The massed horde stood before the city of Nuln, the River Aver and the Upper Reik serving as the only barrier between the city and imminent death. The defenders of Nuln looked upon the massed horde with great fear and despair, there stood the promise of death. The defenders had entrenched themselves well in the levees and prepared to punish the Chaos horde when they attacked.
Through sorcery and mayhem, the sky darkened before the sun had reached it's zenith and cast the battlefield in an unnatural darkness. It was then that the assembled masses of Tamurkhan were given the signal to attack and the deafening sound of hundreds of thousands of throats roaring in unison caused many a bladder on the defender's side to weaken. Then the horde attacked...
Magic, arrows and artillery flew through the air causing explosions and great gout's of flame erupted all over the battle field as the battle was joined. Daemon, dragon, man and monster all fought in a clash of steel and claw. Many times the defender's line would buckle only to receive reinforcements at the last moment to prevent from being overrun. Knightly orders would slam into the Chaos horde's line and flatten hundreds beneath their charge only to be instantly swallowed up by the enemy when they were able to close ranks. Trolls and Ogres would barrel forward only to evaporate in a crimson mist as cannon balls and rocket batteries exploded into them in fire and blood. Tales of bravery and despair ran rampant through out the day, the steely resolve of the defenders versus the unholy savagery of the horde.
The battle raged on for hours with tens of thousands of warriors dying in an orgy of blood and slaughter. Sayl the Faithless and his Kurgen host fled the battlefield after the gauntlet of Nuln artillery had annihilated half their forces. Kazyk the Befouled and his Rot Knights finally were decimated after rampaging through the lines of the Opposition and slaying a full fifty times their number. Countess Elspeth von Draken astride her Carmine Dragon smote the Great Unclean One named Tallyman using her Death magic. Slowly the key points of the Opposition's lines held against the unstoppable onslaught. Tamurkhan seeing that his horde was failing against the anvil of the Opposition realized the Throne of Chaos was slipping from his grasp. Tamurkhan ordered that one final ritual begin to unleash a host of plagues upon the world that would ravage mankind and put the Throne of Chaos firmly within his grasp. This is when the Countess's Champion, Theodore Bruckner astride his Demigryph mount Reaper was ordered to stop Tamurkhan no matter what the cost.
Bruckner and the assembled host of dozens of knightly orders blazed their way through the very heart of the Chaos horde to reach the Maggot Lord and his great Toad Dragon. Elspeth and several other wizards rained magic down and managed to finally slay the mightly Toad Dragon while Theodore challenged Tamurkhan. Tamurkhan charged Theodore in a berserk rage only to be encased in magical fire, it's amethyst flames scouring his plagued skin and causing him to howl in agony. It was during this moment that Reaper set upon him and ravaged the Maggot Lord's body, claw and beak tearing great chunks from his flesh and gouging massive furrows in his body. The enchanted axe of the Maggot Lord descended and brought down Reaper but not before the dying animal had taken his toll, Theodore hopped free as his loyal mount died beside him and drew his blade. Tamurkhan, his body a torn ruin, fell to one knee gushing blackened maggots from his awful wounds. It was then that the great grey maggot erupted from the body of Tamurkhan as it had many times before.
"The obscene creature lurched forth like a striking cobra and fastened itself over Theodore Bruckner's terrified face, crunching through leather and bone and pulsing and writhing within the flesh, delicate bones splintering like pistol shots as the maggot forced its way down.
The talisman around Bruckner's neck burst into furious life, like a burning star unleashed in the night. In a roaring flash there was nothing but blackened crumbling bone where the Countess's champion had stood, and in an instant later even that had been consumed, and Tamurkhan the Maggot Lord with it."
With the death of Tamurkhan, the daemons of Nurgle on the field of battle burst into flames and turned to ash within seconds. The Chaos horde broke and fled from the field of battle, despite the numerous attempts by other Chaos champions to rally.
And so ended the saga of Tamurkhan, he who sought the Throne of Chaos...
However... there is still one who's story has yet to be told. "Blinded by burning metal, abandoned and scorned by his people. He who had risen so high - who men called Faithless - was left a beggar upon the road in a realm of the lost and desolate. Condemned by the Dark Gods to his black penance. A stranger in a strange land, but far from helpless." His story shall also be told...
Tamurkhan, Throne of Chaos - Phase Six Results:
The Throne of Chaos
I am pleased to announce that the Tamurkhan, Throne of Chaos Campaign has reached completion. I have had so much fun running this online campaign which is unlike anything I have had the opportunity to manage before. This phase used the special scenario "The Battle of the Bloody Levees" which was worth a whopping 7 Campaign Points to the winner. Here is the breakdown of the battles reported over this month long phase.
Total Games Reported this Phase: 48
Total Opposition Wins/Points Total: 24 - 136 Campaign Points
Total Chaos Horde Wins/Points Total: 20 – 117 Campaign Points
Total Draws: 4
Special Scenario played (Battle of the Bloody Levees): 25
Special Scenario played (Battle of the Bloody Levees): 25
Narrative Battles: 11
Storm of Magic: 3
Storm of Magic: 3
Total Campaign Points
Opposition: 336
Chaos Horde: 335
Total Games Reported over Entire Campaign: 252 games.
The Opposition WINS the Tamurkhan, Throne of Chaos Campaign by the Deployment Zone by ONE point!
