Back to the Battles page

"I have never known such a bleak, grey and lifeless place in all my decades", Commander Tetharion though to himself as he rode with the Dragon Princes along the road to the outskirts of the old dwarven village of Barratholm. 
A single handgun barked in the early morning gloom and the leaden pellet ricocheted from the Dragonscale Shield Tetharion had carried since it had been gifted to him by the scions of Caledor. The lone Thunderer made off through the village. As the Drakemaster of the Dragon Princes readied to send several of his warriors after the fleeing dwarf, Tethahrion raised his hand.
"Leave him go", he ordered, "there will be more of them beyond the village. We will fight here today, though neither the weather nor the ground are particularly auspicious. Hold your men here, array for battle and use the high ground to the west to secure your flank. I will return to the other commanders and we will deploy from your position"
The Drakemaster nodded assent, "As you command, my Lord"
Tetharion returned to the Elven host. As he approached the champions of the regiments came forward.
"The dwarfs have chosen to fight here. The Dragon Princes are deployed on the left flank, you will follow the plan I outlined to you a sevenday ago. Remember these are dwarfs, they are as tough as greenskins but with more wit about them. Watch for their engines of war, although Mithrandil and Carhandril are prepared"
The two elven mages, both loremasters of the Tower of Hoeth nodded silently.
"Valandil", Tetharion continued turning to the Captain of the Eagle's Claw, "I want you to anchor the right flank. There is some wooded ground and you will be opposite their handgunners. On my signal you are to destroy them utterly."
Again, another silent nod of assent.
Tetharion turned back towards the north. Out of the gloom the stalwart dwarfs were marching to their positions. He allowed himself a wry smile as they deployed exactly as he had expected and then shook his head sadly.
"Two centuries of war", he thought to himself, "we fight greenskins and humans, Chaos and dwarfs and still it never ceases. We should never have become involved with any of them. Better to have stayed in the homeland..."

Notes on Deployment

A very conventional deployment on both sides. The Dwarven Thain anchored his flanks on artillery, while Tetharion had cavalry on the left flank and artillery on the right anchored against the woods. There's not much more to say. I suspect that Keith probably wanted the organ gun with his Warriors rather than in the village, but the threat of a mass of heavy cavalry shooting down his flank would have been too much to ignore.

Notes on the Battle

This was a strange one. The Dwarves didn't move (they're not supposed to), but neither did the High Elves. The Dragon Princes got out of the line of sight of the Organ Gun and there was jostling for position in the centre, but in the first four or five turns, the Elves barely moved. The High Elf magic and shooting phases were tremendous, with several instances of Curse of Arrow Attraction and a couple of good Flames of the Phoenix proving really telling on the Dwarven line. The Thunderers were decimated and then annihilated by a combination of magic and missile fire. The cannon also eventually fell to a combination of missile fire and a swift charge by the Archers.

On the other flank the Dragon Princes eventually managed to charge down the crew of the Organ Gun without being flensed in their saddles (although the Spearmen had taken some casualties). As darkness approached Tetharion ordered the infantry forward (the only mistake of an otherwise brilliant plan). The ensuing melee was not pretty for the Elves. They clung on by the skin of their teeth and held out.

Debriefing

A victory so Pyrrhic for the Elves, that according to the table it was actually a draw! I got the most points though (7 more to be exact) which is a victory as far as I'm concerned. Nothing went wrong during the battle. The Elven waiting game paid off by decimating the artillery and Thunderers and the only real mistake was attacking the Dwarven infantry in hand-to-hand. I don't think the Dwarves made any mistakes, except perhaps not defending the organ gun. When it fell (after some fancy manoeuvring over four turns) there was nothing left to hold the flanks and a unit of warriors were forced to turn to the unprotected flank.

It was a good game though that lasted far longer than it should (we got 8 or 9 turns in about three hours), and a resounding victory for the Elves (sort of)!

Back to the Battles page