Because of the rumors of great treasures hidden within the Marshes of Madness, the armies of the Badlands converged upon the area, making alliances and drawing battle-lines. In the end, necessity made strange bedfellows, and Prince Yavandir found himself working alongside the Empire's Mad Duke, the mysterious Asrai, and even a Vampire Lord.
Ultimately, it was decided that Yavandir and his armies would ride out in front of the rest of the alliance in order to establish a defensible position within the Marsh. Mounting his dragon, he called together several units of archers, his two hordes of white lions, a smaller unit of swordmaster, one giant eagle, and three apprentice mages (two working with High Magic and another using Death).
As Yavandir moved his forces into position, he muttered a curse, for across the field waited the hated Dark Elves. A murmur went through his battle lines as the realization hit his faithful soldiers. The elf prince frowned as he assessed the army waiting across the battlefield. This was huge army of Druchi -- outnumbering Yavandir's own forces nearly two to one. Worse, their were six units of archers wielding vicious repeating crossbows. He knew that those crossbows could cripple his lightly armored elite troops. These strong missile weapons were backed up by two bolt throwers, which threatened his dragon mount.Yavandir took some comfort in the fact that the army facing him contained few elite soldiers. While there was a group of frenzied witch elves, the rest of the force consisted of two large blocks of spears, one smaller group of spears, two chariots, a cauldron of blood, and a unit of shades. This was a sorceress's army, and it was led by sorceress lord with the Lore of Shadow and her apprentice whom wielded the Lore of Fire.
The Druchi general spread his crossbowmen across the field. He then put his combat troops, the two units of spears, the unit of witch elves, the cauldron, and the chariots in a block in the center. For his part, Yavandir placed his white lions in the center of the board in hopes of forcing the spears and witch elves away from his archers. Likewise, he knew that while the crossbows were more powerful than his own longbows, his archers out ranged their dark elf cousins. Because of this, he set his archers deep in his deployment zone, hoping to spare them one round of pain. The giant eagle waited behind the white lions, prepared to sell his own life in order to protect the elvish hordes. Positioning the swordmasters proved difficult, he knew that they would be choice targets for the Dark Elves' crossbows. In the end, he decided to place them behind two forests near a cluster of crossbowmen and the two crossbows -- he hoped that the trees might give them enough cover to get into position.
Hour 1
The High Elves seized the advantage. Despite being threatened by the unit of shades hiding behind a building, Yavandir flew forward in hopes of dispatching the crossbowmen on the right flank. On the other side of the field, the swordmasters marched forward, making sure to keep themselves within the woods. The archers moved forward to fire at extremity of their range while the white lions waited for the dark elves to move forward, hoping that their comrades could thin out their enemies with sword and spell.
Despite being outclassed by the sorceress lord, the young high elf mages had an effective phase, destroying one of the bolt throwers and devastating the Witch Elves with the Flames of the Phoenix. As the phase ended, one of the mages drained the winds of magic, hoping to dampen the spells of her opponent.
The archers were less successful, killing a few of the crossbowman and a few more witch elves. However, the might star dragon was more successful as he unleashed his breath upon two of the crossbow units, killing several druchi in one and causing another unit to flee.
The dark elves responded by moving forward (sending one unit of spearmen against the dragon and everything else toward the white lions) and bringing their crossbows into range. The sorceress had to expend some of her power to remove the flames that threatened to consume the witch elves, and this coupled with the drained winds, left her with little to work with. The poisoned arrows of the shades wounded the star dragon, and the high elves' horde of archers took a beating from the crossbowmen and the bolt throwers, but all things considered, Yavandir felt that he escaped with fewer casualties than he should have.
Hour 2
As the battle raged on, Yavandir charged one of the crossbow units; undaunted by the fearsome dragon, the dark elves held their ground. As the swordmasters moved into the second forest, the archers moved into position. Content to have the witch elves cross the killing zone, neither the eagle nor the white lions moved.
The high elf magic phase was less spectacular this time, the Death Mage snipped one crossbowman out of a decimated unit of crossbowmen causing the unit to flee in terror, and the high mage placed the Curse of Arrow Attraction on a different unit of crossbowmen. Nothing else happened, but the high elf shooting was much more effective this round, causing more damage to the witch elves and destroying two units of harpies. In melee, the crossbowmen were no match for the Prince and his dragon and were wiped out. Yavandir maneuvered his dragon so that it was out of the approaching dark elven spears path.
