Xarxes the Lower Abyssal at Black Dragon's Danger Below

Greetings Abyssal-fodder. Xarxes the lower abyssal here, welcome to my blog.

I’d better start with a bit about myself. As you know, I’m a lower abyssal from the first circle of the Abyss, which, to be honest, is not that exciting a place. I mean there’s only so much torturing of humans that you can do before it becomes boring. Anyway, I fell in with a band of environmental activist abyssals who were campaigning for an end to the pestilential toxic miasma we have to breathe. Our activism got a bit out of hand and I was sent as a punishment to the army, ending up as a foot slogger in the 13th Horde.

When I joined up, my old dad gave me 3 pieces of advice:
• Don’t mess with a Hellquin.
• Never volunteer for a posting to a unit of chaff.
• Avoid getting downwind of an Abyssal Despoiler.
Wise words indeed. And advice I hope to stick to in our latest fight. My unit has been slated to join with the Twilight Kin in The Danger Below campaign in Hinckley. Since the army contains no Hellquins or Despoilers, 2 out of 3 already achieved. Now the bad news, only half of the 13th Horde is deploying so we are only at Regimental strength and a quick look at the rest of the army suggests that, apart from 2 troops of Gargoyles, we are the cheapest unit – a role as chaff might be looming. I also see that we are the slowest unit in the army, so no respite for our poor feet.
The rest of the army includes a dark lord on dragon, 2 standard bearers, spearmen, 2 troops gargoyles, 2 units abyssal riders and some chariots. And Ba’su’su. Here’s a picture of the boys. You can see me towards the centre in the second row, I’m the one waving, “Hello Mum”.

Anyway, we’re about to set off now as the battle is a long walk from here. I’ll keep you posted as to how it goes.

XXX

Xarxes the lower abyssal here, welcome to the first battle of the Danger Below campaign in Hincksey.
After a long journey we arrived at our bivouac site on Friday evening. We were accompanied on the journey by General Andy’s Undead army and we were able to spend the evening preparing for battle and attempting to relax. I myself have a well-thumbed Barbara Cartland novel to help me unwind from the stresses of torturing other races.

Battle one was to be a Ransack scenario against Revenant Ben’s Undead. He had 2 legions of Zombies, horde of Wights, horde of Skeletons, regiment of Revenants, 2 regiments of Mummies, troop of Wraiths, Vampire on Pegasus, Revenant King and 2 Necromancers. The boss decided to go for it in the game by concentrating on winning our right flank while holding on the left. This meant defeating the 2 Zombie legions which was achieved by outflanking with the Dragon and then hitting the legions with combo-charges. Things even went better on the left where some poor luck for the enemy meant we were able to survive some dodgy combats and then counter-charge to kill (again) the Undead.

 (The battlefield early on)

The game ended with a big win and the only units routed in our army were, as predicted, the 2 troops of Gargoyles … and my regiment of Lower Abyssals.

XXX

Following our success in the first battle we marched on to a new battlefield where we were faced by General Dave and his Nature army in a Raze scenario. Lots of vanguarding, shambling trees, Air Elementals, 2 Beasts of Nature and a Druid.

The Boss had a cunning plan involving 4 elements:

  1. Holding up the trees with Gargoyles
  2. Hitting them in the face with the Abyssal Riders
  3. Outflanking with the Chariots, Dragon and Basusu
  4. Destroying the trees quickly and then turning to face the rest of the foes

 (The battlefield before disasterstruck)

This was a cunning 4 step plan plan that worked well except for 4 minor details.

  1. The Gargoyles deployed and were charged by the shambling trees, only for one of them to survive 2 turns of combat against a regiment of trees.
  2. Being wavered the Gargoyles blocked the planned charge into the front by our Abyssal Riders.
  3. The Dragon was hit by several lightning bolts on turn 1 and then suffered an unlucky waver.
  4. This slowed won the army which became bogged down in combat with the trees allowing the Air Elementals and Beasts to outflank us.

In a strange reversal of fortune, the only units we had lefty alive at the end of the game were the 2 standards bearers and our Abyssal Regiment. A dispiriting loss.

XXX

On to a new battlefield for an invade scenario where we faced General James and his Ogres, comprising: Grokagamok, Nomgarok, Hell on Wheels, 2 hordes of Warriors, horde of Boomers, Giant and a Blaster.

Our role in the battle was to advance along the left flank and act as flank protection. The rest of the army would advance, use the Gargoyles to slow the Chariots then hit everything in the face with the Dragon outflanking. This seemed like a good plan to us as our slower speed meant that we would arrive after the bulk of the fighting had been completed. And then the Ogres deployed their Blaster on our flank, and our role changed subtly to being the sacrificial lambs ordered to detonate the Blaster.
We advanced towards the Blaster with our fingers crossed and when it exploded we let out a cheer when we found we had survived. Our raised spirits did not last long as we were then pressed into action as a suicide squad to hold up Grokagamok for a turn while the rest of the army destroyed the bulk of the ogres.

 (Kill those  Ogres)

The plan worked with our army destroying the bulk of the Ogres – but again we loaded the dead bodies of our comrades onto the post-battle funeral pyre as we had been routed for the second time today.

XXX

On to the final battle of the day in which we were to face General John’s Elves in a Dominate scenario. The Elves included: Dragon Lord, Green Lady, Mage, horde and regiment of archers, horde of spearmen, regiment of Place Guard, regiment of Stormwind Cavalry, regiment of Drakons.
The terrain was with us as there was a big hill on our side shielding us from the enemy archers and with woods and hills offering covered approaches to the enemy. And then the boss lost it big time. What did he do with all that lovely cover? He pushed everything else around the flanks and marched the PBI (poor b****y infantry) up the hill straight towards the enemy. And when we were up we were up. And then we fell down dead. The army did all right on the left flank where Basusu and some Abyssal Riders killed the enemy’s dragon and Stormwind. On the right flank, the boss had another moment of madness and threw away our Dragon to no good purpose but did then manage to kill the Drakons and Speramen. To prevent the enemy Archers moving into the Dominate zone, a troop of Gargoyles charged the regiment, amazingly doing 4 wounds, and Basusu lined up a charge on the Archer horde only to be hit by the Mage’s breath attack, needing 11 on the nerve roll to kill Basusu, the enemy rolled … 11. Re-roll … 12. Oh dear.

Our BSB marched up in a forlorn hope to delay the enemy but was killed and the overrun took the Archers forward. On the left flank, the Abyssal Riders took too long to kill the Palace Guard and did not have time to make it to the centre and on the right, the Green Lady held up the other Abyssal Riders.
Final calculations showed that the Archer horde had made it into the Dominate zone giving us another loss … and the third time today that my regiment had been routed.

 (Short of an earthquake shifting the centre spot, that's a win to the Elves)

That’s it, I’m putting in for a transfer – I wonder if there are any vacancies in the Abyssal Riders?

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Great report!
Keep em coming :slight_smile:

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