This battle was the pivotal point in the now 60 years long Orc Wars. In a huge naval showdown, forces of the allied side fought enormous orcish fleets quite near to the city of Trangir, in the southwestern Material Plane.

The Contestants

On the allied side, a hundred powerful Dwarven warships, three hundred sleek metal-wood Andan vessels, and a hundred fifty ships from the Cuprien Empire and Archea, managed to defeat orcish ships.

A dark fleet, thousands strong, made mainly of dark oaks from the Ogre-Orc Isles and Intralu, stood under the command of three orcish generals. Grubb-Urg'Ma, a powerful non-Bonebreaker clan high elf-orc interbreed, wisely led a hundred small but powerful ships which were equipped in steam-and-tension bow mechanisms. Another minor general had the name of Frazz-Uruk, a brutish Bonebreaker who was born from an incubus-orc breeding. He controlled a hundred large and heavily armored warships, the fleet's central force. Hundreds of other vessels were under the control of the purebred Bonebreaker Lamik-Lai'Uruk, supposedly blood-related to Lamik himself. Their warlord didn't attend the battle, because he couldn't swim. The entirety of orcish ships was supposedly under central command of Lamik-Lai, but that didn't exactly work as planned.

The Battle

During the fight, both sides sufffered from disorganization and failures in chains of command, although both the Trensandorian and Dwarven fleets functioned smoothly within their own ranks.

Opening Moves

First troop positioning started the afternoon before. Enormous orcish fleets had been accumulating over the past months, especially around Twinisle and to the south, probably with the intention of sailing against Luche. Some parts of the fleet, especially Frazz-Uruk's warships, had been skirmishing quite successfully with dragons but also weakening themselves in that process.

Dwarven troops had been massing up in northern Luche's dwarven bases. Vessels, mainly from the remaining Colonial and Northern fleets, had been brought to Luche fortress ports over the past weeks, removing almost all naval power from the Kaplagen colonies in Waterlond. The dwarves threw the entirety of their forces into this, including their King Dain Fireforge and almost all his royal valkyries. How they discovered the entire fate of the Orc Wars rested in this battle is not known, but they definitely did.

Serveral Trensandorian naval divisions had gone south from Bamea to keep an eye on orcish ships. However, they were mainly sleek well-armored but small and mobile ships not too adapted to battle. Shortly before orcish onslaught, Dwarven messengers managed to convince them to reposition southeast of Dragonloss and just behind the orcish ships of Frazz-Uruk, who was the only fleet the Coalition currently had eyes on.

Human fleets weren't too convinced in the importance of this battle, in contrast to the many pleas of dwarven messages, and therefore only supplied a hundred second-rate ships under no really unified leadership, keeping most of their fleet in Conelu and Silur. The vessels they sent were guided into position just west of Dragonloss (hardly suffering from draconic attacks, thanks to the orcs having committed the mistake of attacking them previously).

Early Skirmishes

First battles started shortly after midnight, to the south of Dragonloss. Human fleets were still moored far to the north on the northwestern coasts of Dragonloss. Only smaller dwarven craft had gone this far to scout on Frazz-Uruk's ships, but they hardly could help the Trensandors.

In the middle of the night, sixty Trensandor craft (30 of them only light sailing ships carrying 6 hobgoblins each, usually used for reconnaissance) silently approached the fleet of a hundred and ten armored warships of Frazz-Uruk which were leaving Dragonloss shores to join the main force to the south, near Ancetartic. The orcs, partying from their successful shooting down of two dozen dragons, were not keeping much lookout.

As a distraction, the twenty steam-powered medium ships cruised by before the advancing fleet, firing some cannon barrages at the leading ships. The thirty light sailing ships spread out among the last six warships, sneaking aboard to pirate and sink them. Most attack groups succeeding, often beating the ships thirty to hundred or more, sinking four three-deck ships before the others, heading drunkenly straight ahead after the faster steam ships. Wind was mediocrely strong (and would drop off even more in the day), meaning the Andans could easily stay ahead and sink two more orcish ships, the orcs sinking one and damaging three through a combination of ballistas and cannons.

An hour later, the Trensandorian ships were intercepted by a dwarven steam speedboat, reporting that they were heading straight into the main body of orcish forces. Following the dwarves, the leading goblinoid ships veered off westwards towards the main dwarven fleet. Through fireworks, they signaled westwards retreat to the small boats in the back of Frazz-Uruk's ships. An hour later, guided by dwarven boats, they joined the main body of ships in the west near Luche. Human ships joined them at 6 o'clock in the morning, resulting in united forces on both sides except for some forty Trensandorian vessels northeast of the whole action, just north of San Morin, which were rushing full speed southwestwards.

