Battle of the Valley of Fallen Gods

Greetings!

The end of the year was so busy for me that the finale of our three-player Firestorm campaign never got written into a narrative battlereport.

I'm here to fix that.

This is the final battle of the Firestorm II campaign which began last summer, and was brought to its conclusion before the year's end. Here's what happened on the battlefield that determined the overall victor of the campaign...

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Lord Aenarel Dawnspur let the bitter wind of the grassy steppes flutter his long hair like a war banner, his thoughts elsewhere altogether. If he focused real hard, he could hear the endless silence of the grasslands over the stomp of marching feet, the clatter of spears, the rattle of scalemail. It was a peaceful landscape, one that Aenarel wished he could explore thoroughly alongside Mel'nar, his dragon companion.

Alas, he had more bitter business to attend to. After his bitter defeat in the hands of Rinos Wildbringer and the ensuing retreat from the Prismatikon, Lord Aenarel had mustered what forces he could on the Coast of Ill Omen and set southwards once more, following reports of enemy movement towards the Valley of Fallen Gods. This wind-swept region was the only stretch of land his Hammerhal forces still needed to secure in order to stall further Anvilgard advance to the west, before the arduous process of pushing them back into the Searing Sea could begin. One more battle and the thrice-cursed invaders would realize the futility of their war effort.

Then there were the Seraphon. Incomprehensible celestial daemons who had come to the peninsula for something; Aenarel's mages and seers still had no idea what. He was hoping the division of the land with fortified Hammerhalian outposts would discourage the lizardfolk enough to cease their search and retreat.

All he needed now was a victory in the Valley.

The empty husk of an ancient fortress cast a long shadow over the grasslands in the warm light of the setting sun. The Hammerhalian army stood ready to face its two adversaries: the hated Anvilgardians and the strange Seraphon, both of whom had sent armies into the Valley in recognition of its vital role in the ongoing war.

Securing the fort would mean dominating the region, and so for the first time in hundreds of years the old structure saw action once again.

The fields rang to the rhythm of war drums and piercing clarion calls as the armies thundered forward. A seething tide of celestial lizardfolk rushed towards the fort, only to meet the Anvilgard cohorts head-on in a crash that shook the land.

Lord Rinos's black dragon ploughed the ranks of the Seraphon, leaving mangled daemon corpses slowly dissipating in its wake. The serrated lances of the Drakespawn Knights snapped as they struck the nigh-impenetrable scale shields of the Saurus Temple Guard, who swept many a rider from their mounts with heavy obsidian halberds.

The legions of Hammerhal stood back in orderly formations, letting their foes tear each other apart before committing to the battle.

The crystalline device atop the hulking Bastiladon sent beams of searing light scything into the Anvilgard ranks, turning knights and drakespawn into desiccated husks that crumbled in the stiff breeze. Such a beam even struck Rinos Wildbringer's dragon, casting the monster down into the maelstrom of battle where Oldblood Kraq-Nar set upon the aelven lord with a glowing, magical spear. The black dragon lay unmoving on the ground, and of Lord Rinos there were no further sightings during the battle.

Seeing this turn of events, Lord Aenarel gave the order to join the fighting. Most of his army's cavalry contingents circled the old fort to get to the flank of the Seraphon forces, while he and his infantry pressed on to meet the remnants of the Anvilgardians. Arrows and bolts whistled through the air as the armies closed the distance in between them.

Lord Aenarel Dawnspur and a squadron of Dragon Blade knights thundered across the field to crash into the Anvilgard's Vanguard-Palladors, running them through with ithilmar lances and crushing them beneath the bulk of a charging dragon. Lord Aenarel himself saw to the decapitation of a Stormcast Eternal, his enchanted blade biting through sigmarite plate with ease. The aelves did not get away unscathed though, as the God-King's warriors proved their resilience by placing a crackling bolt square in the face of a knight who had just ran them through.

Making use of the opening created by their liege, the Swordmasters charged into the rear of the Anvilgard War Hydra rampaging in the middle of the battlefield. Their blades bit deep into the scarred flesh of the monster, and in a flurry of glinting blades the Hydra was reduced to a heap of dead meat.

Meanwhile the Seraphon had run the rest of the Anvilgard cavalry to the ground, freeing themselves to engage the other aelven army next. Raising their repitilian heads from the scattered bodies of the Drakespawn Knights, they saw the Hammerhal cavalry circling towards their rear as well as the hydra-slaying Swordmasters to their front.

Making a quick judgement of the situation at hand, the Slann leading the Seraphon forces decided it was not beneficial to the Great Plan to keep fighting the mortals. The celestial daemons blinked away from the battle with their master's magics, disappearing in a flash of blue light. The remnants of the Anvilgard army performed a fighting retreat as well, leaving the legions of Hammerhal standing victorious in the Valley of Fallen Gods.

Lord Aenarel had won the decisive battle and cut the peninsula in half, securing Hammerhal interests in the west from Anvilgard's attentions.

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Victory for Hammerhal!

This game was a classic three-way battle, with two combatants draining each other's forces and keeping each other at bay while the third sweeps in and claims the prize. A dirty victory, but a victory all the same.

This battle accrued enough Glory for my faction to score victory in the overall campaign, bringing my second campaign on the Flamescar Plateau to an end!

With this campaign finished, I'll be getting into several new ones now in 2020, so... Until next time!