998YK, Nymm. A Duergar army marches up into the Logoria valley, aiming to seize control from their bitter enemies, the Sulatar.
~70 point L'Art de la Guerre battle report, with fantasy armies — duergar vs drow.
Introduction
This battle report is from my Eberron-themed Mighty Empires campaign, where I am playing out the battles using a variety of wargaming systems. See
this post about the armies involved to see an overview of the factions in the campaign. In the Mighty Empires system, the duergar army is 600 points and the Sulatar have 500 points — these are both small scouting armies, compared to a 1500 point large army. I have translated these into 80 and 67 point l'AdlG armies respectively.
The Sulatar deployed an army in the north of their empire, hoping to slip past the Hammerhead duergar and grab territory in the north of the map. But their path was blocked and the duergar grabbed an adjacent tile, leaving them in trouble. The duergar army is now moving into the fortress tile that they occupy. The Sulatar could have withdrawn before them, but this would have forced them back into barren territory without having any food to sustain them — plus it would yield their small amount of northern territory entirely to the duergar.
Having no stockpiled food means that the Sulatar cannot retreat into their fortress here either — defending a siege with no food is very likely to go wrong. So their commander, Itharn, has chosen to fight even though outnumbered, and must hope it turns out for the best. The Sulatar are a martial people, so his main force consists of around 500 warriors. In addition, though, he has around 100 scouts and hunters, and around 100 mixed human & gnomish levies recruited from conquered territory in the east of their empire.
- 3x Longbows — Sulatar drow archers
- 2x Heavy spearmen — Sulatar spears
- 1x Medium knights impetuous — Sulatar cavalry
- 1x Light infantry bow — Sulatar scouts
- 1x Light infantry javelin — Sulatar hunters
- 1x Levy — human & gnomish levies
Lieutenant Griel, the Hammerhead commander, has tough troops at his disposal and they are at home in the mountainous terrain. The core of his army, marching up to take the fortress, is 600 duergar dwarvish infantry, in heavy armour and mostly armed with hammers and axes. In support he has around 100 missile troops — including Vulkoorim drow scouts, and duergar crossbows; and a pair of balllistae.
- 4x Heavy swordsmen armor impact — duergar warriors
- 1x Heavy swordsmen impetuous — duergar beserkers
- 1x Medium spearmen — duergar spears
- 1x Heavy artillery — duergar large ballistae
- 1x Crossbow — duergar crossbows
- 1x Light infantry bow — allied Vulkoorim scouts.
The Battle
Deployment
L'AdlG lets the players control the terrain to some extent. The Sulatar chose lots of woods and a marsh, hoping to disrupt the advance of those big blocks of heavy duergar infantry; but no luck, everything ends up positioned away from the centre of the battlefield. Instead, the duergar are able to reposition one wood to plug their left flank, reducing the risk of a wide flanking move by the Sulatar cavalry.
The duergar draw up their infantry as one block in between the two hills on their side of the field, marching up the valley. They will put the crossbowmen on the hill to their left, shielded by the spears, and their ballista battery on the steeper hill on their right — from where it should overlook the whole battlefield.
The Sulatar have their archers in the centre, backed up by their spearmen. Their scouts and hunters are on the flanks, and the cavalry are shielded by them on the right flank.
Turns 1-4
Lieutenant Griel saw no reason to hurry. He expected his tough warriors should be able to march up the valley and break the enemy line, and that should send the rest of their troops scattering. So he took his time to move his ballistae and crossbowmen into place on the hills either side, while his warriors held formation between the hills.
The Sulatar did not want to close the distance any sooner than required. But Itharn knew that the ballistae could hit his line from its new vantage point, so moved up first his scouts, then his human levies to try to storm the hill. The scouts were meant to give covering fire and disrupt the duergar spearmen guarding the battery there in preparation for the levies' attack.
Turns 5 &6
Instead, the battery of ballistae used its vantage point to shoot mercilessly into the levies' formation, disordering their advance. The duergar warriors began to advance in the centre, moving beyond the slopes either side and spreading out into a line of battle. And on the left, the Vulkoorim scouts and duergar crossbows moved into range and began to harass the Sulatar left flank.
Itharn saw the attack on the right falter, but his officers were not able to rally the levies, and he was reluctant to order a charge uphill against a duergar shieldwall with disordered levies. In the centre, the duergar advance now came under attack from the drow archers both in front and from the slopes to the south, causing some losses and disorder but not stopping their advance.
Turns 7 & 8
The main duergar line continued to press forwards, forcing the Sulatar scouts to fall back as the distance between the main lines of battle closed. Meanwhile, the ballistae continued to take their toll on the levies on the right. The drow archers continued to inflict losses in the centre, but the losses were only enough to disorder the advance — certainly it would take more than this to drive off the tough duergar.
On turn 8, the Sulatar roll a 1 for command points — damn. Their cavalry are impetuous and so will charge regardless unless that one point is used to restrain them, but that would leave their main line getting charged without getting the spearmen into the front. So, instead, I used the one point to charge the spearmen; the cavalry then charge automatically, and at least they have a nearly-complete line of melee troops meeting the duergar advance.
