Battle of the Razorfang Sprawl

Greetings!

Here comes another battlereport from the Firestorm II campaign, once again with the aelves of Hammerhal and Anvilgard duking it out and seeing who gets to control the Razorfang Sprawl.

The Battleplan we used featured two Watchtowers in the Anvilgard deployment zone, and the aim of the game was to either 1) wipe out the enemy or 2) for the attacker to have any models within 3" of either of the Watchtowers.

Anvilgard was the defender in this scenario, giving them the benefit of cover and the control of the towers, forcing the army of Hammerhal to try and win them over.

On with the story!
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Lord Aenarel soared above the verdant fields astride his dragon, taking in the vista opening up below him. Long columns of mounted Dragon Blade Knights and Reavers were snaking towards the horizon amidst the grassy hills, followed by the army's baggage train with its Levy Spearmen escort. Far ahead the main column, scattered wide into the landscape, were the Lion Rangers Lord Dawnspur had assigned as their trackers, guides and scouts.

As soon as the news of his nephew's failure in the Vitriolic Swamps had reached him, Aenarel had mustered all available cavalry and set out to the east, leaving the Eyes of the Prismatikon to the garrison of spearmen and archers. He pressed on into the Razorfang Sprawl in an attempt to divide the Anvilgard domain here on the Flamescar Plateau in two, leaving the enemy weakened and open for a killing blow. More than that, he knew Lord Rinos would press his advantage after the Anvilgard victory at the swamps, and the only way to stop the enemy general from achieving that was to strike first.

Twin towers rose up to meet them from beyond the horizon, their top-mounted beacons flickering to life as the Hammerhalians approached. The Anvilgard dogs had surely had scouts follow Lord Aenarel's legions ever since they set hoof in this region. They were signalling for help.

It took several hours for the Hammerhal forces to actually reach the distant towers, and by the time they got within bowshot, the tower garrisons had been reinforced by none other than Lord Rinos Wildbringer himself. Duardin, aelves, a War Hydra and even Stormcast Eternals all awaited Lord Aenarel's troops in the safety of the ruins around the watchtowers.

There was no helping it. Aenarel had come all this way to strike pre-emptively at his foe, he could not turn back now. With a heavy heart he raised his rune-carved blade and lowered it dramatically towards the towers.
"Tonight, we will dine in the top chambers of those towers! Tonight, we will toast with the skulls of our foes! ONWARDS!"

At their lord's command the Hammerhal army surged onwards. A squadron of younger Dragon Blades got carried away in the rush, charging headlong into the Anvilgard duardin hiding behind a large boulder. The aelves' arrogant laughter died on their lips as they realized the duardin were grinning, closing their ranks and forming a shieldwall against which the cavalry charge crumbled. Only a single bearded warrior got crushed from the shieldwall, whereas the aelves suffered terrible casualties as their mounts reared and toppled their riders into the cares of the enemy axes. To add to the death toll, Lord Rinos himself swooped in from the skies, his black dragon ploughing the rest of the Hammerhal knights into the dirt.

In response to the loss of half their heavy cavalry so early on, the Hammerhalian Reavers rode forth and sent clouds of arrows into the defender formations. The shafts bounced harmlessly off Stormcast armour, but a flight of three Aetherwings got skewered by the missiles.

The Vanguard-Palladors led the Anvilgard counter-charge, followed by wedges of dreadful Drakespawn Knights. The boltstorm pistols of the Stormcast barked their thundering shots incessantly as the Palladors closed the distance, toppling Dragon Blades from their horses in the Hammerhal lines. Then the charge hit home and the mounts of the Stormcast shredded the remaining aelven knights without fear of retaliation. Lord Aenarel had just lost all of his heavy cavalry, while only depriving the enemy of a trio of magical parrots.

The Drakespawn Knights crashed into the Lion Rangers, skewering the fur-clad aelves on their barbed lances. The aelven trackers retaliated by chopping down near half the oncoming knights, their heavy axes more than a match for the scaly skin of the drakespawn. On the south end of the battlefield, however, Lord Rinos flew in with his dragon, catching the flanking Reavers by surprise. In a one-sided bloodbath that lasted mere eyeblinks, the black dragon had crushed the lightly armoured skirmishers entirely.

In the north, Loremaster Orelian cast an enchantment over the axes of the Lion Rangers, making them burn bright with the fires of Aqshy. Fiery great-axes sliced through scales and armour alike with contemptuous ease, inflicting heavy casualties on the Drakespawn Knights, even if several rangers got savaged by the repitilian mounts in the process.

In the centre Lord Morduviel, son of Aenarel, charged into the Stormcast along with a cohort of Levy Spearmen. Morduviel himself lopped off the head of one of the demigod warriors, but the remaining two reduced the Aelven Spearmen into a heap of charred corpses with the effective use of boltstorm pistols and lightning-empowered javelins.

To the south, Lord Aenarel took matters into his own hands and descended from the skies to attack his rival: Lord Rinos. The red dragon crashed into its black cousin, the two primordial behemoths exchanging bites and strikes from claws the length of swords. As the monsters raked each other, the aelven nobles atop them engaged in a fierce burst of swordplay: the rune-engraved blade of Lord Aenarel struck sparks as it collided with Lord Rinos's jagged exile-blade. In the end it was the red dragon that solved the duel by pushing its counterpart away and basking it in a gout of dragonfire. Lord Rinos was once more carried away from the battlefield by his badly wounded dragon, leaving exhausted but smiling Aenarel triumphant on the field.

