Hi all this is the first part of (what I hope is an epic and well organized pre, during and post battle update) my last weeks work

  Diary entries written from Pflugzeit or ploughtide to Sommerzeit or summertide after summertide 2505 by Brigadier General Karl Von Shrober

  Pflugzeit

  My journey from the south of the Empire was finally almost finished with, I had traveled by horse, aged river boats, stagecoach, coal carrying steam barges and I finished my journey on a paddlewheel steam boat. This shallow draft boat was perfect for traveling up the final section of the Wolfs Run river from Hergig to Wolfenburg, this also allowed a greater cargo capacity than any other method of travel this far up the river system from the depths of the southern main rivers.

  The old hands of the crew told me that the journey was up to two week quicker now the last of the locks had been installed on the river bypassing the true shallows. The various systems of reservoirs and steam water pumping stations that we passed must also mean that certain sections of the river leading to Wolfenburg, that previously during high summer were all but impassible to all boat traffic, are open all year round now. There was also evidence of other methods of moving water as a reasonable quantity of windmills was also in evidence. They were mostly I think for supplying irrigation water to the various farms and settlements that line the river, along with logging camps in the more isolated spots we passed during our passage.

  A program of dredging is also in evidence as the good boat Sigmar's Tears passed several steam dredgers spewing smoke into the air and mud onto smaller barges to be taken away for use elsewhere. I asked several of their crews of the smaller barges where they were bound for and they replied that they were bound for the south for use after sorting for various things. There was even a small amount of gold recovered from the gravel scraped and sucked up from the rivers bottom. Most likely it was carried down from the ancient dwarf mined deposits long exhausted up in the middle mountains, even so I have no doubt this helped to offset the cost of keeping the shipping channel, deep and clear for commerce both small and large that we constantly passed during the daylight hours

  I shared my accommodation onboard with a unit of Pistoliers from Reikland while their horses stayed in the specially constructed stables in the hold. They were mostly good sorts and I enjoyed talking with several of their officers about the upcoming expedition to reinforce Kislev. Their commander a Captain Frederick von Picklestein confided in me that he was unsure of the new marvels in technology and tactics being incorporated into the military forces of the Empire. But that he was glad that we were taking the fight to the foe rather than just reacting too late, arriving to only find smoking ruins and corpses.

  My journey brought home to me the great changes that were overtaking many parts of the Empire, I saw wonders and horrors beyond my previous experience to this point. Yet even as the final days before I reached my destination and took up my new duties flew past in a blur of riverside views, I felt hopeful that all the signs of industry and the hand of man upon the landscape meant that the darkness can be refused with more than a prayer this time around!

  The very last stretch from just south of Eichewaldchen to Wolfenburg was the most modified, in times past it had only been capable of dealing with the smallest barges and rafts. Now the canalized river was capable of taking anything up to a small galleon! Though I admit they would struggle with some of the bridges, the locks were now of the highest quality!

  Approaching Wolfenburg you could see the activity from miles away with several temporary camps in evidence, with various industrial construction sites along with the start of more substantial new style fortifications. As we came closer the camps revealed themselves as military in nature the rows of tents and other features made it unmistakable. The old style fortifications were also being renovated as well, you could see more artillery positions and other more unfamiliar at least to me constructions which I intended to look into upon my arrival!

  After docking at the main jetty of the dock area, I waited for the Pistoliers to disembark making sure to wave at my new friend Captain Picklestein before I left my perch on the upper deck to step on dry land for the first time in a few days. The warehouses and associated other buildings stank as they always are in any human settlement I quickly left them behind as I entered the old city through the south gate. This also showed signs of modernizing with new murder holes and gun slits being in evidence due to the different colored mortar.

  After finding a room in a overpriced inn near the Palace I slept soundly on a bed that did not move thank Sigmar! In the morning I shaved and put on my best uniform from my baggage, before breaking my fast in the common room feasting on such delicacies as porridge and burnt pig flesh still with the hair attached! I hope that I can find a reliable servant at a reasonable price soon so that I can relegate this bothersome reality too, those whose station in life is to deal with such things are thankful for that certainty I am sure!

