H,

I have done my utmost to locate contemporary histories of the 2201 Marienburg war, but it seems that they simply do not exist. Many of the city's records from that period were destroyed by the sinking of the Canal District archive some years ago. The best I could find was this work of rather dubious scholarship, published only six years ago. I suggest that you contact the archivists in Talabheim, since they have access to many works that are not to be found elsewhere - and in recent years, they have been much less careful who they allow to read them.

In the meantime though, I hope this will be of some use. I have annotated the text wherever I have detected a serious factual error, or have some other pertinent information.

Your friend,

S.


The ending of the Marienburg War of 2201, and what came after

transcribed from the original Low Elvish by Jacobus van der Tricht

with the assistance and support of certain underscriveners


published by the Steger Press of Marienburg, 2517



-Look to the Lord Sigmar in all things, for from Him all things issue-


The final attack of the greenskin horde came at the former Fort Solace, now renamed 'Barak Gazan,' the Gateway to the Wasted Lands, by its dwarfish garrison [This translation of the dwarfish is rather loose. - S]. Once before, the bestial fiends had assailed that place: then, they came in overwhelming numbers against an unprepared and undermanned fortress. If their commanders had understood the scale of the opposition, would they have turned back? It scarcely seems likely. Who can know the minds of monsters? [pointless observations of this sort are relatively common in Tricht's writing, unfortunately.]

The dwarfs had worked with a fervour that assuredly came from the Lord Sigmar himself [it would be interesting to see the reaction of any dwarf that Tricht expressed this theory to!], rebuilding and amplifying the fortifications. These walls they filled with machineries of death, and with line upon line of the stoutest of their soldiers. When the greenskins brought their ships close to the monstrous cliffs the fortress stood upon, they found themselves under fire too heavy to be bourn. Thus they drove their ships onto the beaches, many dashing their craft to splinters in their eagerness. Those that made it to the land rushed to the fortress, but found the way scattered with spike-filled trenches and other such encumbrances. Still the greenskins came on, and still the dwarfs shot death upon them. For two days and nights the battle continued, but at the last the dwarfs were victorious. Those of the green horde that were not slain were scattered and driven away. Some escaped to their ships and thence to the sea; others into the swamps and the wastelands, there to plague travellers thereafter.

[I suspect the number of greenskins remaining in the area after this defeat may have been much larger than Tricht suggests. Certainly, Fort Solace was not to remain in dwarf hands forever. The date of its loss is not known, but the fortress had been ruined for decades by the time of its reconstruction some seventy years ago. There are no records of the identity of Solace's destroyers - or at least no records in human hands - but the possibility that the greenskins were ultimately successful is a compelling one.]

In the Manannspoort Sea, the League of Free Traders clashed once again with the full force of the Marienburg Alliance. The Alliance, once the greatest naval power in the Old World, was much reduced in stature. Their elvish allies gone and their greatest sea captains dead or otherwise incapacitated, they could not prevail against the ugly vastness of the League fleet. For though the iron ships of the dwarfs wallowed in the water and coughed their cannon-balls with but a little strength, and though the thin ships of the Nordlanders and the Kislevites were crewed by villains and fools, the noble galleons of Marienburg were smashed or driven back [Tricht goes too far here in exposing his prejudices for any decent historian]. Skulking behind the sea gates of Marienburg, they left the guns of Rjiker’s Isle to guard the city. Yet others of the Alliance fleet went north instead, disengaging from the battle to flee for warmer lands.

The League had proven victorious at sea: though they could not hold the Manannspoort without a safe harbour, they had broken Marienburg’s grip on the Sea of Claws. The Dwarf Admiral Nagnoli set sail for Barak Varr, leaving a small portion of his fleet to return to Hargendorf - where they would remain until a harbour had been constructed closer to Barak Gazan [despite considerable effort and expenditure, the dwarfs were not able to create a viable harbour on the stormy coastline near the fortress, and thus were obliged to continue to make use of the meagre facilities at Hargendorf]. Elsewhere also they had been successful. Nordland now extended all the way to the gates of Marienburg, and the Middenheim Road was theirs until somewhat beyond Bokel. Still, much of this land was empty, and most of the settlements were devastated: Aarnau had been utterly destroyed, and Hollum, Salfen and Dienste were all but ruined.

