A Campaign in the North

The leader of the Black Knights

As a warm up for the coming campaign in the Badlands, Count Alejandro Dragovicz led a battalion north as an open challenge to any other standing army, and as an opportunity to try out his new undead constructions. The first enemy to cross blades with the Count was (ironically enough) another vampire lord, who was questing through the area with his personal cavalry force – a former host of the Bretonnians. Dragovicz enganged the fellow undead in a hand-to-hand challenge, after having charged his Black Knights with the Miladra Elite Guard. Although Alejandro himself was struck down in the duel, the mighty warriors of Miladra was able to bring down, not only the vampire lord himself, but also his heir - the standard carrier, two of the vampire's employed necromancers and the entire cavalry unit. After seeing his lord crumble, Senior Sergeant Ajax, also known as the Gatekeeper, led the remaining forces of Miladra to sweep out the rest of the enemy forces, leaving the battalion of Miladra with a major victory.

The sinister Chaos Lord of Tzeentch
from http://paintingmum.blogspot.com

Afterwords Alejandro Dragovicz returned and restored his forces to their full strength, using the already-once-animated forces of the opposing vampire lord. He then pressed on north and engaged a force of the Warriors of Chaos in a snowy mountain pass. Due to both armies exhaustion after the mountain passage, they were both near a breaking point, and the fall of enough standards or the loss of a general would surely be enough to make both forces break. Early on in the encounter, the gigantic Hell Canon of Chaos ripped itself lose from the chains of its chaos dwarven handlers, and charged towards the ranks of the undead. This however left it in the center of the battlefield, blocking passage for both forces. The Lord of Chaos, follower of Tzeentch, decided for a quick solution to the encounter, and flew alone on his arcane disc behind the undead forces, in an attempt to vaporize Count Alejandro with a powerful demonic spell. Failing this, he turned to find a massive monstrosity, known in legends as a Terrorgheist, standing as his flank. The monster let out a shriek so high pitched and terrible, that the Chaos Lord fell flat over on his disc, trying to fend off the pain by covering his ears. However, the Spirit of Terror let out another burst of screams, and the Devoted of Tzeentch fell dead off his disc, ears bleeding. After seeing their lord fall, the remaining warriors of Chaos fled the battlefield, leaving more corpses behind for Alejandro and apprentice necromancer Amos Darkstone to raise.

Count Mannfred von Carstein

Alejandro Dragovicz made camp at the top of the mountain pass, only to find himself assaulted by no other than the mighty Mannfred von Carstein himself, and his skeletal forces. Mannfred saw the conquest made by Miladra city-state as a direct challenge to the ruling house of the vampire counts, and wanted to put this upstart vampire in his place. Alejandro, having no thorn again the von Carsteins, nonetheless met the challenge. During the advancement of the forces, a dark spell of the vampiric lore went terribly wrong for Alejandro, and although annihilating an enemy banshee in an overpowered magic missile, he himself accidentally opened a portal into the realm of Chaos, and was sucked into it. Seeing the enemy forces slowly crumbling, the confident Mannfred von Carstein flew towards the young Amos Darkstone, in an attempt to crush the upstart necromancer, who somehow managed to hold the undead forces together. Making the same mistake generals before him, Mannfred underestimated the power of the Terrorgheist of Miladra, and though he was at full force and so far unharmed in battle, the undead dragon reduced him to dust with a single powerful Shriek. The magic that held the forces of the von Carstein undeads together now started to falter, and since there was none else to take over, the forces were reduced to dust. At this time the Miladra forces were themselves too almost annihilated, and even the Senior Seagent Ajax had fallen in a duel with the mighty Lord of Undead, Krell, who was also slayed by a single killing blow by Ajax. The battle ended with an insignificant victory to the Miladra force, and resulted in a withdrawal of the Von Carsteins, while the Miladrian forces were once again reanimated.

Azhag the Slaughterer
(By Morten Christensen)

After having fought his way through the Realms of Chaos, Count Alejandro Dragowicz returned and led his battalion back south towards the Badlands. Here he encountered an old rival army – The Dragonback Mountain Waaagh. The boss in charge was however not Alejandro's usual rival, but the orc legend Azhag the Slaughterer himself. The armies engaged in a narrow mountain pass, and after some maneuvering, the Elite Guard of Miladra clashed with Azhag himself atop his mighty Wyvern, together with a large pack of trolls and a gigantic Arachnarok Spider. The Grave Guards made quick words of the trolls, but were then themselves crushed under the spider. Alejandro also tore through the Wyvern with ease, but was himself cut down by an infuriated Azhag, wielding his twin axes. Stepping up to face the orc legend was Senior Seagent Ajax, who landed a killing blow on the orc, with his huge axe. The remaining orcish forces fled, after Azhag's demise, and most were cut down by the undeads, leaving the battalions of Miladra with a clean victory.

The Slann Mage Priest unleashes hell upon the dead

Alejandro proved his will to disobey death once again, and returned from the shadows to lead his forces the remaining journey home. Taking a shortcut through the marshes, the Undead host suddenly found itself engaged with a large force of Lizardmen, led by an ancient Slann mage-priest. At first this seemed a nice dessert after a feast of war and battles, and Dragovicz aligned his forces into a perfect and near unbreakable battleline. Having forces ready to flank, and already decimated the mighty Engine of the Gods with his Terrorgheist, victory seemed sure for the vampires. This all changed when the Slann unleashed a cataclysmic spell, that summoned dwellers from the world below, who attacked the Elite Guard of Miladra. Consuming half the regiment, including both Ajax and Alejandro himself, this turned the tides of the battle, and the Lizardmen forces made fairly quick work of the remaining undeads, leaving them with a safe victory.

Amos Darkstone the Necromancer

Amos Darkstone led the shattered remaining undeads back to the city-state, only to find Alejandro Dragovicz already returned and working on the construction of an even mightier army. This would be the Miladra Castle Battalion for the course of the coming new campaign, spelling blood in the Badlands.