  My introduction to the court was easy enough, the protocol here was not as convoluted as in the south and nothing substantive was said by anyone just a lot of nodding and tedious speeches of welcome from other notables. Some of which no doubt would already be my foes in some fashion or other, such is the way of such tiny minded folk. In fact in some ways this all reminded me of stories I had heard of the Godspar blood that runs through the land of Ostland, the appearance of my direct commander Oleg von Raukov confirmed this in my mind almost looking like a Kislevite with his massive beard and fur hat. I found out later that he wore this all the time to conceal his bald pate! Even the mightiest among us still is allowed vanity after all to some degree!

  He informed in me in, as I found out later in his usual blustery way that my command of the newly formed Ostland handgunner force was being attached to the vengeance division. I of course enquired what this might be but as is common of even the best of the military nobility he was short on answers when you cut out the religious guff. He did eventually tell me he was forming it for purpose of supporting the already existent imperial forces from various states in the defense of Kislev from the forces of darkness. What this meant in practice I could only speculate upon so I will not bother to write them down until the situation becomes clearer.

  The practical issues involved in getting to know my subordinates and non commissioned officers, I will detail another day. Needless to say the challenges of this while organizing the delegation of various logistics tasks required for a campaign at such short notice are considerable! So I will finish my chronicle of this past month now.

  Sigmarzeit or Sigmartide

  My four unit commanders are interesting characters, Captain Konstantin von Hindenbar is the most senior and he hails from Dassel a small town north of Wolfenburg. He comes from a minor family of landowning knights with a small estate near to the town. He is the second son so had no title and he told one night after a few glasses of vodka that he must make his way in the army to attain even the lowest noble ranking. The town was on the Erenguard road, its existence being supported by several small lead mines, alluvial silver deposit operations along with a multitude of small farms clinging to the steep hills leading up to the Middle Mountains, herding and trappers.

  He was a mournful soul always harping on about the ills that were around the corner then becoming jovial when they actually happened, he seemed a solid sort though and he will need to be to endure the privations I hear are common place in the corrupted north. He has two long mustaches in the Kislevite style and long black hair that he likes to oil with a atrocious concoction that is meant to smell like lilies. He wears a silvered breastplate and wears a finely made saber to match his expensive looking revolvers with the walnut stocks and polished chromed metal. I hope that my first impression of him as a subordinate follows through into the hard fighting that lies ahead for us all!

  Graf Michael von Grudel is the next unit commander in seniority; he hails from Nuln and is related to the current Baron Grudel of defenders fame as far as I have been able to find out. He seems most reluctant to talk about his past except in terms of his knowledge of Gunpowder weapons and the new technology that was coming from the south. On these subjects he can talk for hours, I am glad I do not share quarters with him as I fear he would talk my ear off!

  He wears a small pair of glasses that perch on the end of his long nose when he is in lecture mode, his hair is mostly gone or grey and his features bear the mark of various powder burns. You can tell as his complexion is speckled when you get close with small specs of black gunpowder residue. I think that he is a noble who would rather be an engineer but has been forced by family pressure to join the army instead. His weapons are well made but plain ranging from a long rifle that looks like but is not a hammer to multiple sizes of revolvers that adorn his horse and his person. He told me after a few drinks in the mess one night that he also has a saddle bag full of his favorite grenades for when he goes into battle.

  Sir Brandon Brinier is from the league of Ostermark. Specifically the capital Bechafaen and is the fourth son of one of the miner city burghers there, being the third in rank but the youngest in age, his family is heavily involved in the boatbuilding industry. Traditionally this involved the construction of small river craft, barges and some construction for the Navy. These contracts were heavily contested by the various merchant houses as they meant that their holdings in wood processing and running labor gangs were more profitable than just by themselves.

  In these days that meant being heavily involved in the steam engine business, Briniers family according to him decided early on when the information started to flow from the south to involve themselves. Of course the boat engines which were basically wood fired pot boilers driving paddle wheel arrangements for propulsion. They were capable of carrying more cargo than the same size sail or oar driven vessel and due to the low cost of wood were able to operate widely along the extensive Reik river system. They were at first unpopular but this became irrelevant when the basic knowledge needed to construct them became widely known so some existing craft could be fitted with similar equipment.