Notable Battles for Phase 6:
Dwarfs vs. Chaos Dwarfs (Legion of Azgorh) - 3400 points - Cincinnati, Ohio
Tony and his friend Jacob squared off against each other in a 3400 point battle of dwarf love. This battle could easily be described at the ideal "Pretty Hate Machine" since both sides were chock full of warmachines and tanks. Jacob was using a twin Iron Daemon and twin K'Daii Destroyer list against Tony's massive blocks of great weapon warriors and cannons. This battle used the Battle of the Bloody Levees rules but did not take advantage of the Chaos Host rules.
The Chaos Dwarves scored a victory in this game at the end of turn 6 by a slim margin of 233 Victory Points.
Tomb Kings vs. Skaven - 3000 points - Winnipeg, Manitoba
Jeremy and his wife Peggy decided to iron out their marital differences in a friendly game of Battle of the Bloody Levees. Both armies that were taken were definitely NOT suited for the scenario since Peggy chose to bring a Tomb King army with 2 big units of chariots and Jeremy brought a Screaming Bell, a Plague Furnace and two Doomwheels. Having read the battle report, the river seemed to be the MVP of the game since it destroyed both Doomwheels, the Furnace and an entire unit of chariots. In the end Peggy managed to score a win for the Opposition by a fairly large margin of almost 1100 Victory points. Apparently Jeremy's Grey Seer poofed into the realm of chaos when he got a little excited trying to cast warp lightning.
Empire vs. Horde of Chaos - 3000/3750 points - Somewhere in the UK
Takuo and Mike squared off in yet another Battle of the Bloody Levees but this time they used the Hordes of Chaos rule. Takuo had a really good Empire army put together chock full of artillery, the new toys and two massive blocks of halberds flanked by Reiksguard and Greatswords. Mike chose to mix Warriors of Chaos, Beastmen and Daemons together with him using an absolute ton of Marauders, Chaos Warriors and Gors. The patron of the Chaos Horde was a Paragon of Change so he was using a lot of magic to augment his army. This game lasted five turns and ended up with the Hordes of Chaos running rampant all over the Empire.
Warriors of Chaos vs. Ogre Kingdoms - 2800 points - at Ancient Wonders in Tualatin, OR
My friends Bryan and Jeremy squared off in a preparation game for our OFCC event. Bryan was playing Warriors of Chaos while Jeremy was using his favorite the Ogres. This was Bryan's first Warhammer Fantasy game and it resulted in Bryan scoring a big victory! Score a win for the Chaos Horde. Well done Bryan!
The Great Hunt, War Host of Athel Loren vs. The Delicious Pustules - Wood Elves vs. Chaos Host - 3600/4500 points - at Ancient Wonders in Tualatin, OR
My friend Larry and I squared off to battle each other for the final game of my Tamurkhan campaign. I had wanted my last game to be against a Nurgle themed army and who better to play against than Larry! Larry is a diehard Nurgle fan and I could count on him to make a fluffy, fun and awesomely themed Nurgle Chaos Host using the Hordes of Chaos rules for scenario six. Here is a quick image of the set up before we played and sadly my batteries died cause John can't be bothered to change them out more than once a year...
The white and green line in the center was to represent the river (we couldn't find blue felt so we made due with a 40k road turned upside down). As you can see the board was set up fairly straight forward with a few hills, some forests and the big river. The battle was supposed to take place outside the city so having a lot of random terrain didn't seem fitting for a blasted battlefield.
I brought 3600 points of Wood Elves against Larry's frightening 4500 points of Warriors of Chaos and Nurgle Chaos Daemons. I was able to score first turn and as a result I was able to slay the general's unit of Chaos knights and shift my battle line to one side of the board. This allowed me to avoid a pretty devastating chunk of Larry's army including his Sorcerer of Nurgle and line up near the river to receive the charges. Using the river as my main facet of defense, I was able to stand firm and take out specific units I needed to and gain the upper hand by the bottom of turn 3. It also was an extraordinary help that Larry was rolling pretty shitty and I wasn't. By the end of turn four I had slain Larry's general, the BSB and a good 1/2 his army while only losing less than 1/5 of mine. Larry looked at the board and realized that he wouldn't be able to kill enough by the bottom of turn six to catch up and so he decided to concede the game and Wood Elves scored a much needed victory for the campaign.
This game was the final game of the campaign and I had not compiled points yet, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the Chaos Horde was six points ahead of the Opposition before my game and after it the Opposition was ahead by a single point. Thanks for the game Larry! Also, I would like to point out that Larry is an exceptional opponent. He doesn't usually make mistakes and while he has the tendency to blurt out tapestries of expletives that would make a sailor blush, he always does his best to make whatever game he is playing enjoyable.
I would like to thank every person who participated and reported games to me over the past six months. This was a pretty large time investment but I had a great time running this campaign. I would also like to point out that most of the games reported were from all over the country rather than just the Pacific Northwest. This shows that our podcast and my blog are being listened and read by a very diverse group of gamers and that is awesome!
The three winners of the raffle will be announced during Episode 16 of The Deployment Zone podcast which will be available via iTunes or our website soon. (Link to the website is in upper right hand corner of the blog). On behalf of Bryan, Josh and I we would like to thank everyone who participated in the Deployment Zone's first online campaign and based on the numbers and participation we received for this event over such a long period of time, you can bet I'll be willing to do something like this again in the future.
Thank you again!
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