I dispatch the military to the front gates, as per usual. There are 4 squads of voidspawn and 6 more squads of trolls. ((The trolls just keep coming! I keep updating this number as the battle progresses.)) There are 6 soldiers (3 axelords, 2 master lashers, and 1 hammerlord) and 1 plaugebringer. Only the soldiers have weapons, all the others are unarmed.
One drone axelord runs in far ahead of the others. It then turns around and goes back. The rest of the drone's squad is busy killing their own troll soldiers and each other. Good to know our enemy is still divided.
Two lone soldier axelords run towards the entrance. They are shot at by the first of the marksdwarves, including me. None of the melee dwarves have arrived yet. NCommander meets the first in the cage trap hallway, dropping the beer barrel he was carrying to dodge the first strike. He is winning the fight when the second solder comes up from behind the first. Saber joins the fight a few seconds later, and the two work together to defeat the soldiers. Ulborb joins in soon after. The two soldiers are fighting a losing battle, but they refuse to give up even after Saber and Ulborb remove their limbs and NCommander pulps their bodies. Uzol and Prosnorkulus join the battle as well. Finally, Saber beheads one and the other one bleeds out.
Prosnorkulus leads the charge towards the next voidspawn, a single drone. He shield-bashes the drone's skull in, but mere mortal wounds will not stop such an abomination. The group turns the voidspawn into mincemeat before it finally bleeds to death. An entire squad of voidspawn led by a plaguebringer slowly march toward the entrance.
Three drones catch a cat outside the entrance. Yuli Vasli uses the opportunity to stick a few bolts in the leading drone. The plaguebringer's squad gets into a fight with a troll squad, and the voidspawn start tearing each other apart. Some voidspawn catch a troll on the iron road and begin to tear it apart, injecting venom over and over. Yuli and I use this opportunity to shoot the voidspawn full of holes. Yuli scores the final hit, shooting the troll in the head. I'm out of bolts, so I'm going to go pick some up now. The voidspawn that were killing the troll are now killing each other, and Yuli is still shooting. A thrall chases a troll down the iron road. When it gets close enough, the military charges. They push the troll and thrall up against the weapon traps, which beat the two enemies to a pulp.
Then they go after another lone troll which has come down the iron road. NCommander says he feels dizzy - I hope I haven't exposed the entire military to the transforming taint. The military retreats after killing the lone troll, but Scaliper, Terry, Chaos Maker, and Ast are cornered by the last soldier axelord! Terry disarms the soldier and the rest make short work of it. But a drone sneaks up behind Terry and breaks his shoulder, causing him to drop his shield and pass out! It's too late for him, but I order the military to take care of the drone. Then the drone breaks Chaos Maker's shoulder, making him drop his hammer! He's bravely staying concious, fighting off the pain. And it seems the soldier is not dead yet, having torn Scaliper's foot open.
Chaos Maker loses his fight with the pain and has his skull caved in by the drone. Ast is bitten in the arm by the drone, and venom injected into his blood. Prosorkulus is carving up the soldier. Scaliper is caught between another voidspawn drone and a troll woodcutter. Ast is getting dizzy and his other arm is broken. Terry is saved, Ulborb kills the voidspawn closest to him and the military surrounds him. Ast loses a hand but the dwarves surround him, killing the drone. He bleeds to death soon after. Scaliper's hand is ripped off, taint injected into his blood. He passes out from the pain of his wounds and is struck down.
NCommander flies into a rage and smashes the troll woodcutter's head in. He and Ulborb beat the shit out of the soldier that killed Scaliper while the other dwarves engage the other soldier. Dortimus and Wolfkit spot a troll clerk headed towards the entrance. Wolfkit severs its spine with a blow and he, Dortimus, and the archers kill it. Mafol the Beastslayer and Imush the Titanslayer kill both soldiers. Mafol earns a title, "Korokab" or "The Cavernous Breaker". A surprisingly accurate title. Then a troll weaponsmith is chased around the corner by a wounded drone. The troll is killed by Microblighted. Meanwhile, Thorkild carries an unconscious Terry away from the battlefield. I thought he would be the only one to die, but he was the only one to live. The drone is met by Krosan and Prosnorkulus. The drone decides it's a good idea to charge into the middle of the military, and is reduced to bite-sized chunks. The immediate threat passed, the military returns to the front gates.
Most of the voidspawn are dead. Only a handful remain, all seriously wounded. All the trolls are dead, except for a single uninjured weaponsmith. Half the remaining voidspawn shamble towards the gates, to be met by a charge led by NCommander and one of Terry's cats. The first, a drone, is torn apart while the rest of the assault goes of chasing the cat. After a while, the voidspawn catch the cat and start heading for the entrance. The first one is a thrall, dragging itself along with its arms because of a broken leg. Xaren and I put a few bolts in it as it crawls forward. It is chopped to pieces by the military. Then they charge the next voidspawn, a thrall with no operable limbs. Then they kill a mostly intact drone that just finished killing the troll on the iron road. The drone tears up Dortimus's foot before dying. It also injected taint through her eyelid and tongue. It ripped off her tongue too.
There are only three voidspawn left: two drones locked in combat and one thrall just standing by the corpses of his squad and a troll squad. One of the drones kills the other, so I tell the military to hunt down the survivors. Then, Dortimus transforms into a thrall! Peregarr and Krosan, who were nearby, kill her. Ulborb and NCommander kill the drone then the drone. The siege is broken.
CASUALTIES:
Chaos Maker
Ast the Swordsdwarf
Scaliper
Dortimus
WOUNDED:
Terry
Obok the Macedwarf
This battle took about 4 hours to play. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, advancing the battle frame by frame. I loved every minute of it.