Battle Of Waterdoom Part 3 - The Battle Ends!

Here concludes the last part of the Battle of Waterdoom and its aftermath.

 In the Chamber of Hougoumont, the Cloud of Confusion permeates everything in a big swirly haze that predates the Rave culture.  She Elves gyrate with wild abandon, Pickles and his stunties wave imaginary glow-sticks as the bass music booms with earth shattering intensity...  everyone is moving, except poor Hodor, who is now getting motion sickness.  Poor lil fella...

Basically, no one is getting in or out of this Chamber. However, since the Elves are the closest to the VP, they still control this location.

Meanwhile outside, the remnants of Hodor's mercenaries flee the hellish memories of that place.

 Grom moves up the left flank as he watches Alric who has been backing away all this time, suddenly surprise the Dwarves with a charge at Gloin's unit! Grombrindal prepares to smash that Elf-witch ahead!

Porkins: We've caught a witch, may we burn her?
Sir Bedevere: How do you know she is a witch?
Porkins: She looks like one!
Sir Bedevere: Bring her forward...

 Gloin is suddenly at the center of swirling blades!  The Anti-Paladins are highly skilled with their deadly blades.  Suddenly the unthinkable happens!  Gloin falls as Lord Alric and his magic blade cuts him down.  2 other Dwarves also fall and 2 Dark Elves as well.  They fall back as the Dark Elves lap around their flanks!

 Gimli maneuvers up the center and still clings to hope that they can win this!  He hasnt yet seen his father Gloin fall in combat.

Gimli:  At my challenge, by the ancient laws of combat, we are met at this chosen ground, to settle for good and all who holds sway over the five points: us natives, born rightwise to this fine land, or the foreign hordes defiling it.

Nindalf uses a Heal spell to bring Baron Hawk back up to his max wounds.  Feeling invigorated, Baron Hawk and his Dwarves charge a surprised Ember!  He didnt think he could be charged, but there was no difficult terrain to slow them down.  The Baron brings the Dragon down to 2 wounds left!  Ember strikes back and causes 2 wounds in return to the Baron.  Whew!  If Nindalf hadnt healed him earlier, the Baron would have fallen!  Nice job, Nindalf!

 Captain Drogo and the last of his Dwarves advance only to fall to the ground as they succumb to the poison fumes of the Green Dragons!  Vermithrax hopes he did well in this battle and that his mistress is proud of him.  Custard nudges him, reminding him that the battle isnt over yet.  Noob!

 Up on Papelotte, Wallace finally charges the Dark Elves who countercharge back. One dwarf falls, but they kill 2 in return.

As Gloin's unit loses another combat and fall below half strength and subsequently rout, Alric decides not to pursue and instead backs up, knowing what the capabilities of his Countess are.  Alyssa walks right up to the VP and casts a game breaking spell...  have you guessed it?

She casts Skirriks Pentagram!  It creates a 2" bubble forcefield around her that no one can pass, not even missile fire, nor magic.  It remains in play as long as she remains stationary.

 Gimli who learns of his father's fate takes half of the Dwarf Lords and frustratingly looks at the Dark Elf Witch, who has a glum snide look on her face, as she blows raspberries at the scowling Dwarves.  Not only is she out of reach, but the VP is too!

 King Gorrin leads the other Dwarf Lords and charges the Swamp Pit.  Will they fare better than the Reaper Clan?

 Finally, up on the hill, Wallace and his last remaining companion fall beneath a storm of blades.

As they fall, Wallace yells out:  FREEDOM!!!

 Gimli looks towards Nindalf and they both realize the victory conditions may be out of reach.  They need 3 to win.  VP 1 is in a Cloud of Madness, VP 2 is under a forcefield.  Which means to win they must take the 2 in the center, which is still possible, but also take the hill of Papelotte.  As they look up at Papelotte, they hear the final deathcry of Wallace...  things look decidedly grim.

King Gorrin and the Dwarf Lords are holding their own against the Green Dragons.

 But with Wallace gone, the Shadowfire Cultists reform into line to maximize their 36" range of fire that will rain down on the Dwarven center.

