Orcs had found a ruined citadel near the border of the vale. Hastily they started rebuilding it, but Bretonnian scouts reported about the danger and army of Grail Knights set forth.

Battleplan: The Monolith (one side has to build a monolith: roll 1d6 each hero phase, 20 points needed to complete, +1 for general adjacent to it, opponent can desecrate it if within 3 inches and rolls 4+; victory conditions: major victory for completing or desecrating the monolith).

Matrix result: did not use, as it would have ruined the point of the battleplan.

Armies:
Points: 1500
Bretonnian army:
6 Grail knights
6 Grail knights
5 Freeguild Outriders
5 Mounted Yeoman
20 Peasant Bowmen
10 Freeguild Greatswords
10 Freeguild Handgunners
1 Empire General (general)
1 Paladin
1 Battlemage

Orc army:
5 Ironguts
3 Ogors with 2 clubs
3 Ogors with 2 clubs
5 Savage Orruk Boarboys
20 Savage Arrowboys
10 Savage Arrowboys
1 Savage Big Boss (general)
1 Butcher (with Talisman)
1 Bruiser Standard Bearer (with Battle Brew)
Kunnin Rukk warscroll battalion

Bretonnians calculated and put down some points less, so he rolled on Triumph Table and got to reroll hits.

Pre-battle strategy: use arrowboys with Kunnin Rukk to take down Peasant Archers to deny x4 Arrowstorm, use arrowboys with Kunnin Rukk to kill some Grail Knights, then use all savage orruks as meatshields and chaff to keep the knights from advancing. Then take in the Grail knights charge with ogors and trike with ironguts from behind the lines.

1st ROUND
Turn 1: Bretonnia gave initiative to orcs. Orcs rolled 6 for the Monolith, added 1, 7 points! Orcs used Kunnin Rukk to advance with 10 arrowboys and shot the yeomen, killed 2. Moved other units a bit.

Butcher tried to cast Mystic Shield with +1 bonus, but failed, rolled 1, took 1 damage, rolled 1 with cauldron, took 2 damage. Fortunately the Talisman saved from 2 wounds.

Turn 2: Bretonnia moved forward, charged to 10 arrowboys, killed them, but putting them in reach of 20 arrowboys - hoped that orcs get the initiative next round. Freeguild Handgunners chief shot with his 30" range gun.

2nd ROUND
Turn 1: Bretonnia won initiative (and all other initiatives, as always). So the Grail Knights charged to 20 arrowboys in cover, killed 6 (lucky saves in cover), 3 more fled. Some shooting from Handgunners and bowmen. Other units moved forward, second unit of Grail Knights charged to boarboys, killed 4. Last boarboy fled.

Turn 2: Orcs rolled 5 for the Monolith, added 1 and 13 points altogether. Orcs had a chance to charge the grail knights. 3 ogors charged the outriders, killed 2. Ironguts got +1 to hit from alliance ability, charged grail knights, killed all 6 of them. Savage boarboys killed one grail knight, and fortunately survived with 2 models against grail knights!

Bucher tried to cast spell spell and use the cauldron, but rolled 1 again both times, which put him to 2 wounds. That gluttonous useless ******. And I forgot the Talisman saves.

3rd ROUND
Turn 1: Bretonnia won initiative. Surviving Grail Knights killed arrowboys. Other units on foot moved forward, but were still too far away to cast spells etc. Peasant bowmen made arrowstorm to ironguts, 84 hit rolls (4+ hit thanks to Paladin close by, 4+ wound). Fortunatey they did not roll well, 17 successful wound rolls. And even more fortunately - ironguts rolled incredibly well, 5 wounds altogehter and only 1 perished. No battleshock thanks to Inspiring Presence.

Turn 2: Orcish masons worked feverishly and rolled 4 for the Monolith, added 1 and 18 points altogether! The citadel was almost complete.  Butcher tried casting a spell again, and being furious for inflicting 7 wounds on himself, cast Voracious Maw on 5 Grail Knights. Killed 1 with first bite, then the Maw bit again and 1 more died. Then it was satisfied. The butcher ate from the cauldron, gave +1 to hit for ogors.

3 ogors moved back to defend the citadel, 3 other charged the greatswords, killed 6 (with +1 boost from the butcher). Paladin and greatswords hit back and 2 ogors died. Bruiser shot grail knights, killed one. Ironguts charged the grail knights and killed them.   

4th ROUND
Turn 1: Bretonnia won initiative. Tried to kill the general with hadgunner chief, but missed. They had no chance to get close to the Monolith before my next hero phase, and my next roll minimum was 2, so 20 points guaranteed. Orcs claimed major victory.

SUMMARY: After the first round with Bretonnia attacking 2 turns in a row everything seemed lost to orcs: most orruks killed, 12 grail knights very close to the Monolith, plus 5 outriders and 3 yeomen, with the rest of Bretonnian army coming up from behind. I had lost 23 models, opponent 2.

But thanks to lucky Maw, and mostly thanks to boosted ironguts the tables turned quickly. I managed to kill off whole horse riding part of the army, and foot soldiers just couldn't get close enough. If Monolith rolls hadn't been so good, things would have been different.

Bruiser Standard Bearer helped to make additional 4 mortal wounds, but stood most of the time pointlessly. Probably it's better to use one wizard instead: less melee power, but more maneuverability and more flexibility.

The Butcher failed in everything except the last spell. And caused himself 7 wounds, but fortunately healed 1 and the Talisman helped to fend off 2.  

The arrowboys should have been more in the back to avoid grail knights' charge, and then shot them with +1 bonus and kunnin rukk for 120 hits. Otherwise the meatshields worked - grail knights charged and killed the boarboys and ogors/ironguts got to charge them, arrowboys kept the other unit of grail knights in place. Grail knights are still awful - they had 3+ to hit, rerolling misses, 3+ to wound, save 2+ (mystic shield or cover), 2 damage. Basically an auto damage from all models if they charged.

BATTLE BONUS: 1 additional artifact: mail with 3+ save, ignores rend; 3 points from major victory.

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