[Oathfork] Battle at Open Stream

The encounter's background is again rather simple: A Beastman General roams the Marches intend on burning villages they come across, only to loot them.

Their next target is Open Stream. Open Stream belongs to a dwarf kingdom, and the king sent a batallion to stop the marauding beastmen.

For the beastmen from my Warhammer Fantasy Battles Collection I used the Oathfork stats of Orcs.

The ogres and spearmen deployed in the outskirts of Open Stream, the rest of the batallion on and around the hill on the town's left flank.

The Beastmen batallion deployed two trolls on each flank, with the Beastmen in the middle.

The Beastmen won the initiative, and opened the engagement by advancing the trolls on the right flank. They immediately became the target of Thargirlun's Thunderers, but the dwarves rushed their shots and missed.

Rotund Bertha fired on Grazob's Gors, the resulting impact of the mortar round killed four warriors, their surviving comrades became disordered.

The Beastman Shaman cast Rain of Knives on the enemy mortar, the knives hit, but the Dwarves took cover in time under their warmachine and escaped unscathed.

Seeing the important asset of their batallion susceptible to attack, Krarhorlug, the dwarf wizard, tried to cast Fortress on the mortar, but he was not able to gather enough magical energy.

The rest of the Bestmen advanced, the dwarves only advanced the spearmen and ogres through the town, while the other units remained stationary.

The dwarves won the initiative. The Thunderers took careful aim this time, but they were not able to hit the broad side of a barn, even with trolls being quite large targets.

Grazob's Gors rallied, shrugging off the impact of the mortar, and advanced. The dwarves followed the advance closely and lobbed another steel ball amongst them, again killing four Beastmen and disordering the company again.

Grogmar, the Beastman Shaman, tried to save his his brethren from more harm, and again cast Rain of Knives on the mortar crew. This time he killed one of them, the dwarves did not waver, though.

Krarhorlug managed to get Fortress off this time, just a tad too late.

The rest of the Beastmen stormed forwards, supported by the trollish flanks.

The dwarves again won the initiative, and immediately brought Rotund Bertha to bear again. This time the aim was slightly off, killing only one Beastman. Having experienced far worse, the Beastmen were unimpressed. Which was good, otherwise they would have been broken. They rallied and continued the attack, only to be shot at by Thargirlun's Thunderers, which finally had given up on trying to hit the trolls. They killed another three Beastmen which passed their morale test.

Krarhorlug continued to not impress with his magical prowess by missing the Ungors with a Lightning Bolt.

This time, his counterpart, Grogmar, also was not able to hit any of the Thunderers he had targeted with Rain of Knives.

Glorimdumri positioned his spearmen at the entrance to the town, his flank covered by Narub and Vraret, the ogre mercenaries.

The dwarves again won the initiative. They again opened the turn with Rotund Bertha lobbing another steel ball towards the Beastmen, this time taking aim at Udeeq's Ungor company. The sphere of steel smashed five of the creatures, which became disordered.

Udeeq activated next, but was not able to calm down his troops. He got his company to move sideways, trying to get out of the dwarves fire arcs.

The dwarf Thunderers switched aim again, and fired on Shurkul's linebreakers, killing three, but the Beastman general kept his Gors calm.

Grogmar sent Rain of Knives on Glorimdumri's spearmen this time, but was not able to cause a single wound. Krarhorlug did not even get his Lightning Bolt off.

Narub and Vraret, the two ogres, charged Jaafan and Rakash, the two trolls. They caused two wounds, suffered 1 in return, and pushed the trolls 6" back.

The dwarves again won the initiative. The Beastmen rolled the strange event Hidden Treasure, which provided Shurkul with the Sceptre of Command.

The mortar again attacked Udeeq's Ungors, causing 5 hits. The Ungors failed their morale roll; as they were already disordered, they became broken and were out of the game. Luckily for the Beastmen, there was no cascading panic.

