Nagash Chapter 1: The Battle of Heldenhame
This section of the chapter immediately moves to Arkhan's perspective as he reunites with Mannfred's forces at Castle Sterniste or what it's spelled. Despite their successes, neither Arkhan nor Mannfred are particularly happy, if they could even feel such an emotion anymore. They had the Fellblade and Alakanash, but they brooded separately over certain issues.
For Arkhan, we get a good look at his inner core motivations as he struggled with an internal question. Arkhan had expected Heinrich to betray him out of vanity and personal pride, and the fact that he had betrayed Nagash for the Chaos Gods utterly baffled him because he had never expected that. He thought Heinrich was like him, manipulated by Nagash's voice beyond the grave. In here, Arkhan outright says that he no longer knows or cares if his desire to bring Nagash back was genuine or a piece of manipulation. He knew his purpose, and his purpose was to bring back Nagash. It was what had driven him for so long across the centuries, and he did not pursue it with the zealous desire of a living person, but with a cold, calculating determination. He felt no excitement, for it was his duty.
Arkhan also broods over Heinrich's last words. He had thought it an empty boast that the Chaos Gods would be getting in the way of Nagash's resurrection. Now more than ever, however, Arkhan is beginning to reconsider. On his way through the Great Forest Arkhan was attacked by all manner of chaos creatures, primarily Beastmen. He knew better than to suspect that it was Alakanash directing them to his presence, because he had seen the flapping wings of a Shaman speaking in guttural tongue and directing the forces. Side note, that is almost certainly Malagor he's talking about.
Arkhan is now seriously considering the possibility that the Chaos Gods are deliberately targeting Nagash's revival. With Neferata's SIlver Pinnacle being besieged by Chaos forces and Krell staying back to hold off Orion, perhaps fallen at the King's spear for all Arkhan knows, Arkhan is the only one of Nagash's dark servants to remain active. Arkhan was also well aware that Gelt could not have composed such a work of genius such as the wall of faith at such a moment all of a sudden. There was some sort of influence manipulating things behind the scenes, and he was beginning to suspect it was Chaos. After all, when Arkhan had set up Mallobaude's rebellion, a Chaos invasion suddenly popped up in Mousillon, setting back his plans by at least a year. Arkhan could not tell Mannfred of his suspicions. Vampires were predators, and he did not want Mannfred to smell the blood in the water.
Mannfred, for his part, was quite displeased for a different reason. The apostatic enchantment holding Sylvania's barrier of night was starting to fail. It would take days or weeks to fail, but losing one of the Nine had hurt Mannfred's enchantment. Arkhan had assured him that one of them would not be a big loss, but Mannfred now saw it for the lie it was, because it meant that Mannfred would be more desperate to bring back Nagash if the enchantment would fail. Mannfred is mad, but he's restraining himself, because he's starting to see the signs that Arkhan was talking about. Seeing the Border Princes firsthand, Mannfred knows that times are changing, and that means Mannfred would have to revive Nagash. He would not let Arkhan's deception slide, however, and to prove his superiority over Arkhan the Vampire demonstrates his power by summoning an army of magnificent power from the top of Castle Sterniste for the battle ahead.
The Defenders of Heldenhame:
Heldenhame is a former fort turned castle turned into a major city acting as a nexus for several major trade routes in Talabecland. Aside from the Knights of Sigmar's Blood, there are several regiments of state troops and militia as well as a garrison and castellans to support the structure. Only time will tell if that is enough:
Grand Master Hans Leitdorf: Brother to the deceased and mad Elector Count of Averland Marius Leitdorf, Hans could have taken position as Elector Count after his brother's death but he refused. He placed greater importance on his position in the Knights of Sigmar's Blood and viewed the Empire's nobles as callow forces draining the Empire's lifeblood with balls and parades when they should be focusing on the business of blood and steel. His goal is to prepare the Empire for what he sees as its inevitable collapse.
Commandant Otto Kross: A bully and a tyrant, a drunkard who spends his time in taverns where the innkeepers are too terrified to push him away and sleeps off the hangover when he goes back home. He considers his position as leader of Heldenhame's defences as a rightful reward for his three decades of military service, and he leaves the day to day efforts to his subordinates while he goes and gets drunk.
