Excerpt from the Chronicles of Padraig, the Spring Campaign

"The Retaking of Green Meadows"

"… Spotted a column of smoke this morning approximately one days ride away due east of current position. Sent Hawk riders to investigate. They report an army of Orcs and Goblins have laid siege to the Border Vale of Green Meadows, a small trading village on the edge of the forest. Will try to relieve siege, but fear we will be too late to do more than search for survivors. Will force march today to get into position for a counter attack tomorrow morning…."

The next entry later that day reads "…. As I feared, we were too late. The Vale lies in ruins, and the Greenskins are busily looting and pillaging. The Waywatchers scouting ahead report seeing no survivors, and none are expected. The Greenskins have not escaped unscathed though- by the looks of the surrounding countryside, the defenders put up a great struggle. The Greenskins have lost all but one small Rock Lobber and one Doom Diver. The camp fires would indicate an army remaining of similar size to our own.

We arrived last night at a hill overlooking the Vale, with a swift flowing stream between us and the buildings. Traps have been laid, and a few Goblin sentries have been taken out. We expect no warning has been given. We will be in position on the sides and base of the hill in time for an attack at dawn. We can at least avenge the Elves who so bravely defended their homes…."

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

Black Orc Warboss Snaggletooth opened a bleary eye and looked about him at his army's camp in the early morning light. The battle the day before had been harder than initially expected - what had been expected to be a raid of an undefended pointy-ear settlement had turned quickly into a hard fought battle against determined defenders. Elven infiltrators had destroyed all but one of his Rock Lobba's during the raid. They had caught the cravens sneaking around the last Lobba though - he had greatly enjoyed their torments at the hands of the Night Goblins and the two Shaman's. Their skins would make good trophies to display in front of his tent.

The camp had finally quieted down an hour or two before dawn. His Black Orcs and Orc Boyz had yelled their "Waaaagh!" until the early morning hours, looting what they could from the ruined buildings, and enjoying the "attentions" of the few Elven females they had captured. Although they screamed satisfactorily while they were being raped, the pointy-ears weren't as strong as an Orc female, and none had lasted past the first dozen of this troopers who had partaken of their charms. But even their corpses were enough to satisfy the goblins, who took turns all through the night….

As the sun rose over the edge of the Vale, a glint of sunlight off of something metallic on the hillside overlooking the settlement caught his attention - With a cry of fury he arose, yelling for his sergeants to rouse the troops. "Dose Elf bastid's ab snuck up ond uz during da nite! Damn gobbo's - Neber kin trust'em to keep sentry. Up and at 'em Boyz! Dere's more Pointy-ears to get stuck in!"

====================================================================

This is a pitched battle between Wood-elves vs Orcs & Goblins. 2000 pt armies, magic limits taken from WD 222. No special Characters were allowed. The Wood Elf army was allowed to use the Wood-Elf magic spell deck as published in Citadel Journal #18.

THE ARMIES

Padraig's Patrol

General Padraig, riding Warhawk. Long Bow, Lance, Shield, Magic War Paint, Bow of Loren, Potion of Strength (251 pts)

Mage Randthlfr, riding warhawk, long bow, Skull staff. Spell: Arboreal Assault (117 pts)

Mage Deirdre the Dire (with archers), Long Bow, Destroy Magic scroll. Spell: Glade Wind (112 pts)

Chariot "Blue Iris", 4 steeds with Scythed wheels, 2 crew. Lt Armor, spear, shield, long bow, Standard of Shielding (137 pts)

Chariot "Rose Bud", 4 steeds with Scythed wheels, 2 crew. Lt Armor, spear, shield, long bow (112 pts)

Chariot "Kudzu Express", 4 steeds with Scythed wheels, 2 crew. Lt Armor, spear, shield, long bow (112 pts)

T'Luren, Warhawk Champion, warhawk, lt armor, shield, long bow, spear, Hail of Doom arrow (100 pts)

4 Warhawk Riders, warhawk, lt. Armor, shield, long bow, spear (176 pts)

6 Glade Riders, Steeds, shield, lt. Armor, long bow, lance, Standard bearer w/ War Banner (312 pts)

6 Wardancers, additional hand weapon, Standard bearer (140 pts)

5 Waywatchers, long bow (90 points)

10 Archers, Standard, long bow (121 pts)

9 Archers, long bow (99 pts)

Total: 2000 pts Magic: 225 pts.

