After report from the battle of Sigmarsford written by Captain Karl von Shrober spring 2500

  We were on our first outing using the new tactics and weapons, all of us eager to prove ourselves against the empires foes! After the third month we were in camp drilling, practicing our new formations and weapons training under the general Duke Hofsteader all was routine and boring. I had heard in the officers mess that he was the direct appointee of the elector count himself. One gloomy overcast day he was leading us in a battle test which meant we were all arrayed in our marching kit and weapons. Then the alert reached us of a warband of Orks that was raiding the sheep herding areas of old Soland so we force marched to the area they were raiding with joy in our hearts. However it took us a month of marching and many more burnt out farms before we managed to bring them to battle at a ford over some no name stream near the town of Sigmarsford. the village itself was insignificant only a few houses and a small inn near to the river crossing which the Orks had already burned to the ground before we arrived on the scene.

  They arrayed themselves on the same side of the river as us with the ford at their backs in battle order. they stood proudly all waving their weapons, chanting and taunting us in their foul heritical language! their normal troops were supported by one of their shoddy looking catapults in the middle and had two groups of squig herders one on each flank. The sun glistened on their crude weapons, strange totems and flags painting a fearsome sight for the unblooded, but even with old style weapons this was not such a big group of greenskins to take on with our numbers.

  Countering them we had three blocks of men armed with their Hammer handguns, four cannon, two blocks of pikemen and one of light horse led by the General himself armed with the new pistols. We stood our ground as they advanced towards us, even with our Hammer's we could reach beyond bow range of the greenskins so the order was at maximum effective range about 200 yards to volley fire, then as ordered by their section leaders. The pike men were to hold our flanks and protect the handgunners if the Orks closed with us. while the cavalry was to keep the squigs off if possible, no guarantee with those evil sharp toothed beasts!!!

  Our cannons fired first with shell blowing holes in the hated foes formations, being stubborn as all their kind they just chanted louder! The squigs came first and the General advanced with his troops at the canter and made to perform a caracole. This time his troops had the revolvers that fired five times each and each rider had anything up to three loaded pistols, along with the traditional weapons of lance and sabre.

  The squigs were slaughtered the shots striking them like a water from a fire hose and a hail of fire from the reserve pistols cut down their herders for good measure before the cavalry retreated. The Ork bowmen reached out for them in vain, a few arrows chasing their heels while the catapult fired a crudely shaped stone missing and squishing the one remaining squig that was running away from everything.

  Then the cannons fired again managing to hit the catapult directly shattering it just as it fired a large stone sending it high into the air then it bounced through the rear ranks of the Orks along with the shattered pieces of wood and ropes that had held the haphazard machine together! some of the rearmost ranks made up of what looked like Goblins already looked a lttle unsure of themselves now seeing the squigs being brushed away without harming their hated foes!

  The other greenskins at the front of their army just ran harder when they reached the range markers officers with telescopes called out the order 'Fire' a ripple of flame sped down the line of handgunners. The smoke from four ranks of armed troops billowed over the battle line obscuring everything. The shots reached out to winnow the Orks like a scythe through ripe wheat. Some seemingly stumbling only to get back up again others were thrust back by the impacts of the bullets. Limbs were ripped off, heads burst like rotten melons, weapons ripped from hands, some deflected in crazy directions. Then before they could regroup we fired again, reaping another wave of death.

  Then the order went out 'Buck and ball, then the handgunners reached towards another ammo pouch located at their waists reloading with the special ammunition before volleying again in a hail of buckshot and bullets tearing more holes in their ranks. Then the cannons belched forth clouds of canister scattering some of the greenskin formations as the survivors fled and reducing others to a kind of bloody mist. This finally broke their morale sending them running in a mob not an army anymore, the pike men had not even got their weapons bloody!

  The cavalry reloaded from their earlier attack swept forward firing their pistols and lancing the routed foe as the fancy took them, all in all it was a great day for modern imperial arms!!

