Warhammer Siege Campaign - Messenger

Mernith Greybeard surveyed the horizon. Behind him the gates of the fortress swung closed, ahead he could see shapes scuttling to block the pass that lead to Karak Norn. He hefted his great axe and turned to the dwarf to his right. 
"There are few of them Snutti Grumbldorn move now and move fast. I see the boar riders on our flank, we Longbeards shall see to them. Punch through their centre and make for Karak Norn" 
The younger Thane nodded, clamped down his faceguard and ordered the small dwarf force forward.

So the first game of our siege campaign. We were each to have 500 points and I had to get a letter off the far side of the table.
TBH the rules were a bit confusing and I think designed for skirmish type small unit deployment. Perhaps we should have used AoS rules...

Things were not helped by me bringing the two editions old Dwarf book and Steve not being able to find the one before the current one. So I just threw down what we reckoned was about 500 points.
Steve had some Orc crossbowmen, just like there aren't in the rules and at one point was leafing through the 3rd edition army book to find the rules for half-Orcs (see, this Olderhammer stuff is a slippery slope). It turns out they're pretty similar to 8th edition Orc rules, so that was OK then.

I deployed with clansdwarfs in the centre, longbeards to their left and handgunners to their right. In retrospect taking a move or fire unit who's basic move is only 3" in a scenario that requires you to get off the far table edge was not the best decision.

Facing me were some night goblin archers the aforementioned half Orcs, Ruglud's crossbowmen and some boarboys

I advanced as fast as my stumpy little legs would allow. The longbeards moving to protect my flank from the boarboys.

In the centre my clansdwarfs charged the ha...Orcs.

Followed by the Boarboys smashing into the Longbeards.

Unfortunately the Orc boss in the unit proved rather handy at fighting, and rapidly cut down my thane. Who was carrying the message. Game over.

However, being resourceful we decided the Dwarfs had actually given the letter to one of the three unit champions, and we'd dice at the end of the game to see which one had it if any made it off the board.
Thereby meaning we could carry on playing and introducing an element of suspense to the game.

Shortly thereafter the Night Goblins ploughed into the flank of the dwarf unit. Oh dear.
However the boarboys found the longbeards altogether tougher.

Soon both clansdwarfs and boarboys were fleeing for their lives.

And it was time for the Longbeards to face the Orcs. Which went rather better.

Though the boss was still able to hand it out

Out of sight of the camera the handgunners were whittled out of existence by Orc crossbows and Night Goblin bowfire.

However eventually the Orcs broke and fled and the last champion of the Dwarf side sprinted toward the board edge.

The Night goblins maneuvered and took aim...

...and missed.

For a brief moment it looked like he'd make it off the board. But then Ruglud's crew took aim from the tower and shot him down, just inches from safety.

It was ace to be back playing Warhammer. The scenario worked fine, despite being around 20 years old, there was a bit of tension around the outcome but ultimately a safe Orc win.

In the post game phase Steve elected to fight the tunneling under the walls scenario. Which means I can dig out the mushroom scenery from our Underway campaign.

It also means I should probably paint some more miners...

Steve's version of the battle can be found here.