Halpi's Rift: Portal

Last night we played out the last Vanguard game in our Halpi's Rift campaign. The aim was to score points by being in contact with the portal at the end of the turn. An element of peril was present in the form of a D8 roll for each model in contact at the end of each turn, on a 7 or 8 the model was sucked into the portal and removed from the game.

Both sides pushed up towards the portal during Turn 1 with the Undead having two models in contact and the Men one at the end of the turn. Some 'good' rolling by the Undead meant that the Revenant Turner was lost to the void. Strike one for the void. Necromancer Hare realised that disposable bodies were the key to victory so raised an additional skeleton. The Men had gone for a more elite force with no Grunts so didn't have the bodies to throw at the portal that the Undead could muster.

Turn 2 saw an exchange of ranged fire and as the Men pulled back into a line behind the hill Pascal the Soul Reaver charged the only Man in contact with the portal, his swings went astray and failed to kill the Foot Guard. A few more of the Undead made contact with the portal and the Undead scored an additional 3 points to the 1 of the Men. Unfortunately some more high rolls by the Undead saw both Pascal and Leonard (Revenant) disappear from the field. This meant the Undead had lost three good and experienced fighters to the portal and the Men none. Hare the Necromancer again raised another replacement Skeleton to try and keep the numbers up.

Turn 3 saw some intense combat in and around the portal with the Men's Ogre charging in to kill a Skeleton and then in turn being removed by Radolf the Undying (Werewolf) and Tasha (Revenant) in combination. One of the Men's Foot Guards also took out Akatasos (Skeleton Archer) who had been raised from amongst the Men's dead several weeks before. 

The Men again only scored 1 victory point with the Undead scoring a couple more.

Turn 4 sealed the Undead victory with the Men's Leader of Men charging Radolf who he failed to kill which was unfortunate as it only upset the Werewolf who disembowelled him in a furious round of combat. The Undead had by this point opened up enough of a lead that the Men could not even hope for a draw and the Men had also lost over half their Warband.

So a resounding if costly victory for the Undead with multiple casualties taken, mostly from the Portal.

Both Warbands now need to reform and join their main armies in time for the big battle which will round off the campaign.