And it's over! It was a very hard-fought battle.
Gorefist's plan of a pre-dawn attack was thwarted by his own men, as getting orcs, goblins, beastmen, and humans onto the field and into formation took far longer than he wanted. It was past 10 by the time the Chaos forces began their advance upon the Imperial lines.
Below, an image mid-battle. The Imperial cavalry saw off the goblin wolf riders with little problem, but goblin fanatics slowed their advance some and goblin archers caused a few casualties with long-range volley fire. The dwarf clansmen fought fiercely with the Toechomper goblins but eventually, at risk of being surrounded, they were forced to flee for the safety of their own lines! (the goblins subsequently fled from Hammerers and were run down by knights, so dwarf honor was avenged). In the center, the orcish regiments ran the gauntlet of cannon and crossbow fire, and smashed aside the Grunburg halberdiers. However, the Knights of the Broken Sword cut their own hole through the Chaos battleline, sweeping across Gorefist's path before he could engage them and causing considerable havoc in the backfield. On the road on the Imperial right, the Trollslayers earned an honorable death at the hands of a giant and a contingent of warriors of Nurgle while the Middenland spears held the line against a War-Gor on a chariot. Sadly, their initial victory gave them an abundance of overconfidence, and they were subsequently routed and slaughtered by Warriors of the Dark Gods. Goblin wolf riders with spears attacked a detachment of halberdiers, who held briefly before routing; the goblins would go on to tear through another detachment and then a regiment of handgunners by battle's end!
This scenario gave victory points for specific objectives (ie, destroy enemy unit = +1, capture enemy banner = +1, etc.). Actual unit values were irrelevant. The Empire received bonus points if they killed Gorefist (they didn't), captured his battle standard (they didn't), and controlled table quarters, as control of the field would allow them to subsequently contain and destroy the Chaos forces. Chaos got major bonus points for capturing the watchtower (they did) and taking control of the table quarter with the ford, as that would give them a clear path to Grunburg so that they could sack the city. A table quarter was controlled by having 10 models and no enemies, or by having three times the enemy's unit strength present.
At battle's end, a single Imperial halberdier regiment held the ford - 20 brave men in the growing darkness, ready to take on whatever came across the waters. Chaos had a unit strength in the table quarter of...59.
One model. ONE CHAOS MODEL would have given them 5 victory points.
Final score? Empire 15, Chaos 14.
As darkness fell, it became apparent that Gorefist's army had failed to seize the crossing. Come morning, the Imperial forces would hold both his front and his flank, and while no one doubted that finishing the job would be a hard task, it was clear that Grunburg was not going to be sacked this time. Frustrated by the failings of his greenskin and beastman troops, Gorefist fell back with the unbroken core of his army - his iron-clad warriors and elite sworn knights - promising to return and exact vengeance upon the city that withstood him.
This time.
