Battle Brothers: Heavy Casualties

Part of the Fate of Heroes series - spoilers ahead!

Having saved Lazenfeste, Gander purchases 9 war dogs and recruits the bowyer / archer pair of Eberhard and Hartmut "One Shot" before leading the company to the twin ports of Meerburg and Holnisland where they are joined by Sir Lancel Hildebrand, Sir Albrecht Kettilmund and Sir Donatus Donbert, all of whom have lost their companies in this war.

Sir Donatus has restarted building his though, introducing his small militia of Bernhard the traveler, Torkel the fisherman, Thorben an ex caravan guard and Hanke his sergeant. The Spears then conduct a rapid strike operation on a nearby "Long Spears" goblin camp, eradicating it at the cost of Corynx getting fatally skewered, Eberhard being out archered, and Hartmut getting eaten by the mount of a goblin wolf rider.

Upon their return the find the twin ports under attack by hordes of orcs and jump right into the fray. Sigmar and Bernhard are butchered by orc berserkers. Bertram, Thorben, Torkel, Sir Donatus, Sir Albrecht and Sid are also all killed in action. With the remaining orcs scattered, the survivors hit the tavern to drown their losses in ale.

But not before leaving a warning for all the other orcs.

Battle Brothers: The Siege of Wiesendorf

Part of the Fate of Heroes series - spoilers ahead!

By the time the company reaches Wiesendorf, it is already under siege by zombies. Fortunately Sir Donatus Donbert and his men are already there thinning the herd. After the easy fight, Donatus bids the Spears good luck as he has orders to protect another town further East. The Spears and the local militia hunker down to build defenses.

I suppose it's a little like the opening intro for Neverwinter Online.

It's not long till the next wave arrives, skeleton warriors who - while fortunately don't reanimate when slain - are much better fighters than the zombies. Gander's trauma from the earlier vampire encounter flares up here, and due to him fleeing Gillian suffers a broken elbow and a diseased wound while R4W3C is shield bashed off his high ground, right into a skeleton swarm who hack him to pieces.

There is not much of a rest after breaking that wave when the next arrives, even more skeletons who are better equipped. The local militia die in droves as the Spears scramble with armor and shield breaking axes. Kruglov is impaled by an ancient spear man through the heart.

Defeating them only leads to the final wave of undead with even more skeleton warriors and pikemen. With all the militia dead (and re-killed thanks to zombification) the Spears throw everything they have with Sunbro earning his keep in kills. In the battle, Tolik is cut down, Majorn sacrifices himself (bleeds out) to slay the final spearman, and Faltran is disemboweled.

Battle Brothers: Relative Peace

Part of the Fate of Heroes series - spoilers ahead!

The days after the war are peaceful, with the roads patrolled by various House soldiers once more. The Spears help clean up the wandering brigand and orc groups, getting paid per head as well as hunting more direwolf packs.

In their down time, Mole helps a boy get a ball out of a tree, Raven's juggling entertains the troops, Big Mike plays more dice with Pioyer and Emile, Faltran manages to break his nose while training and Fanatic converts R4W3C to the cult of Davkul. Majorn also keeps busy burning random witches he finds in villages.

Sir Donatus Donbert of House Folsach then invites them to go on a nachzerer hunt with his legion and showcases how overwhelming numbers can handle even a swarm of over 20 of the ghouls. Big Mike is impressed.

I love the large scale battles!

Afterwards the company holds a meeting about what they should do next, and Emile comes up with the idea of exploring the Western wild lands, since some maps he's been stealing this whole time are not sufficient for cartography purposes. As maps might be valuable to the right person, Big Mike agrees and the Spears begin purchasing supplies for their adventure.