User:BaronGrackle

Tides of Darkness
The Assault on Hillsbrad was one of the earliest battles of the Second War and the first battle between the Orcish Horde and the Alliance of Lordaeron. The fighting took place in the Hillsbrad Foothills near Lordaeron's southern coast, halfway between Southshore and Gilneas, nine days after the formation of the Alliance. The town of Hillsbrad had not yet been founded.

Preparations
Alliance Supreme Commander Anduin Lothar had stationed his army in the Hillsbrad Foothills near Southshore, believing this location was centralized enough for his forces to quickly deploy anywhere in continental Lordaeron. This was vital because Lothar and the Alliance leadership did not know where the Horde would invade, or even whether they would invade by land or by sea. While waiting among the foothills, Lothar planned strategies with the Alliance kings and his four chosen lieutenants: his second-in-command Turalyon, Uther, Khadgar, and Grand Admiral Daelin Proudmoore.

Two days prior to the battle, the armies of the human kingdoms were joined by an elven battle group led by Alleria Windrunner. The Kingdom of Quel'Thalas had sent this expedition to honor the debt that Silvermoon had to Lothar, last of the Arathi bloodline.

Orgrim Doomhammer, warchief of the orcish Horde, had recently led his forces in a lightning-fast invasion of Khaz Modan. Using iron and wood resources taken from the dwarves' territory, he ordered the construction of a transport fleet. These large rowing ships carried thousands of orcs across the Great Sea to land in southern Lordaeron, where Doomhammer did not believe the humans would expect an attack. It is not clear which Horde clans or leaders participated in the Assault on Hillsbrad, but it is known that Kilrogg Deadeye (of the Bleeding Hollow) and Zuluhed the Whacked (of the Dragonmaw)) were in different parts of Khaz Modan at the time.

Alleria's rangers and Proudmoore's scout ships each reported these movements, and Lothar rushed his army west to meet the Horde as they landed.

Battle
Before the Horde fleet made landfall, it was intercepted by Alliance warships. Proudmoore's navy sank several of the orc transports, killing thousands of orcs that were onboard &mdash;literally decimating the Horde's fighting force (tens of thousands ) before the main battle began.

Despite these losses, the Horde's large number of transports allowed them to reach Lordaeron's coast with numbers that still outnumbered those of the Alliance. ) To meet them, Lothar had spread the Alliance army across the last line of Hillsbrad's rolling foothills, facing toward Southshore and the Great Sea. The Alliance defenders advanced toward the shoreline as the Horde landed, hoping to attack the orcs as they disembarked.

Lothar charged from his line and attacked the orcs himself, soon followed by Turalyon and Uther. Alliance forces cheered as the three leaders struck down several orcs, crushing them left and right. As thousands more of the Horde landed, however, the three fell back to the Alliance front line to avoid being overwhelmed&mdash;and at least one arrow from Alleria save Turalyon from this fate.

Returning to the line safely, Lothar ordered his soldiers to raise spears and link shields to repel the oncoming orcs. The Horde crashed into this shield wall three times, taking heavy casualties with each assault. The human defenders likewise fell in several places, but Alliance leaders formed them into new lines behind the existing line of troops.

The orcs held back after the third failed assault, allowing a handful of Death Knights to take the field. The Death Knights proceeded to point their truncheons forward, killing the defenders directly in front of them as blood poured from the humans' mouths, noses, and ears. Shocked at this dark magic, Uther bathed the remaining Alliance soldiers in Holy Light to protect them, and then he led his three Paladins (Saidan Dathrohan, Tirion Fordring, and Gavinrad) out of the Alliance line to attack the Death Knights directly. The Death Knights and Paladins were evenly matched, neither able to gain advantage over the other, and they continued to occupy each other for the duration of the battle.

After one more orcish assault failed to break the Alliance line, the Horde brought several giant ogres forward. The ogres, armed with uprooted trees as clubs, crushed entire sections of the Alliance's wall of soldiers. As the Horde poured through these gaps, Turalyon and other Alliance leaders gave the order to fall back