Warhammer Fantasy Battle Report summary:-
Elf kindred wars ?! It's just not right ! (a very good, atmospheric Warhammer battle story)| source : warhammer.org.uk | credit : Xtapl | 9-Dec-2008 |
Aliethorien, Mistress of the Deep Water Kindred of Caidath swayed gently to the thundering beats of the drums the Wardancers around her were playing in her her honor. Beside her, her twin brother, Melthorien, grinned and twirled his blades in his hands. The Troupe was gathering on the eastern edge of Athel Loren, far from the crystal blue natural lake in the deeper part of the woods beside which their kindred made their homes. No, there had been rumors that the Asur, long lost ancestors of the Asrai, were moving this way, taking up camp for the evening in a nearby village before entering the woods - no doubt to plunder and press their nonsense agenda upon the Asrai once again.
But this was spring. It was a time for festivals and for dancing, not for so-called diplomacy with the haughty and self-righteous. Aliethorien was to be War Madien in the spring jubilee. This was an honor not bestowed upon just anyone, and she was determined to receive it without interruption. The Asur would simply have to be deterred.
Her troupe gathered in a small clearing, Wardancers leaping and spinning through the air as far as she could see. Surrounding them, the spring Dryads, newly leaved and bright-faced, stood radiantly in a small semi-circle. In the center of the line of forest spirits, the Treeman Knotroots rooted himself, ready to march to war if the War Maiden wished it. Even a small group of Nymraif worshippers had come out of the high canopy to participate in the festival.
She was saddened to have to send them to battle right on the cusp of a time of joy, but there seemed to be no other choice. With a slight frown, she began to dance, and the revelry ended. The Wardancers knew battle poses when they saw them. The Troupe gathered behind her, the Spellsingers Lissësúl and Elensar closed in and began to sing to the trees, their voices rising over the din of drums. Without needing to be commanded, the Waywatchers set off to occupy a large manor on the outskirts of the forest, while Wardancers and Dryads streamed into the trees. Melthorien took his personal guard and broke to the western flank, while Aliethorien took her own Wardancers straight to the forest's edge.
She looked out across the gathering Asur. They were not expecting a fight; they would be caught unaware. Dragon Princes tended their horses to the west, accompanied by someone of obvious nobility. Citizen levied Spearelves consulted with someone who could only be a prince in that ridiculously shiny armor, while Phoenix Guard stood watch over a battery of Repeater Bolt Throwers. Sea Guard from the ships of Lothern plotted strategy inside of a small cottage, while White Lions and a chariot of their ilk camped just outside the cottage. A small band of Shadow Warriors kept to themselves on the far eastern edge of the village. Even a member of the High Tower of Saphery picked his way through the encampment accompanied by an enormous Ulthuan Eagle.
It was no pushover of a consort. The enemy was stout.
As Aliethorien made her way to the forest's edge the trees moving with her as Knotroots sang to them, a roar pierced the air. Aliethorien smiled. The Waywatchers had probably just made first contact with the enemy, wounding the White Lion's chariot.
The Waywatchers were immediately discovered, and Shadow Warriors rushed toward the manor to flush them out. The Waywatchers tried to load their bows to fend off the incoming Asur, but the Shadow Warriors were close and swift.
The Asurian Mage began to chant and ancient Shield of Saphery spell, but the magic was dispelled. Reading carefully from a rolled up slice of bark, Elensar dissipated the magic intended to drain her own.
Bolts from the twin bolt throwers darkened the sky as the Dryads cleared the treeline. Two of the freshly awakend spring spirits were felled by bolt thrower bolts, and two more quickly followed with arrows from the Lothern Sea Guard and the Asur Prince. The High Elves were scrambling into a battle line. The element of surprise was now gone.
The Shadow Warriors dispatched one of the Waywatchers, and the rest turned and fled, abandoning the manor to the High Elven scouts. However, the Asrai had a plan, and it looked as though it was about to pay off.
Instantly, a horde of spring Dryads flooded the manor, chasing the Shadow Warriors from its walls and out into the open. Meanwhile, the Waywatchers turned on their heels, safely behind the line of forest spirits. The rest of the Troupe picked their way carefully thorough the forest's edge, preparing for an all-out assault.
