Objective
The Hierarch and his personal guard entered the ruins of the town, hot on the tails of those who had chased humanity out. Krueger the Stormlord, a Druid or Blackclad of the Circle Orboros wasn't going to wait for the hunt to end.
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Deployment
The Hierarch deploys with his Exemplar on one side and his battlegroup on the other. The blessing of vengeance supports the Exemplar against the Wolves of Orboros and Druids, and the battlegroup is positioned with the Guardian on the left flank, the Templar, then the bonded Reckoner facing off against Krueger's warbeasts.
In the Northern Crusade, the Cinerators and Bastions get to Advance Move, creeping forward.
The Hurricane
The Stormlord's first move is quick. The infantry facing the Hierarch's bodyguard of slow moving knights starts to reposition. The Wolves and Wolflord Morraig start to run across toward Severius's left flank, and his Druids position themselves to deal with the Exemplar.
The Protectorate's anti-magical defenses kick in as the Hierarch casts the Holy Ward Spell on the Bastions, making them DEF 13 and immune to magical targeting. The choir also chant an anti-magical ward onto all four warjacks, leaving Krueger and his Woldwardens with very little to target.
And so the Druids and the once Woldwarden advance and use spells and Geomancy on the easy to hit Cinerators. The front unit is pushed and pulled all over the place as the Exemplar start to die. Damage taken by the unit makes the Cinerators Relentless, but that will avail them little in the fight ahead.
The second Woldwarden comes in after the Bastions, and DEF 13 serves them well. In the end, very little damage is done as the Woldwarden misses attacks and as the bastions share the damage around them using their Sanguine Bond.
The Stormlord then charges his own Woldwarden, an action he doesn't take lightly but does find necessary. As he flies into the Woldwarden's back, he deals significant damage to one of its aspects.
Then he uses his Hurricane Feat.
The charge pushes Krueger's Hurricane over most of Severius's army, save some of the 'jacks. This pushes them back 2", AND drops their SPD and DEF by 2, effectively making them both easier to kill and making it harder to retaliate.
In addition, he casts his Telekinesis Spell on the Warpwolf Stalker to position it closer to the front lines.
Set up, the Stalker then activates, Warps for strength, and charges the Guardian.
It takes all of the Stalker's fury, but the Guardian is wrecked.
Wolves of the Storm
The Wolves and Morraig continue to run towards the quickly crumbling left flank, crossing forest as if it were open land from their Pathfinder Ability.
The Hurricane completely hampers the Cinerators. Though they gain +2 SPD from the Relentless Ability, they are nevertheless hampered by the Hurricane which prevents them from charging. So their only option is to try to run 8", which isn't enough to get them anywhere.
The Bastions and the Blessing of Vengeance (with Song of Battle) try to put some hurt on the interloping Woldwarden, but without the charge even the Bastions with their Weapon Master Ability are only able to do so much damage against the construct.
The Templar tries to reach and damage the Stalker, but fails to do much at all.
The Druids continue to push ahead and use their magical abilities to eliminate one unit of Cinerators.
The Woldwarden gets one attack on the Blessing of Vengeance and is repelled by its shield. EKrueger charges in and he is also repelled, but not before he manages to disrupt the Blessing's Arc Node.
The Stalker tries to put some hurt on the ARM 21 Templar.
And manages to deal a lot of damage. However, the Templar remains standing.
Then the wolves rush in, with some of the front line charging, but one lone wolf manages to run into melee range of the Templar.
This leaves Morraig room to charge, gain the flank bonus, and hit with five dice against the Templar.
The Fires of Communion
Seeing his army crumble before him, the Hierarch uses the Fires of Communion Feat, taking over the five grunts in the unit of Druids.
The goal seems simple enough: with two warbeasts full of fury the Hierarch has to eliminate the Gorax and the Woldwarden that isn't full so that he has a chance at assassinating the Stormlord. So he drops Holy Ward, gives four focus to the Reckoner, and keeps the rest.
Severius then uses his Fires of Communion Feat, taking over five druids. One druid eliminates the Unit Leader, and the rest try to charge the Woldwarden and the Gorax.
The Druids fail to do much damage at all, and so the remaining Cinerators charge and put plenty of damage on the Woldwarden, but not enough to eliminate it entirely.
Everything else in the army tries to have a go at Kreuger, but when the attacks finally start hitting, he's able to transfer most of the damage onto the Gorax and Woldwarden. Finally the Covenant prevents spell-casting in its CMD range.
The Storm Strikes Home
While his wolves finish off the Bastions, Morraig continues to work his way around the flank to try to eliminate the Covenant. Its special status as a book that only ever takes one point of damage at a time, however, keeps it alive.
Unable to use his magic to remove the obstacle of the Reckoner, and fearing the consequences of simply flying over the 'jack and taking a boosted POW 17 free strike, Krueger empowers his Woldwarden to pick up and throw the Reckoner far far away.
Then the Stormlord charges into the Hierarch (who has cast Holy Ward on himself) and uses his fury (while laughing at the choir's freestrike) to cut down the old man.
Conclusion
Circle maneuverability wrecks the Hierarch's slow moving army, no matter how many anti-magical solutions he tries to lay upon the battlefield. It's a question of force projection, and a fast army that can project speed and reduce yours is going to have huge advantages.