The bulk of the druchi army continued to move forward hoping although one unit of spears continued to shadow the dragon. For whatever reason, the dark elven sorceresses continued to have difficulty harnessing the winds of magic and were unable to get a spell off. Adding to Yavandir's enemies problems, he and his dragon continued to shrug of massive volumes of crossbow fire. Despite darkening the sky with their bolts, the dragon suffered only a few wounds, and none were able to pierce Yavandir's ancient Armor of Caledor. However, things looked bad for the swordmasters as the trees provided little cover -- after a blistering round of shooting, only seven remained.
Hour 3
The swordmaster's sergeant knew that he had to get his remaining men into the safety of combat, but he could see the crossbowmen waiting to unleash their bolts should his unit charged. In hopes of avoiding their bolts, he unexpectedly had his men rush the remaining bolt thrower. At the same time, one of the white lion hordes had a choice of their own: charge the witch elves and risk exposing themselves to a counter charge from the cauldron, spear unit, and chariots, or forcing the witch elves to come to them. In the end, Prince Yavandir waved them forward, and they successfully completed their charge.
Knowing that he had to get himself into position to aid the lions, Yavandir flew away from the crossbowmen and landed behind the small unit of spears that housed the Druchi's sorceress general. The horde of high elf archers continued to advance on the smaller crossbow units while the rest of the archers took aim at the enemy.
The dark elves managed to stop most of the high elf magic, but once again, the young mage managed to drain the winds of magic. Archery sent another crossbow unit fleeing, but both generals knew that the battle between the white lions and witch elves would most likely decide the battle. The white lions struck first, devastating the weakened witch elf unit. In the end, only five remained, but the Prince's heart sunk as the power of the cauldron inspired them to hold. The white lions were exposed, and there was nothing he could do to save them. Elsewhere, the swordmasters' gamble succeeded as they destroyed the bolt thrower and overran into one of the crossbow units, saving them from what would have been a fatal volley of bolts.
Seizing the advantage, the dark elf general ordered the cauldron and one of the chariots to counter charge the white lions. One unit of spears advanced on the medium sized unit of archers and the other moved to engage the second white lion horde, and the final unit of crossbowmen on the left flank charged the swordmasters in hopes of saving their comrades. The sorceress left her unit in order to hide behind them as they turned to face the oncoming dragon while the other chariot positioned itself to counter charge the dragon should it engage the spear bunker.
Once again, drain magic hampered the sorceresses as the general tried to mindrazor the spear bunker only to find that the winds were to weak to support the spell. Moments later, the other sorceress failed in an attempt to generate more power, silencing the druchi's magic. The few remaining dark elf archers tried to bring down the dragon, only to see it shrug off their bolts. The swordmasters punished both units of crossbowmen, sending them both fleeing. However, in the center of the field, things were going the dark elves' way -- the chariots and cauldron butchered the white lions, who were able to offer much resistance. However, the woodsmen of Chrace are legendary for their fortitude, and they refused to flee. Still, things looked bleak in the center as the unit of archers bunkering one of the high elf mages was trapped by a large unit of spears, and there was no one able of coming to the white lions aid.
Hour 4
Knowing that the turning point of the battle was at hand, Yavandir sounded his horn, commanding the other white lion horde to charge the spear unit approaching it. The archers moved sideways away from the other spear unit, and the giant eagle threw itself in front of the approaching dark elves, hoping to buy the mage another round. Yavandir himself rode his dragon into the sorceress's bunker, knowing that if she fell, the battle was likely his.
Perhaps because they had been bottled up for too long, the winds of magic exploded in a torrent, consuming the death mage in fire as she tried to Spirit Leech the exposed Dark elf general. Powered by the explosion, the Druchi casters had no chance to stop the spell. Unexpectedly, it hit her with maximum force, killing her instantly. Their general and most powerful sorceress dead, the hearts of the Druchi failed, and they gave up the field.
Conclusion
Having won the field, the Prince was pleased that he could offer his allies the more advantageous defensive position. He had no doubt that the Forces of Order would seize the powerful treasures for themselves and would swing the advantage in their direction.