Knotroots continued to sing to the trees, despite the efforts of the Asurian Mage to prevent his voice from carrying. Athel Loren itself continued to move toward the village. The distraction of Knotroots was obvious, though, as his attention was so occupied on singing to the trees that he could not untangle his roots enough to strangle the incoming cavalry.
That, however, was no problem in the end. Knotroots mere presence was enough to give even the bravest of warriors pause, and the Dragon Princes and their noble were terrified at the thought of having to engage the ancient protector. Aliethorien grinned to herself as the swift Asur horses carried their charges from the field.
Emboldened, Aliethorien whipped her drummers into a frenzy. The screaming songs of the spellsingers rose even louder into the air, completly suppressing the Asurian Mage's Shield of Saphery. So taken aback by the power of the forest was the mage that he mispronounced the words to his second spell and nearly wracked his own mind.
Again the arrows and bolts of the High Elves darkened the sky, and this time, four of the War Maiden's closest Wardancers fell, injured or worse. Tears began to stream down her cheeks as she danced even more frenetically. The Asur would pay for each Asrai lost on this field today.
The spring Dryads rushed at the Ulthuan Eagle, chasing it from the sky. Aliethorien and Melthorien caught each other's eye through the trees, and nodded to each other. With a small, red flash of light, Melthorien and his Wardancer guard were gone. Quietly, they appeared on the other side of the field, the Moonstone of Melthorien growing dark, having spent its energy.
Athen Loren continued to push forward, encroaching upon the village. Knotroots could not seem to get a handle on performing a strangleroot attack, and failed once again.
Taking matters into her own hands, Lissësúl nocked an intricately carved arrow into her bow and fired it into the air. It arced high above the battlefield, splitting into twelve individual arrows which rained down upon the White Lion Chariot, skewering its crew, setting the majestic lions free to flee and lick their wounds.
The clarion call of a Dragon Horn pierced the air, calling the Eagle back to the battle and driving courage into the hearts of the spearelves, even in the face of the terrifying Treeman. Again, Elensar prevented the magic of the Asur by reading from a withered bit of bark.
Both Repeater Bolt Throwers swiveled and launched single, massive bolts at Knotroots. One slammed into his trunk, but elicited only laughter as the Treeman pulled the bolt out and cast it aside without so much as a groan. At the last moment, the magical shroud around all forest spirits in Athel Loren flickered a momentary, brilliant green, and the second bolt fell from the sky without harming anyone. Arrows from the Prince's magical Reaver bow embedded in Knotroots' bark, but he barely felt them. The old tree was nothing if not stout.
The Shadow Warriors had taken notice of the sudden appearance of Melthorien and his guard, and gravely injured one with an arrow. Melthorien shouted a war cry to his troops on the eastern flank. The Asur would have to be punished.
Aliethorien heard her brother's cry and her own voice mingled with it in one tremendous battle hymn. The drums of the Wardancers grew deafening as the Asrai swarmed into the Asur. Dryads and Wardancers joined forces and ran at the Eagle, who was not quick enough and was pulled to the ground and sacrificed to Caidath. The Shadow Warriors just barely eluded the incoming Dryads, while the Spearelves got an up close and personal look at Knotroots, and the Phoenix Guard felt the combined weight of spring Dryads and Aliethorien's personal guard.
The spellsingers continued to exhort Athen Loren to creep ever forward onto the village. Meanwhile, Knotroots easily shrugged off the annoyance of the speartips and crushed four Spearelves into the ground. Badly outnumbered, the stubborn old stump rooted himself and stayed put.
The Wardancers' pace quickly picked up as Aliethorien performed the Dance of the Woven Mist. The solemn champion of the Phoenix Guard beckoned a challenge to the War Maiden, and with three quick swipes of her Blades of Loec, she dispatched him for his troubles. The Wardancers added another Phoenix Guard to the casualty count. The Phoenix Guard were unable to connect with the whirling, screaming Asrai, and the bright green spirit of spring protected the Dryads from harm. Panic rippled through the ranks of the Phoenix Guard, and Aliethorien and her Wardancers cut them down and scattered their ranks as they turned to flee. The Lothern Sea Guard and crew of the Repeater Bolt Throwers were visibly shaken by this development, but stood their ground. With a malicious grin, Aliethorien rushed toward the surprised Bolt Thrower crew.
