Creatures most hideous

To the Honourable Gentlemen of Horseguards
Your Lordships

It is with heavy heart that I write this report to you from my own camp bed, recovering as I am yet again from a most deleterious confrontation with beasts most foul. You will no doubt see from the deterioration in the quality of my penmanship that I am much aggrieved by our most recent battles.

Having recovered from our meeting with the tribespeople and their ferocious beasts, the subject of my last dispatch, in which we drove these fierce peoples from the field despite their rough treatment of me and my loyal bodyguard, we proceeded to continue our advance inland. Four days we advanced, in jungles through which our progress was measured in yards per hour. The men's consumption of water far outpaced the ability of our supply caravans, and by jove those poor fellows dropped like flies from heat exhaustion.

On the fifth day, we decamped once more and had only been on the trails for less than an hour when we came across a plain on which were deployed beasts so terrifying that it took all of our efforts to steady our most steadfast of men. There before us lay arrayed creatures so hideous that even our worst nightmares might never have prepared us for what we were about to face.

Caruthers' forces advance from the right, the spider hordes are deployed on the left 

Indeed there were creatures so monstrous, half woman, half spider, spiders of such size as to dwarf the very man himself, and scuttling hordes of spiders that made the very skin crawl. And from the entire host arose a noise the like of which we had never heard before.

The Spider 'host', their God seen off table awaiting the right 'call' to summon him

Caruthers' forces, with the enhances aerial forces arrayed on his right.

Immediately the purpose of the strange noise became apparent, as a God like man appeared, of such size as to spread tremors through the very earth with its every step.

The Spiders' God (Spiderman) appears, as the first PIP die roll is a 6

Caruthers advances his line, with a 1 as the first PIP die roll

Spiderman swoops across to the rear of the British line

I ordered Lord Chelting and his supporting flyers to attack, and he flew straight into the hordes of small spiders.

The flyers hit the Spider hordes

Crash Bash.. but the hordes all hold

Spiderman hits Caruthers in the rear.. 

Damned bad form, old man., attacking a chap from behind.... eh wot?

Caruthers is recoiled from the God's attack

Having held off this damnable God fellow, my blessed hero nephew Lieutenant Winstanley came to the rescue and threw himself, yes threw himself,  at the God.

Winstanley (a Hero) hits the God

The behemoth, and the Spider hero general ,advance

The flyers realise that hitting the hordes was not the best idea.. they are bogged down in the mire of the hordes

The God hits back at Winstanley

The remainders of the two lines clash, on the British left

At this point I threw myself at this God Chappie too, to aid Winstanley in his valiant fight.

The flyers now overflew the hordes, in order to break off and get to the real action

The God bounces back both Winstanley and Caruthers

A most dreadful tussle develops between the hideous spider woman and their Hero general, and the British mounted Riders

Before my very eyes, the God threw himself at Winstanley..

And I watched Winstanley fall before the onslaught.

Winstanley the hero is beaten by the God, and with insufficient room to recoil, the stand is eliminated

 It was with desperation and hope in my heart that I watched as the God overran Winstanley and his gallant crew.. I could but hope that I might distract the God for long enough that my dear nephew might be able to drag himself clear. A unit of our sharpshooters advanced to try to keep the God occupied.

The battle with the riders, and one unit of blades  on the British left flank continues

The British flyers manage a massive wheel in order to try to get back to support Caruthers, but do not have sufficient move to get beyond the hordes. They find themselves trapped in the control zones of the spider hordes

With aerial help so near and yet so far, Caruthers is attacked by the Spider Hero General

The God eliminates the shooters, and more importantly is now free to turn attention to the main battle

Caruthers fights off the Hero general

I now found myself fighting off both the massive spider hero general, and the God... by Gad Sirs, this was dire indeed.

But the God joins the fight

At this point in time I once again found myself beaten most severely, and it was only by the sacrifice of my own loyal Guards that I was able to escape, all of us with much personal injury.

Caruthers' stand is eliminated, and so the battle is lost 

At this point in time my troops executed a most commendable and orderly fighting advance back to our starting positions. We were able to rescue poor Winstanley, albeit in a most aggrieved condition, while I myself sustained considerable injury once more.

I regret to inform your Lordships that several of the units of men that we deployed came to a most unpleasant end, under circumstances not at all advantageous to our glorious British forces.

We expect to resume the advance once more in the near future.
I remain, Sirs, your most obedient servant
Major General Sir Chelmswood Reginald Augustus Piers Caruthers

General Caruthers becomes indisposed

To the Honourable Gentlemen of Horseguards
Sirs, I have the honour to report to you that following our work to sweep aside the piratical hordes of Guayabo, we advanced into the depths of the misty jungles. On the second day, our advance brought us onto a swampy plain on the far side of which was a host the like of which we have never seen in our times. For there arrayed before us were savage tribesmen of a particularly horrid demeanour alongside beasts that we would have thought to be solely the product of a deranged artist in a child's book.

They came at us at a trot, the roar of beasts a terrifying accompaniment to the horrific cries of the wild men (if men they proved to be).

The Lost Worlds forces advance against the British line.  Incantations rose abocve the cry of battle as the tribesmen hoped to raise the Ape God to come to their aid.

Sirs, I sent Lord Chelting of Cheam deep behind the enemy line in his fantastical flying machine, in the hope that an assault from behind would be enough to unseat the cursed foe.

Chelting and his flyer (aerial hero) can be see top left as the lines approach

The line clash, the warband are thrown back. Chelting has attacked the pterodactyl flyer, sending it plummeting to the ground

Chelting ... good man, that!!

The enemy came at us again, and at this point I fear that I must report a most unfortunate event in which the glorious boys of my very own bodyguard were brought down around me. To their credit their dying act was to throw their bodies atop me protecting m form the ravages of the horrendous barbarian horde.

The warband general hits Caruthers (blade).. a 1 rarely ends well against a 6, Caruthers blade stand is eliminated

The giant dinosaur behemoth batters against another blade unit, 

Lieutenant Winstanley ( a damned fine hero, that boy) pushes past the behemoth to allow a shooter unit to take the behemoth in the flank, but the behemoth beats them back

They go in again, and a second blade until is eliminated, again on a 1 and a 6

In the next turn Winstanley attacks the behemoth, and again the British are cursed with a 1:6 die result against them

A warband unit attacks Doctor Morgenstein and his amazing machine- he has been hurling his magic wherever he can

The warband is driven off

Lord Chelting swoops in to attack a band of enemy magicians who have been trying to cast their own spells over the British troops

Chelting is driven off, and the magicians try to bespell him again, without success. Winstanley goes into the behemoth once more

Once more the curs eof the 1vs6.. Chelting is brought down by the magicians

The warband are driven off again by Dr Morgenstein

Magic courses through the air, 

A unit of British blade sweep onto the flank of the warrior magicians, supported by a unit of British shooters...

There's nothing quite like British steel to do the business.. they certainly don't like it up 'em, the magicians are eliminated, and the battle is won

Despite my own inconvenience I can report that we finally broke the spirit of these cursed men and beasts. I can assure your Lordships that I am well recovered from my own regrettable indisposition, but mourn the loss of so. many of our brave lads. We plan to push forward into the very interior of this place on the 'morrow.

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