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

Snaggletooth's Waaaagh!!!

Black Orc Warboss Snaggletooth (w/ black Orc mob), lt. Armor, 2 weapons, Warrior bane Sword, Amulet of Fire, Armor of Endurance (206 pts)

Black Orc Army Standard Bearer (w/ black Orc mob), Lt Armor, 2 weapons, Dread Banner (145 pts)

18 Black Orcs, lt. Armor, 2 weapons

Black Orc Standard bearer, Lt. Armor, 2 weapons

Black Orc Boss, lt armor, 2 weapons, Biting blade Sword

(total: 253 pts)

Orc Master Shaman, Dispel Magic scroll Spells: "Mork Wants Ya!", 'Ead Butt (236 pts)

Orc Big boss, lt armor, weapon, Parrying blade (94 pts)

Orc Boss, lt armor, weapon (35 pts)

Orc Standard bearer, lt armor, weapon (15 pts)

14 Orc Boyz, lt armor, weapon (77 pts)

Goblin Shaman, Dispel Magic Scroll, spell: 'Ere we go! (53 pts)

Black Orc Big Boss, spear, Languishers Spear (102 pts)

Night Goblin Boss, spear (16 pts)

Night Goblin Standard bearer, spear (6 pts)

Night Goblin Musician, spear (6 pts)

17 Night Goblins, spear (42.5 pts)

3 Night Goblin Fanatics (90 pts)

5 Goblin archers, short bows (15 pts)

5 Goblin spears, spears (15 pts)

1 small Rock Lobba & crew (66.5 pts)

1 Doom Diver catapult (100 pts)

Black Orc Big Boss, lt armor, 2 weapons, Blade of Sea Gold, Armor of Meteoric Iron (159 pts)

Riding Wyvern (180 pts)

Total: 1998.5 pts

Magic: 260 pts

DEPLOYMENT

Looking from the Woodelf's perspective, the Wood Elf deployment zone was dominated by a steep hill encircled on three sides by a fast moving stream (1/2 movement to cross), with an open area between the base of the hill and the stream. A tower stood on the right side 1/2-way between the Orc and Elf deployment zones, flanked on right and left by Woods. On the left side, on the Orc side of the midline was another copse of trees next to a couple of buildings representing the remains of the village.

The Wood Elves deployed a unit of 9 archers on the hillside, joined by the Mage Deirdre, in two ranks of 5. In front of this unit, at the base of the hill, stood the skirmished Wardancers. One either side of the hill, inside the stream course, stood the other two units of 10 archers. Behind the leftmost archer unit sat the General on his warhawk. On the right, outside the stream course, were the Blue and Red Chariots, along with the Warhawk riders. On the left, outside the stream course, stood the Glade Riders, the Green Chariot and the Mage Randthlfr on Warhawk. The waywatchers deployed in the woods to the left of the tower.

The orcs deployed (from left to right of the Wood Elf perspective) the night goblins, flanked by the Goblin shaman, then the Doom Diver catapult and the Orc Shaman. In the center of the board stood the General and his Black Orc unit, next to the Orc Boyz. On the right side was the Rock Lobba' and finally the Wyvern rider. In front of this line were the 6 goblin mobs as screens, alternating Spear unit with Short Bow unit.

The game would last 4 turns. The Orc player moves first.

================================================================

THE BATTLE

TURN ONE

Skimming over the tree tops, a great winged serpent flew in to join the Orc Warband. The Wyvern was ridden by Black Orc Big Boss Snotbubble. With a great flapping of wings, The Wyvern clawed its way up into the morning sky, flying high over the battle field. While the rest of the goblin archers and spears squabbled amongst themselves, the gobbos on the far left orc flank worked themselves into a frenzy, and with a cry of "’Ere we go!" charged forward. Snaggletooth and his Black Orcs advanced, as did the unit of Orc Boyz. The Night Goblins, worked up from their amusements of the night before, also shouted "’Ere we go, and ran ahead of the rest of the Greenskins, with the Goblin shaman trying in vain to keep up with them. A loud report sounded as the Doom Divers catapult shattered as it launched the doom diver. The unfortunate goblin was thrown into the air only to land with a sickening crunch in the middle of the field. The Rock Lobba launched a rock at the unit of archers on the hill, barely missing the elves as they scattered to avoid the incoming missile.