[Aarnau was not refounded until sometime after the ascension of Magnus the Pious. Hollum was resettled by 2254, and Salfen by 2205. Dienste was never to be inhabited again.]

For the dwarfs of Barak Varr, there was no more purpose to the League of Free Traders. Before leaving, Nagnoli sent a message to the  Meisterrat. The dwarf alliance with the humans was dissolved, and the former Fort Solace would remain dwarf territory in perpetuity. Furthermore, the message included a bill for dwarfish aid during the war - a vast sum that was to be paid over the next five years.

Even as they debated the dwarf issue, the Meisterrat’s days were numbered. The Otillian Emperor, Marius V, had Nordland firmly in his pocket. His marriage to the last surviving member of the Nordland Electoral family gave legitimacy to his rule, but in purely practical terms his armies were everywhere. Otillian troops outnumbered Nordlander, and before long Otillian officers replaced the civilian rulers in every town and city. Nordland was to become a part of the Otillian Empire in every sense except the geographical. The Meisterrat was disbanded, and the League of Free Traders was no more.

[This rather melodramatic statement glosses over the continuing ties that held the former League members together. The dwarf's bill was negotiated downward when it became clear that they would still need to make use of Nordland's harbours. This lead to increased dwarf settlement in Nordland. Over time, Nordland grew in wealth and influence until it was able to re-negotiate its position in the Otillian Empire - just as Ostermark had done before it. By 2300, Nordland's ruling family had married into the Imperial line of Marienburg. Though the last Emperor of Marienburg died in the great incursion of the ruinous powers, leading to the formalisation of Marienburg's ruling council through the wisdom of Magnus the Pious, Nordland claims rulership of Marienburg to this day. Their possession of the Westerland Runefang, obtained in an unknown but probably criminal manner, provides a shadow of legitimacy to their claim.]

Among those of Marienburg's elite who fled the city during the battle of the Manannspoort Sea was the Emperor Philip III himself. Weak and always distrusted, the Emperor ultimately proved a coward as well [I suspect that you would agree with this dismal assessment of the Emperor's character, though he is elsewhere referred to as a brave and resourceful leader]. As he set sail from Rijker's Isle, he cast the Westerland Runefang into the Reik, spitefully declaring that Marienburg would have no Emperor if it would not have him. But Philip was soon to face Sigmar's justice for his blasphemous act: three days into the voyage, a yard-arm snapped loose and struck the Emperor on the head. He died immediately, and his body was cast into the sea. As for the Runefang, it was lost for many years. Eventually, a great whale beached itself upon the salt flats north of the Greenwater Gate and died there: when its body was cut open, the sword was miraculously found within.

[Tricht has lapsed into simple folk-tale in the last section. While it is true that Philip III left the city after the sea battle in the Manannspoort, he arrived safely in Averland where he remained until his death from old age in 2242. Neither did he cast the Runefang away: on the contrary, he is recorded as using it in several battles against greenskin invaders in the Blackfire Pass.]

While the remaining members of the Marienburg Assembly - now reduced to a handful of squabbling merchants and generals - sat uselessly in their stronghold on Rijker's Isle, the rest of the city was racked by bitter street-fighting. The eastern side was ablaze almost everywhere - only in the sealed streets of the deserted Elf Ward was there any peace. The citizens of Marienburg themselves teamed up to drive out the invaders - fighting as guilds, or neighbours, or even tavern-mates. Alongside them were the remainder of the Alliance's soldiers and mercenaries, and supporting them from the Reik was the depleted but still-potent fleet.

