Tedious backstory:
Robbart continues his advance after his victory at the Three-Cornered Way. He's established a strong foothold in the region, but what he hasn't found is treasure: gold to feed or pay his men. With supplies starting to wear thin, Robbart makes ready to attack a Dragon fortress that houses a gold mine. The promise of this large supply of treasure has attracted more disciplined troops to Robbart's banner.
The fortress, cleverly named Gold Stone, is held by a small number of Dragon and Grek units under command of a Dragon Knight named Dain. The Greks have lit their pyres and called for Ares' aid.
Robbart examines his battle plans in front of the gates of Gold Stone, ready to begin the siege. By his side is Xalvador, leader of the newest band of mercenaries employed by Robbart.
The Deposed forces line up, ready to make war.
Inside Gold Stone, archers deploy to the walls.
Hidden atop the crumbling keep, a baby dragon is guarded by the Armored Core of the Dragons military.
Dragon and Grek infantry slip out of a secret exit to hamper the siege force however they can.
A Grek siege engineer is caught outside the gates because his cart of swords has lost a wheel. He weeps openly.
Pre-battle Overwatch.
The Battle Begins
The left flank moves forward, note the mounted Necromancer.
The right advances as well, along with the siege tower.
Atop the tower, mercenaries take aim...
...smoking two Dragons on the wall.
Grek spears advance under covering archer fire. One of the mercenaries is killed. Elsewhere, the Grek archers move around to cover the gate.
A Grek engineer, after sufficient wrangling, mounts a cow.
Cowvery (I'm so sorry) away!
Dragon archers kill an ork while the swordsman advance below.
The current state of the field.
Covered by barricades, the Necromancer dismounts and speaks an ancient tongue.
The ground crumbles and breaks, flames spurting forth.
Goblins engage the Dragon swords, but nobody dies.
The siege tower crushes the broken cart, only exacerbating the worst day ever for the hapless engineer. On the left flank, mercenaries man a catapult and try to fire at the fortress but the damage is too low.
The right flank advances under the watchful eyes of archers.
An archer is skewered by multiple spears while he dances, apparently.
Cowvery makes a stunning attempt to pick a discarded sword off the ground in front of the lumbering siege tower...
... and he does it!
Sorry, it's too late to open the gates now.
A mass of Grek arrows kill two archers atop the siege tower.
Dragon archers take aim...
... and an ork is slain.
The current state of the field.
The archers try to withdraw, getting one of them killed. The last one gets a kill while his cavalry friend fails completely.
Undead climb out of the earth, and will continue to do so while the Necromancer can concentrate on his spell.
They attack a wall to no avail.
A Grek archer fires in response...
... and discovers, to his horror, that the undead are immune to archer fire.
A ladder is put up on the right flank while goblins kill the cow. The siege tower will reach the walls next turn! Also not shown is the embarrassing failure of the archer atop the tower to hit anyone.
Ares has arrived.
With endless recklessness, he charges his chariot forward, slamming into an earthen mound...
The broken chariot annihilates the last mercenary archer.
Ares flies through the air and prepares to strike Xalvador...
He obliterates the horse. Xalvador barely survives.
The Grek spears wound the warg while the archers atop the walls can't overcome the skill penalties to stop the Necromancer. Also, Greks on the wall fire at armored ork halberdiers on the siege tower causeway but can't beat the armor. The engineer on the cow gets himself into a stalemate with goblins as well.
The Dragon archers all miss while heavy swordsman cut down a ladder.
Dain is not so successful.
The current state of the madness.
Ares finds himself in a sticky situation. The catapult next to him fires.
The shot hits well and reveals a poorly disguised door in the side of the fortress. Who put that there? Why is this a thing? The undead beat on it some more but can't get the door open.
The halberdiers attack the archers on the wall to no effect.
The siege tower rolls to the gate. The ram strikes hard but the engineer pads the blow enough to save the gate. The engineer, however, is turned into a bright red mist.
