I'm playing in a Mighty Empires campaign. I recently had a battle against some Forest Spirits. All Dryads, Treekin, Treemen, and Treemen Ancients. Well except for on Spellsinger. Just to point out why he fielded four Treemen, he used the Elite army event so that he could field four Treemen (3 normal and 1 ancient). It was a bloody massacre, I wiped out everything of his. Of course he miscalculated his points on his Treekin and only used 1850 points against my 2,000 points. I didn't know though until after the game and he realized it while counting points, as I'm not versed in the Wood Elves army book.
Anyway here is what happened as told by the Wizard Lord, who led them into battle, to the General in charge of my forces in the campaign. This is part one and two in an unfolding story line. Sorry no pictures, I didn't have a camera with me.
Part 1
General Wolfgang Atrius Ghent stands in his field head quarters, bent over a table, studying a map of the surrounding countryside. He knows there are enemies surrounding him on all sides, but only one of those enemies has been determined. “If those scouts don’t return with their reports soon, they will be digging latrines for a week!” passes through the General’s mind. Shaking his head in irritation, he slams his fist down on the table and shouts, “Where in Sigmar’s name are those damn scouts? They were supposed to be back this morning!”
Leutnant Straus steps into the tent and replies “Sir none of them have yet returned, we fear they may have been killed or taken prisoner, but our lookouts have just reported that Hauptmann Delthos Mahkee’s unit of Swordsmen from Marienburg has been spotted. It looks like they will be here in time for our mobilization against the Forest Daemons.”
Snorting, General Ghent replies, “Hopefully their reputation as swordsmen is greater than their reputation as drunkards. They will be needed in our battle with the Daemons. When they arrive inform Hauptmann Mahkee he is to immediately report to me.” Waving his hand dismissing the Leutnant, he then turns toward the wizard who is looking at him with a smirk on his face. “And just what the hell is so funny Lichtermann? I just may assign those drunkards as your personal guard the next time you take the field.” He turns back to the table and smiles.
Part 2
Three days had passed since Wolfgang Ghent had sent the force to deal with the daemons in the forest. Having seen the black pillar of smoke near dusk, two days past, he wondered what had happened. He need not worry as exiting his tent, he spies the column of troops led by the Wizard Freidrik Lichtermann as they enter the camp. Surprisingly their numbers are not depleted significantly, although there will be some upset Noblemen back in Bechafen as it appears that only 1 of the young pistoliers has returned. There appear to be about 20 wounded men and maybe 20 more casualties. Unfortunately one of the precious Helblasters also appears to have been destroyed. “The Wizard and Hauptman Weigel appear to have accounted well for themselves against the daemons in the forest!” the General thinks to himself with pride.
Seeing the General standing outside his tent, Freidrik falls out of line from the troops and approaches the tent. “How did you fare?” General Ghent asks before the wizard gets within a spears length from the tent. Without waiting for a response he turns and goes back into the tent.
Following him into the tent Freidrik says with a bit of irritation at being addressed like one of the General’s underlings, “We made good time and deployed on the out skirts of the forest. No sooner had we set up, than the first of them appeared from the cover of the forest. It was as if the trees came to life, but in some daemonic form, and walked right out. There was one Elf sorcerer with them. Obviously a fell daemon worshipper, but her life was cut short by a canon ball that blasted through one large daemon and then her. All that remained was her foul head and legs.”
Sitting down on a stool next to the map table Freidrik continues, “Our ranged troops and our magic fire did an excellent job taking out the smaller tree daemons as they exited the forest. There were very few of them left when they got to our lines, only three of them on our right flank. Which was good as those three cut through a detachment of 10 crossbowmen without a loss of their own. Their fate was sealed in the end by one of my fireballs though. They are blindingly fast and our unit of pistoliers, who were on their right flank harassing their line, was caught unawares by a group of about 10 of the smallest and four pistoliers were cut down like wheat in the field. The remaining one escaped, but he has not been right in the head since then. He twitches and jumps at the sound of any small twig breaking and wakes at night screaming of the forest trying to kill him. I fear he will be of no use to us from here on out. Maybe there is something Arch Lector Von Trapp can do for him.
Shortly after the smaller daemons showed themselves, four of the largest of them exited the forest. It was as though some of the most ancient trees in the forest were given some unnatural life. One of them was at least 50 foot tall and had some of the most gnarled and twisted bark and limbs one has ever seen. This one in particular I knew I must destroy. It was not long until this giant one fell to the ground, just in front of our lines, ablaze from the gouts of fire I conjured to destroy it.
The other three were dispatched in short order by combined fire from our Handgunners, Helblasters, and the support of my magic. One of the large ones got close to our lines on our left flank and the shear terror of this monstrosity caused one unit of our handgunners to flee, unable to control them selves. They did manage to recover their senses before the battle was ended though and continued to contribute their firepower. By Morr, the other unit maintained their senses, but in the end all but three of them where killed. These daemons plunge their roots up from the ground and use them to strangle the life out of those close to them. It is a horrible site to see. Unfortunately, one of the Helblaster crew must have over packed a barrel with powder. The machine and crew were destroyed, but not before the barrels launched their fusillade and downed the tree daemon.
At this point the battle was nearly over, but there were three more medium sized tree daemons that exited the forest. Medium in a misnomer though as each of these are larger than a fully armored knight mounted on a barded warhorse. One of them was destroyed by a shot from our great cannon, and another was killed by my magic, but the remaining one was able to engaged a detachment of halberdiers and kill most of them. The thing then charged into the right flank of our spearmen led by Hauptmen Straus. It brought one of the brave men down but the shear mass of the unit overwhelmed it and saw it destroyed.
The three small daemons seeing the rest of their daemonic allies destroyed tried to flee the battlefield, but I stopped them with my magic fire. It was a total massacre.
We set about lighting all those tree daemons that were not lit by my and the other wizards magic. I know not what they are really made from but in the morning the largest and most ancient of them was gone, yet no large pile of ash remained, as there was with the other three. I can only assume that there was some kind of life left in the thing and it was able to put the flames out on itself during the night and get away. None of our sentries heard or more importantly saw a thing, which is weird as the bonfires burned through the night. There was ample light to see by so they should have seen it get up and leave.
We collected our dead the next day and set to burying them. In the afternoon we broke camp and returned. We spent the night miles from the forest edge and camped. We set out again this morning and here we are. I hope I’ve not left anything out…General.” Lichtermann finishes with out trying to disguise his indignant tone when uttering Wolfgang’s title.
“Good, and what of Hauptman Mahkee’s unit of Marienburg swordsmen? How did they handle themselves?” the General asks.
Responding tersely, “They did not flee, but they also did not test their blades. Our shooting and magic did not allow any of the daemons to engage them, which I am glad for as I was with them and prefer not to engage in hand to hand combat!”
Wolfgang smiles inside but keeps any smile from his face, as he believes it is poor form to show his troops emotion. “That will have to suffice then. It would have been better if the big one had not gotten away, but this will have to do. I only hope that we don’t have to deal with this threat again.”