The three shrines had stood for ages, a bastion of peace that civilized races all held as neutral ground. Elves, men, halfings, snakemen and even the tribal wolfen sent young acolytes to train and worship there, even in times of war between them.

The first word of trouble arrived by a haggard refugee (as it often does), a halfling who stumbled into the temple grounds late at night. He was the sole survivor of a Halfling village a half a day away, which had been destroyed by an unholy alliance of undead and demons. He survived only by the fortune of having fallen unconscious the night before outside of town, by his still in a cave. Awakened by the horrible shrieking deaths of his neighbors, he snuck out into forest while the village was razed. He ran all through the day, stopping only to gather sustenance from wild nuts and berries. And mushrooms. And some wild radishes. And some slightly underripe apples. And some pipeweed that he always kept with him. Oh, and the leftover moonshine from last night, of course.

Runners were sent to the nearby Elven and Halfling towns. Demons and Undead roam the countryside! Gather your forces at the shrines, for tomorrow the abominations will be hunted and destroyed! Every Sylvan and High Elf warrior volunteered for battle, as their hatred of these foes burned deep and hot. Troops had to be conscripted to remain behind to guard the towns. The Halflings sought revenge for the deaths of their kinsmen, and called upon their Centaur allies. The Centaurs were hosting a Competition with Minotaurs from a nearby village, and both thought it sounded like a wonderful opportunity to hit things.

By nightfall, a mighty host had been gathered. Plans were made to attack the razed village the next day. Temple priests made supplications to their gods through the night, praying for swift victory.

But as dawn broke, scouts came flying in from the forest. The horde was swiftly approaching the shrines themselves! The priests sheepishly admitted that maybe they could have been more specific in their prayers. Quickly a battleline was formed - Sylvan Elves on the left, Halflings in the center, and High Elves on the right. There was no more time for planning, as the largest force of darkness seen in a generation emerged from the forest.

"You didn't say there were so many", said the High Elf general to the Halfling refugee.

"What, I was supposed to stop and count?"

The game was fought on a 10' wide by 6' deep area. An additional foot was left on the sides for storing stuff, though by the end of the game the number of casualties were so great that they spilled into the edges of the playing area.

This is an exceptionally large game, probably the largest AoA game that has been played. A normal army would be 4000-6000 points, so 30,000 per side is something special. We pre-planned this a week in advance, so the terrain picked out and ready to plop down, and everyone would have their forces purchased and ready to go. It almost worked - one player was unable to make it, so the Undead and Demons quickly made up the extra 10,000 points.

Undead:

Micah made a cavalry heavy army - three units of regular skeletal knights, and one with spears led by a pair of Greater Reapers on Nightmares (an objective unit). He also fielded a unit of 72 skeletons, deployed in a deep, 5 file RaF formation. There were 5 skeletal giants, 45 archers, 4 spell casters (all Death Magic), an elder Dracolich, some Vampires, and a unit of skeletal pike to guard a terrain objective. Fell Vultures ran in two flocks, guarding his Dracolich and Vampire Lord.

He also bought a unit of Infiltrating Ghosts (a unit of his own he made a few years ago), but he forgot about them and they never saw the table.

Demons:

Brett used my (Thane's) demons, and built a force using nearly all of my troops plus a few extras. He used his flying wolves as Avara Demons, and a good number of great wolves as two packs Hell Hounds. There were two enormous units of 50 Imps, two 20 man Demon Knight Cavalry units, a large unit of Fire Demons, plus units of howlers, ice demons and chain demons. He ran 6 units of spell casting cacodemons + 2 Baron body guards, and two elder dragons. Scary.

He did not buy leaders for any of the demon units, which is not unusual for demons.

Sylvan Elves:

This was originally Brett's army. I built it very missile heavy for this game, though I was concerned about the missile immune undead and the fearless demons making my shots ineffective. I vowed to set up wherever the demons were, and to hold my archers in reserve until I could place them where they had targets.

It had two units of regular archers, each with a life mage to cast Bless on turn 3. A unit of scouts with bows and a second unit of regular scouts to guard them were bought as infiltrators (which I ended up largely squandering with a bad placement). A unit of horse Archers with a Wizard and a unit of 4 multiballista were missile units 4 and 5. Two small light cavalry with lance units each had a lord riding a unicorn. Units of Tree Spirits, Feral Elves and Owlbears rounded out the list. Two groups of three Air Elementals, plus a pair of oriental dragons, were bought to counter any fliers the enemy brought. The Oriental Dragons were given to the Halfling command to help hold the center.

Halflings (sorry, the picture didn't turn out):

Henry brought two huge units of centaur cavalry, a massive unit of 60 halfling spearmen, and a unit of four great slings with 50 crewmen. This is a crazy trick Henry does from time to time, which makes the sling unit an excellent melee unit when people get tired of being hit with great slings. He also had a unit of 16 minotaurs who are buddies of the centaurs. Henry doesn't have the ridiculously oversized armies the rest of us have, so he was given command of extra troops from the silvan and high elves in the center. Henry selected the his spear unit as an objective, and vowed to protect the temple courtyard from desecration.

High Elves:

Rob brought a lot of cavalry, and transferred one unit of noble cavalry to the Sylvan Elves. He had two units of chariots, a unit of acolytes (eldritch is great against undead and demons alike), a unit of bows, a big unit of unicorns, two units of sunblades (also great against demons), a big unit of giant eagles to counter fliers, and a unit of swordsmen and pikemen.

Each side had roughly 600 troops. These were all fairly expensive armies for troop purchases, so the numbers were much lower than they could have been. Both sides seemed to pretty well max out their elite points as well, with 11 and 12 spell casters on each side, 5 dragons in the game, and some artillery on the good side.

The game was played to 4 out of 6 objectives. The two temples in the center of the board were made common objectives. Evil had to capture the courtyard in front of the third temple (where statues of the gods awaited defiling), the two forests flanking the large temple, and the large unit of halfling spearmen. Good had to capture a forest on a hill behind the undead lines, and destroy the units of skeletal knights with lances, demon knight infantry, and fire demons.

The Demons set up heavily on the near flank, grossly outnumbering the sylvan elves across the table. The undead set up across from the high elves on the far flank. A massive cavalry battle was shaping up there. The halflings held the center, vowing to protect the temple courtyard. They faced off against a mix of demons and undead, though the center of the evil line was generally weak. The Good side thought this was a weakness to exploit, and loaded up the light cavalry and centaurs with a unit of high elf noble cavalry in the near center, hoping to drive a wedge into the lines and then turn to clean up one side or the other. The undead strengthened that part of their line with their chariots, while the demons placed dragons and avara demons to help hold the center.

See close-ups of the Temples

On to the First Turn

Second Turn

Third Turn

Fourth Turn

Fifth Turn