  After battle report written by Hengist Stonebelly relating the fight to clear the Ungdrin (underway) to Karak Ungor presented to high king Thorgrim Grudgebearer at Karaz a Karak in written form

  Hail Thorgrim Grudgebearer

  This is the account of the mighty battles we waged against the hated Night Grobi.

  We Departed Karaz a Karak on the fifth day of winter, while the snow lay thick upon the land above. After one days travel we established a base against further adventures in a former way station and readied our glorious forces to smite the foe! While we waited for the anointed hour there was an unexpected arrival of another group of Dwai led by a master engineer by the name of Ragnor Fullstaff he brought with him what i assumed was an idea dreamed up by a three quarter crazed slayer? He brought a Throng of Thunderer's with Handguns of a nature that I had not come across before; they seemed plain and utilitarian at the time. After they had relaxed and broke bread with us i asked one of their number if i could look at their curious weapons. Upon examination I asked what the unusual features were, one of which was a curious box like feature below the gun barrel. He replied that it was a magazine and that it was a manling invention? This seems unlikely can you confirm this, my liege?

  After this conversation i approached the engineer and questioned him further and he was very tight lipped on the matter and referred me to you my King?

  After an uneasy night I awoke to the sounds of Dwai sharpening their weapons for the battle ahead while the new comers cleaned their handguns. I approached the engineer and told him he and his troopers should lead (In part because i figured that shoddy manling weapons would lay them low leaving us traditional Dwai to save the day) after a few hours we came upon a junction in the underway while we paused for a mug of good dwai ale each we were set upon by a horde of night Grobi.

  They came from the ceiling, the sides as well as to our flanks with their sinister hoods and rusty weapons. As we readied our blades the thunderer's let loose with a murderous volley slaughtering many of the scum!! Which I admit warmed my heart as I readied my clan brothers to allow the thunderer's to go though our ranks so they could reload, then they fired again this time at individual targets striking down many of the hated foe!! This ability gave the Grobi pause, then they fired again and again striking down enough of them that they, much reduced in number now fled before they bloodied our axes and blades!!!

  After this defeat the thunderer's paused and said that they would make camp here to wait for the follow up party of engineers. We never received instructions in this matter and I feel slighted that you did not inform me your loyal servant of this plan!! At this point I challenged the engineer to continue in our quest but they refused citing orders from your court!! At this point we also halted and sent an emissary to yourself which we still await the reply to!!!

  While we waited the engineer and his apprentices unpacked several surveying tools and started to take measurement of the tunnel. While they did this the thunderer's started to clear some of the fallen debris around the junction setting up barricades upon which they placed several larger handguns with the collected rubble. After a few days of this waiting while i awaited a reply from you, I heard a series of echoes which sounded like hammering? I wondered if this was the sounds of fellow Dwai smiting the enemy at the time! After a few days of this i spied a group of Dwai carrying long metal rails similar to the type we use as a transport system for ores and other materials in our mines and the metal sleepers we lay them on. As i observed them they placed them onto the (what must be cleared ground) surface and proceeded to drive metal spike though the rails into the sleepers below, was this some kind of trackway? If so i take back all the harsh words i cursed your advisors with as this surely might be an ancient technology from the age of the war of the beard!!

  I await your answer, forever your loyal servant

  Hengist Stonebelly

  Dear Duke Mallobaude

  I hope that this missive written in midsummer 2501 finds you in good health and spirits! Please let me know the progress of the engineers I sent last midsummer in draining the largest marshland area near Mousillon city itself, they should be most skilled in the arts of moving the foul waters away from your subjects.

  Also the samples you sent me of the rock oil that has been found in the swamps north east of the main road to your fair capital city has proven to be of the correct composition for our purposes and by your leave can I send a team to start organising the infrastructure to extract and semi-refine the rock oil into useful substances?

  I remember when we spent the summer battling the evils in your now lands from Orks to foul Beastmen and Unliving horrors. The insects swarmed that year if i recall so we had to wrap our heads in cloth in the fashion of some heathen tribesman from Araby. One day stands out in my memory when we tracked a necromancer into an area of twisted woods that surrounded one of the castles around Mousillon city. I forget which we came upon a grove of trees that at first glance had been blackened by fire but when we came closer the proved to twisted by the corrupting influence of the figure standing in front of us in dirty black robes and holding an intricate carved staff in his left hand.