The duergar do not really have to do anything; their ranged troops are engaging the enemy, and they outnumber the Sulatar in the melee. They do choose to maneouver the general's unit to be in a position to move around to support the line elsewhere if it wavers.
The Sulatar cavalry do make their mark, hitting the duergar beserkers on the left hard and causing some disorder. On the duergar right, their line is disordered by the Sulatar's archers, but they hold the charge nonetheless. And in the centre, where the Hammerhead duergar outnumber the Sulatar, they inflict heavy losses on the charging drow.
Turn 9
Seeing the drow line in danger of being overwhelmed, Itharn jumps into action. He orders the hunters on his left to charge down into the exposed flank of the duergar line; orders the scouts to regroup and harass the duergar reserve; and then charges with his own regiment of archers into the melee in front of him. Although not as tough in close combat as the duergar warriors, the drow archers are inspired by their leader and stand their ground.
The duergar warriors at the south end of the line, already disordered after marching through the hail of drow arrows, now take a hail of javelins as the drow hunters charge in. Like at Firebranch, the mobility of the hunters again proves its worth, and the duergar here give way under the combined frontal and flank attack.
The rest of the duergar line is holding its ground, though, and the cavalry in particular have now spent their charge and are now at a disadvantage in close combat with the duergar axemen.
Turn 10
The Sulatar spearmen at the south end of the melee, having overcome the force in front of them, push forward, turn and charge against the duergar reserve commanded by Lieutenant Griel. This, however, is mostly to cover the continued advance of the hunters, which are moving up the duergar line. The next regiment of duergar warriors has almost overwhelmed the drow spearmen in front of them; but now the tide is turned, and the whole duergar battle line is now nearing breaking point.
The duergar need to get more troops into the main action, so they order the spearmen on his left to advance. They charge down the hill into the disordered levies, quickly routing them, and the scattering levies and pursuing duergar run into the Sulatar scouts, routing them as well. The duergar crossbowman and ballistae are now harassing the Sulatar archers still on the southern slopes of the valley, but the cover there is enough to keep their losses low. Nevertheless, the duergar now control the north side of the field entirely, and may be able to rescue their centre.
Turn 11
Along the main line of battle, melee raged. The duergar were taking heavy losses, but like all dwarves they are tough warriors and refused to yield ground. Both lines were close to breaking, but it was only the drow cavalry that broke — with many of the riders unhorsed or dead, the remaining warriors were overwhelmed or fled. The duergar could now turn their attention to the drow archers commanded by Itharn that were next in line.
Griel directed his spearmen to advance around the end of the drow right; the Sulatar archers not engaged in melee turned to face them though, and began inflicting serious losses and slowing the advance of these crucial reinforcements. Griel's own regiment was having better luck though, inflicting heavy losses on the drow spearmen that has got around to the rear of his main line.
Turn 12
With the tide of battle turning in their favour, Griel shouted more encouragement to his men, stirring them to press forward. The drow spearmen in front of his own unit were exhausted and taking heavy losses; they finally gave way and fled. Griel's unit pressed forward and crashed into the drow hunters pressing on south end of the main line. Both the Sulatar spearmen and duergar at this end had taken heavy losses, but the duergar held their nerve, and the Sulatar, seeing their own right flank was now in danger, finally broke and ran.
With only the Sulatar archers now left, and in danger of being surrounded and cut to pieces by the duergar regiments around them, Itharn ordered a general retreat.
Post-Battle Analysis
That main melee was very, very close — the duergar had two units with 3 out of 4 cohesion points lost in the main line for 2 or more rounds, which would have routed and disordered their general's unit behind them if they had taken one more point of damage. But they rolled very well when it counted, and the line of battle held.
The half-hearted move by the Sulatar to attack the artillery battery early on was a waste of effort; it allowed the levies to be cut up cheaply and left their right flank open. It did not much affect the outcome though, as it delayed the duergar enough on this flank to keep them out of the main melee. The impetuous cavalry was a bigger problem, since it would have taken two command points to pull them back, and more to plug the hole in the line. Once their charge was spent, they needed some luck or some support to finish off the tough duergar regiment in front of them, but neither came.
The duergar put a lot of faith in the ability of their heavy infantry to hold, and it did — this time. But slightly better luck would have enabled that flanking move to wipe out their main battle line, which would have left an interesting fight between the battered Sulalar units and the duergar's reserves and missile troops.
Consequences
The Hammerhead Clan take control of the fortress and valley of Logoria. T
Translating losses back into the ME campaign in the usual way, we have:
Hammerheads: 600 points engaged, losses 70 => 530 remaining
Sulatar: 500 points engaged, losses 170 => 330 remaining
The Sulatar are driven out into the barren coastal area beyond, with their force reduced by around one-third. To add to their woes, their regrouping force will be starving next turn as well.