[Tricht‘s text ends at this point, the remainder being written by his students. Tricht was an infamous alchoholic, and seldom finished anything he started]

Yet the enemy - the forces of the Middenland Emperor - were too numerous. The soldiers of Middenland were backed by huge numbers of Hochlanders and Ostlanders, and even by the savage elves of the forests. The North and East Wards remained in Middenland's grip, unassailable while the Altdorf Gate was theirs also. Soon, even the Palace Ward was lost to the invaders. On entering the Imperial Palace, stepping over the bodies of its determined defenders, the commander of the Middenland army recited the words of the old poem:

'the houses of the gods stand empty,
the wolves feast on the bodies of the mighty'

[I suspect this verse has been placed in the mouth of the unnamed commander by a writer with a keen sense of the dramatic. The actual utterance is likely to have been much less decorous.]

As they retreated from the Palace Ward, the Alliance forces destroyed the Hightower Bridge, and with it the only means of crossing to the western side of the city. With the Rijkspoort and the Reik itself firmly in Marienburg's hands, and two thirds of the eastern walls theirs likewise, Middenland and Marienburg had reached an impasse.

Events in Titus-Artur’s own court soon changed the balance of power. A small force of Sigmarite troops crossed the Reik by night and set fire to the docks in Carroburg. The fire quickly took hold, and began to spread through the over-crowded poor quarters of the city. As the city descended into panic, Lucius Wolfram saw an opportunity. Leading his knights into the Summer Palace, he clashed with the Emperor’s Norse Guards in a protracted struggle that lasted for many hours. In the end, the Norse Guards had been slain to a man, and Titus-Artur himself had vanished. But Wolfram had also been killed.

News of the Emperor’s probable death spread rapidly, shaking the very foundations of the Empire. At once, the members of Middenland’s electoral assembly began to consolidate their personal power, drawing their retinues away from Marienburg in the hopes of making a bid for the throne.

For Hochland and Ostland, the power vacuum gave them the opportunity to break free of the Empire of Middenland. Individually weak, they banded together along with several towns that had previously been part of Middenland and Nordland to form what became known as the Northern League. They even arranged a deal with the savage elves, committing to the expansion and defence of elven territory within the great forests in return for the backing of the elf forces still fighting in Marienburg.

And it was Marienburg that was the key to the Northern League’s existence. Their forces held the Northern and Eastern Wards, the Guildorveld half of the Palace Ward, and crucially, the Altdorf Gate. Middenland retained the Paleisbuurt, and the Altdorf Road. War seemed inevitable, especially after the Northern League made overtures to the leaders of the various factions that had once been the Marienburg Alliance.

In Middenland, the previous Emperor’s wife, Grand Duchess Duccia, had somehow assembled a large army of supporters and had claimed the Imperial Throne. Her ‘election’ was ratified by the electoral assembly within months. Empress Duccia proved a highly-skilled diplomat, and her first act was to make peace with the Northern League. Surrendering all claims to Marienburg and recognising the League’s independence was not popular with the nobles of Middenland, but the economic rewards were immense and enduring.

[Duccia is generally suspected by modern historians of killing her husband. However, assassination was a common means of gaining power in the Empire of Middenland, and her achievements as Empress more than outweigh her crimes.]

For the Sigmarite Empire, the oncoming winter promised only hunger and death. The lands they had gained around Marienburg were of little value, being poor to begin with and now much battered by the war. Worse still, Westen Kasteel had suffered some terrible but unknowable catastrophe that had somehow destroyed its entire garrison with neither sound nor resistance.

[This reference to a seemingly supernatural event at Westen Kasteel is not supported by any other documents I have been able to find. The castle itself stood until its destruction by a freak earthquake in 2438. I have been told that the Sigmarite Church has papers that discus the mysterious ‘attack‘ on the fortress, but that they are under inquisitorial seal and cannot be consulted. I live in hope that the seal will be lifted some time in the future. Still, I suspect you may already know more than I about this matter.]

Yet Emperor Hermann still lived, and roused his armies for a last great assault on Marienburg. It took weeks of bloody and wasteful fighting, but at last the Sigmarites carried almost the entire western wall of the city, and surged into the South Wall Ward. To the north, they also secured Fort Reaver, one of the two citadels guarding the mouth of the Manannspoort.