The Shadow Warriors turned to face the inevitable. The tide had turned, and the battle was tipping. The blanket of anti-magic laid down by the Spellsingers and Athel Loren itself continued to prevent the Asurian Mage from performing any magical tasks, and he took refuge in the cottage among the Lothern Sea Guard.
The Sea Guard immediately fired on the now exposed Dryads, downing two of them, while the Repeater Bolt Thrower unloaded into them at point blank range and felled three more. The remaining four eyed the Bolt Thrower angrily, and the crew had the feeling they were not long for this world.
The other Bolt Thrower crew did their best to fend off Aliethorien's guard, stabbing viciously at two of them before the War Maiden, in a deft dance of Whirling Death, very quickly and very neatly lopped off their heads and turned toward the Spearelves just in time to see the Prince slash two wounds deeply into the bark of Knotroots. Stunned by the ferocity of the Prince, Knotroots was unable to connect with any of his attacks. Aliethorien shouted at Knotroots, who nodded almost imperceptably and turned to flee from the combat. Not expecting this development, the Prince was unable to mobilize his troops fast enough to catch the Treeman, and found himself and his unit out in the open and exposed.
Aliethorien's trick had worked to perfection.
Instantly, the Wardancers and the Dryads converged on the Spearelves. Dryads charged into the Bolt Thrower and the Shadow Warriors, while the Waywatchers retook the Manor.
The excitement from the charge of battle temporarily distracted Elensar, and in her moment of weakness, the Asurian Mage capitalized. The shields of the Spearelves began to glow ghostly white as the magic of Saphery protected them.
The battles were short and brutal. The crew of the Bolt Thrower stood no chance and was demolished, while the Shadow Warriors flailed ineffectively at the spring Dryads before being cut down to the man.
Again, Aliethorien led her Wardancer guard in the dance of Woven Mist, their preternatural speed allowing them to devastate five Spearelves before they could attack. The spears on the opposite flank were skillfully avoided by the Dryads, who added three to the number of dead Asur. Even the powers of Saphery could not save the Spearelves, and the Prince suddenly knew what was going to happen a split second before it did. The panic rolled through the lines as Spearelves broke and ran, and Aliethorien cackled gleefully as her Wardancers and Dryads scattered the remaining elves to the wind.
Aliethorien looked across the field to watch the White Lions and the Lothern Sea Guard escort the Asurian Mage from the village. The weight of numbers was firmly on the side of the Asrai, and the remaining Asur could not hope to hold the encampment.
Melthorien approached his sister and kissed her gently on the forehead. A better War Maiden of the Spring Jubilee could not have been selected. The drums and celebrations filled the forest clearing that night, and for years to come, the Deep Water Kindred would tell the tale of the time Aliethorien the War Maiden had saved the Spring Jubilee from disaster. No War Maiden before or since was so beautiful.
(And now, for a tiny bit of exposition... I wasn't sure this army was going to be worth a snot, but as it turned out, it performed pretty well. I was pleased with it. Then again, the enemy had nearly zero magic. I'm going to have to test it out against stronger magical opposition and see how it fares...
Hopefully, SquigFace will happen along and post up his list and his thoughts!)
My list:
=Aliethorien's Kindred of Caidath=
Wardancer Highborn (285)
Blades of Loec
Stone of the Crystal Mere
Annoyance of Nettlings
Wardancer Noble (140)
Wardancer Weapons
Moonstone of the Hidden Ways
Spellsinger (120)
Hail of Doom Arrow
Spellsinger (140)
2 Scrolls
9 Dryads (108)
9 Dryads (108)
9 Dryads (108)
9 Dryads (108)
15 Wardancers (277) Musician
8 Wardancers (151) Musician
8 Wardancers (151) Musician
8 Wardancers (151) Musician
Treeman (285)
5 Waywatchers (120)
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