The final surge of the Conclave

It was a cold morning, the men were tired, and had been in their saddles all night. The army had been on the march from sun up to sun-down for days now, and, for the final day, had marched throughout the night, but finally, they were no more then 2 hours from their destination, Middenhiem. Approaching from the south, the scouts had been killing Chaos watchmen throughout the night, and now the entire chaos army was clearly in site. The city looked like a stone in a river, and as solid as rock. The forces of Chaos were being engaged in battles on many sides of the city, but they could not be expecting what was to come.

As dawn broke, a messenger came that Enthardon had come to see the commander. Ricold greeted the elf with joy, and the news was not as dire as he had thought. The City had been holding, and driving the chaos forces back each day. The Skaven were a problem, but were being dealt with, and the support from Talabhiem with the King should be arriving within a day or two. And so, the army of the Conclave of the Light Alliance was distributed to wipe out everything they could face...

To the West were deployed the Elves. With Enthardon at their head, this was an elite set of shock troops that had met earlier. A slightly wild set of troops, many elves had been picked up along the way from smaller forces.

To the middle deployed the Empire and the Dwarves. A large lump of artillery, carried up from Altdorf on large carriages made up the core of this. All the middle section was on foot, the Knights having been sent ahead to tell the leaders in Middenhiem that help had arrived. At their head sat Ricold. Old and experienced, he was beyond his fighting years now, but as the gatherer of the forces, he was determined to see the victory.

To the east were the Bretonnians. Lead by Etienne D’Arden, they were a fantastic sight in all their livery. They had been gathered from the court at Parravon, and had been influential in setting up the Conclave army.

As they were being deployed, they caught the attention of the one and only Archaon, Lord of End times. He gathered a suitable array of his mutated Chaos Undivided, and prepared to attack.

As the Chaos forces marched forward, the Conclaves orders were to hold, hold, hold. As long as the artillery could rain long distance death down on the chaos hordes, they were to be left unengaged. Hordes of Chaos warriors fell to the Hellblasters, the Cannon and the Dwarven stone throwers. But at a critical point, the artillery, unable to find high ground, fell back, allowing the infantry to stand in the way, and the Cavalry of the Elves and the Bretonnians charged.

It was a bloody mess, men, elves and Dwarves fell fast. The Chaotic hordes were falling too, but there were too many of them. Slowly the order to fall back was spread, and the infantry of the Dwarves and the humans got into combat. They fought well, they fought hard, but the Chaos hordes seemed to have no ends. Finally, as the Conclave seemed to be defeated, the Chaos armies seemed to start falling back. The alliance wasted no time pressing this weakness, surging forward to crush the Chaotic hordes.

The death toll was huge, but the battle was won. Archaon himself ordered a retreat back from the forces of the Conclave, but they were too wearied to press it any further. As they re-gathered, their savour was identified. Three Slaan had been approaching from the west, with hordes of Lizardmen to help. At their head was a Slaan known as Thee Forsaken One. He met with Enthardon as the conclave regrouped, and was thanked heartily by the Elf. Without all the forces of light banding together, the day could not have been won.

But, victory tasted as bitter as defeat ever could. For when the troops were re-gathered, it was reported that Ricold and Archaon had managed to come to blows. While a old fighter, Ricold had come on the Lord of end times by Surprise, and had wounded him on the charge, but a swift blow from Archaon’s shield had knocked Ricold off his horse. As Archaon’s knights had closed in, the human’s had had to give ground, and Ricold’s body was not recovered, not confirmed dead, or alive.

The Blessing of the Lady had kept most of the Bretonnians alive and strong, and it was them that were seen tending to the wounded in camp. Etienne D’Arden himself had slain many a chaos warrior, with only bumps and bruises in return. The same was to be said of many of his fellow knights, and blessed be the Lady for that.

The troops of the Conclave’s army were wearied from travelling so far and hard, and even more so for the battle. The army as a whole would need a few days to rest, and with luck, Valten and Karl Franz would be to Middenhiem by then.