In the slums of Kruiersmuur, the Sigmarites found large stocks of grain. At first, this seemed like a great blessing. Yet within days many of those who had eaten the grain fell ill with a virulent and unknown illness. The bridges to the ward were broken, but still the plague spread throughout the western side of the city, and throughout the Sigmarite army.

[The origins of this disease are hotly debated, but many draw analogy to the rat-men‘s plague of 1111.]

Though their army was forced to retreat in disarray and they had not captured the city, the Sigmarite Empire had not failed completely. Their control of half of Westerland and reduction of Marienburg’s walls, together with their possession of Fort Reaver, gave them considerable leverage with Marienburg’s new government. Trade was restored, and while the winter of 2201 saw vast numbers of deaths from disease and hunger, in later years the Empire grew strong again.

Hermann proved a strong Emperor, though not as fervent in his devotion to Sigmar as his father had been. Under Hermann, the Empire gradually became more secular. He appointed Arch-Lector Reyneke of Altdorf as the new Grand Theogonist, while Arch-Lector Echard of Nuln appointed himself to the same position. The two Grand Theogonists lost no time in excommunicating each other, and Altdorf and Nuln settled into a protracted and violent feud.

In Marienburg, a collection of the most powerful merchants, soldiers, guild-leaders and other leading citizens banded together with the leaders of the Northern League to form a new Marienburg Assembly. This council, assembled with the aim of reuniting the ravaged city and restoring trade links, came to a variety of arrangements with the various powers that now surrounded the city: the Sigmarite Empire, the Empire of Middenland, the Otillian Empire, the Barak Varr Dwarfs, and the Bretonnian Duchy of L’Anguille. In less than four years, even the Western Elves had returned to their old homes. Marienburg’s days as the Leech of the Old World were over. Its time as the gateway to The Empire had begun.


H,

That marks the end of this particular text. If you still require further information, please do not hesitate to contact me. I recommend visiting the Averheim Library for more on Philip III, and the Breytenbach Memorial in Bechafen for more about the war itself. In the meantime, rest easy.

Your friend,

S.

Important Happenings:
The Sigmarite Empire has captured Fort Reaver, Marienburg's Coast Road West Gate, Market Ward,  South Wall Ward and the Gisoreux Road Gate.

The League of Free Traders has captured the Eastern Swamp, Hollum, and Sea Area Two.

The Empire of Middenland has captured Marienburg's Altdorf Road Gate and Palace Ward.


Other Happenings
The Sigmarite Empire has attacked:
Carroburg
Fort Reaver (captured)
Marienburg's Coast Road West Gate (captured)
Marienburg's Gisoreux Road Gate (captured)
Marienburg's Market Ward (captured)  Sorry about that, error on my part. -Calvin
Marienburg's South Wall Ward (captured)
Marienburg's Strompoort Fortress
Sea Area 3

and defended:
Bogenhofen
Marienburg's Westen Kasteel Gate


The League of Free Traders have attacked:EasternSwamp
Hollum (captured)
Sea Area 2 (captured)

and defended:
Fort Solace
The Mannanspoort Sea
Salfen


The Empire of Middenland has attacked:
Marienburg's Altdorf Ward (captured)
Marienburg's Palace Ward (captured)
Salfen

and defended:
Marienburg's East Ward
Marienburg's North Ward


The Marienburg Alliance has attacked:
Fort Solace
Marienburg's North Ward
The Mannanspoort Sea

and defended:
Fort Reaver (lost)
Marienburg's Altdorf Road Gate (lost)
Marienburg's Gisoreux Road Gate
Marienburg's Manannspoort Sea
Marienburg's Palace Ward (lost)
Marienburg's Reik Ward
Sea Area 3


Thanks!

Firstly, thank you for waiting patiently for these delayed results. September hasn't been a very good month for me in many ways, but it should all be back to normal now.