  I readied my pistols and loosened my sword in its scabbard while you started to utter a prayer to the lady that turned into a string of strangled half formed words before you drew your sword and rushed forward without another word! Then the necromancer for he could be no other than our prey pointed in our direction then uttered some words in a no doubt evil tongue. Before you could halt your headlong charge several skeletons with half rotting flesh hanging from their bones appeared armed with what looked like a billhook and a scythe. Before you even reached these foes with your headlong flight seven more appeared from the darkness. All looked recently raised from the dead, As i remember it i joined your attack raising my first pistol and firing into the head of the nearest Skeleton before you sliced through two in the same time as i struck one this gave me an idea at the time, speed counts more than size. You went on to skewer the fiend in short order if i recall. Good times my friend good times let me know if i can assist in any other way and the latest payment for medicinal herbs and plants gathered from your Dukedom will be reaching you soon

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  Your friend Holden

  Hail Holden

  I and my sons are well at the time of me writing this missive but times are becoming darker than the truths i have become privy to against my will that you are also sadly aware of!

  The engineers you mentioned are most welcome in my lands for now and as long as I am Duke they will have a fertile ear for their designs to make this Dukedom a healthful productive place rather than an evil haunted wasteland!

  For now they have completed the largest two drainage canals of phase one and the steam pump you sent me last month has proved a boom to the project just as your previous letter implied by increasing the drainage after periods of flood by twenty percent.

  The new plan for agriculture that you suggested to me some time ago has also proved useful finally by using the newly drained lands to increase the areas i have under grass and plough i have need of more labor so I have started to accept escaped serfs into my service and buying them out from their lords so as to placate the King and his counselors. But using the new system of rotation my yields have increased fourfold more than repaying the cost!

  I remember that lost soul one of many that resided here in that time along with many evil vampires masquerading as knights among other horrors. With your help i will make this land anew just as we talked about in those simpler times! I look forward to hearing from you soon

  From your loyal brother Duke Mallobaude

  White Wolves getting ready to go into battle

  This report also forms part of the background i gathered after leaving Greypeak

  After Battle report from Ranulf Ulricson to the Grand Master of his order 2505

  My lord we rode north to Kislev with the backing of three regiments of the new Middenheim Pistoliers and a contingent of engineers plus baggage. As you ordered we brought in our baggage the new weapons as well as our more traditional ones. Though I doubted at the time their power in the face of the evil monsters that dwelled in the lands to the north, i was to be proved wrong.

  We reached the border of the Troll country without incident and camped, at a few hours before dawn a local scout who we had employed in Middenhiem before leaving on this expedition. He leaped from his horse and gave a message tube into my hands before bowing respectfully while i broke the seal and unrolled the scroll within. I remember announcing to my comrades and the officers from the Pistoliers who had wandered over to see what was up, at least those who were awake at this hour 'We are to ride to battle this second, the foe has ventured forth!! They attack in force, a formidable raiding force of Kurgans and foul Chaos knights, for Ulric!!!'

  We rode hard to the muster of the local troops before joining the host. This consisted of several regiments of the famous Winged Hussars, four of horse archers and two blocks of unsteady looking peasant levies armed with mostly spears.

  We camped for the night along with our hosts while we readied our new and old weapons. The engineers were nowhere to be seen but they were no doubt busy at some arcane technological task. We drank to Ulric heartily that night singing many songs that praised the battle to come and the glories we might achieve. The echo of wood being felled echoed out over our camp site, at the time I paid no attention to it.

  The next day I awoke to find little changed and i awaited the order to array for battle from our hosts with joy in my heart though I admit tinged with a little fear and a large amount of interest in our new tools.

  I was not to wait long before the orders came that the foe was advancing toward us and would be upon us here before the day was out. We arrayed for battle mounting our fine chargers while the Pistoliers pranced back and forth on their lighter mounts eager to face the hated Chaos lovers like all green troops are want to do before seeing the true face of evil riding towards them over the steppe.

