The preparations for the next advance into Sylvania took more than 2 years, simply because the intrinsic latency of medieval transportation. Which is basically walking. If you ever walked 1000 miles, you know how long that takes.
On the other hand, thousands of hopeful conscripts and hundreds of impoverished nobles arrived in this time to get a chance to fight in the Army of the East and oust the Vampires from the holy land of the Empire. Some arrived by river boat or by horse, more by wagon and caravan, and most of them on foot.
Most of the new recruits arrived starved and in poor physical condition, as expected of people marching through sun and rain for months, and sleeping in grass and forest. There must have been others that gave up and got lost, or died during their trek, but I could only count the ones who did arrive.
Add to this the recovery period including healing by the Wild Guard mages, the training phases including gun discipline and then mustering in their camps with new armor and guns to begin live training in the Sylvanian bogs and forests still infested with monsters, mutants and undead.
As an ad-hoc solution we used warm air balloons to monitor the forts and nearby lands, which increased the use of spyglasses and telescopes, as did the introduction of snipers and their long rifles.
When the Army of the East finally marched on Drakenhof, we numbered over 10000 soldiers, 50 War Wagons and 100 Great Cannons, plus several mages flying on gryphons to provide aerial cover and scouting. It would takes a few decades to fully establish an air corps for my Wild Guard, since both gryphons and mages were quite rare. But the basis was already here, and a dozen gryphons and their nests were transported from their distant peaks to the welcoming crenelations of Castle Waldenhof.
Jet liked playing with the gryphon pups, or perhaps train them to be worthy fighters. Maybe both. It involved a lot of flying, hunting, Flight and Cure spells and tons of screeches. As a Dragon, Jet was quite the adherent to my aerial supremacy doctrine.
But for now, superior firepower will be sufficient.
Soon enough, our cannons opened fire towards the hordes of zombies and skeletons guarding Drakenhof, over a million of them, blowing up thousands of enemies with each salvo. From among the undead troops, Dark magicians cast their own spells, returning the zombies to...a semblance of combat effectiveness, if not life.
But lost limbs and weapons in the bombardment did not return, even with their great Necromantic spells, and so our cannons kept firing and blowing up more zombie formations, skeleton archers, and even ghouls and crypt terrors, while more and more advanced units poured out from Drakenhof.
I raised my own spyglass and noted Varghouls and Vargheists, Death Guards and even Black Knights preparing for the counter-attack.
With a 100 to 1 numerical superiority and so many high tier monsters, the Von Carstein Vampires probably felt quite secure in repelling our siege.
Coming from the side, a squad of 9 Terrorgheists attempted to induce mass-panic into my army, so I took off at hyperspeed, and smacked them with my 300 kilo club made of nigh-indestructible Gromril. Move, counter-move.
You're next, dear Count!
The Imperial Dragon glanced at me with one eye. 'What now, Warden?'
'We let the guns fire. I didn't bring an entire army just to win single-handedly. And you will probably die by yourself, outnumbered a million to one.' I answered with a careless shrug. He would surely do a big damage to the undead, but if their high-tier units crippled his wings, even a Dragon would die.
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Jet sighed softly and kept silent.
As expected, the Vampires were not content to just wait and let their army disintegrate under artillery fire. As one, the undead turned our way and began shuffling and try to reach melee range.
I glanced down, to find the engineers were hard at work, digging trenches and raising stake fences, while the War Wagons were towed into their positions, with the front roadwheels parked onto planks set over roller logs. A primitive aiming assist, since we lacked both tracks and turrets. Even trunions for the cannons inside, which allowed a modicum of elevation control were a big discovery in this day and age.
'Firewall, front ranks. Delay the undead for a few minutes.' I told my Dragon and he dived to attack.
Our fortifications were not complete, which could lead to an early penetration of our lines. It wouldn't do for my reputation.
The Battle Magic spell was properly called Wall of Fire, not the Firewall of Bright Wizards, since it wasn't a Magic Wind spell.
But give this spell to a Dragon, have it fueled by dragonfire and then extrapolated to a dozen settings.
The entire frontline burned, as Jet burst this flames into long lines of dragonfire which then extended with Walls of Fire left and right.
In a minute, the Dragon returned at my side, breathing in deep as he channeled magic back into his core. I wondered for a second how it would feel to be out of mana, but then shrugged. It would never happen.
Rolan and Gissela added their own Fire spells to the Dragon's wall, burning thousands more zombies as they marched into the flames and just burned to ash.
"Elevation 15! Fuzes at 1.3 seconds!" the Cannon Captains shouted to their crew, as other crew rushed with wet plunges to clean the barrels for the next shot.
The next salvo of bombs landed among the Black Knights, just as they formed for a charge. I glanced down to find Janna, the Celestial Wizard congratulate the Cannon Commander for an effective salvo. Whatever scrying or precogition spell was specific to Celestial Wizards, it sure worked nicely to provide targeting coordinates for my artillery.
To me Celestial Magic looked like astrology and reading the future in tea leaves, but if that kind of magic actually worked and provided effective battlefield support, it was welcome.
Of course, the Vampires had their own casters and mages, much older and greater than our own. Summoned zombies emerged past the flame wall, while curses and fear spells stuck the front ranks.
Alana and Rivia tried their best to counter, but they were overmatched by thousands of years old liches and Dark mages.
"Dispel!" I chanted in a loud voice, and the battlefield lost its magic luster for a second. The firewalls and the curses vanished both, leaving only small bonfires of dragonfire still devouring dead zombies.
A surprised silence covered the entire field, followed soon after be the cheers of my army and the sound of guns.
"Lord Warden!" "Sigmar!" "For the Empire!"
"Steady shot!" "Aim for the heads!"
Despite our gunners shooting the zombies with deadly efficiency, the undead had huge numbers and kept advancing.
Right in the sights of our War Wagons. Their cannons were loaded with grapeshot, and their salvo cleaned the front ranks of zombies for 20 meters inward.
'I'll land and Cleanse' Jet said curtly, and dropped just in the back of the War Wagons, possibly wary of friendly fire, which is not too friendly to anything not invulnerable.
Then his body began to glow with the Light of Hysh, drawing Alana into his spell as a pillar of light split the heavy cloud cover, even filling my own heart with the same light.
I smiled and cast 'Detect Magic' instead, making use of the ease of the spell. My own troops and their rune weapons gained a tinge of yellow while in the Vampire camp, 21 Vampires and magicians lit up with black lights covering their magic items.
So I drew my Amber Bow and began shooting. One by one, my Arrow of Time traversed the battlefield to strike the heart of each enemy, then returned to my hand to be loosed again.
I patted myself on the back, mentally, for being so smart. Then a giant cloud of bats flew towards us and coalesced mid-flight into a large and old Vampire wearing red armor. The Cleanse spell of my Dragon evaporated thousands of zombies and skeletons every second, but this Vampire seemed unaffected.
"Congratulations mortals! You managed to awaken me ahead of time with your light show. But, now I am very thirsty." The old monster growled, and I could feel his Hunger driving him.
I landed in front of the Vampire Count, and lifted my club on my shoulder. "Did you wash your neck Vampire, before coming here to die?" I asked in my coolest voice.
His eyes glared red, almost driving me to my knees. "You court death, mortal! For I am Vlad von Carstein, Elector Count of Sylvania and the true Emperor of the Empire."
I nodded gently. Technically, the Vampire Count was correct, as he rubbed elbows with Sigmar back in the day. Over 2400 years ago.
"So you're saying, the man who kills you gets your stuff?" I asked in a curious voice, while glancing at his magic ring which granted him immortality.
Then I moved.