Halpi's Rift: Seizing the Keys

 The Halpi's Rift campaign and update book is this year's supplement for Kings of War, it includes some lore and also extra magic spells and effects to spice up your games. We decided to play some linked games with alternating Vanguard and KoW games taking place across the various planes of magic detailed in the book. Before the armies could reach open the portal to the other planes they required a key (or keys) and fortunately they had heard of the power Artefacts of Kyron that had previously been brought to the region many moons ago during a war between the Twilight Kin and one of the many Kingdoms of Men.

Once again a Kingdom of Men force is vying for the power that comes with control of powerful (and unpredictable) magic but this time they are facing off against the Undead hordes controlled by Lady Mhorgana.

No one knows the exact origins of Lady Mhorgana but it is believed she was once a powerful human sorceress who became envious of the long life-span of her Elven counterparts. Her envy pushed her down the path of studying the dark art of Necromancy and her natural power allowed her to become a true master of the art and extend her un-life almost indefinitely.
Over the centuries she built up a large army of re-animated servants as she defiled tomb after tomb, though lately she has recruited underlings to raise the dead whilst she employs her power to control her servants.
Now she has noticed the powerful new magic emanating from the Halpi Mountains and is determined that it should be hers alone.  

In order to seize these powerful artefacts both sides despatched their Vanguard forces, small elite bands of warriors trained in raids and special operations. The forces of Lady Mhorgana are lead by Burke the Animator.

Once a common grave robber with a natural aptitude for magic, Burke's life changed when he fell foul of Lady Mhorgana whilst out plying his wicked craft. Now in the thrall of the Lady he acts as her chief scout and animator, always on the look out for new graves & tombs to rob and fresh recruits for her army. Burke works on the promise of riches and an existence as long as his mistresses. Only success can bring these rewards as failing the Lady can only bring pain and damnation.

The Men where being lead by the enigmatic Leader, Leader of Men, it is thought he may be related to Hero, Hero of Men, and The Captain (Captain of Men), but the genealogy is somewhat confused.

During the first turn both sides advanced towards the centre objective and the Men covered the right objective with their Skirmishers whilst the Undead pushed Radolf the Werewolf and the Soul Reaver Pascal over to that side as well.

At the end of turn 1 things looked set for a big clash in the centre and for the Undead to try and close on the Men's ranged troops on the flank.

The first act of turn two was for the two Skirmishers to fire on Radolf as a group shoot. The first had been upgraded to a Hunter as part of the Leaders retinue, this give the Hunter the Pound special rule which means if he scores 3 hits the target is automatically knocked down. The Hunter managed to get his 3 hits and also caused 2 wounds (Radolf had 4 health to start with) and so Radolf was knocked to the group and badly wounded. The second skirmisher fired and also manged to cause 2 wounds, as Radolf was already on the ground he needed to make a nerve test or be incapacitated (all rolls on a D8), with a nerve of 4+ he duly rolled a 2 and was removed from the battle.

This left Pascal and the rest of the Undead on the back-foot and not wishing to share the fate of Radolf he moved over into the centre near Burke.

What followed for the next few turns until round 5 (the last of the game) was largely a stalemate, with the Men not wishing to be first onto the hill and the Undead spending time raising fresh skeletons and losing a few bodies to shooting.

Burke sent a newly raised Skeleton wide left and right in order to be able to contest the two objectives during the last turn and at the end of turn four the Undead lurched into action. Using the warband special Surge (2) ability to get a free move and then a group defence (move and then brace) Burke managed to position the three Revenants in front of the central objective and in a defensive posture which made them more difficult to kill.

The last turn saw Leader (Leader of Men) realise he could not hope to battle through to the central objective (4 Victory Points) but that he could win via holding both of the others (3 VP's each). Burke for the Undead managed to threaten his right objective enough to keep drawing forces to that side with the loss of only some newly raised Skeletons.

In the centre the Undead held strong and scored 4VP's.

On the Undead right the Men took control of the objective having killed a Skeleton contesting it and scored themselves 3 VP's.

On the Undead left the objective was contested but Pascal did manage a bit of revenge when he charged in and killed one of the Foot Guards. Once the battle was complete we rolled off for ownership of the banner and the Undead came away with the trophy.

So the Undead came away 4-3 victors which looked unlikely when Radolf died so early on, but them Men fearful of losses so early in the campaign chose the path of safety rather than glory and did not push the advantage.

Each side can now carry the artefacts they control into the next battle to gain the following benefits:

Sword of Striking – unit gains Elite rule for melee
Armour of Recuperation – unit gains regen 6+ , this does not stack if unit already has regen
Banner of Kyron – unit gains inspiring 

This battle was fought with 150 points a side:

Undead

1 * Necromancer
3 * Skeleton Archers
3 * Revenants
1 * Soul Reaver
1 * Werewolf

Men

1 * Leader
2 * Skirmisher
2 * Foot Guard
1 * Foot Soldier
1 * Wizard
1 * Ogre Warrior

The next battle will be KoW 2,000 points, playing the Dominate scenario, as both sides seek to activate the Portal.