  According to him his family started small with very primitive steam engines but now have advanced to producing larger castings and engines in use in land based sawmills that supplemented the dwarf made water driven marvels that they already had. As you could now see according to Sir Brinier 'almost as much soot as Nuln' in his hometown on his last visit home. He however was not nautically minded at all as he was a terrible sailor and became sick even on still water without the intervention of various herbal remedies. This meant that another career beckoned that of managing some part of his family's mercantile holdings. He had elected to forgo this for the dubious pleasure of joining first various mercenary handgunner companies, before he ended up under my command.

  He was the typical Ostermarker in appearance with his mustache, fur hat and slightly Kislevite facial features. He wore several layers of clothes over his mail shirt to be seen poking out underneath them and of all my commanders his weapons were the least modern with only one chunky revolver of an early Nuln type, also he had a well made cavalry saber and several large old style Wheelock horse pistols in his saddle. He said after a few pointed questions about their usitility that it was because they were less costly to fix if they broke in the field!

  The oldest captain Arnold Deiterson also deserves an especial mention; he was from poor family that traditionally are house servants of the Elector count of Ostland's court. He was noticed by his liege lord when he saved him from an assassin's blade during a public performance of a popular play. He purchased a commission as an lieutenant in the state army for him and after a tiny period of time he was promoted to his current rank due to his competence, at least that is what I feel after spending a few days observing maneuvers.

  He was muscular, had a full head of black hair and is clean shaven with blunt looking facial features with a flattened nose framed by intense dark grey eyes. I assume the nose was something from the past as it seemed very long healed; he looked brooding as a first impression. He wore worn elegant colorful clothes; I suspect these were charity from his former masters household rather than something he had chosen for himself. His weapons were more of the same but showed a high standard of care as opposed to his outfit. He was armed with a truly huge revolver, had a hammer rifle in holster tied to his horse's saddle and unusually a short sword and dagger set that he was glad to show me at the first opportunity. They were very fine but were obviously very old and showed the thinness of constant sharpening yet they looked deadly for all their age.

  The men under our command are the same hodge podge in the sergeants and corporals ranks of people from all over the Empire and beyond. While the rank and file were almost all local boys and looked hungry for battle, at least that is what the overenthusiastic priest of Ulric told me when he barged into my office on my fist day in my office! He ranted for a while about the Kislevite refugee's clogging the roads bringing heathen ideas, thievery and chaos taint with them. I told him I would welcome any suggestions and he replied send them back, this of course was impossible but it did suggest some ideas to me for future thought.

  Though not under my command there was also several units of Nuln military engineers present in the fortified camp that sprawled outside Wolfenburg. Their presence allowed me to introduce some of the practices that I had acquired during my experience in the southern campaigns against the Greenskin menace and the scourge of the other various dark threats that constrain our world. This partly consisted of close communication between artillery, cavalry and infantry, the engineers carried heliograph equipment for this purpose. The value of the common trooper now matter how low or shiftless knowing and be able in their sleep to fortify, to dig in and to fight back using the tools that they had to hand cannot be underestimated. The engineers also had many other weapons I have no doubt as their portion of the camp is forever lit deep into the night with their politicking and manufacturing of the tool of war.

  The logistics troops section of the camp was almost as large as that of my own four regiments! It contained permenant warehouses, stacks of fodder under cover, wagon based forges, flat pack stables, portable bakeries and kitchens. In a small walled compound within the camp the paymasters tents were pitched, the center of this area contained the mobile safe, pay records and of course the money! Last and not least there were ambulance wagons and a large white painted tent that contained the integral medical unit of the division.

  There was also the attached artillery part of the establishment, overlapping with the engineer's camp dominated by the bulk of a imperial Great cannon. Though it was partially covered by tarpaulins, it was surrounded by tents and rough huts covering the other artillery pieces, it still made for an impressive sight. Though the huge cannons were a great force multiplier they did impose certain transport issues, especially outside of a developed road network. Their other guns would no doubt provide better value for money but that is the world we live in! The old barracks within the city walls of course contained many other troops of various regiments and specialties but they were not part of the vengeance division.