The goblins are all slain by Dragon counters.
While the Grek spears make short work of the warg rider, this engineer gets his first kill.
The first man up the ladder kills an archer.
The Dragons are engaged by another company of goblins, and a Dragon is slain. The rest of the besieging army advances.
Ares prepares a feat...
He swings!
The troll is down to 1HP and two engineers lose their lives.
The valorous cowveryman is slain
The Grek Spears engage the Necromancer and slay him. He dissolves slowly into a puddle of murk, only his helmet remaining.
Dragon swords bring a goblin down. Inside the walls, the archers all miss spectacularly and safely jump down into the courtyard, safe from enemy weapons.
State of the battle.
The ram succeeds in blowing the gate wide open, ad it retreats to facilitate the Deposed advance. Elsewhere, the undead break into the tower.
Dragons and orks clash and men are slain.
Attackers jump down and one of them dies from the fall. He probably plays DayZ.
While the struggle atop the gate is stuck in a disappointing stalemate, more orks climb to the walls.
Ares is in some trouble and takes heavy damage. 1HP remains!
Undead shamble into the castle, slowly falling apart.
A Grek archer kills one of the halberdiers.
Grek spears find their marks on the company of goblins and slay them all.
Lots of fudging happens. Ares tries to declare some feats that he's already done before (you can't call in Immortal Fire all the time that's unsporting and uncreative) and settles on being able to use both weapons in a single turn. However, he fails and fumbles both of them.
But he still has an action?
Anyway he gets a kill.
Heavy swords kill the other attacker in the courtyard.
Dragons prepare to defend the keep.
Dain casually kills an undead.
The state of the battle.
The undead are falling apart and the players are tired of keeping track of them.
The gate is breached.
Heavily armed goblins kill some Dragon swords.
The gank on Ares continues, but with abhorrent attack rolls, and one of the mercenary swordsman is killed on a counter. The Deposed Player Character takes some time to rethink his life.
The halberdier whiffs again and is slain by a hail of archer fire.
The last archer kills an ork on approach below him.
While the Grek spears kill the heavy goblins, Ares gets personal with the troll. However, no damage is done to either.
Dain kills another undead.
And gets atop the tower with a feat.
Dragon swords commit more violence and an ork is slain.
The carnage grows.
The troll dies on a counter! Ares is barely alive, but Xalvador can't seem to roll well either.
More orks, goblins, and mercenaries make their way into the fortress.
Heavy troops engage but they are stalemated.
Tired of this ridiculous fighting, Ares proposes a duel!
It begins.
And Ares comes out the victor.
The spears can't quite reach the flamethrowers.
The Grek archers own the walls, but only manage a single kill.
The Dragons do so little that there isn't even a point to chronicle it. The field stands in carnage.
The spears find themselves on the wrong end of the flamethrower. Damage is atrocious and all are slain.
You might want to get out of there soon, bud.
The Deposed assault the keep.
An Armored Core is slain!
The undead are re-dead, which may or may not be due to player laziness.
Ares removes his shield (for it is heavy...) and helmet (for he must see far...)
And he throws his mighty spear...
His poor rolling gets the last Dragon sword killed.
Dain, seeing the peril before him, makes a bold move and kills the dragon to deny the Deposed the ability to capture it.
But Dragons do not like to be killed.
Dice were rolled and players were tired, so everyone died.
The final battle overviews.
Tedious epilogue:
Dain, his face afire, charged down the steps of the keep and was heroically struck down. Ares tried to rescue the remaining Grek forces in the stronghold, but for all his gifts, saving lives is not one of them.
Robbart now has a steady stream of gold to satisfy the lust of his troops but also recruit more armies to his banner.
Thanks for reading. Advice to improve my reports is always appreciated. I think all the photos are in order, but if something doesn't make sense let me know and I'll throw up an explanation.
I liked the siege tower and how busy everything was. Pretty well done battle overall, good build quality as well.
