Undaunted by the massacre of Baron Odo’s retinue by the Orcs and Goblins a month past, Lord Raymond and his valiant companions set forth to break through the Greenskins holding the Silk Road.
Once again, the battle for the Silk Road
began with artillery fire as a suicidal goblin devastated a unit of mounted
squires, sending the remaining horsemen into a headlong flight from which they
were easily hunted down by goblin wolfriders.
The approach of a horde of Night Goblins bristling with spears sent the
remainder of the Bretonnian mounted squires into flight. For their part the Savage Orcs were given
some pause when a huge chunk of masonry hurled through the air by the
Bretonnian’s trebuchet crushed fourteen of their number to bloody pulp.
With these preliminaries over Lord Raymond ordered his trumpeter to sound a general charge and, without waiting to see if his orders had been carried out lead his personal retinue into a headlong charge which smashed through an approaching Snotling pumpwagon and then into the lumbering unit of trolls. Unfortunately, disastrous miscommunication meant that the realm knights riding under Sir Thierulf and the Questing knights mistimed their own charges and found their horses spent and vulnerable before engaging the enemy!
Seizing the momentum, the dread orc warboss lead his Savage Orcs hurtling into the bewildered Realm knights and their exhausted chargers. The result was as bloody as it was predictable: most of the Bretonnian knights and Sir Phillipe himself fell defending their banner, and a shamed Sir Thierulf and a lone companion were forced to turn and escort their damsel to safety with howling and jeering Savage Orcs snapping at their heels! Meanwhile the horrific mangler squig tore through the remaining mounted squires devouring all, steed and rider, leather, steel and flesh.
Unaware of the fate of his reserves behind him, Lord Raymond issued a challenge to the foul orc battle standard bearer whose job it was to keep the trolls in line (and from eating too many goblins) and, after exchanging several mighty blows, Lord Raymond cut down the mighty orc. Leaderless, the bewildered trolls lumbered away, allowing Lord Raymond to claim the Greenskin battle standard before he and his retinue reformed ready to come to the aid of his beleaguered troops.
The Questing knights, meanwhile, had been prevented from coming the aid of their knightly compatriots against the savage orcs by the cowardly but wily night goblins who bogged them down in a sea of spears, and the impetuous knights Errant were in turn prevented from riding to join the Questing knights by the harrying guerrilla tactics of sly goblin wolfriders. All over the battlefield the Bretonnian knights were scattered and unable to bring the force of their charge to bear.
When (the remainder of) Lord Raymond’s personal retinue and the young knights errant finally managed to charge into the flanks of the Night goblins they caused considerable slaughter but it was too little, too late. With the return of the victorious savage orcs and their awe-inspiring warboss, the wavering Night goblins found renewed purpose and held firm. The savage orcs charged into the rear of the remaining Questing knights, who were impaled on the spears of the night goblins by the ferocity of the assault and butchered to a man. Lord Raymond and his sole remaining vassal were driven back into shameful flight, and Lord Raymond himself met with an ignomious death, slain by a goblin doom-diver.
With the dying of the light all that remained of the once-proud Bretonnian force were the once headstrong knights errant, stunned into silence by the death and defeat all around them, and a sea of corpses and bloodied silk of a once proud Bretonnian host.
The savage orc warboss stood atop the mound of Bretonnian dead and bellowed his mighty war-cry, in one hand the once-proud banners of four knightly units and Raymond's battle standard, in the other the head of Lord Raymond himself: "Waaaaaaaaaaagh!"
The Battle of Bloody Banners, part of
the Border Princes War of 2516-2518 IC
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Date:
25th Mittherbst, 2516 IC
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Location:
The Central Silk Road, in the vicinity of Malko
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Result:
Orc & Goblin Crushing Victory
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Belligerents
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Bretonnians (Lord Raymond’s Valiant Vassals)
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Orcs and Goblins
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Commanders
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Lord Raymond †
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Other
Leaders
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Sir Phillipe, Bearer of Lord Raymond’s Standard†
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Regine, Prophetess of the Lady (†?)
Sir Thierulf
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Therese, Damsel of the Lady
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Strength
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2250 pts.
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2250 pts.
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Trophies
Siezed
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1 Battle Standard (1 pt.)
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1 Battle Standard, 3 Standards, Lord Raymond’s Head (6 pts.)
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†=killed in battle
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