Illius, elven lord

His most righteous and powerful Lord Illius, Prince of the Tears of Isha, Chosen of Khaine, Protector (self proclaimed) of Mellvellon, Breaker of Waves, Earl of the Golden Fields, Master of the Light and Treader of the Sainted Path reviewed the campaign maps of Maemir Bay and was displeased.

Despite the best efforts of the mighty hawk ships of the Elven navy, the fool admiral in charge had allowed the Foul rat-beasts, a blight on Isha's bounty, to establish a beach-head in the Maemir bay. This circumvented his fortress-city, the Tears of Isha, and threatened the relatively undefended port city of Sein-craban. If the foul things took the ports his troops would be isolated and under supplied, and even their superior valour couldn't hold out in that situation.

The folly of his naval commanders was exacerbated by the failures of his supposed equals on the land. On commissioning the expeditions into the world of Pallurin, the Phoenix King had neglected to designate an overall leader, for the development of their realm this was fine, any idiot can build a city. But for the defence of their birthright? Surely the council that was leading Mellvellon should see sense and appoint him, the only competent commander in the Elven kingdom as overall lord of the elven kingdom and then disasters like Maemir would not happen, and the ascent of the true elven race would be assured.

Twice had his fellow “commanders” sent armies to dislodge the beach-head in the bay, but to no avail, the first commander had been an fool of no piffling amount and had managed, somehow, to get his army surrounded and wiped out by the mutant rats. The second attempt had broken through the Skaven's lines but had failed to recognise his advantage and, by not capitalising upon it, had allowed his foe to strengthen their fortifications once more and it would take an almighty push to push them into the sea.

Instead of a knee jerk reaction to rush his elite troops into the traps the slimy beasts must surely have constructed by now, Illius had chosen a more intelligent and infinitely more subtle strategy. He waste troops by stopping the cowardly rat-scum's unwieldy flanking manoeuvre but would defeat it by sapping it's resources. He would drive his forces straight up the Maemir peninsula and convince his fellow “lords” to assist him in a massive strike into the Skaven's Fortress-line opening the way straight to the boiling peak and the rat-leader's foul smelling head. He could not afford a war on two fronts with the small number of men at his disposal so he would end the war in one surgical strike and then turn to slaughtering any Skaven that remained on his land as they were leaderless and disorganised.

This plan had one drawback, it drew him and the bulk of his forces into a prolonged campaign and so he relied on his allies to hold the Tears and block any movements from the rat's flanking forces. Unable to trust the soldiery of the other lords he left many of his more gifted lesser-nobles and their retinues in the fortress so that at least whatever militia and allied forces they could muster to defend the city would be competently commanded and thus hopefully hold out while his superior armies ended the war.