Upon a nice wee island with plenty of air cover Animar bunkered down. Progenitus was soon of course to come to join in at the island resort - but fortunately for Animar the Coalition moved mostly as a single large group, so he had plenty of time to further reinforce his position. It didn’t help that Progenitus did this through flight, which was not conductive to freshness or speed of his units given the weather system.
The attack was quick to follow once Animar had been discovered of course. From above came a trumpet blast, followed by descending dragon breath to scorch the upper reaches. These dragons, already having difficulty in the high winds and constant rain, were met in return with mouths full of swords and squalls. This proved enough to disrupt their attack entirely, then when putrefaxes were tossed upward, Progenitus’ attempts to keep his dragons outside of plague reach proved futile. Soon enough, the mix of weather and attack saw the mighty beasts stumbling, with the rest of the Coalition following.
But there is one trouble with being mostly concealed, and that is reduced line of sight. Those outside were distracted with the easy enemies above, and so Animar didn’t spot maligni slinking their way over. Over the beaches they were quick to swarm into exposed Phyrexian flanks and shelters; filling their hidey holes with lightning and fire. Overwhelmed with agony and destruction, this gave sufficient room for the rest of the Coalition to recover and move in. The air raid shelters soon became death traps instead.
Towards the leonin city the triplets flew. As they approached, the sound of crashing beams echoed across the plains as the aerial supply landing pads were collapsed. This probably seemed a good idea at the time, but it left Jin-Gitaxias now trapped in the city with blocked entrances and the holy shrine part which kept leonin sufficiently cowed inaccessible to them. It also annoyed the locals quite a bit. So, when the Coalition arrived at Taj-Nar proper, they began by occupying the temple, and advancing from there.
Once captured, the triplets had the option of either a long hard dig through the upper reaches, or a less hard dig at the towers. Unwilling for the potentially deadly passages below, and left entirely to their own devices, the upper route was chosen. It proved just as long and difficult as expected, and Jin-Gitaxis could easily arrange his troops to open fire when the Coalition broke through. But of course, no rush to have it completed. Throughout it all, Phyrexia had been suffering a steady drain of morale. While isolated, mixes of godheads, domini, and lots of noise were used to disrupt and irritate those within. Not an issue in and of itself, but it proved a constant reminder that they were facing a more numerous and powerful force. The occasional pesterings of unhappy cat people didn't help much either.
It was three days later when the time came. But at last, a breach was made. Arrows were let loose from the city streets into the gaps. In return, sphinxes burst through to rapidly close the distance - complete with pikes strapped to their backs to form a decent impression of a phalanx. Most Phyrexians attempted to pull back to safer ground to fire anew, but with a hasty charge, their rear was overrun. Those retreating from death behind, soon decided it safer to not stop and so it become a retreat proper.
Righty-o, if things weren’t messy enough here! The Vedalken will never invite either of you back!
Arcades quickly assembled his forces and made for the Seat. As soon as his units got within range, the Kirin started tossing naturalises about everywhere - which fortunately for him doesn’t impact organic matter. Erratic fun resulted as plant growth and rust rapidly took anything from Coalition units to what remained of the structure. Which suited nicely, as Arcades wanted the bridges destroyed anyway, and anything to make it easier would be a bonus.
Once the spells stopped, there was little from the Seat to prevent the Coalition finishing the job of bridge fall downering. In a few cases the spell seemed to go rampant and linger, but soon enough all connecting bridges were severed. As a precautionary measure, Arcades made sure that any Phyrexian that poked their head out to have a look got a face full of arrows - which quite successfully prevented full knowledge of what he was up to.
Once the rubbling of falling bridges stopped silence descended. Suddenly a phalanx of Avengers turned up on the doorstep of the Seat. Pushing forward, they came up against an opposing force of creepers and grimblades. To start with, they opened the combat with magic - carefully directed disfigures and bolts erupted randomly the length of the stairwell, even blades rained from the ceiling. Each force found itself disrupted, but with a little inherent boost, the avengers proved quicker to reform and advance. However, this left them In tight confines and on average weaker than their foes. While the phalanx had the fortune of the higher ground, there was the disruption of the stairs, but all the same, the only way to get anywhere was through the opponent. In the first few moments, the Coalition succeeded in making an opening, but as the ground upon which they stood filled with bodies, the integrity of the formation began to fail. It was just want the zombies needed to get within reach on mass.
