Second Battle of Hrak

The pace of the Baemiran artillery fire had grown frantic at this point. Huge wisps of smoke carried over the battlefield from the massive powder discharge as thousands of muskets joined the fray. With every step they took, the Ironskull Horde was taking casualties, leaving a trail of dead and wounded in their march on the Baemiran trenches. Yet the Ironskull Horde had been through this same barrage at the Battle of Ironstalk Plains, they marched on then as they did now, even as cannon blasts tore through their ranks and left Orc's struggling to fill holes in the line.

The center under Yoran Toothbreaker were taking the worst of the barrage. It was here that the Orc's were facing two thousand entrenched musketeers and the heavy caliber cannons that were proving true thorns in the side of  Toothbreaker. They were proving to be the only piece of heavy artillery that was capable of felling one of Toothbreaker's war beasts. The War Chief had left over a dozen of the animals dead in the winter snow, the huge moving islands of flesh and bone crushing dozens of Orc's as they fell into the packed formations below.

Yet General Prurcis knew that he was in an increasingly precarious position. His conscripted roundshiers would be no match for the Orc's in hand to hand combat, when the Orc's began their charge, the chess master moved to sacrifice one of his pawns. The conscripted infantryman charged out of their protective trenches, many of them crumbling as they were slammed by an Ironskull longbow volley, but whipped on by their officers and under the threat of their own guns, the levies charged. The slaughter was complete as the Orc line tore through the human infantryman like a knife through hot butter. Yet the maneuver was never meant to stop the Orc's, the artillerymen had swiftly changed their cannons ammunition type from roundshot to canister. Deadly cannon blasts tore both through human and orc ranks, while the muskets fired indiscriminately into friend and foe alike.

The heat generated by the artillery volley was enough that one of Prurcis' cannon batteries exploded, killing not only the crew but cooking off the ammunition and annihilating a second battery that had been sitting too close to it in the trenches. The pressure and firepower that the Baemiran's were able to muster at the point of attack did the damage that it intended too but at a heavy price in human lives, repulsing the first Ironskull wave and left the CENTER in a state of confusion and many were falling back amidst the carnage.

On the right flank, it was a similar story. Seeing the success of General Prurcis' tactics, King Rifro unleashed his own conscripts to hold the enemy at bay, with an added twist. In an effort to avoid the same carnage, the nimble horse artillery batteries emerged from their entrenchments in an effort to bring their cannons to hit the Orc's in the flank. The tactic worked for awhile at least, the infantry were supported and the Orc's made little headway and took heavy casualties. But King Rifro's decision to save lives came with consequences as Ironskull warg cavalry pounced on his exposed artillery positions that had emerged from cover without any infantry support. The King's lack of military experience would come to haunt him as his cannons were routed in short order, war beasts leading the way as they pounded the infantry into bloody pulp. Within a matter of moments, the Orc's had smashed their way through the thin line of resistance and took the fight to the trench. For the moment, the Baemiran's were holding but the Ironskull were causing heavy casualties.

On the left flank, it was a completely different situation. The Baemiran's lacked any sort of cannons on that side of the line, instead relying on their muskets to do the job of holding the enemy at bay. It was easily the weakest section of the line and the war mastodons that were attached to the Ironskull force had no issue shrugging off the pesky musket balls as if they were mere insects. Out of the trenches the Baemiran's came again, this time lead by the feared Baemiran warrior Cinde. The one decisive element that came out of the engagement on the left flank was the rumor that Chief Yurik Bladesplitter had been killed. Although later proven false (the War Chief had been wounded by a musket volley and thrown from his mastodon), the rumor was spreading like wildfire. The sustained assault by the Horde that had been so close to crushing the Baemiran flanks was now in doubt. Conflicting orders and queries for information by the various commanders meant that the attack now slowed to a crawl, giving the Baemiran's vital time to reform their battered and bloodied lines.

NOTES (Known to all)
-- The Ironskull assault on the CENTER has been repulsed and Orc troops have begun to withdraw under conflicting orders and information.

-- There are rumors that General Yurik Bladesplitter has been killed causing GREAT MORALE damage to Ironskull forces.