Seneschal Rudolph Weskar: Hans Leitdorf's second-in-command who was injured in the recent greenskin assault on Heldenhame and jumped back to duty thanks to Shallyan healing and his own intractable stubbornness. He was still deemed unfit to ride, so he accepted his post as Heldenhame Castle's Seneschal. He is a bit of a tyrant to his subordinates like Kross, but he possesses moments of kindness and wisdom that do not exist in the other.
Captain Wendel Volker: Wendel is the fourth son of an unremarkable noble family, viewed by Commandant Kross and other officers of Heldenhame as having gained his position through gold and patronage rather than good, honest service. They mocked the rigor and discipline that he took with his fencing lessons and the earnestness of the treatment he provided to the men under his command. The rank and file, in contrast, were perfectly obedient to Volker's commands, something that they did not grant to Commandant Kross whom they disliked.
The Brotherhood of Steel: The Knights of Sigmar's Blood did not have Knights of the Inner Circle, believing that all brothers are equal in the Heldenhammer's sight. Despite that, when leadership is required, all look to the Brotherhood of Steel as an example. They fought alongside Hans Leitdorf ten years ago when he accompanied the Witch Hunter Tibalt Greer to exterminate the Black Dame of Kervheist. This they did, though not without a good number of casualties. They are determined to ensure no such tragedy repeats itself within Heldenhame.
The Talabheim VI: Heldenhame is an important trading outpost for many of Talabheim's merchants, so the Grand Duke of the city has made it a point of providing many of his own regiments to the defence of the city. While this might seem generous, it was also a way to cut costs, because the regiments would be paid for from Heldenhame's coffers instead of Talabheim. Nevertheless, eight veteran companies of handgunners were welcomed into the city for the garrison lacked firearms support.
The Heldenhame Holdwatch: A great and prestigious position with a lot of responsibility and history behind it, since the founding of Heldenhame. The Holdwatch are in charge of making sure the City and fort remains safe while the Knights are away, and many of the state troops and castellans of the castle desire this vaunted position.
The Battle:
This section of the battle begins with an analysis and assessment of Heldenhame and its defences as Arkhan and Mannfred begin considering their approach.
"The Knights of Sigmar's Blood had founded Heldenhame Keep seven centuries earlier, when the order had returned from the Arabyan Crusades enriched by stolen wealth. It had been a modest bastion then, with little more than a stone tower and a wooden palisade as its defences. However, as the order of Sigmar's Blood grew richer and more renowned, so too did their fortress grow to new magnificence. First, the keep itself was expanded, then the palisade replaced by a broad stone wall. A century later, the fortress was further enlarged: the wall was extended to protect the town that had grown prosperous in the order's shadow, and the keep itself was torn down and replaced by a sprawling castle many times larger. Now Heldenhame Keep was the grandest fortress in Talabecland, the town was a bustling city, and the merest gatehouse of the city wall stood far taller and more intimidating than the long-vanished keep from whence the name Heldenhame had sprung." Page 120
While Mannfred and Arkhan would not admit it, they knew this would be a difficult fight, and they would have pursued other methods if they could. Unfortunately for them, thanks to Mannfred's many spies and informants, they discover that it would be incredibly difficult to infiltrate the Knights of Sigmar's Blood and almost impossible to corrupt them. They had the time for neither, Mannfred because he had seen the signs and knew Nagash was need for the times to come (under his control) and Arkhan because Chaos' power is rising and it seems they're intent on getting in his way.
Mannfred's informations do provide him with some good news however. Just last year, Waaagh!Bludtoof had crashed against the walls of Heldenhame's western keep. While they were slaughtered and drive off, their assault had driven the western wall almost to collapse. Grand Master Hans had spared no expense repairing the damage, but such construction would take time and was difficult to rush. It would be a point of egress for Mannfred and Arkhan's forces. The informants cautioned, however, that Hans had placed several batteries of Nuln forged cannons on that wall to destroy any attacker attempting to exploit the weakness.
Neither of the Necromancers were enthused on such a predictable maneuver, but sometimes, predictability could be used as a weapon when wielded correctly.
At night, Arkhan moved close to the wall where he planted his staff into the ground to feel the worm infested corpses that had littered the fields surrounding the wall. All the better for his plans. While the wind had carried his incantations across to the garrison at the walls, the watchman who heard it simply prayed to Sigmar to ward off the evil spirits instead of going to check.