Pushing forward, Phyrexia broke Arcades’ formation, the artifacts were simply denied the chance to regain their range. Driven backward, and with nowhere to go, avengers tumbled into the waters below the Seat. Following them out came Kathari, they swarmed the aerial units around the entrance, but for the most part could not repeat the success of their grounded fellows. All the same, the damages caused to Arcades’ avengers ensured that a legitimately threatening avenger phalanx would not be forthcoming again without extensive repairs.
The Coalition dominated zombies went straight into the fight, rushing the Phyrexian position with untiring undeadedness. The Patron of the Moon, fearing his potential death, desperately tried to make three things similar to size and shape to himself, then fled - not the easiest task gvien the available resources. The Phyrexian forces split into five groups, four scattering, with a final rear guard to delay their enemies.
As the Coalition reached their foes, the shear size and terror of the undead mass was more than enough to both engage the rear guard, and chase after fleeing foes. While Grimgrin had hoped to box in his opponents, they were now so spread it was impossible. On a wing and a blasphemy, he surged after the one with the giant flying orange-pink thing with floating blue glowy stuff, leaving those crushing the rear guard to pursue the less convincing versions later.
For many days, the drakes stayed ahead, but as creatures of flesh and blood, coated in oil and afraid, tiring comes quick. Yet zombies are relentless and unswerving, even if some are somewhat slower than others. The Patron of the Moon pressed his soldiers on ever harder, each morning showing the dark cloud of his pursuers growing ever nearer. But if he could last just one more day, safety could be found upon the shores of Obruoexitium.
Land rose upon the horizon, and the Patron’s hope soared. Mere hours would see survival, but it was not to be. Surging up the flanks came skyknights, while above soared stitched drakes. A new rain of psychopaths fell upon the fleeing Phyrexians, and the final hope of safety cut off by a wall of zombies. Tired and demoralised, Phyrexian drakes fell from the skies. For a time, the waters proved safe, but soon enough unrelenting hordes of zombies filled even those. The Patron was left alone, surrounded by many grim grins, and slowly but surely driven downwards in the grasping claws of the ravenous dead.
Bladewing thought he’d be clever and cast a Foresee to discover his opponents’ flanks. He discovered that the Lord of Tresserhorn was advancing in a series of giant rings surrounded by a loose net-like sphere of mages. Using this information, the phoenixes were sent onward, attempting to sweep around to attack the perceived weakest point of the Coalition lines - even without being the clearest, in the heat of the day the burning phoenxies had the advantage.
It was soon enough that the two armies moved into sight range. Phyrexians barrelled forward, barely granting Coalition mages enough time to retreat to the main formation. With the approaching Phyrexian foes, from out of the Coalition centre dropped skyknights, rushing to attack the oncoming enemy in turn. yet Coalition weapons turned to dust and in a burst of flame, the phoenixes grew in size and easily smashed through the feeble defence the skyknights could muster. Meanwhile with the main formation however, the rings separated like a Russian doll, confining the phoenixes within a funnel. Lightning and arrows erupted into Phyrexian forces. Reeling from the blow, the Coalition took the opportunity to charge inward and a good ol’ chaotic mess resulted. This time, going to the one who better utilised the attack to derive a sustained advantage.
One of those nice simple battles really. Kamahl advanced with his forces tightly packed to maximise the amount of damage they could focus within a small area. Spiders towered over the ground forces, using legs like giant ranged pins, while dragons took the close air. Somewhat unwisely, Basandra was gunning on a charge herself to get her opponent on the back foot. This ended up little more than a countercharge against bigger and tougher focused foes who brought everything to bear at once. In the initial charge, Phyrexia got squished, then in the resulting melee, they continued to get squished achieving little apparent impact.