First Encounter

The orcish fleet formed an elongated 10 kilometer long tube paralleling Ancetartic a hundred kilometers northwards. Its northern flank had a tight group towards the front consisting of Frazz-Uruk's warships, the light ships of Grubb-Urg'Ma following the coast of Ancetartic in the back of the fleet. The central orcish fleet was a mingle-mangle of ships more or less following their general Lamik-Lai'Uruk. The general was in a large four-deck three-mast ship adorned with a multitude of red banners, so that orcish ships would know whom to follow. Its protection was minimal, however, with three pirated Colupanian frigates around it in a triangle formation.

This huge orcish fleet hit upon dwarven vessels around 6:30 in the morning. A row of warships, including powerful stormvessels, floated right in the path of the main fleet. Behind them was the human fleet. To the south, hiding in a bay in Ancetartic, were sixty Andan vessels which were hoping to flank and take by surprise some important strategic orcish ship. A powerful group of frigates and dreadnoughts, the main dwarven force with its king, was located 3 kilometers north of the main allied force. Fifty kilometers behind all this, fifty trensandorian ships were coming up 50 km north of Ancetartic. The odds, even after the raiding on Frazz-Uruk's warships, were still terribly stacked on the orcish side.

The first encounter between orcish main fleet and allied main fleet wasn't extremely spectacular. 150 meters away from each other, dwarven ships started firing barricades at advancing orcish ships which hardly had any surface to fire back. Their powerful hand-held bows still did a fair bit of damage on the decks. Four orc ships were sunk and many more damaged before the first forces met. Some orcish vessels started veering so as to use the multitude of weaponry they were equipped with, while most just sailed on straight into the allied fleet, firing occasional heavy shots but relying mainly on bows. A group of three dwarven dreadnoughts headed by major Track Brawnanvil saw this and reacted very positively for the allied troops. Originally responsible for the protection of two human flagships in the back, they steamed full speed ahead towards the penetrating orc forces, a kilometer away.

It was 7 o' clock by now, and the wind was seriously dropping. Within a few minutes, the steam-powered dwarven ships crossed the allied main fleet to join the chaos of ship-to-ship fighting on the front line. Using their mobile gunpowder artillery posts, such as machine gun turrets and small-calibre cannons, they could mow down the weakly-armored orcish ships. Orc bowmen, although vested with incredibly powerful bows thanks to their strength, did not have enough power to pierce dwarven field plate, resulting in the dreadnoughts being unsinkable by the lighter orc ships trying to overwhelm by numbers. This first encounter sunk 13 dwarven ships and at least two dozen orcish ones, if not three.

Meanwhile, the dwarven powerful ships a bit to the north had not been idle. Called royal fleet, their steam-powered boats chugged along merrily towards a point shortly behind the front of the two main fleets. Their frigates, much slower in the dropping wind (which was blowing westwards), instead fell back to barraging the center of the orcish fleet from 2 kilometers distance. This would result in widespread confusion among the enemy's main fleet, causing a rout in some ships which would spread them out, resulting in them being much easier to pick off later.

The dreadnoughts went full-on towards the orcish main fleet spearhead, hitting it a kilometer down the front and ploughing into the ships, again easily mowing down the lighter orcish ships. However, fire from two of the frigates protecting Lamik-Lai's flagship managed laying down such heavy fire that the small dreadnought did not dare approaching too far, since these few ships were essential to the survival of the Dwarven Empire. This meant they were able to sink ships on orcish main fleet's fringes, but not approach the flagship. They did slowly start cutting it off from the other ships, however.

But then, the warships of Frazz-Uruk came up to the dwarven vessels and engaged them in a firefight which sunk two of the high-powered dwarven ships and quite effectly separated them from the orcish main fleet, meaning they engaged the dwarves separately in a battle of attrition.

Trensandor - Grubb-Urg'Ma Battle

To the south of the main engagement, a fleet of a hundred cutting-edge orcish speed-ships were zooming ahead, attempting to sail around the main engagement and come up in the back of the human fleet, to cause major damage and inflict a rout upon the other humans. These fast ships were led by the highly intelligent high elf blooded Grubb-Urg'Ma. He captained one of the lead ships himself, using gold and black banners to guide the others. However, he had not thought of two factors, which were a great mistake: the very weak wind, which made his speed-boats slower than steam boats, and goblinoid vessels.

