the longbeards and the terror of the beast is so great that they cannot hold their ground, but break and run, causing the thunderers to also panic and break. The longbeards are caught and the beast tears them to bloody ribbons, their banner falls into the dust. The thunderers flee into the woods.

Determined not to give up, Damminson orders the cannon crew to shoot and at the last second clears the breach that would have caused a misfire. Instead, the cannonball strikes the beast in the wing, ripping a huge shred of it apart. Detiers' attempt at summoning zombies on the crew is thwarted by the magic resistance of the dwarves.

With black magic in his eyes, Dieter gazes upon Burlock and unable to do anything to prevent it, is turned to grave dust before the crew. The crew hold their nerve and fire a cannonball directly at the Necromacer, but his magic braces stop the missile mid air and it falls harmlesly to the ground.

Smiling a wicked smile, he then casts the Curse of Years on the crew who begin to age rapidly, their beards turning grey and white.
"Longbeards! I'll give you longbeards!" he yells and one of the crew dies, now a crippled geriatric, gasping his final breath. 

"Curse you, foul wizard!" yells one of the crew and sends a cannonball right through the centre of the nightmare, causing it to collapse to the ground in a bloody mess. Dieter crashes to the earth, but picks himself up from the ruin of his creation as the cannon crew struggle to reload.

Then the worst happens for the dwarfs as the cannon does not fire - with one crew member down, the problem with the breach returns and with no watchful eye of the engineer to prevent it. The crew's faces become roadmaps of wrinkles, arthritis kicks in as they desperately try to clear the breach.  One falls to the ground as his kidneys fail and the other drops to his knees, his bones terminally frail and falls over face down, now only a withered husk.

Alone on the battlefield amid bones and corpses, Dieter Helsnicht tilts his head back and laughs a roaring laugh that echoes all through the night.