The next paragraph switches perspective from Arkhan to Commandant Otto Kross being awoken by Captain Wendel as Dawn breaks. Kross is pretty irritated at being woken up and having to deal with a hangover, but the sound of battle immediately causes him to rush to the walls to see what is happening. They were under attack.
The first wave was of skeletons further away from the walls wielding spears and swords, and behind them around the treeline were catapults that sent screaming cackling flaming skulls blasting at the walls and past the walls. Screaming Skull Catapults. Arkhan is using his Army List to his advantage. The catapults were clearly aiming at a ragged and scaffolded section of the wall that lacked facing stone to protect the wall's core, Seeing his men firing their cannons and guns towards the marching Skeletons, Kross redirects his men's attention to the catapults, the primary threat involved. The skeletons lacked Siege Towers and ladders, so they were clearly using the fodder as a distraction while using bombardment to crack the walls. Cannons were aimed at the catapults and gunners were sent to higher ramparts to get away from the gun smoke to fire on them. The catapults were past the 'official' range of the Hochland Long Rifle, but one lucky shot could do it. Commandant Kross also ordered for the Knights to be informed of the situation so they could sally out.
The following sections are a grinding, desperate fight that certainly presents an endless horde of undead against mundane humans with only guns to support them. The wind gusts the acrid gun smoke blocking the sightlines of the cannons, and a good shot destroys a catapult, resulting in a ragged cheer. That cheer dies when Arkhan, farther to the east hidden within the treeline, reconstructed the catapult like noting happened, and the bombardment continues. The battle continues in that vein, where the skeletons get closer to the wall, the catapults batter the weakened sections, the skeletons and catapults reconstruct themselves with Arkhan's magics, and of course the fact that they don't have siege towers or ladders doesn't matter because the skeletons create ladders made out of their own body. Halberdiers and handgunners hack away the skele-ladders and start using rocks that they drop down on the skeletons. There are Hellblaster Volley Guns on both sides of the two bastions that are being assaulted, the Rostmeyer and Sigmundas bastions. They use those Volley Guns to utterly destroy the skeleton ladders as well, and those meet with a whole lot more success than the Handguns and rocks.
Unfortunately, while the Rostmeyer bastion, commanded by Captain Deinroth, managed to fend off the assaulting forces, the Sigmundas bastion's Hellblasters were notoriously cantankerous and malfunctioned, proving themselves not as effective. The defenders were pushed back, only to be reinforced by an old and experienced Warrior Priest of Sigmar by the name Janos Odrikier, who had faced Sylvania's horrors many times before and inspired his surrounding forces. Unfortunately for him, he got too close to the walls and was pulled down by grasping skele-hands that tore him down. With that, the forces of the Sigmundas bastion were faltering and retreating, and the catapults finally destroyed the wall, causing Commandant Kross and many of his soldiers to die trapped under rubble.
Captain Volker, behind the wall, was aghast at the events, but he did not falter. He drew his rapier, kissed the twin tailed comet on the handguard, and directed his forces to the breach, creating a wall of wood and steel to hamper the undead advanced. He only needed to hold the line until the Knights could arrive, and so did he and his soldiers hold the line. Volker fought and fought against the unceasing tides of Undead as catapults continued to fire, striking both men and undead alike because they clearly didn't care about other skeletons. Volker was suffering from a deep wound to his scalp and heavy burns from the flaming residue of the catapults and was beginning to despair. Where were the knights?
Meanwhile, Arkhan was rejoicing, as much as he was capable of rejoicing, at the overwhelming success of his plan. He did not expect the bombardment or escalade to succeed, yet both did. Now all that was needed was for the Knights to charge in and slaughter his undead, because at the end of the day this was all a diversionary tactic for the main force under Mannfred who would have to acquire Morikhane. Arkhan knew that the Knights of the Empire were driven by the conceits of honor, morals and chivalry, and they would never refuse a call to action when their forces were so battered.
Arkhan got what he wished. Hans Leitdorf did not take any satisfaction from the trumpet that heralded their arrival, because he was late. Even if they succeeded and won, it would only be a partial victory that would not overcome his shame. It seemed as if every merchant cart in all of Heldenhame was determined to slow the Knightly advance, and the fact that it was "manifestly untrue" (book's wording) did not lighten the load or reduce his temper. He did not feel any fear when he charged into the undead, all her felt was anger and determination. At the head of a column of Knights, Hans Leitdorf charged. A fully plate armored knight charging on top of a horse is a deadly impact, and Hans had nearly 1200 knights at his disposal. It didn't matter that he was charging thousands of skeletons, he crashed through their "phalanxes" (again, book's wording) and smashed them to bits.
