Edge of the Abyss

Taken from the memoirs of Prince Ingemon, heir to House Enneiros, in which he describes his participation in the great war commonly referred to as "The Edge of the Abyss Campaign". After the expedition assisted in driving back the Goblin menace, The Lady's chosen commander Lord Flaxhoof led the elves to a glade where they could recover their strength. Ingemon describes his conversation with Flaxhoof and writes in great length a detailed account of the Forest, the glade and the state of the war. For expediency's sake, and as those sections do not pertain to this catalogue of the Campaign's battles, we rejoin Ingemon at his second engagement, when a Goblin raiding party stormed the hidden glade:

It was a full two weeks before we once again faced our foe on the field. Although it was not an engagement of our choosing, the men had recovered and were rejuvenated by the splendor of this place.

That an attack should come to us here was indeed a surprise. We were not, however, taken by surprise. Our ranks were formed, our bows were strung. We were ready.

Or so we thought.

Rather than give the battle in-character (as I did last time), I'll give my thoughts on the game as the player.

We rolled the scenario "Dominate", and were once again playing 800 points a side. We both made changes to our lists from the last game, although my opponents were more drastic, as he has many goblins, whereas these elves are all I've got at the moment!

The plan was simple: I would gun down as much as I could with my archers and focus on sitting my Tallspear regiments on the objective. Together they added up to a mighty 4 unit strength, which should be enough to win out the dominate game, if I could keep them alive.

I won the roll for first turn, and gave it to the Goblins.

The chariots and sniffs moved into range on the right flank, while fleabags started to move up the left. Goblin shooting was completely ineffectual this turn.

In response I moved my formation forward very slightly, halting my archers for maximum shooting. The characters moved most, as I wanted to put the mage in range for wind blast and the prince fot his pussycat.

The archers only managed 3 on the chariots, which didn't affect them. I was however able to wind blast them out of charge range. The prince's pussycat rolled horribly to hit, and only put 1 on the sniffs, which they ignored.

The chariots, after healing 2 points with the healing brew, moved back into charge range, and the fleabags continued to speed around the flank. Shooting focused on the furthest out archer troop, dealing 3 damage and wavering them.

The wavered archers healed 2 points using the healing brew. With the fleabags threatening the Tallspears, I shifted the formation to deny them a flank. I also charged Prince Ingemon into the sniffs. I hesitated over this, but with their speed and ability to get away and become a late game problem I wanted to see them off. It did however mean my only inspiring source was out on his own, but with a 12 inch it'd be easy to bring him back into formation.

The Tallspears used the sparkstone on the slasher to disorder it (although it had been missing with its ballista). The mage threw a fireball at the fleabag mounted Biggit and wavered him. Archers put more into the chariots but once again a low nerve roll meant they were fine. The prince, despite being hindered, went to town on the sniffs and routed them.

The fleabags made use of their nimble to once again put themselves facing a flank. The chariots charged into the archers, while the wavered biggit used his individual turn to be able to back up and continue to inspire them.

The disordered slasher moved out of the woods to threaten the Tallspears.

In the combat, the chariots routed the archers and turned to face the flank of the other troop.

This was a tricky situation. Both the slasher and the fleabags were going to be able to charge next turn. I charged the prince into the biggit - he was on 5 damage and the prospect of routing him was too tempting to ignore. I then turned the threatened Tallspears unit to face the fleabags, and maneuvered the mage to wind blast the slasher out of charge range. I needed one success on 5 dice (with elite) and rolled... all 2s and 3s. I just could not believe it!

The archers put 1 damage on the chariots and once again it was steady.

Prince Ingemon must have got a good hit in on the biggit, because he sent him packing.

Wham-bam. The slasher and fleabags multi-charged the tallspears and the chariots flank charged the archers. The trolls were also moving into threat range now. The tallspears were utterly trashed, while being hindered really hurt the chariots who only put 2 damage on the archers, not even managing to wavering them.

The writing was on the wall at this point, but I had to make the best of it. The remaining Tallspears turned to face the fleabags/slasher, and the archers counter-charged. The prince finally made his may back to inspire someone other than himself, while the wizard cast weakness on the fleabags.

The archers put 1 damage on the chariots, but they held firm.

Goblins Turn 5

In the obvious combats, the Tallspears were wavered and the chariots failed to rout the archers. The trolls were now in range for a charge next turn.

I charged the prince into the slasher, trying to hold it up. The Tallspears backed up, and the wizard wind blasted the trolls, but only got 2 successes when 3 were needed to stop a charge.

The archers finally fought off the chariots, and turned back to face the centre.

The trolls and fleabags charge the Tallspears and destroy them. The slasher wavered the prince.

In elves turn 6, shooting from the archers and the mage focused on the trolls, but they withstood the damage.

There was no turn 7.

From the Prince's memoirs:

We were cast from the glade that day, the foul laughter of the goblins chasing us through the trees. We had failed in this battle, but as the survivors gathered we knew, without so much as exchanging a word, that our resolve was not broken. Rather, it was iron. We would reclaim these woods.

I sought out the Mage Iólon and we began to discuss our response, our task straightforward as ever. No matter the cost, these trees would stand.