  The Reiklander Pistoliers unit that I had travelled north with had joined two other units already encamped here and completed the Vengeance Divisions order of battle, Like all their kind as I remember well, were young mostly un-blooded men a mixture of fools and eager idiots leaving for their first campaign if they survived returning as men fit to move onto better things. My friend Captain Frederick von Picklestein was overall commander of the three units with first lieutenants in charge of the other two. Their camps rang out at night with boisterous drunken revels and idle boasts! Ladies of the night from the surrounding shacks of the camp followers were often seen leaving in the morning and many a wine and ale merchant made his fortune supplying this camp during the winter months or so I am told at least.

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  The call has come from the north! Multiple armies of the evil ones have been observed moving south, one has been confirmed as moving through the Troll country west of the ruins of fort Zenilev. They are marauding their way towards the crossings over the Northern River Lynsk, driving the local Ungol populations ahead of them. The treaties of friendship between Kislev and Ostland demand that we go to their aide, besides if we fail they will be at at our own doors!

  The Kislevite armies are mustering and the imperial forces present from the last campaign season are rousing from their winter camps and the Vengeance division is on the march! The warhost of the Kislevite Tsar will deal with those of the foe that try and force the river crossings near Pragg based in the military city recently founded outside its walls, a Imperial army under a General Margrave Schmitt von Casteray the middle section based at Yvegka and our own division plus local forces would hold the confluence of the northern and southern river Lynsk's with our base being at Bolgasgrad

  The plan is to get there in time! we will all board the flotilla of various river craft and barges that has been assembled or constructed for our use in Wolfenburg then forge north! As well as ourselves and weapons we are taking as many supplies as we can stuff onboard so as to reduce the time needed to reach our position. We will then retrace my journey south this time down the Wolfs Run River past Herig then along the Talabec. I am told by our commander that we are picking up two companies of Knights Panther commanded by Baron Rudolf von Kaiser from the Talabheim chapter house. They will press our ability to transport the Pistoliers horses as well as their massive overfed mounts however they are impressive in their colorful raiment and shiny armor!

  Once we have Picked up the noble knights we will head down the improved sections of the river until we reach Zavstra, then we will head up the River Urskoy until we disembark near Kislev on the military docks. Then we will make our way north on the Pragg road to our destination, how smoothly it goes in reality, the next week will tell. The frantic activity I can hear outside my quarters as I write this journal tells the tale as it is way past the hours of twilight yet the sound of stevedores and steam engines invade my rest still!

  Sommerzeit or summertide

  We have finally departed to much fanfare from the locals and teary eyes from the local maidens, or not so virgin now I suppose! The travel plan has worked in so far as our journey is unimpeded so far by attacks or mishaps or wonders so far, the knights Panther were loaded briskly and they have kept themselves aloof and distant in the main for now. They certainly look the part constantly wearing their armor and weapons even on board ship! Other than the constant sign of forest clearance and river improvements either in progress or completed there was nothing of interest to record really apart from the usual drinking and gambling that all solders indulge in when allowed to by circumstance. These became less frequent as we traveled north, but to the disbelief of some of the old kislev hands those that did exist were both massive and effective.

  Such as at Ptorsk where before there was a several mile stretch of shallow water requiring portage hence the existence of the town in the first place. This had been replaced by a straight shipping canal bypassing the old river with a more direct course leading directly to the end point of the journey at Kislev. I asked one of the local river guides that we had taken onboard after entering Kislevite territory how many people it had taken to construct this. He replied that it had taken the poor population of Kislev 3 years to construct their labor meaning that that were released from paying taxes for a whole year in return for one month's labor. They told me that such people had always escaped these impositions in the past but the threat of invasion had motivated the labyrinthine bureaucracy to tighten down on the cracks in the Kislev tax system with a vengeance.

  This would have normally provoked mass protests and rebellion however the dire nature of the threat facing them and the charismatic nature of their ruler meant that the people marched willingly into the camps established to support these massive super projects and returned home afterwards exhausted but satisfied that they had done their part in holding back the darkness. I have heard from some Kislevite commanders that there are other projects planned such as the opening of massive open cast strip mines on the plains where valuable mineral such as iron ore and coal have been discovered by Imperial diving teams looking for such.

