Conquest of the Black Peninsula - Storming Zharr-Mag-Rud 1536ic

 

 With the estuary and its fortifications in Skaven hands and the second fleet, 'The Plague bearers' on station to enforce the blockade, the calamitous outcome of the Battle of Ithrag-Mun and the loss of the Black fortress sealed the citizens inside Zharr-Mag-Rud.

The action shoots back to the City of Zharr-Mag-Rud, the Chaos dwarves having secured for themselves a huge volume of stores for a long siege dig into their capital city and prepare to wait the Skaven out; before the Battle of Ithrag-Mun the last colonist ship arrived to bolster the mauled Chaos dwarf forces, taking the garrison up to 1000points.
 Throt Gutter Whisker commands the siege himself and having gained valuable knowledge of the stores and quantity of troops garrisoned there decides on an assault rather than trying to starve the defenders out, no less because other developments in the peninsula. During the last 4 years of campaigning since Throt Gutter Whisker arrived the division amongst the individual Dwarven holds as well as that of the Brettonian lords aided the two burgeoning empires during their expansion; however as time went on the fractures began to heal as the pressure of powerful outside enemies with the real possibility of invasion forced old enemies into cooperation if not friendship.

  A new coalition lead by the Dwarven clan Shimmer beards began to form, their capital being that of Anol-A-Luk; the capital was an odd place filled with Brettonians, Empire explorers, mercenaries and of course Dwarves. The Dur-Alin River allowed the Dwarven Trade fleets to enter the southern reaches of the Black sea, it also made Anol-A-Luk the congregating point for all the refugees fleeing west from the expanding Skaven and Chaos Dwarf empires. This rising power only a few hundred miles west of Skittervald threatened Throt Gutter Whisker with all previous attempts to create or induce diplomatic cooperation being rejected culminating in 1534ic when they Killed or shaved the representatives of the Skaven Diplomatic mission and sent them home.

The Storming of Zharr-Mag-Rud

Zharr-Mag-Rud was a fortress, a bastions of resistance to break the waves of Ratkin against its walls or tomb, a pile of timber and stone to contain the restless spirits of those cursed people, the Chaos Dwarves.

The shattered Chaos Dwarf armies manned the walls whilst patrols of Hobgoblins on Wolves scoured the countryside for Skaven. They came in the first months of 1536ic, Long columns of Clanrats, Rat Ogres and grinding war machines churning up the dirt roads; dragging with them long wagons of tarpaulin covered equipment.

The Ratkin were able to cut off and surround the landward approaches to the city, whilst the Bloodclaws fleet controlled the River Ithrag-Mun.

The defenders mounted the ramparts and in the second month of the siege the Skaven began their assault.

The Skaven Brought 3 siege trains with them, carrying Bombards, Trebuchets, Ladders, a Ram and Siege towers.

The assault began with a rapid movement of Storm vermin and Clanrats alongside a DoomWheel, pushing their ram forward they were able to move right up the the Gate turn 1, only for the Ram to be cut to ribbons by the concentrated fire of Blunderbuss's.

Turn 2 saw casualties on the Chaos Dwarf defenders as Bombard and Trebuchets concentrated on them, followed by Jezzails in siege towers and warpstone cannons.

By turn 3 the Siege towers were now in place to assault the left front of the walls.

Rat Ogres and Plague Monks use their initiative to assault the walls the combination of inordinate shooting from 2 units of Blunderbusses, 1 on the wall and the other in a supporting tower mean the assault is beaten back with few Chaos Dwarf casualties and many plague monks blown apart.

Further shooting from the Jezzails, Siege artillery and Warpstone cannons obliterates a unit of slave orcs sent to reinforce the ramparts. Plague monks and Rat ogres attack again but are repelled by blunderbusses and the Fiery breath and Blackiron axes of the Chaos Dwarfs.

Stormvermin and Rat Ogres assault the front walls again, this time more plague monks and Rat Ogres swarm in to flank the walls.

The plague monks and Rat ogres overwhelm the slave orcs destroying 2 of 3 bases whilst the blunderbusses lose 2 stands but repel the attackers.

The siege artillery collapses the Towergate the turn after a unit of Chaos Dwarfs beat and destroy a Doomwheel sent through the gateway to clear them out.

Turn 7 the Chaos Dwarfs are pushed back everywhere, only a single unit of Hobgoblins and depleted units of Axe and Blunderbuss Chaos Dwarfs remain, cut off and dying to the Swarms of Ratkin.

End of Turn 7 Chaos Dwarf Casualties

Turn 7 Skaven Casualties.

The final Showdown between Chaos Dwarfs and Skaven went much like the total campaign, a very lucky and aggressive Skaven force overwhelms and slaughtered a Dwarf force. The shining star of the storming was the Siege artillery and Jezails in their towers, able to pour fire into the hapless defenders the walls became death-traps.

Ultimately the city was razed to the ground, Gutter whisker had no use for the port facilities and the total lack of infrastructure north of Ithrag-Mun and the general poverty of the north western region meant it was far cheaper to withdraw and garrison south of the river than try and control the wilderness north. The Chaos Dwarfs died to their last, Hashut on the tips of their tongues right until the last, the slaves died before they did and the Hobgoblins who made it through the bloody fighting were either caught and fed to the rat ogres by the Blood claws as they tried to cross Ithrag-Mun or those able to slink out of the polluted water and melt into the wilderness in the north lived lives of fear and poverty as they were despised by the orcs, men and dwarves and usually killed on sight.

Final Thoughts

It was really good we played out the final 2 scenarios of the campaign to build a comprehensive story, this campaign really felt like the real deal, playing the campaign map outside in the sun, using IRL manuals and pieces felt so good, addictive even. I hope my readers can join me for the next couple of games fleshing out the story of the Black Peninsula before we delve into the next campaign.