As his fleet was passing the latitude of the main battle's front, he was spotted by the sixty Trensandorian ships in Icewinds Bay, along the coast of Ancetartic. Twenty of these, the heavier armored steamships armed with gunpowder weapons, rapidly steamed up to block the path of the much larger orcish force whilst the other forty goblinoid vessels stayed behind. The goblinoids did this because they had previously been informed by an ochebanian hopebringer (hopebringers were elite woman soldiers, in this case riding dragons) that fifty heavier trensandor ships were coming up from behind and would catch up in no less than half an hour.

These twenty ships, through advanced maneuvering and staying ahead of the enemy fleet, managed suffering quite modest losses. Grubb-Urg'Ma, knowing he vastly overpowered the smaller steamboats, did not bother spreading out or otherwise quickly removing the threat, instead moving straight ahead towards them. This resulted in them making a wide southwards curve, away from the scene of battle, which orcish navigators did not realize. As the loop had passed by Icewinds Bay again, the fresh fifty warships of Trensandor had appeared. Trapped in large turning maneuvers against the wind, presenting their flanks to goblinoid guns, most orcish sail ships were quickly sunk. A few dozen managed turning around and slowly sail away. That was when the remaining forty ships in the bay came out, blocking their path so that the heavier ships behind could sink them. After some short chases, all of Grubb-Urg'Ma's ships were down, except for a couple which managed somehow reaching Ancetartic and fleeing on foot. Their leader was Grubb-Urg'Ma himself.

Main Battle

The hundred Trensandorian ships, after the defeat of Grubb-Urg'Ma's fleet, headed northeast. Their many steam-powered boats had no difficulty towing the few sail-powered ones along. These ships hit upon the orcish main fleet around 9:30 am, two kilometers behind the front. Using their armor and advanced weaponry to its full advantage, they cleaved into the low wooden orcish ships, quickly cutting a swath through the mass of black hulls, their gleaming silver and orange ships looking like a god's errand to the dozen dwarven dreadnoughts on the other side. These had been about to break the engagement after having suffered two more losses because of fire from the orcish frigates. The dwarven frigates to the north had stopped firing to gain a different position, so as to be placed more safely and more able to escape, since they had expected things to turn bad soon. The front looked bad, with most dwarven ships sunk and the humans heavily battered, whilst the orc influx seemed to never end. A couple human ships, Archean ones, had broken battle to flee or to perform flanking maneuvers.

The Trensandor's arrival changed everything, though. These hundred ships basically blocked off the orcish flagship, its frigates, and a few dozen ships from most of the remaining orcish fleet and Frazz-Uruk's warships. Seeing this, the dreadnoughts went back into battle, mainly keeping orcish warships off the Trensandors whilst guarding the goblinoid's northern flank. Dwarven frigates resumed their bombarding, laying into the mass of orc ships without a leader to the west of the main battle. The front managed standing, as the human and dwarven ships outnumbered the orcish ships in the "kernel" that had been formed through the surrounding of the allied forces.

A dozen heavy Trensandor steamships joined the dozen dreadnoughts fighting sixty orcish battleships. The odds were against them, but they received unexpected help. First, an ochebanian hopebringer with a dragon started assaulting the orcs. Then, dwarven valkyries ran on the water to start sinking ships. The dwarven king's golden stormvessel advanced, and he jumped out, riding a wave of fire that smashed down upon Frazz-Uruk's ship. With their general's head being held high by a shining dwarf, the remaining battleships tried breaking off and fleeing. They were mercilessly hunting down by valkyries.

Meanwhile, the Trensandorian blockade was starting to get into big difficulties. A mass of orcish ships from the east were still fighting (dwarven frigate fire only covered an area about a kilometer further east, in the main orcish body), whilst orcish frigates in the surrounded ships laid fire into them. Seeing this, the dwarven king and his dreadnoughts veered off to attack all attacking orcish ships. The Trensandorian vessels followed, judging he wanted them to help against the much greater enemy numbers. Dwarven frigates, however, saw this as a signal to stop firing since they might hit their king as he progressed eastwards, and instead started slowly sailing south so as to support the assault on the surrounded orcs and their flagship.

That was a major mistake on the allied side, since almost all firepower was concentrated away from the orcish flagship for a long time and the allied main fleet had been far overestimated. One of the three orcish frigates had been firing at human ships, and not Trensandorian ones. This meant their western flank was very weak and easily passable (they never veered off north-or southwards because that would have presented their flanks to all allied ships without the protection of the remaining orcish vessels). Accordingly, the flagship's entourage ploughed into the weak human ships, starting to get away. The fifty Trensandor ships that were maintaining the blockade on the eastern side could not go in pursuit, as they were involved in battle with orcish ships and could not abandon that. Dwarven frigates dared not approach within range, because losing a single one of the four would have spelled certain doom for the Dwarven Empire that had lost almost its entire fleet already.

