Second HOTT Battle

I had my second HOTT battle today - much more ambitious; a clash of three commands on each side;
that's the situation on set up - woodland realm (2 commands) and vikings defending their stronghold from beastmen, orcses and undead. This time there were flyers and the dragons did both get on the field.

on their very first throw, the vikings got a 6 and immediately spent it on summoning their fire dragon.

This was not the last of their luck this day.
There was then some advancing by both sides;

The fire dragon led forward the valkyries on the right flank, looking to massacre their orc opponents;

In the centre, the beastmen shaman tried to magically repulse the woodland treekin, but heard his spell fizzle and splodge to nothing.
On the left flank, the centaur nobles advanced to strategically outflank the undead

Whilst in the centre left, the undead airboats and flyer took on the woodland eagles, with their volunteer viking airboat. The combat was inconclusive and raged all day.

At this point, the pesky beastmen shaman tried and succeeded in ensorcelling the viking heroes;

Whilst in the centre, the woodland archers held back the massed beastmen warbands and the giantaur knights;

On the right, the valkyries and dragon started to rip up the goblin hordes;

The strategic situation looked bad for the bad guys;

Until they finally had some more luck and summoned their own (citadel drake) dragon;

The fire dragon countered by swooping on the goblin mage general, who got gobbled up immediately; Next bound this meant the goblins had to score at least 3 to avoid demoralisation;

This is the scene in the centre at the same time. The woodland elf archers shot up the beastmen badly, but they still came on. The treekin still stood tall in the line. The undead hordes still plodded on, without getting into the fight and the woodland heroes, with clerics beside them (instrumental in foiling the goblin and beastmen shamans), are ready to prop up the line if it falters. So, back to the goblins and their first pip throw following the death of their general;

Yep, a one. command demoralised; any element not held in place or moved flees the field. One point holds one element. They held the dragon, the rest fled.

In desperation, the beastmen chief, also the bad guys' commander in chief, charged the treekin behemoths, flanked by his giantaur knights and what was left of the beastmen warbands;

The treekin recoiled the huge minotaur warlords and as they turned, they saw the fire dragon land and engage them - oh dear. This was a considerable risk for the dragon, as if beaten he would be destroyed by the heroic minotaur lords. He forced them to recoil, so they turned once again, sandwiched and trapped bewtween the treekin and the dragon;

The red dragon attempted to redeem the disastrous situation on the bad guys' left by picking on the easy target of the isolated remaining valkyrie riders;

Bad luck strikes again - just look at those dice rolls! The astonishingly lucky and brave valkyries had just killed orc hordes and now turned a dragon in flight on their own. This was the last straw - had the dragon won and lived, he could have caused havoc among the vikings. Now there was nothing to oppose the vikings, who also added their newly desorcelled hero back to their ranks.

Good riddance;

This is the scene at the end of the battle, when the remaining beastmen ran off and the undead, whose hordes and bone giant had not even been engaged, simply shuffled around and marched back where they had come from, in a sort of uncomplaining oblivion. Any further turns would simply have seen futher defeats for the bad guys; At least this way, those left could live ( or unlive) to fight another day.
Next time perhaps the bad guys will be more lucky.