Battle Of Waterdoom Part 2 - The Battle Begins

So the Dwarves tentatively move forward into Waterdoom Cavern... and then seemingly out of nowhere, the Drow appear!  
At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At last we will have revenge. 

Hmm, those Drow are all in black and hooded, coincidence? I think not! 

In the Chamber of Hougoumont, Countess Alyssa and her She-Elves jump down and take VP1.
Slithers the Chaos Hydra is nearby to protect her mistress.

Countess Alyssa, Level 2 wizard:
14 constitution points
Level 1 Spells
- Detect Hidden Doors: useless here
- Curse:  cool, but also useless.  Target gets warts, green nose, baldness, silly walk, and an outrageous accent!
- Flight: 3 energy, fly up to 12".  Nice, could be useful.
- Far Sight: useless here
- Gift of Tongues:  useless in this battle, but extremely fluffy (She does talk Dragonese)
Level 2 Spells  (Now for the good stuff!!)
- Rooted To The Spot: 4 energy, lasts 7 turns, target cannot move or attack
- Thunderhand: 2 energy, x3 attacks @Str6, lasts until caster is wounded
- Skirriks Pentagram: 5 energy, creates a 2" radius around the caster that no one can enter including missiles or magic.  Lasts as long as wizard remains stationary.  Only a Balrog, greater Demon, or Liche may attempt to break it (d6 roll of 6 per turn).  Nice!  but it is pricey, energy-wise.

Immediately, Alyssa casts Thunderhand to increase her combat attacks!

Up above on the Western side Nimbus gets posted.  He is ready to sniper shot some unlucky Dwarf below with a Lightning Blast from his electrified maw.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Oona looks to flank the Dwarves.  Ive decided that Oona is too young a Basilisk to have her "Turn to Stone" ability just yet.  But she is fast, and has plenty of bite attacks!

Lord Commander Alric and his Anti-Paladins move forwards and take VP2.  The mossy ground of La Haye Sainte is difficult ground, but Dark Elves are adept and able to move full speed through it.  That speed advantage could come in handy in the future.

Ember, the Fire Dragon guards VP 3, and with a fire breath attack range of 24", he can still contribute some firepower in the field.

VP 4 is guarded by the two Green Dragons Vermithrax and Custard.  They are looked after by Grigori the Alchemist and Master of Poisons.  Should the Dragons get ouchies, he can toss a healing potion their way!  Ive made him a custom magic user with 4 healing and 1 bloodlust spell abilities.  Bloodlust gives the target Frenzy - double attacks but must move towards closest enemy.

Channard Cenobite: The doctor is in!

And finally, on the rise of Papelotte, Magister Ludi and his Shadowfire Cultists have a good view to rain arrows, magical bolts, ninja stars, and other pointy objects on the Dwarves.  To simplify things, Ive streamlined all their various missile ranged abilities and decided they count as a crossbow armed unit.

Overview.  The Drow look outnumbered.  But lets not count out the power of Dragons.

Hodor charges Alyssa and Slithers before overthinking the situation.  Pickles enters the room and wheels left to face Nimbus.

Hodor slays one elf, but Alyssa slaughters 2, and Slithers filets another tasty Dwarf.  The Dwarves are pushed back 2", The Drow follow up but cannot lap around due to the terrain.  Regardless, things are looking dire for Hodor's mercenaries.

Grombrindal thinks about entering the Chamber to help Hodor and Pickles, but Gimli gives orders to hold and be patient.

Gloin continues forward towards the Anti-paladins.  Nindalf supports Gloin's advance and casts 2 Fireballs, one of which burns one elf into toast. 

Baron Hawk and his main assault seem to be marching too slowly into the mouth of madness and probable death by Dragons's breath.  But duty calls!

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
    Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
"Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
    Rode the six hundred.

Its rough going for Wallace up that steep climb and at the top... death awaits them all with big pointy teeth!

Back in Hougoumont, the results are in... Hodor takes a wound, and 1 Elf falls as well. Which means a stalemate.

Oona the Basilisk slithers around the Dwarves and is ready to pounce on their backs!
To make things worse, Alyssa casts Rooted To The Spot on Hodor and the poor Dwarf is frozen solid.  The only thing he can move are his eyes.

Nimbus positions himself for more sniping and fries one of Pickles' tunnel fighters.

Meanwhile in La Haye Sainte, Lord Commander Alric backs up a bit, just out of charge range of Gloin.

Lord Commander Alric:  Let the Dragons do their work.  The army will fall back behind the reverse slope!

And boy do the dragons live up to their hype!

Ember has a 2" x 4" template that is Str6 and -3 to Save.  Which simply means auto death for normal rank and file troopers!  To be fair I judge that the short end of the template must face the Dragon.  Even so, he still manages to charbroil 4 Reaper Clan Dwarves. Red Dragons FTW, if he can keep that up every turn!

Custard and Vermithrax spit their poison clouds and 2 Dwarves in Captain Drogo's succumb to poison, and Drogo himself loses 1 wound out of the 2 that he has.  Poison is less spectacular being a simple Str 2 attack against everyone under its template 

On Papelotte, 2 of Wallace's Dwarves are perforated by Dark Elven missile fire.

Dragon's eye view from the Swamp Pit.  Those Dwarf lines are not as impressive as last turn.

Hodors unit finally falls below half strength and they rout!  All except poor Hodor, frozen in place, he looks about frantically in horror, surrounded by vicious Elves and a hungry Hydra.

Pickles had decided to help Hodor's Mercs, but finds his unit alone and outnumbered.  But still, he manages to kill 1 more Elf!
Now's not the time to be looking at maps, Pickles!

Nindalf has a hard decision to make.  He has just the spell to save Hodor and Pickles, but the main assault in the center is faltering from Dragons fire.  What to do?!  Gimli gives his permission to save the Dwarves in Hougoumont, because if they fall, Dragons and She Elves will be flanking the main assault anyway.

Nindalf agrees and casts Mystic Mist into the Chamber of Hougoumont!

Everyone in the room (except for the routing mercenary Dwarves) suddenly gets enveloped by a magical cloud, as thick as pea soup.  Which means, that units in the cloud are subject to only moving 1" randomly on their turn.

Gloin valiantly plods onwards unable to catch the nimble Elves.

Gloin:  Stand and fight you pointy eared blueberry muffins!

Baron Hawk and Captain Drogo lead the Reaper Clan forwards getting closer to VP4, but will they survive another round of close range Dragonfire? 

Wallace and his warriors are so close to getting those pesky cowardly Elves! 

Murderous Dragonfire once again blasts the ever decreasing Dwarven assault.  Baron Hawk himself is wounded and 3 more of his Dwarves are burnt to a crisp.  Drogo's unit loses 2 more as well.  Both the Reaper Clan units are under half strength and must take morale checks.  Thankfully, they pass their tests.  It helped that they still had heroes leading their units.

Wallace loses 2 more warriors!  He is now down to 3 and must take a morale test.  They pass, barely.  Wallace and his men know they will not survive, but they take comfort that at least they helped the main Dwarven assault in the center, even if only a little bit.

Wallace and his men:  ALBA GU BRÀTH! ALBA GU BRÀTH! ALBA GU BRÀTH!

Countess Alyssa gets tired of being in the stupid poofy cloud and casts a Flight spell, taking her right out of Hougoumont Chamber and right next to VP 2.   She quickly assesses the situation.

Countess Alyssa:  Ok, that Dwarf unit must be stopped from getting VP 2, and then...
(her eyes scanning the scene and stops on a certain Dwarven wizard)
Alyssa:  Ahhh... there you are!


Next post:  The Battle Ends!