Annihilation of the Orcish Main Fleet

That enormous amount of firepower concentrated on the remainder of the leaderless orcish main fleet did not go lost, however. Weakened through previous dwarven frigate barrages and spread out because of same barrage, the Trensandorian steamships and dwarven dreagnoughts could easily work their way westwards without losses. But this took a lot of time, of which many orcs profited by attempting to sail off. That was hard to do westwards because of the wind going the other way. Accordingly, they went either northwards or southwards. In the south, they quickly came upon Ancetartic where they disembarked and tried surviving in the icy cold, most dying of natural causes or as food for the others. Most going northward were hunted down by valkyries or allied ships, but a couple made it into orcish territory and got away.

Flight of Lamik-Lai'Uruk

The orcish flagship of Lamik-Lai and his escort of three frigates managed beating through the weak human fleet and heading westwards. No one could pursue them in any soon time, because dwarven frigates could not be risked and all others were occupied with the annihilation of the orcish main fleet. This resulted in them getting as far as the west of Dragonloss before their hunters caught up, 400 km away from the point of battle. The ochebanian dragon was out of combat thanks to orcish ballistas and the valkyries occupied elsewhere, resulting in only a dozen Trensandor steamships, two dreadnoughts, and a few brave humans consituting the "hunter task force". This came within sight of the orcs at midday the day after battle had started, when fog started forming all around Dragonloss.

Through a tidbit of miscommunication, the dreadnoughts steamed full speed ahead, leaving the others behind. The dwarves planned on homing the others in and then attacking the powerful orcish frigates, and to that effect followed the orcs a kilometer behind (effectively being out of firing range thanks to the low visibility, which didn't stop the orcs from shooting randomly). With light signals, the dwarves shone to the south.

Ten kilometers behind, things were not going exactly as planned. Human ships, profiting from a new breeze, went off in a much too eastwards direction, whilst the Trensandors managed keeping course but didn't go too fast since they wanted to be able to catch the humans as these came back. They eventually did, but this was another day later and fog covered the entirety of the Clipper Archipelago. The orcs and their pursuers were passing by the south of the Zazzarin Island coast at midday that next day, while the humans and goblinoids were east of the Baba-au-Rum islands.

Hoping to rally ships to cut off the orc general's escape, one dreadnought steamed northwards to reach Trensandorian Conelu before the orcs passed by there, so as to block them. The dwarves succeeded, getting 50 heavy goblinoid ships to block the passage between the Giant Isle and Conelu. Three heavy warships, named frickbjar by the goblinoids, were placed behind the blockade and supposed to face down the orcish frigates. The dreadnought, meanwhile, steamed back eastwards following the conelian coast, so as to rally with the other dwarven ship. They never found the other ship, however.

The orcs had seen the dreadnought steaming off ahead, and veered off to the south. The dwarves following had seen this but were powerless to act, since the ships would likely have been lost in the fog and low clouds. They followed the orcs over another day, passing south of the Giant Isle and approaching orc-held Bamea. In a last-ditch effort to stop the orc general from escaping, the dreadnought steamed ahead in the fog to block the orc's path. They almost missed the group, but managed spying it out and firing a full barrage, almost tipping their ship over because all guns fired at once, before steaming off at full speed. A frigate was critically hit and started sinking, whilst the other two fired at the fleeing dreadnought. Their much heavier weaponry managed hitting the dwarven ship two or three times, which damaged it badly and caused a leck at water level.

Swinging back for an attack on the other side, the dwarves got within a hundred meters, which was a terrible risk but also point-blank range. The orcish frigates were flanking their flagship closely, which enabled the dwarven captain to split up fire between a frigate and the flagship. Another full barrage and flight resulted in huge damage on the orcish ships. Both stayed afloat, however, and another four hits on the back of the dwarven ship caused fatal damage. Through heroic sailing, the dwarves managed reaching Dragonia, stranding on the isle and hoping they wouldn't be killed by the native dragons (luckily for them, a silver dragon brought its family and flew them all to Archean San Morin).

The orc group managed reaching Bamea. Their flagship sunk in the shallow waters before the coast, however, and the frigate that had been hit eventually sunk in the orcish port where they were trying to save it.

Results

This huge battle between orcs and allied peoples was the turning point in the Orc Wars. Thanks to it, almost the entirety of orcish fleets had been sunk, along with all its heavy vessels (except for a frigate that had escorted Lamik-Lai'Uruk and another moored in the Colupan Archipelago). The very structure of the Bonebreaker empire had been shaken, which would result in the speedy defeat of its isolated orc tribes in Litchy within a year, and the rest of the Material Plane soon afterwards.