Also, thank you to everyone who has participated in the campaign, you are the ones that have really made the whole thing tick. Over the course of the Campaign we received over 1000 reports, approximately 30% more than we did in our previous campaign! However, our last campaign had a different sort of engine driving it, and so participants could report a battle every day, in this campaign as you are all no doubt aware we had some more restrictive rules put in place, so when all is said and done I feel that our participation has grown much more than these numbers indicate.

Please be sure to keep an eye on the site as there are still fluff updates (and more) to come.

Turn 14 report


Westen Kasteel is Stained

As bitter Autumn winds began to hint at the oncoming winter, Marius Felsbrecher led a small but determined army of Sigmarites into Kalkaat. The town was unable to hold out for long, and thus the Sigmarites were able to complete their encirclement of Marienburg's western half.

The bulk of the Sigmarite army though was at the Deathmarch Gate. Soldiers had been drawn from all across the expanded Sigmarite territories to participate in the siege. The guns of Nuln thundered day and night, wearing away at the dwarf-made stonework of the walls. Between barrages,  waves of men - among them many Bretonnians - assualted the walls with ladders and towers. But the relentless, clutchingly uncertain ground beneath their feet threatened to undo their efforts, and the fearful determination of Marienburg's defenders seemed insurmountable.

On the third day of the siege, Emperor Hermann dodged his over-protective generals and lead an attack on the gate itself. Leaping from a siege tower, the Emperor and his personal standard bearer achieved the walls and held their ground against a handful of Tilean mercenaries.

Seeing the Sigmarite banner flying above the gate, the defenders panicked and largely withdrew into the city. The standard bearer (his name is not known) was soon after shot in the back from street level and his banner fell, but the damage was done. As Hermann retreated back to his damaged siege tower, a new wave of Sigmarite troops took advantage of the confusion to carry the walls. The Deathmarch Gate was broken open and the way into Marienburg was clear.

Emperor Hermann had been wounded in the battle, and was swiftly carried to the safety of Westen Kasteel. Far below his chambers, the steel doors of the hidden vault were at last unlocked. Initial excitement quickly turned to terror as the true nature of the vault became apparent.


Here

The League of Free Traders had been driven from the Manannspoort Sea before, but now returned in greater strength. The full sum of the allied Marienburg fleet, under Admiral Willhelm Meingeld, sailed out to meet them. The resultant battle was the largest naval engagement to take place in the war so far.

For two days, the two fleets circled each other, moving in and out of cannon-range in a series of brief skirmishes. At last, the dwarfs unleashed their secret weapon, the 'wolves of the sea.'  These bizarre diving boats emerged here and there within the Marienburg formation, striking at hulls and tearing off rudders. Unable to defend themselves against this sudden attack from below, the Marienburg ships were forced to scatter and regroup closer to the city. Meanwhile, the massed dwarf ironclads steamed ever closer to their target.


Aarnau's Scars

Marienburg's greenskin mercenaries continued to rampage across the land as an uncontrollable, unknowable storm. The coastal road leading through the salt flats to Fort Solace - already a keenly-contested territory, in spite of its limited worth - felt the green storm rage across it. The few League forces present in the area were swept away almost instantly, leaving the orcs desperate for a more satisfying enemy to fight.

The two towns of Hollum and Aarnau found themselves in the path of the sea-bourn greenskins. Shambolic hulks, alongside the ships of Marienburg extremists such as Mogsam van der Macht, raided the coastline near both towns, unleashing hundreds of frenzied pirates. Most of the people of Hollum were able to escape the destruction by fleeing down the River Shaukel in their fishing boats, though their homes were plundered and their livelihoods destroyed. The people of Aarnau were not so lucky. Taken unawares, they were surrounded and butchered to the last child. The town was burned to the ground. Not even the famous shrine to Manann was spared, defiled and destroyed with only a black banner left to mark its location.


