In the shadow of the bald mountains..

To the Honourable Gentlemen of Horseguards
Your Lordships

Following our defeat of the dreadful horde of the Spider God, I advanced my forces slowly through the jungles of Guayabo. So traumatised were many of our men at the horrors they had faced that I determined to adopt more caution than I might otherwise have done, such was my concern for their state and the need to have them ready to confront any and all dangers that may lay ahead.

We pushed ahead through the jungles and found ourselves facing a mountain barrier peculiarly bare of all plant life of any shape or form, bald as a coot some might say. We navigated a pass through the mountain barrier, and as we descended from this bare mountain a sight of even greater terror confronted us.

Laying at our feet was a land of fire, a land across which the stench of sulphur barely disguised such malodorous waftings as made a man gag at every breath. Fire and molten rock belched from the ground and ran as a river across the landscape. Arrayed there across this desolate landscape were creatures yet more hideous than the spider horde that we had so recently confronted, protecting a piece of machinery guaranteed to put ice in a mans veins. For there we saw seemingly dead creatures feeding human heads into a roaring furnace, the purpose of which we could only guess.

Caruthers faces the Undead

The great steam powered behemoth supports Caruthers' line

The Undead army arrayed ready and waiting ... the Undead camp, the 'Furnace of tormented souls', in the foreground

The Undead advance past rivers of lava

Zombie beasts and humans

A giant bone dragon behemoth

The British artillery opens fire on a unit of undead dog beasts

A 2 and a 6 signal the demise of the beasts

Caruthers' Airboat attacks a unit of skeleton archers on the right flank of the Unded

The arcbers are recoiled back

The lines clash

The airboat of recoiled by shooting, and the steam robot is recoiled

However one of the two units of 'Grim Reapers' (blades) is destroyed by the British lancers

I found myself confronted by a most hideous opponent, a group of zombies the like of which one only ever reads of from the imagination  of Mary Shelly or Brahm Stoker. They came at us, moaning as they shambled forward.

Caruthers attacked by a zombie horde, first withstanding a magic attack from the Undead necromancer

The British artillery keeps up its fire on the remaining unit of beatss

 At tis sage, it was as if the very terror of the mind and the heart had froZen my troops iN place, so reluctant were they to atTack the enemy. (Both armies were plagued by a series of 1s as PIP dice)

The beasts attack the artillery battery, riding ti down and tearing the crew limb from limb. They are however prevented from attacking Caruthers as they are pinned in place by a unit of shooters.

The tussle continues

A nit of British Yeomanry (Riders) move across to support the shooters against the beasts

Caruthers withstands yet more magic attacks, but destroys the second of the two zombie hordes

Freed form any immediate threat, Caruthers comes across to support a unit of his infantry (blades) who have been battling it out against he Undead Hero general. The riders and shooters have meanwhile manoeuvred to attack the beasts (top of the photo)

The beasts are destroyed

The battle against the Unbdead Hero general is finished with a 1 vs 6 die toll

Magic has driven the steam robot back, but it's too late.. victory goes to Caruthers

And so it was, Gentlemen, that having fought and. brought down ambling human zombies, and withstood terrifying magic attacks, the Undead foe disappeared form in front of us, seemingly collapsing in a shower of dust and fragments before our very eyes.

As we advanced across the now almost empty landscape so we approached the enemy camp. Our worst fears, our very nightmares, came to life as we realised that this evil place had indeed been one of torment as human heads had been fed into a furnace, as if to condemn their souls to eternal torment.

We shall carry to our own graves the memory and the terror of these sights laid plain before our eyes at the feet of those bare mountains.

I remain, Sirs, your most obedient servant
Major General Sir Chelmswood Reginald Augustus Piers Caruthers

This was the fifth solo battle I played (using the HotT .. Hordes of the Things - rules) chronicling Caruthers' campaign to take the land of Guayabo for the British Empire. The armies were each of 24 army points, created in 20mm.

The armies were as composed as follows:

British VSF force:
1 x Blade General (Caruthers)
2 x blade
2 x shooters
1 x knight
1 x Rider
1 x artillery
1 x airboat
1 x behemoth

Undead army:
1 x Hero General
1 x magician
1 x behemoth
2 x hordes
2 x blades
1 x shooter
2 x beasts