The first battle of troll peaks was a strange one and both sides would be surprised by the battle.
Ermor, having had no real resistance to its armies, mages, and tactics to date, was unprepared for a near peer in magical prowess and was, in particular, surprised by some of the mage talent present. While eventually, it would emerge the victor - it was far closer than it might otherwise seem, and but for the presence of pliny herself, would have easily lost.
A collage of the battle:
Notes (using dead center as reference point):
At 12:00: the description, by Ermorian scouting, of the threatening Pan force the preceding month
At 1:00: An image of pliny taken during the battle. Her equipment at this point is largely in support of a caster role, augmenting her natural air, earth and nature paths. At this point, all her gems (about 12) have been spent and she’s fatigued. Ermorian battle magic is evident in the weapons of sharpness, flaming arrows, mistform and less obvious in the form of flame ward, antimagic, wind guide and mass-regeneration.
At 3:00: a typical Ermorian troop - the Hastatus. As above, ermorian battle magic is shown, additionally though, marble warriors has been cast(later in the battle), and Pan’s Iron bane. While Ermor perhaps had an edge in battle magics, Pan had a supremacy in Alteration - level 9 to Ermor’s level 7. Also note in this that the morale on this troop is broken and he is fleeing. More on that later.
at 5:00: Later in the battle, Pan’s centaur warriors emerged to threaten the outcome of the battle. These were fearsome opponents, with 18 defence, 25 protection, ethereal, and berserk. Ermor still believes that had these been in the van of the Pan forces, the result may well have been a Pan victory.
at 6:00: easily, the most influential component of this battle. The 17 sylphs so impacted the Ermor lines of battle that there is still some sense of general amazement that it was won. These 17, ethereal, flying and(due to army of lead) heavily protected troops flew to the rear of the Ermor lines and started to a rearguard detachment of troops. As losses on the ermor side started to mount, more and more troops from ermor started crowding the area, critically weakening the attack on the rest of the pan forces. At one point in the battle, it’s estimated over half the Ermor troops on the field, were either attacking, or trying to attack, these 17 nigh-invulnerable troops. What made it even more catastrophic, from the ermor perspective, is that as the auger elders summoned forth soulless to the battle, with an absence of space at the back of the Emror army, many of these units rose around the Sylphs. The attack 6 soulless had almost no chance of hitting these ethereal troops, and frustratingly only served to separate the troops capable of killing the sylphs from their targets. The image in the main body is a good portrayal of the havoc they caused. Finally, these troops were among the last to depart the field, and records indicate that the whole force wasn’t even destroyed, and that at least two fled the field rather than get killed.
at 8:00: Final tally of the battle. Surprisingly, for a battle lasting (likely) 50 turns, the number of dead is low - a testament to the defensive magics cast.
at 11:00: the surrounding location immediately following the battle.
Comments on the battle itself:
What a great and strange battle. Typically battles are straightforward, with sides clashing, one side getting an advantage and then pressing that until eventual victory. This battle ebbed and flowed, Ermorian forces would break out and look to be pushing to a decisive spot and then get defeated. Mages, when they recovered enough fatigue, would cast decisive spells (incinerate in particular, cut swaths through pan) that would almost turn the tide, only to have the opposing side cast critical spells of their own. When fatique was nearly overcoming critical elements of pan, relief was cast, bringing them back to the battle.
Finally, perhaps the strangest part of the battle from the Ermorian point of view, was when almost all of the conventional forces of Ermor were routing(see above, the routing hastatus with the red morale value), however their access off the field of battle was denied due to the logjam of Ermorian undead summons and vine-ogres, all attempting to get at the slyphs. Since many of the ermor forces retreating still had mistform up, they still had defensive value as they piled up trying to leave the field, and the remains of the pan attacking force was actively trying to hit/kill them, buying time for the Ermor defenders that were still fighting (largely the 50 morale vine ogres, and soulless) to engage and finally wear the turn timer out(and force the rout of Pan’s otherwise un-routable forces)