Tugging at the bridles, Aenarel brought his dragon about to face the duardin shieldwall in the centre. The behemoth sent out another gout of white-hot dragonfire that washed across the bearded warriors, reducing many to ash and sending many more running about as their clothes caught the flame. A gentle tap of the aelven lord's leg against the dragon's side signalled a charge, plunging both lord and monster forth to finish the stragglers.

Inspired by his father's display of elegant might, Morduviel Dawnspur urged his Spearmen retinue onwards. He brought his warhorse within striking distance of a Vanguard-Pallador, thrusting his enchanted spear through the man's chest. Sigmarite plate gave away under the strike, blood burst forth, and then came the bolt of lightning that reclaimed the fallen storm-warrior back to Azyr, leaving nothing but a patch of bloodied grass behind.

The last remaining Stormcast resolved to sell his life dearly, unleashing such a barrage os shots from his boltstorm pistol that Morduviel had to fall back, leaving the handful of Spearmen topple to the ground with smoking holes in their breastplates. The Stormcast immediately followed up, thundering past the aelven corpses and chucking a javelin at Loremaster Orelian, catching the mage in the shoulder.

Lord Aenarel was oblivious to the peril of his son or his court mages, as the Anvilgard war-beast had set its multiple eyes on him. The Hydra charged in with a terrible screech, basking the red dragon in a vicious fiery breath before sinking the teeth of its many heads into the dragon's hide. Aenarel fought desperately to hack at the monster's many necks, but to no avail; a new one always grew to replace the lost one.

Meanwhile in the north side of the battlefield, the Lion Rangers finally managed to dispatch the last of the Drakespawn Knights, cutting the legs of the repitilian before beheading the rider. Only half the rangers yet remained, the charge of the enemy knights having taken its toll on the triumphant warriors.

Aenarel's dragon finally managed to get some distance in between itself and the Hydra, blasting the damned monster with dragonfire. This did something to slow down the regrowth of the beast's heads, allowing the aelven lord to kill the creature for good. Knowing there was no time to merely stand around, Aenarel urged his mount to burst through the ruined wall ahead of them. The dragon obliged, burying a duardin priestess under the rubble as it toppled the wall over her hideout.

The rest of the Reavers and the Lion Rangers pushed on, advancing through a hail of iron bolts unleashed by the Darkshards in the ruins ahead. Swords clashed and cries of the freshly wounded filled the air once again.

Behind the main line of battle, Lord Morduviel engaged the Stormcast Vanguard-Pallador in combat once again. He charged in with his spear aimed at the man's throat, but before it could connect the foe's boltstorm pistol barked again, punching three lightning-empowered bolts right through Morduviel's skull. As the young noble fell from his mount, stone-dead, the nearby Archmage avenged him by scorching the Stormcast with a bolt of white flames. Yet the damage was already done: Lord Aenarel's eldest son lay dead on the field.

Battle raged on, and for a fleeting moment it seemed the forces of Hammerhal might carry the day, Aenarel's pre-emptive strike bearing fruit. Yet it was not to be, for in a flash of azyr lightning a new trio of Stormcast arrived, reinforcements sent to answer the towers' signal pyres. Without hesitation or fear of death, the newly arrived foe closed in on Aenarel and his wounded dragon...

To the north, the Darkshards and the Aetherwings had slain the last of the Reavers. The aelven crossbowmen turned their weapons to the Lion Rangers running towards them, nailing two of the fur-clad warriors on the run, whereas the last Aetherwing flew southwards to help the Stormcast.

The red dragon spun and roared, clawed and spat. Gouts of flame caught one of the Stormcast, its claws another. But as the Aetherwing dived in from the skies, distracting the dragon, the remaining Vanguard-Pallador tossed a javelin that stuck in between the behemoth's neck scales. Seeing that his beloved mount was seriously threatened and close to death, Aenarel urged it to take to the skies and fall back. They took off and set back towards the Prismatikon, leaving the remainder of the Hammerhalian army to fight for their lives.

The three Lion Rangers surged forward and caught the Aetherwing under the strike of an axe. The Stormcast struck one of the rangers from his feet with a javelin, but the remaining two lopped his head off with practiced swings.

Turning towards the ruins across the clearing, where a single Darkshard was pointing at them with a loaded repeater crossbow, the Lion Rangers lowered their axes. With both armies growing cold on the field around them and their lord already on his way back to the Prismatikon, the warriors decided it was not worth it to risk their lives for this anymore.

They nodded to the crossbowman and shouldered their weapons, starting their long journey back home. The lonely Darkshard followed their receding backs with his repeater for some time, but eventually lowered it and marched back inside the tower for some supper.

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A draw!

Now this is something one rarely gets in Age of Sigmar, as oftentimes the Battleplan allows one or the other to claim victory by some small margin (holding most objectives, having slain most models/Wounds/points, etc.), but we managed to get one in our campaign here.

My aim was to get models within 6" of the towers or to wipe out the enemy. The Anvilgard goal was to kill every single attacking model. Needless to say, we both failed in our objectives! Even if I was only one Darkshard away from a total wipe-out victory, the mission still failed. Kind of refreshing to have inconclusive battles, though.

Lord Aenarel's pre-emptive strike did cull the gathering numbers of the enemy, but losing his own army in the process does not bode well for the overall war effort.

I hope nobody tries to attack the Prismatikon any time soon!