The Battle of the Silver River

And so it comes, on this day the Lim Emperor decided to finished off the rebel main force once and for all. A small Dwarven army (about 1200 points) was sent to engage the foe, pinning them in place while a massive Dark Elven loyalist force (300 points as 1st wave and another 3700 points behind) will then deliver a mortal blow in the flank. The rebels were unaware that they were being trapped. Seeing only the Dwarven troops around, they happily engaged the loyalist with their forces, oblivious to the certain death charging from just a few miles away in the east.

Battle line up (1550 points per side including turn 4 reserves)

The forces of both the Dwarven-Druchii Loyalist and the Rebels (a proxied DOW-CoS army) in the Silver River.

Dwarf Forces (Druchii units are in reserve)














Rebels (Dow-Cult of Slannesh)















Facing off



Reinforcement coming from the side (contains both Loyalist and Rebel troops)

















The Battle

It was early in the morning. At around 8.45 am, the rebel troops gathered and form into formations. Both sides had not taken the breakfast and marched to war on empty stomachs. Spying the Dwarven lines in the distance, the rebel pikemen formations advanced.

Catching the enemy in their gun sights, the Dwarves opened fire. Some pikemen were killed by crossbow bolts while some Druchii cultist and mercenary knights were taken out by a cannon ball. First blood to the Dwarves.

Rebel forces advancing despite suffering casualties.















Turn 2

The Dwarves threw all shooting to the flanking rebel cavalry at the right. And the flank was saved.












In the center, the rebels trapped the Dwarven warriors in the center and dakka them with crossbow bolts and gun fire.





















While his soldiers fought for him, the despotic Lim Emperor celebrates his birthday and enjoys his breakfast.




Turn 3.








The battle as at end of turn 3, just before both armies received their reinforcements.


Turn 4

Reinforcements have arrived. This triggered the deathmatch phase. The game only ends when the DOW general is killed or all the orginal Dwarven-Druchii force depicted in the 1550 army list are killed. In every turn, a unit joins each side on a 4+. The type of reinforcement has been determined with a rule prior to the battle. The Loyalist have 3700 points worth of Druchii reserves while the Rebels have an almost infinite number of reinforcements (based on a pre-game rule).





In the rebel 4th turn, the pikemen broke the dwarven center.



The battle ended in the 10th turn. Almost all the dwarves were killed leaving only the Runesmith general and the bolt thrower crew. The loyalist flanking force was a success. The rebel general fled from the board with his dishearten troops behind, the flanking cold one knights hot on their heels.









Casualties (1:20 for troops)

Loyalist

Dwarf Battle Standard Bearer

400 Dwarven Warriors
200 Dwarven Thunderers
200 Dwarven Quarrellers

60 Cannon crew
60 organ crew (misfire thrice and finally blow up)
40 bolt thrower crew

40 executioners
220 executioners (fled)

Rebels

400 Pikemen
400 Pikemen

120 Mercenary Knights
160 Mercenary Knights
140 Duelists
80 Crossbowmen (140 fled)
160 Druchii Cultist
120 Druchii Cultist
100 Druchii Cultist

180 Halflings
60 Devoted
100 Darkriders

Afternote: This is an obvious victory to the Dwarf-Druchii Loyalist alliance although I am unable to determine the margin. My original plan is to make the game end with the death of the DOW General (a mage) but I never count on him fleeing the battle. This is an off sight as it has happened before, I should have made some allowance for it. I thought about letting him auto rally in the table edge but I feel that this is unfluffy given his elusive nature. This is because there is a unit of 6 cold one knights pushing at him so it seems strange for him to rally and face certain death.

Nevertheless, the Dwarves manage to “eliminate” the enemy general(they could have killed him with a cannon shot in turn 6 had the cannonball not caused only 1 wound) so victory to the Loyalists. The rebels were crushed. With this success, the rebellion has to fade into the jungles of the north and await reinforcements from foreign realms.

I therefore declare this to be a major victory for the Loyalist. It will be a massacre if the enemy general was killed.

But what is the fate of the treacherous DOW mage general, having disappointed both the Dwarves and the rebels (it is a long story...that guy is a two headed snake), his reputation as an ally is ruined. Shall I let him fall at the blades of his allies? Or should I create another plot device.



The enemy wizard general fleeing with his rag tag troops and Druchii troops pursuing behind.