Gathering the Waaagh from the nearby unit of Night Goblins, the Goblin shaman cast "’Ere we go!" on the Night Goblins and moved the night goblins even further down the field, bringing them close enough to release the Fanatics hiding in their midst and send them towards the Glade Riders and Green Chariot. Unfortunately, the whirling dervishes failed to make contact with the elves. The Orc Master Shaman attempted to cast "Mork Wants You" on the Blue Chariot, in order to move it out of position, but the spell was destroyed when Deirdre read from her "Destroy Magic" scroll. Enraged by this failure, the Orc Shaman turned his attention to the Mage Randthlfr flying towards him on his warhawk, and unleashed a massive bolt of energy at the approaching Elf in the form of a "’Ead But". With a brief cry of pain, followed by a sickening hollow-melon splat, the elf’s head exploded and he toppled off his mount. The hawk, unnerved by being suddenly covered by Elf goo, dropped low to the ground and flew off the field.

The Woodelf General watched in dismay as the Wyvern flew high. Knowing that he could ill afford to let the terror causing beast fly above with impunity, he ordered his warhawk riders to give chase, and after pausing to quaff his Potion of Strength followed them up high into the morning sky on his warhawk

Meanwhile, although they had every confidence in their warhawk brethren and their General to dispatch the Wyvern, but anticipating a Charge from up high should they fail to kill the worm, the Green chariot turned to cover the Red one, and the wardancers moved to place the green chariot in their charge arc.

The waywatchers set their traps and shot at the approaching Orc boyz, while the archers on the hill targeted the Night Goblins, managing to kill 5, dropping the total down below 20, thereby depriving the Goblin Shaman of his source of "Waaagh!" energy.

The dogfight high in the skies was brief and violent. Surrounded by swarming Warhawk riders striking glancing blows, both the Wyvern and it’s rider were wounded but not killed. It fell to the General, with the Strength Potion surging through his veins, to deal the fatal blow to the Wyvern, sending it and it’s hapless rider plummeting to the ground far below.

Deirdre, suddenly realizing that the magical defense fell solely on her, cast her "Glade Wind" spell on the Blue Chariot, rendering it invisible to the Orc attackers.

TURN TWO

Looking around as his unit tried to stay in step as they advanced, the end goblin in the second Goblin unit from the left recognized one of the goblins in the next spear unit over. Yelling "Dat Bastid owes me money!", he charged toward the other unit. The rest of his unit, figuring that he must know what he was doing, followed him, and started pounding on their neighbors. A melee broke out before a nearby Orc sergeant could wade in and restore order by knocking some heads together.

Realizing that they were about to be hit on both sides, the Night Goblin unit wheeled to face the charging Chariot in a desperate attempt to place their hardest members towards the biggest threat. The fanatics continued to whirl about, with one of the three fanatics managing to wrap his chain around his neck and shoulders.

The rock lobba crew cranked on the winch winding up the war machine. Apparently the infiltrators caught the night before had managed to do some damage to it after all – with a loud "Crack!" the ropes of the windlass parted, sending wood and metal splinters through the crew.

The Orc shaman again tried to cast "’Ead Butt", this time against Deirdre. Gathering together the winds of magic, she managed to Drain Magic from the field, while managing to avoid taking damage herself. This unfortunately also dispelled her Glade Wind spell, rendering the Blue Chariot visible to the Orcs.

As the threat of the Wyvern had been eliminated, the Wardancers moved back to the base of the hill to guard the archers again. The warhawks charged from on high at the Master Shaman, who broke and ran away from the attacking birds. Unfortunately the hawks could not follow up after him, though the General, who had landed nearby, was able to hit the shaman 2 times using the Bow of Loren, causing one wound. The Blue and Red chariots advanced towards the treeline, placing themselves to threaten any unit coming through the gap between the two woods in the center of the board.

The Green chariot and Glade Riders surged forward towards the Night Goblins, the Chariot hitting them in the front, knocking bodies helter-skelter as it smashed into the Greenskins. The Glade riders hit the Goblins in the rear, skewering gobbos on their lances. In desperation, the Gobbo’s broke and tried to run, but were chased down and trampled by both the Riders and the Chariot.

While the goblins tried to screen the Black Orcs, they were too far to one side, so the WE Archers were able to target both the lack Orcs and the screening Gobbo’s, dropping one unit of goblins and one rank of the Black Orcs. The waywatchers, apparently amused at the squabbling amongst the Goblins in front of them, failed to wound any of the Ork Boyz heading towards them.

