Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Empire Campaign - Chapter 2, Mission 5

Here are general tips for playing the Empire Campaign in Warhammer: Mark of Chaos on HARD Difficulty. A list of all our Warhammer: Mark of Chaos articles can be found here.
We won't be hand-holding you through absolutely everything, but instead just give tips on situations that we found tricky or that you might not have considered.

Chapter 2: The Hosts of Ulthuan

Mission 5: Heavy Crossing

Overview

• A very easy mission if you are patient and do some scouting when you get the chance. There are a few additional things we can do if you take the time to more fully and carefully explore the map, however.
• It is still not yet necessary to buy the Jade Wizard, so hold off until later when we can further improve the Von Kessel's level.
• Except possibly losing a few models to the Champion of Chaos Axe of Doom throw, you should be able to finish this mission with no casualties.

Walkthrough

• For regiments, just take all the missile troops you have. Take at least one regiment of Hunters and one cannon.
• For the other piece of artillery, I recommend the Helblaster Volley Gun, which does not appear to have friendly fire drawbacks.
• As usual, put Von Kessel up front to draw enemy attacks and let your regiments shoot unhindered.
• The initial attack waves are scripted to head straight down to your initial staging area. You don't really need additional time to handle them except for one particular instance, so deploy to the far west. The attack waves will still walk straight down before  wandering west to look for you.
• This buys us a bit of additional time to handle the Champion of Chaos -- the Axe of Doom throw is generally hard to avoid and can kill a few models in a regiment. If you can wipe out the attack wave just before he comes (the one that includes Warhounds of Chaos), you can rush Von Kessel up to intercept the Champion before your regiments come into range of his Axe. As soon as he throws his Axe at Von Kessel, it is in cooldown. Rush your regiments forth to shoot him to death. You don't really want to duel him because that could take a long time and you need Von Kessel to intercept the Chaos regiments behind the Champion of Chaos.
• After the attack waves are over, deploy your army on the south side of the bridge and wait while you explore the map a bit.
• There are a couple of items to the southeast.
• On the west end of the river is a ford that leads up to a ridge.
• Send Von Kessel in alone to destroy the Hellcannon, then plant your own cannon there.
• When you see the Axe Throwers in the northwest, they will start moving. You can bombard them, or let them go to the bridge. If they pass close enough to the ridge that your cannon is in range of their axes, they may pause to attack, so pull back your cannon.
• There are Axe Throwers just on the other side of the bridge. If you bombard them, they will retreat eastward, but not far enough that you can't keep bombarding them to wipe them out.
• A large regiment of Chaos Warriors will also probably move down the bridge. After that, there should be no more enemy movements.
• Send your Hunters over but not too far. Move them to the riverbank just to the east of the bridge. From that position they should be able to see two regiments to the east. (From your side of the river, you can just barely see the Axe Throwers but not the Chaos Warriors).
• Advance your army to the end of the bridge but stay on the bridge. Move Von Kessel onto the north shore. He will try to get the attention of these regiments. Bombard both regiments with your cannon. That will get them moving. Unless they see someone far enough ashore, they will turn back, even if you continue to bombard them. To save some headache later, draw them out now and destroy them.
• After this group, there should be no more Chaos units, except the sorcerer in the far northeast corner (which you can spot with your Hunters if you put them on the ridge).
• When you are ready to attack the sorcerer, target him with your cannon. He will summon some daemons then head down to the east side. Since you have already destroyed the regiments there, he cannot link up with them so he will advance on your position alone.
• If you deploy everyone on the ridge, he and the daemons will have a too-long walk across the bridge to get to the ford and cross to the ridge. Typically, this will cause all of them to walk back over the bridge to the north side of the river.