Jaafan & Rakash charged back in, engaging Narub & Vraret.

The trolls caused five wounds wiping out the ogres, the one wound in return killed poor Jaafan. The surviving troll became disordered.

The Thunderers activated next and attacked the Beastmen general's company, causing 5 kills. Shurkul's 'ard Boyz wavered in their resolve and became disordered.

Shurkul wouldn't have any of that and restored order amongst the ranks, pushing his troops forward.

Glorimdumri was shocked by the death of the ogre mercenaries, and hastily withdrew his spear company further into the town.

Grogmar attacked Krarhorlug, his magical counterpart, with Rain of Knives, causing 1 wound; Krarhorlug not only survived the attack, but also passed his morale test. At least Krarhorlug was so distracted, that his casting of Fortress on the Blue Company failed.

Finally, the Beastmen won the initiative for a change.

The remaining few Gors around Grazob attacked the Blue Company. The melee was a draw with two wounds caused on both sides, also both passed their morale test.

The dwarven mortar killed four members of Shurkul's 'ard Boyz, but Shurkul kept his troops under control and ordered a charge on Thargirlun's Thunderers.

The target number for the Beastmen was a 4 (green dice), the dwarves needed a 10 (blue dice):

Wild Charge allowed the Beastmen to re-roll one dice, which the dwarves were therefore allowed as well:

The attack resulted in 4 dead dwarves, the remaining one passed his morale roll but was pushed back 6".

Krarhorlug strenghtened the dwarf defensive line by casting Fortress once more, this time on the Red Company. He cast his spell just before he got targeted by Rain of Knives again, his time he escaped unscathed.

The Beastmen won the inititative, and Shurkul activated himself, Zulkaz & Shaktilar and Grazob's company.

The trolls were at -3 dice due to Fortress that was still active on the Red Company.

The dwarf player's roll was quite lucky:

The trolls used Wild Charge for a re-roll, an option the dwarf player choose not to use - surprise.

The result was three wounds on both sides, which killed three dwarves and poor Zulkaz. Both units passed their morale test and had to fall back 1" each.

Next, Grazob urged his troops to charge the Blue Company.

This combat resulted in another draw (2 vs. 2), and again both companies passed their morale test.

Shurkul wheeled his unit.

As soon as their wheel was completed, a mortar round crashed into them, killing one more Beastman.

The Beastman shaman tried to finish off his dwarf counterpart with Rain of Knives, but miscast.

The dwarf wizard, Krarhorlug, tried to support the Red Company with Fortress, but also miscast.

Thargirlun, the only survivor of his Thunderers unit, attacked Grazob's unit but missed. The death of all his men seemed to deeply affect his aim.

The dwarfs won the initiative again. Krarhorlug did not give up, and tried one more time to cast Fortress on the Red Company, this time he succeeded.

Shurkul activated his own company as well as Grazob's Clubbas, who charged the Blue Company. With all the Shielding available to the dwarf player, Grazob choose to fight on his own without the support of his troops. This proved to be a wise choice, as he killed two dwarves and suffered no wound in return. The dwarves passed their moral roll. The following push-back also moved Dhokdrun, the dwarf general, as well as the mortar.

Shurkul tried to pivot and then charge Thargirlun, but the distance just was too great.

Rotund Berta did not perform well in her last activation of the game, missing Surkul's unit.

Rakash, the troll in the left flank, finally managed to engage the ever-evading spearmen led by Glorimdumri. He killed three dwarfes, and only got a light nick on his right arm in return. The dwarves passed their morale test and got pushed back.

Grogmanr again tried to assassinate Krarhorlug with Rain of Knives, cast the spell, but was not able to score the one hit needed to kill the dwarf.

Thargirlun again did not manage to hit Grazob's boyz.

Shaktilar killed two dwarves but was felled in the process.

The game was a clear dwarf victory with 375 vs. 883 points.