Deirdre was unsuccessful in her attempt to recast Glade Wind on the Blue Chariot, the Goblin shaman reading from his Dispel Magic scroll.

TURN THREE

While the outer unit of screening gobbo’s started squabbling amongst themselves, the unit of gobb archers (Whose debts were apparently satisfied) who had charged into them last turn decided to charge into the woods after the pointy-ears skulking about in there. That the unit of Orc Boyz next to them was also charging in after the same elves was purely coincidental. At the edge of the woods, both units discovered the traps laid there the night before- the Gobbo’s hit a patch of punji spikes set into the forest trail, killing or injuring the entire unit. The Orcs on the other hand had nets dropped over them, though 4/5ths of them were able to chop their way through the nets and complete their charge. Despite this handicap, they were able to kill enough Elves to force a rout, and were able to run don the last of the Waywatchers, even through the trees.

While the rightmost unit of Goblins ran to get into position between the Black Orcs and the oncoming Green Chariot, the Black Orcs themselves pivoted to face their fleeing shaman, in case the Warhawks were foolish enough to try to charge the master shaman again.

The remaining Fanatic managed to spin himself into the ground without hitting anything.

Shooting proved fruitless, with no goblin being able to hit any Elves with their puny shortbows. The Master Shaman, who had rallied this turn, turned and again unleashed a ferocious ‘Ead Butt at the Mage Deirdre, overwhelming her defenses and reducing her to a gibbering mass laying on the ground.

The goblin shaman struck a dramatic pose, gesturing for the Elven chariots to "Stop!", but was ignored and ridden into the dirt by the Green chariots crew. The warhawks again charge the Orc Shaman, the champion hanging back this time so as to get to use the Hail of Doom arrow on the Black Orcs The arrow split on 15 parts, and killed 7 rank-n-file troopers. The General also shot into the Black Orc command, eliminating an entire rank.

No Wood Elf mages had survived, so there was no magic.

TURN FOUR

Snaggletooth and the Black Orc unit charged into Warhawks attacking the Master Shaman, killing and scattering them, and chased them off the board. The Orc Boyz decided not to leave the safety of the woods they were in, since this would have placed them within easy charge range of the Blue and Red chariots. The goblin archers were unable to hit anything, and the Orc Shaman was unable to get any spells off.

The Wood Elf’s Green chariot slammed into the 5 goblins striking a brave pose in front of it, and barely paused before running them down. General Padraig again shoots at the Orc Shaman and again puts a wound on the Shaman. Archer fire combined to eliminate another unit of goblin’s screening the Black Orcs. No mages meant no magic.

=============================================================

CONCLUSIONS & SUMMARY

FINAL SCORES: Wood Elves 872.5 pts vs Orcs 595 pts – another Elven victory!!!

For the most part things worked as I had hoped. I had changed my list at the 11^th hour, dropping a unit of dryads to pick up a third chariot and another unit of archers, and I was a little concerned about not having any real hand-to-hand troops other than the Wardancers. The green chariot worked very well in combination with the Glade Riders, and both were able to neatly sidestep the Night Goblin fanatics when they were released in front of them. The other two chariots , while not getting to charge anything, served their purpose in tying up the Orc Boyz and preventing them from getting into any action – 249 pts of Chariot tied up 249 pts worth of Orc Boyz, so they were a wash.

I was very fortunate in many respects. My opponents sending the Wyvern up High the first turn, so that I was able to follow up with the General and Warhawks and get glancing blows on it right away. I was even more fortunate in managing to kill the Wyvern, though it was far from a sure thing until it failed it’s saves for the last wounds put on it by the General. I could ill afford to have that thing running around back-field causing Terror tests.

I was also very fortunate in the terrain placement, being able to construct my defensive perimeter with the steep hill surrounded by the stream. My opponent later told me that he knew he wouldn’t be able to march across the board, get past the two, cross the stream and then climb the hill with anything close to an intact unit, so it held him back to where I could arch him to pieces and set him up for the chariot charges. As he had rolled highest for choosing table sides, in many ways he would have been better served if he had taken the side I had played from instead. He would have had a perfect fortified hill to place his catapults onto, and room to deploy his two hand-to-hand units on the other side of the stream. I still would have had chariots running around in the open area in the middle, but would have had a much harder time slowing him down and catching him.