  Kislev City appeared through the morning haze I recall as we finally arrived half way through the month but under half the time the journey would have taken before the improvements. The docks are most impressive, showing signs of recent massive expansion. There is a section devoted to martial traffic and it leads directly to the military city where the muster is taking place. There are miles of tents, temporary stables, picket lines, armories, forges, warehouses, barracks and artillery parks. Our division is easily swallowed by this massive encampment! However this shall soon change as this mighty force will divide into three and travel north to do battle with the scourge of the hated chaos worshippers. For the next week or so this is our home however. So I will put down my pen tonight and make sure that no one has wandered too far into the camp followers section of the before knowing the unwritten rules of the camp.

  After a week of many staff meetings and disputations about deployments, who got to use which road at which time and so on. The tedium was only cut through by the urgent underlying nature of the situation as the foes we all despised were heading south to kill us all once again. The order was then given to advance towards the foe, this coincided with the drying of the ground and the onset of the milder drier weather leading up to the brief Kislevite summer months so was no surprise to anyone, let alone the no doubt numerous spies within our camp and surrounding it..

  After all the details were set the Empire troops already out in the field were constructing logistics bases and improving roads etc. This was to allow our quick passage to the north in the waning of the spring thaw and the drier ground of the early summer and autumn before the rains. We must destroy these foes so their fellows following onwards are not tempted to increase their pace! To survive this storm of chaos the only option is to destroy each tendril of darkness before they can combine into a black flood over the lands of men.

  We as in the Vengeance division started to move out last though each army took a series of local roads to their own destinations. They had been tortuously improved over the course of the winter at the cost of many lives as attested by the not infrequent sight of grave markers placed alongside the road. Often they are buried in the spoil of their own labors. As they constructed better roads towards the killing fields of the north they often became armed with cast off imperial weapons as technology advanced and they became the soon to be famed often maligned peasant levies of the Tsar! I will talk more of these strange men and women later when time and experience allows.

  From Kislev we took the north roads trying to not use the same road as our fellow armies to limit damage to the roads themselves from Ardhka to Baiyn took us two weeks then finally we arrived a week later at the fortified camp next to the ferry crossing over the Northern River Lynsk that Bolgasgrad defended. The culmination of this long and interesting quest would I hope mean victory rather than death, but I must acknowledge that the chance of the former was much more likely!

  This camp was a miniature of the one we had left in Kislev City and was already inhabited by two units of Dwarf handgunners, one of Hammerers and one of engineers all bound from Zhufbar pledged to fulfill the dwarfs ancient vow to help defend this cold northern land. The handgunners were armed with traditional weapons but sported several additions to their usual kit upon closer acquaintance which I will catalogue in another entry.

  From the Kislevite side there were two units of Erengrad Steletzi Handgunners equipped with Hammer Rifles, they were elite formations recruited from the merchant and official families of that great port city so they were strong healthy men in the main ready to march and fight at the drop of a fur hat or so I hear from their bombastic commander Boris Yeltsinovich. There are four large Rota's of the famous Winged Hussars raised from the local towns for their collective defense. There is also one battery of experimental guns from Erengrad using 'breech loading mechanisms' developed from a Dwarf invention I am told. Finally there are twelve companies of peasant levies who also act as a mobile semi armed labor force and in the gossip rags of the south are termed as 'Kislev's fighting spirit personified'

  There are also two companies of Tilean mercenary handgunners armed with Hammer rifles, they were short deadly looking fellows wearing a green gray uniform bereft of the usual flourishes that Tileans usually utilized. Along with their handguns they brought gunpowder grenades, personal revolvers and some of them also packed short range shotguns for bloody hand to hand fighting. This is all according to one of their sergeants who regaled me with the details while I waited for my quarters to be assembled by my headquarters section.