Two States

Middenland's isolated and increasingly desperate forces in Marienburg fought on, in defiance of their situation. Indeed, they were able to retake the East Ward in spite of considerable resistance from the chaotic array of Alliance streetfighters opposing them. At Calden, the main army of the Empire of Middenland was preparing for a new assault on the Altdorf Gate. In the meantime, those soldiers trapped in the city could do little but wait for reinforcements to come.

While Emperor Titus-Artur's attention was turned to Marienburg, his own Empire seemed on the verge of civil war. Hochland, annexed thirty-two years previously, had provided huge numbers of its men to fight in the war, and had worked its foundries and forges day and night to produce cannon and handguns. Now the rulers of Hochland's towns had banded together to form a league dedicated to the goal of ending Middenland's domination. Realising the danger of the situation, the Emperor met with the Hochland League's representatives and began to discuss terms. But even agreeing to negotiate was taken as a sign of weakness by Titus-Artur's many enemies. Soon, there were outbreaks of rioting across Ostland. In Carroburg, several rivals for the imperial throne began to show their hands.

Important Happenings:
The Sigmarite Empire has captured Kalkaat and Marienburg's Westen Kasteel Road Gate.

The League of Free Traders has captured the Manannspoort Sea.

The Empire of Middenland has captured Marienburg's East Ward.

The Marienburg Alliance has captured Hollum-Aarnau and the Eastern Swamp


Other Happenings
The Sigmarite Empire has attacked:
Fort Reaver
Kalkaat (captured)
Coast Road West Gate
Westen Kasteel Road Gate (captured)
Sea Area 3

and defended:
Almshever


The League of Free Traders have attacked:
Coast Road East Gate
Middenheim Road Gate
The Manannspoort Sea (captured)

and defended:
Deinste
Salfen


The Empire of Middenland has attacked:
East Ward (captured)
Salfen

and defended:
North Ward
Calden


The Marienburg Alliance has attacked:
Eastern Swamp (captured)
Fort Solace
Hollum (captured)

and defended:
Altdorf Road Gate
North Ward (lost)
Westen Kasteel Road Gate (lost)
The Manannspoort Sea (lost)


Turn 15 events:

Winter's Chill
As the days grow shorter and colder the campaign's generals know that their armies' time to gain ground is severely limited by the impending frigid temperatures and deep snow that this northern region endures each winter. The soldiers are weary and many homesick, but will now make a final push to gain the best possible position in these final days of the campaign.

 - In this turn each player may report up to two battles.
 - This will be the last turn of the campaign.

Turn 13 report


Piracy and Murder

Following on from their raids along the Hollum coast, Steger's fleet again slipped past Fort Solace to deposit troops near Aarnau. Led by the infamous Mogsam van der Macht, the invaders set light to outlying buildings in the town before retreating to the ships.

Pursued by a huge League battle fleet, the pirates sailed back to the Manannspoort Sea. Under the guns of Fort Reaver, the pirates engaged the League task force and eventually drove them back. Yet the battle was a costly one. Many of Steger's ships were lost, including his own flagship 'The Price of Progress,' which sank with all hands. Steger himself died with them.

Meanwhile, the League had sent armies to Marienburg, attacking both the Greenwater Gate and the Oostenport. This initial assault was intended purely as a display of strength, and the League's diplomats were quick to offer terms. These terms, though carefully phrased, amounted to occupation of the city and were contemptuously refused by the Assembly. The Matriarch of the Cult of Manann issued an order of excommunication on the entire populations of Nordland, Kislev and the Otillian Empire.


Perfect Depth

The Sigmarite Empire at last had sufficient food to feed its armies. There were few complaints about the monotonous nature of the food, since those who dared question Sigmar's Divine Bounty were brutally flogged. Their strength returning, armies under Sir Siegfried and Count Stephano siezed Almshelver and Klessen. They now controlled access to three of the four gates into Marienburg on that side of the Reik.