Relying upon the toxicity of the lake to protect her, Drana adapted her mages to create air bubbles to conceal her army within the contaminated liquid - there was of course rather a lot of displacement which could have been a bigger problem if the stuff wasn’t naturally drawn back to the lake. Anyway, it turns out that Kuro has a bad memory, and charged as quick as he could directly into the lake instead of spending time trying to find her elsewhere.
Fortunately for the Coalition, they still had plenty of time for their preparations, so all was ready when pike tips breached the outer edges of air bubble. From below the advancing foes erupted demigods, while a quick volley of bolts tore into the fore, followed by dragons. The air bubble which contained the foremost units rapidly collapsed. For a moment confusion reigned. Phyrexia began to retreat from the waters, and the Coalition, bolstered by their success, followed. Yet above the water’s surface, it soon became apparent that only the vanguard had braved the lake. The remainder were quick to enclose the pursuing Coalition and crush them. Then making the most of their long polearms, spent the rest of the week ‘testing the depth’ of the lake and seeing where the blood rose.
Keiga moved forward, behind a wall of freezing air, in this way she hoped to flash freeze the insects and hamper the large Phyrexian mammals. A problem arose in that Ulasht adopted a very spread formation, making the cold air have a more limited impact than desired - they also had dragon engines from the Caverns of Koilos in the centre to take the brunt of it (although true machines dislike rapid cooling too). The result being, that the Phyrexian centre was sluggish, but many escaped the worst of the directed attack. All the same, Keiga followed through, attacking the centre, and soon enough these dragons engines began to retreat.
Yet as the dragon engines pulled out in a feint, geists, concealed as mists in the cold air, had moved amongst their formations. The passage to the rear was no longer safe; to make matters worse, charging knights supported air elementals held the fore while blizzard elementals charged downwards. Ulasht’s hopes to draw his enemy inward with were dashed, but that did not mean he couldn’t flank them all the same. Moving in from the sides, Ulasht drew his forces together and managed to make a pretty good dent, but by this time his centre had crumbled in truth. Then with Phyrexia's flagging morale and chilly units, Keiga had merely to hold one side in place while she dealt with the other.
A Great Lord ~1~ Ulasht, the Hate Seed 4650 Mycosynth Fiend (2/2) 1900 Brutalizer Exarch (3/3) 1200 Phyrexian Swarmlord (4/4) 825 Thundering Tanadon (5/4)
Tide Star ~1~ Keiga, the Tide Star 4900 Vodalian Knights (2/2) 2375 Battleground Geist (3/3) 1375 Air Elemental (4/4) 950 Blizzard Elemental (5/5)
Live loud, burn proud! Random hum
The Great Lord's Laundry Service! Found in an unknown corner of the Hero's Club. Free drycleaning and laundry, only $1.95!
As day dawned upon the second day, Vorinclex had reached the Sepulchre where Bruna was lurking. In the time available she had reinforced the entranceway with barricades and effectively created bunkers for her ranged units. Trusting to his big greenness however, Vorinclex took no notice of his foes' defences. Phyrexianised beasts rushed the barricades, striving to smash and tear their way through. Countless fell from the volleys of arrows that met them. But Vorinclex had worked his units into a frenzy, and it was only a matter of time before they broke through.
Through the new gap poured Phyrexia. Coalition units drew ranks and switched to melee weapons to withstand the assault. Unfortunately for Vorinclex, the initial cost of breaking through the barricades had proved too great, and within the tight confines his larger units had trouble against the smaller and more numerous Coalition. But Vorinclex would fight on! The commander drove his beasts forward relentlessly, and slowly but surely, he made headway.
In what would prove a fatal flaw, Vorinclex had neglected to scout properly. As such, he was taken completely by surprise when a swarm of sturmgeists slammed into his rear. The dead bodies piled up, and panic set in. In the small spaces, the beasts ran amok, scattering … mostly friend it turned out. In time, even these quietened in death. Almost the entire force was slaughtered, a mere handful of tanadons managing to flee. Amongst the havoc, Vorinclex himself was crushed against the walls. Bruna found him weakened and bleeding, unable to move. Despite his failure, he had fought well, and she gave him a death benefiting a warrior.