The Knights could have lost if they had let recklessness take them over, but Hans Leitdorf wielded his order with the experience one would expect of a man of his caliber. He wheeled his forces in a series of charges that splintered the enemy defences and emboldened the troops to take advantage of the openings, and he let loose two brotherhoods of knights to rack down and destroy the war machine that would still pose a threat to the armored knights. Yet, for all that they had managed to crush the enemy and achieve what seemed to be victory, the odd lack of reconstruction of the undead sent a wave of suspicion in Hans Leitdorf.
A suspicion that would of course be met, because this was a distraction and the garrison of 400 soldiers within Heldenhame Keep were being assaulted by Mannfred's flyers.
The first thing to occur was the wind shifting. An easterly breeze flowed through the city earlier that now turned into a northerly gale as dark clouds gathered over the castle. Hans redirected his troops but knew he would likely arrive too late.
The second thing to happen is when Vargheists assaulted the castle, diving into battlements from the teeth of the gale. The defenders were ill prepared for a sky assault, and the wind redirected shots from handguns and allowed the Vargheists to rip some of the soldiers to shreds. The Vargheists were outnumbered, however, and the soldiers used their numbers advantage and swarmed over them to cut them down.
The third thing to happen was Mannfred unleashing his legion of spectres. Witches and Warlocks, madmen and suicides, those who longed to inflict their eternal suffering on the living through the icy cold embrace of death. Mortal weapons could not yield any wounds against these creatures, but here, a remnant of the Crusades remained with the knights. In a vaguely racially charged sentence that I'm particularly sensitive to considering my status as an Arab woman:
"Now the defenders' salvation came from the weapons of the past. Many of the blades wielded by the castellans had been forged during the Arabyan crusades, and had been blessed against the infidel warriors of the desert kingdoms by the priests of those times. Those aged blades blazed like torches when the spirits drew near, and the flames burnt spectral flesh as easily as they did that of the living. Swiftly, the castellans rallied around those of their number that carried the blessed weapons, and the spectral assault stalled." Page 130
Then the final assault occurred, as two Terrorgheists herald the coming of Mannfred on his skeletal steed. Seneschal Rudolph Weskar identifies this individual as the mastermind, and rallies his men for a charge with a prayer to Sigmar. Weskar proves himself a bit of a badass as his men charge into a Terrorgheist. The monster crushes three men on the flank, but the remaining soldiers deal strikes that crack the bone and weaken it. Weskar then ducks under one of its blows and discards his shield, swinging his sword in a brutal two handed swing at its head, crushing the creature's jaw. The Terrorgheist reeled back, but too slowly to avoid the following overhead strike, shattering the creature's skull to fragments. Weskar then bellows a challenge to Mannfred and charges, and it goes exactly like you would expect. Mannfred makes a mocking Imperial Duel salute because he likes aping human tradition, and decapitates Weskar in one strike, and slices two knights in the second swing. There are food descriptions accompanying this, but I don't think it means anything other than Mannfred comparing fighting humans to a cleaver chopping and butchering meat.
The Chapter ends with a "Nagash would rise!", paralleling the last two Nagash would rise because three is the magic number. Then there is a decent character-building narrative here that I'll just let play out:
Hans Leitdorf slammed his gauntleted fist against the parapet. He had been fooled, and Heldenhame, honoured stronghold of his order for centuries, had paid the price.
'How many survivors?' Leitdorf demanded. From where he stood on the north tower, all he could see were the bodies of the dead.
'We've pulled another three out from under the rubble of the gatehouse,' replied the preceptor at his side. 'One will lose a hand unless the surgeons are quick, but they'll all fight again.'
'That makes what, forty all told?'
'Forty-two, my lord,' the preceptor corrected him.
Leitdorf swore and punched the wall again. Forty-two survivors out of a garrison of four hundred, and that said nothing of the thousands who had died on the city walls. Worse, the castle vault had been breached, and one of its oldest treasures stolen. The order's honour was in the mud; his honour was in the mud.