Back at home, the people of Sigmar's Empire continued to starve. There were reports of cannibalism in remote parts of Wissenland. In Nuln, huge numbers of people had fled the city to seek refuge in Averland. Altdorf itself was racked by terrible riots, setting half of the city to burn. The Emperor’s Wife, the Grand Countess Rosina, ordered her knights onto the streets, where they slew the rioters without mercy or discrimination. When the fires had at last been extinguished, the streets were littered with the emaciated corpses of men, women and children.

Emperor Hermann led his first attack on the Deathmarch Gate in Marienburg, personally leading the charge of his Templars of the Fiery Heart against a delaying force sent by the Alliance. The gate continued to hold, even in the face of the considerably firepower of the Nuln artillery train.

In Westen Kasteel, the ravaged but still serviceable fortress that had become the Emperor’s home away from home, a strange discovery had been made. A network of tunnels ran through the rocky ground beneath the castle, leading to a steel-doored vault. Initial attempts to open the vault were unsuccessful, but it could only be a matter of time.


Debris Slide

Fort Solace had been cleaned of all traces of the greenskin occupation, and now boasted even larger artillery pieces. Yet the dwarfs, who had accomplished this feat with extraordinary speed, firmly refused entry to all non-dwarfs. This, they claimed, was to preserve dwarfish engineering secrets, but there were rumours that the dwarfs had a secret agenda of their own.

In Nordland, the Meisterrat had received another request from Emperor Marius. The Otillia again asked for the hand in marriage of the last remaining member of Nordland’s Electoral house: the young Grand Duchess Eleonore von Wetterau. This time, they felt unable to refuse him. Nordland was almost entirely dependent on the Otillian Empire and its allies for military and financial support. Thus, the Grand Duchess was sent to Talabheim, where her wedding made her Queen-Consort to the Otillia, and made the Otillia the effective ruler of Nordland. The Meisterrat continued to govern Nordland at Marius’s discretion.


Home

Marienburg troops forced the Middenland raiders out of the East Ward after a long period of bloody street-fighting. But the battle had spread to the North Ward, where the White Wolf Market was ransacked by soldiers with White Wolves upon their shields.

Middenland’s control of the Altdorf Gate was not to last. A colossal greenskin horde descended on the gate from the direction of Calden, slaughtering large numbers of the Ulrican troops and driving them from the city. The Empire of Middenland may have had soldiers in the city, but they were isolated now. The bulk of their army had been pushed back to Calden.

For the first time, there were greenskins on the streets of Marienburg. The Assembly panicked when Black Orc shock troops were seen marching towards the Emperor’s Palace, and immediately fled to their sanctuary at Rjiker's Isle. Once there, the Assembly bickered and warred with each other, until the unbelievable revelation that the Duchess was in league with evil, rat-like beastmen. Not only was she consorting with these creatures, but she had actively recruited them to defend the city.

Faced with this evidence of the Assembly’s trafficking with monsters green and monsters furry, the western elves completed their evacuation of the Sith Rionnasc'namishathir. Boarding their graceful ships. the last of the elves sailed from Marienburg. They sealed the gates of the Elf Ward with arcane wards, and spoke of alchemical fire-traps that now filled the streets around their former homes.

Important Happenings:
The Sigmarite Empire has captured Almshever and Klessen.

The League of Free Traders has captured Sea Area Five.

The Empire of Middenland has captured Marienburg's North Ward and Calden.

The Marienburg Alliance has captured the Aldorf Road Gate and Marienburg's East Ward


Other Happenings
The Sigmarite Empire has attacked:
Almshever (captured)
Kalkaat
Klessen (captured)
Westen Kasteel Road Gate
Sea Area 3

and defended:
Gorsel
Westen Kasteel


The League of Free Traders have attacked:
The Middenheim Road Gate
The Manannspoort Sea
Sea Area 5 (captured)
Coast Road East Gate

and defended:
Fort Solace


The Empire of Middenland has attacked:
Calden (captured)
Deinste
The North Ward (captured)
Salfen



The Marienburg Alliance has attacked:
Hollum
Altdorf Road Gate (captured)
The East Ward (captured)

and defended:
Klessen (lost)
The Palace Ward
Westen Kasteel Road Gate
The Manannsport Sea


Turn 14 events:

The Fish from Gorsel have been distributed among the armies of the Sigmarite Empire and the effects of Famine and Despair no longer apply at all.

