That Bloody Dragon: Orcs, Elves, and a Near-Miss in The Old World
Battle report time
Sometimes a battle report writes itself.
Stas summed this one up in the most honest way possible: “That bloody dragon.” And honestly, that already tells you a lot about how the game went.
This was one of those games that ends in a loss, but somehow leaves you even more in love with the system. Stas lost — but only just. It was close, dramatic, and full of exactly the kind of moments we want from Warhammer: The Old World.
The big moments
The headline monster may have been the dragon, but the real green hero of the day was Wilini’s wyvern.
It absolutely went to work, tearing through two full elf units and somehow surviving until the end of the game on a single wound. That is peak Warhammer energy right there: a huge beast covered in glory, blood, and probably bad decisions, hanging on by the tiniest margin.
On another flank, Stas’s orc boar riders found themselves facing opponents worthy of them: Elven heavy cavalry, the Dragon Princes.
That clash sounded amazing on paper.
In practice? The Dragon Princes completely smashed them.
And when things started going wrong, they really started going wrong. By the end of the game, even the Black Orcs were fleeing — which is exactly the sort of sentence that tells you the battlefield had become absolute chaos.
Why we love this game
There is something very special about a battle where your army gets battered, key units break, terrifying monsters dominate the table, and yet the final feeling is still: we love this game.
That was very much the vibe here.
It was a defeat, sure, but not a miserable one. It was the good kind — the kind where a few dice, one more wound, one better combat, or one less bloody dragon might have changed everything.
Those are the games we remember.
Final thoughts
So: Stas took the loss, but only narrowly. Wilini’s wyvern became a legend. The boar boyz met their match in the Dragon Princes. The Black Orcs ran. The dragon was, apparently, horrible.
Perfect.
This is exactly why we keep coming back to The Old World.
A close loss, a heroic monster, elite cavalry doing elite cavalry things, and just enough disaster to make the whole story memorable.
More of this, please.