  The engineers assembled their tools and toys without distraction while the peasant levies worked under their direction to erect rudimentary trenches and assembled pre cut stakes in barriers designed to funnel the attackers toward the spears of the slightly better armed levies. Other engineers were setting up racks of what they described as rockets but looked like fireworks as much as anything to me. Whatever they were they certainly had enough of them with more being readied behind them by eager peasants behind the battle lines!

  A few others were setting up large metal plates and attaching long metal tubes to them, these were protected by some of the crude works that the levies had dug out from the rich black loam. Objects that appeared to be odd looking cannon balls were being unloaded from the wooden crates that they had lugged all the way from Middenheim ready for what i could not guess at the time.

  Our hosts other than the levies were also ready the horse archers were ranging out ahead making sure that we would not be surprised while the Winged Hussars readied their banners and practiced swiping their sabres through the air while talking animatedly to each other.

  We did not wait long as the scouts rushed back to lines and the archers reformed readying their bows and shouting out Kislevite war cries of vengeance.

  The enemy started out as a dark blob but resolved itself until we could make out the two warbands of chaos warriors riding on their own evil steeds one on each flank with a mass of Kurgan tribesman in the centre a few, what i assume were mostly champions of some kind or other rode steppe ponies.

  All were clad in furs, leather, scraps of amour and chainmail. Making them look like the pack of vicious barbarians that they most certainly were, the sound of their vile chanting reached us as they marched nearer with each heartbeat.

  The engineers without any prompting from me or our hosts ordered themselves into action!! Their leader a man called Saltern Holk a most taciturn man who spoke little if a grunt or hand gesture would suffice, looked the most animated I had ever seen him before he looked sternly at his subordinate engineers before grinning widely "fire!!!!'

  At this point one of the engineers near to the 'rockets' leaned forward and turned the handle set into a large fancy looking box, from which trailed many wires leading to the rockets.

  This must have had something to do with the next few seconds as the mysterious weapons roared towards the enemy in a cloud of fire and smoke. This spooked the horses of our allies but did not bother ours so much being more accustomed to Black powder warfare.

  Its impact on our foes was mostly confusion, I saw several Chaos knight seems to laugh loudly and gesture with contempt at our 'feeble cowards weapons' i remember them catcalling towards our lines with their Chaos enhanced voices. They did not carry on doing that for long as the rockets came hurtling down on them. Half of them impacted into the ground sending huge geysers of earth into the air sending barbarians flying through the air in pieces and semi whole still alive screaming torsos. Those that impacted the Chaos knight had a different effect near miss and shrapnel had little impact on the knight themselves but in the case of the less changed champions horses they suffered under the metal and earth rain. A few impacted directly on top of the scum obliterating them into fragments of magic twisted debris mincing more of their un-armoured comrades. Leaving the survivors to meet the slightly staggered second wave that exploded in mid air at varying distances from the ground but almost universally while still in the final moments of flight. These missiles were not explosive but spewed what must have been alchemical fire after bursting over them all sending the barbarians into a frenzy while they rolled in the dirt trying to extinguish the magical flames.

  Even the armoured knights were felled by this as the fire seeped into the joints of their magical metal suits to burn the tainted flesh within. While all this was striking them the bemused Horse archers rode slightly forward and rained arrows down on those that survived, when no more magical weapons rained down after the second wave had reaped its harvest they volleyed again and again.

  While the Hussars galloped forward striking the bemused survivors with their lances and sabres while avoiding the still burning torches of roasting Chaos warriors and barbarians.

  All this took place within a few minutes before we could even start to do more than start to gallop forward on our heavy horses before the foe routed and fled the field being ridden down by the lighter horse of the Kislevites. Myself and my comrades had only the chance to take the heads of few injured Chaos warriors left to us by the machinations of the mysterious engineers you my lord and master had saddled us with. This was my thought at the time of the battle I recollect, what a fool I was to prove to be we would claim our fair share this campaigning with new and old weapons need in tandem!

  Your faithful servant

  Ranulf Ulricson