Turn 12 report


Green Tide

The League army under Captain Kurt Von Frederick and Mathurian arrived, at what had been Fort Solace, ready to take vengeance on the hated greenskins. To the tremendous disappointment of the army's dwarf soldiers, they were unable to find even a single goblin. The greenskins had left, taking their black banner with them. The fort itself was in a terrible condition, with filth and effluence everywhere, the doors broken in, the remains of the dwarf garrison nailed to the furniture in pieces, insulting and crudely-written slogans daubed on the walls. Worse still, most of the fort's guns had been carried away. Fort Solace was retaken, but the green tide had moved on.

Several greenskin warbands struck out west from Marienburg, into the Sigmarite-controlled Klessen area. With the Sigmarite armies currently consolidating their positions in Gorsel and Westen Kasteel, Klessen had been left almost undefended. The fortified inn fell easily. Within hours, Warboss Mugruk Skullbasha had ordered that the inn be reopened under the somewhat whimsical name of 'Mugruk's Grog Hut'.

The greater part of the greenskin force, alongside a number of the more disreputable human mercenaries, descended on the towns of Calden and Rutten. With the army of Middenland thoroughly occupied at the city, the citizens of the towns, and a small Middenland rearguard, were all that was left to face the invaders. Needless to say, they were slaughtered and their houses burned. The greenskins seized Middenland supply trains along the Altdorf Road. The troops at the Altdorf Gate had been cut off.


The city burns

If anything, the isolation of the Middenland besiegers caused them to fight with greater savagery. A ferocious counter-attack against the Altdorf Gates by the Alliance, masterminded by the Tilean general Alfredo Di Stefani, was repulsed by Hochland troops commanded by Vure von Kleiff.

Meanwhile, Haus Krannest and his soldiers rampaged through the East Ward of Marienburg, burning and looting the houses of Ostmuur and killing anyone they could find. Only the temple of Morr was left unharmed, since not even the wildest of Ulrican fanatics would dare offend the god of the Dead.


Fire on the Hollum Coast

Sailing from Marienburg under the cover of darkness, Captain Sikko Steger's ship 'The Price of Progress' led a taskforce of human and elven ships into the coastal waters off Hollum - an area claimed by the League of Free Traders under the Treaty of Aarnau. Steger, a man many believed to be under the malicious influence of the elves, had taken it upon himself to attack League vessels carrying supplies to and from the reclaimed Fort Solace.

Using the superior manoeuvrability of his ships, Steger sank a number of supply craft and damaged several others. However, he was unable to capture any significant booty, and at last withdrew to the Manannspoort Sea with little to show for his unsanctioned attack.


Down the road

Controlling the Middenheim Road had long been a key goal for the League, since it would allow them to dictate the flow of trade between Marienburg and Middenheim once the war was over. With this in mind, Heydrich Starkhof led a further assault on Dienste, the final link in the chain. This time, they were successful.

Now that the Middenheim Road was theirs, the League moved to consolidate their - now extensive - gains by retaking the Coastal Road between Fort Solace and Marienburg. Here they were largely unopposed, despite the impotent complaints from the Marienburg Assembly.


Fish and speeches

In Gorsel, the fish arrived as expected. Caught, cleaned, salted and packed, they were soon being transported overland to the Sigmarite’s command centre at Westen Kasteel. Filled with new hope as well as with food, Sigmar’s army sent raiding forces to Fort Reaver and Almshever, testing the defences before committing to a full-scale attack.

At Westen Kasteel itself, many of the greatest generals - among them Graf Olenbay and Sir Seigfried - gathered to listen to Emperor Hermann give a rousing speech. Flourishing the Hammer of Sigmar, the young emperor proclaimed that he would lead the assault on Marienburg himself. But with the seasons sliding towards winter, it appeared that his time was running out.