  One thing that was unusual was the balloon company they were meant for reconnaissance purposes, which I am looking forward to seeing in action! It consists of a number of support staff and several 'pilots' they call themselves, who take turns to be winched aloft with their main balloon. How it stays aloft I cannot say the ordinary men say it is just magic in action but the 'pilots' are tight lipped when I have asked them this question. I am also told that they use telescopes to see the ground below them in great detail and then have a portable heliograph and signal rockets to signal the ground with their information. If this innovation is successful I can see many uses in terms of coordination with the artillery for managing fall of shot and targeting enemy strong point and fortresses from beyond clear lines of sight and such. I have heard of the dwarfs and their wondrous flying machines but beyond curiosities in larger cities such as Nuln I had no idea that humans were venturing into the skies on anything else than the normal magical flying beasts!

  Two companies of knights of the White Wolf are also present, they are veterans one and all and unlike their southern counterparts they have embraced some new technology. They are armed with several huge revolvers each and have also taken up the use of their own version of the now more common grenades. These along with their more traditional weapons make them a fearsome sight, I have not had the chance to talk with them yet or find out who their commander is yet but I know they will fight which is all that counts really.

  There are also two companies of Reikland Pikemen here who though not at full strength had survived the heat of battle in this benighted land for over a year without being destroyed. So they must be made of tough stuff! They were scruffy as their uniforms even from a distance looked to be often repaired and darned remains of their no doubt glorious starting appearances. However their pikes looked deadly with steel points glistening in the sun as they were stacked upright one stack to each squad. Creating a field of metal in the morning light where they clustered in camp around their standards.

  So we are finally settled in camp for now, though I think that this will not last for long as the constant stream of Ungol refugees is starting to become a flood. You can see them streaming down the roads during every minute of daylight, those who still had horses or livestock outnumbered those who had only the clothes on their backs. Scattered among the flood were some warriors usually looking after their clans womenfolk while the others tried to hold back the flood of evil overtaking the steppe once again. They looked harried and were often men who were wounded enough that they could only guard not fight for now

  The wagons and extra transport that helped us make the long march north to our current camp has long since gone south with the first wave of Ungol women, children and has been replaced by another wagon train of supplies and tools for the remaining men folk. They have along with the local townspeople been constructing a series of trench lines, bunkers artillery pits, boobytrapped 'mine fields', fortifications and defenses often several miles deep from the riverbank that I am informed is all part of a plan to contain any of these minor incursions by the Choas scum over the river at least for now.

  There has been an unexpected arrival, two Imperial Armored River Monitors. They are basically a shallow draft barge constructed extra wide with a steel armored layer over a wooden frame ontop. This was to protect the large twin siege mortars that were its teeth; every time they fired a hatchway was raised so the guns could fire without obstruction. There was a conning tower set back from the hatches with vision slits that was also sheathed in steel plating. I had a chance to briefly examine them up close and you could see the good work done in riveting the steel plates together. It was also the location of the heliograph tower, which allowed them to communicate with the balloon so they could take advantage of their long range and I hope deliver accurate fire onto the foe.

  With this arrival our lineup is complete and not surprisingly the order came from Oleg von Raukov to move out over the Northern River Lynsk via the steam powered ferry and river barges over the course of a few days. The reason for the slow speed was the need for the transports to load the refugees from the other bank, this also slowed down our deployment. Some local nobles hinted that they could clear away the ruffians and halfbreeds if we looked the other way but I for one refused to do any such thing! Once we were all across, the division plus the other troops under the overall command of Boyar Rakenov Nechako advanced up the road to Ammatus. This was almost deserted its inhabitants having been evacuated several weeks ago to camps further south, of course the Ungol nomads and seasonal farm laborers and herders were beneath the local authorities notice. It was then that messengers reached us telling of the large army of chaos lovers moving south towards us burning and killing all as they went.

  It was then that the commanders including myself met for a council of war and after a full day of arguments and semi staged walkouts the plan for the battle was agreed, we marched north of the town then camped a few minutes from it. We then constructed our standard fortified camp and in the morning we advanced towards the position that our scouts had determined would be the best position, then the battle occurred. I have attached my after battle report giving the details of my impressions, those of the other commanders and some of the common soldiers combined into what I hope is an accurate picture of the battle. There is also a list of the units on our side, their numbers and arms. Additionally there is an estimate of the units of the chaos lovers and their approximate numbers. Finally I have provided terrain descriptions and a map of the initial dispositions. These pieces of information should allow you the reader of this document to get an idea of the most important day of my life to date