At least the identity of the perpetrator was clear, indeed, it could hardly have been clearer. The cage is broken. Those were the words Leitdorf had found daubed in blood on the wall of the inner keep. And this less than three months after the Supreme Patriarch had proclaimed himself 'the man who had caged Sylvania'.
Leitdorf had argued long and hard that Gelt's solution was a temporary measure at best, but the Supreme Patriarch's gilded tongue had proved itself more persuasive than the knight's bitter years of experience along the Sylvanian borders.
'I've a mind to travel to Altdorf and wring Balthasar Gelt's scrawny neck,' Leitdorf growled.
He wouldn't make good on his threat, of course. Even in his anger, Leitdorf knew that the wizards weren't the true enemy. Vengeance lay along the dark roads to Sylvania. No sane man would willingly take that path: indeed, after his last journey into the haunted land, Leitdorf had sworn he would never return. Yet as he looked again at the bloodied bodies strewn across the inner courtyard, the grand master wondered if he perhaps bore a touch of his late brother's madness, for now he was considering just that.
'Spread the word,' Leitdorf ordered. 'We ride south at first light. The wizards have had their chance; we'll settle–'
His final words were drowned out when a crude blaring of horns sounded in the distance. Leitdorf knew that sound. Looking to the west, he saw that the trees which had so recently been alive with undead were now thick with braying beastmen who trampled one another in their eagerness to reach Heldenhame's breached wall.
They had been drawn by the sound of battle, Leitdorf guessed, come to pile further horror on Heldenhame. Not today, he swore, his anger rising to meet the new threat. Vengeance would wait. At least for now.
Here, the Chapter ends, and we get into Chapter 2: The Ritual, taking place in the Winter of 2524. The contents should be obvious, as Arkhan and Mannfred have the relics and artifacts in place for Nagash's revival.
My opinion on this overall? Not bad. Specifically the first chapter. There's a lot that's wrong with the introduction but I think this thread has discussed that at length. The contrivances still continue to occur, and some narrative events are quite awful because they had absolutely no build up to it or very little in the first place. I imagine there are quite a few more things to mention, but this chapter was not particularly awful. There was far less interaction between Arkhan and Mannfred then I expected. No narrative interaction at all, and only a few "Mannfred confronted Arkhan. This is how he feels. This is what he's thinking". Not exactly conducive to an excellent narrative, which I think they could have done if they were willing to focus on Mannfred and Arkhan's relationship and the interplay between them. It seems like their primary concern is getting Nagash back as soon as possible. I guess that's valid, because this IS End Times: Nagash. Still, I felt they could do more with them. We'll see if there's more of that later.
This particular section was nice in the sense that it presented the Empire as a genuine threat with competence and Arkhan and Mannfred didn't just steamroll their way through. Hans Leitdorf is a genuinely interesting character and even the one offs like Volker were admirable and entertaining. I've begun to notice a pattern here where every fight that Mannfred gets involved in that isn't Arkhan ends in half a second as he decapitates them. There's a lot of decapitation and no selling going on. I suppose that's what happens when you buff up your villains so much. You need literal superhumans to fight people like Mannfred, because he can dodge bullets at the last second and swing his sword in a killing blow within the time between one step to the next.
In terms of tactics, I think most of what occurred here is reasonable, from a layman's perspective. The only confusion here is why a major city and castle stronghold and chapter for a prosperous Knightly Order with 1500+ men doesn't have at least a single Wizard around. The main crux of the battle that turned it to Arkhan's favor was that he could casually recoup his losses and destroying the catapults did nothing. A Wizard or something might have been helpful there.
As a final note, I did not appreciate the Crusade parts of this chapter. I don't like that they decided to bring over the name of the real life Crusades into this fantasy setting against a nation called "Araby". I can't speak for all Arabs, but I can attest that grudges still exist on that thousand year old conflict, and my blood boils when I see it mentioned in Warhammer because of the mockery it inflicts on the real life incident. The mention of the Knights of Sigmar's Blood plundering Araby and the oddly phrased sentence regarding "infidel desert warriors" has not endeared me to their Imperials, and I wanted to root for them and often did. Leaves a sour note that I can't help but mention, because it is definitely part of my feelings on the subject.
See you next time for Nagash Chapter 2: The Ritual.