 On top of which, horns and drums sound as the Orc roll is made.
Greenskins approach from the Southeast!

 Greenskins approach from the Northeast as well!
Its Muffling!  And as he promised, General Gragg has arrived with his army.

With no hope of victory, Gimli himself orders a general retreat!
The Old Guard has broken~!
The cry resounds throughout the battlefield.
Some valiant Dwarf units form square to help the others get away safely.

Gimli:  Its my fault.
All the Dwarves: No sir!  
Gimli:  Hear me please, friends.  It is entirely all my fault!
All the Dwarves: No sir!
Gimli:  I thought we were invincible. We must rest now and fight another day.
All the Dwarves:  Let us hit them again, sir! Let us reform and hit them again!  This time we can break them!
Gimli:  There will be another day.  Meanwhile, let us show good order.  Never let them see you run!

 As the Dwarf army falls back, Gimli is happy to see Pickles has survived.

Pickles: General Gimli, sir!  While we are now cutoff from going back to Easthold, I was thinking we are close to the secret passage that leads to... wherever it is, that Balin went.

Gimli:  So be it!  We will take our wounded and take the secret ways to Balin.  There we will rest and try to get back to King Kazador and Easthold later.  I hope they will be ok without us.
(he motions to Baron Hawk)

Baron Hawk: Yes sir?

Gimli:  I know you love your bird, but I must ask you to send him with an urgent message to Easthold.  Tell them what has happened here and that we are going to continue our search for Balin.  Hopefully, we can bring him and whatever forces he has to help our cause.  In the meantime, tell King Kazador I wish him the best of luck in defending Easthold.

Baron Hawk:  (looks at his bird companion wistfully)  Of course sir!  The message will be sent!

Meanwhile, two unlikely allies meet in the middle of the battlefield.  But for how long will they be allies?  After all, Gragg the Elf-Slayer isnt particularly fond of pointy eared folk...

Lord Commander Alric:  Ummm,  Hi!
Gragg:  ...
Ambassador Muffling:  The General says we are most happy to have helped crush the Dwarves, and hopes that the future of our two races will be one of cooperation and mutual admiration...
Gragg: ...
Countess Alyssa:  The Lord Commander feels that Starfleet's mission has always been one of peace.  Let us drink a toast. To the undiscovered country! (everyone looks at Alyssa)  Peace.
Everyone:  To peace!
Gragg:  ... 
Ambassador Muffling: I thought Klingon ale was illegal...

------------

OK, lets cut the scene there, before more wires get crossed!

Some final thoughts on Warhammer 1st edition...
The "to hit" chart is different.  Equal WS vs WS is 5+ to hit, instead of the 4+ Im used to.  But charging gives a +1 modifier.  Countercharging negates this modifier.  Also, if your unit is flanked, you get a -2 to hit modifier as well.  Since winning a combat allows you to flank 2 models this helps you win future combats.  But you must have models from a second rank to use as flankers.  As the loser, you may also pull models to face the flankers, thus avoiding the flank penalty.

Also, there are no rank bonuses!  Having that second rank helps in the above situation.  Its fiddly and I dont like it!  The later editions rank bonus do nearly the same job, but are more streamlined.

I do like the pushback 2" rule, I will keep that.  Keeps the battle lines look more battle-like, with units pushing each other all over the place.

Also, if a unit is pushed back "x" amount of times they become routed.  x = 4 for Elves, and 5 for Dwarves.  Interesting, but since I was using such small numbers for units, they didnt stick around that long anyway.

Morale checks only happen at falling under half strength, when the Army Leader is killed, or for an individual model on its own when it is wounded.

I personally like the random spell generation, it feels like D&D without having to play D&D. 

And some final thoughts on what is happening fluffwise...

I guess Balin is coming sooner than later.  Im trying to think what happens next...  either we continue our focus on Gimli and company OR focus on Easthold and whats happening to them pre-siege.  I will roll a die here...  It is done, the dice gods have spoken, the next post is about Easthold and King Kazador!  I think I see a scenario forming already!  Yup, something about "dungeon meats"!

Until next post,
Mar