The enemy bombardment lasted all night. It was inaccurate and intermittent but its very unpredictability made it more stressful. As always the enemy guns were unnecessarily heavy and were served with enthusiasm but not much skill. The result was nonetheless devastating, and from past experience I expected the city to be littered with unexploded ordnance once the barrage ended. We were on outpost duty on the outskirts of Dunhold and when the shelling began took refuge in the basement of a sturdy one-storey house. We left Durgrim on look-out with orders to come downstairs if the shelling got too close; almost as soon as we had closed the hatch to the cellar the whole place shook.

We were tumbled to the ground, stones and rafters fell, and we were choked with dust - the building must have taken a direct hit. We never did find any trace of Durgrim. Subtlety was never the enemy's strength so as soon as the shelling stopped we could be sure that their infantry would attack. At first light the bombardment suddenly lifted and we looked at one another, each checking the others for signs of the nerves they felt themselves. Our corporal, Torkel Torkelson, was as always a model of calm. He stubbed out his cigar and jammed it back into his mouth, adjusted his goggles, brushed dust from his beard, and signalled for us to follow him. He went to the head of the stairs, strained at the trapdoor which shut us into the cellar, and heaved it open far enough to look out. After cautiously peeping out he motioned us to wait then threw the trapdoor open and dashed away; after a moment his head appeared silhouetted against the sky and he waved us out.

We emerged into a landscape completely different to what it had been the previous evening. Before, a few buildings here and there had been destroyed by some kind of ramshackle flying bomb or aerial torpedo launched by the enemy at random intervals.  Now the city was largely in ruins. Instead of low buildings in orderly blocks there was a sea of rubble. One or two walls of some buildings still stood; others were mere jumbles of stone and metal; where the streets had been was almost impossible to discern except where burned-out groundcars marked them. The only recognisable landmark was the Ministry of Distribution and Allocation complex - it was a group of piles of rubble much larger and imposing than the others. In our role as light infantry we had only our personal weapons, and our job was to ascertain where the main enemy attacks were being made, report back, and wait for the reserves to counter-attack. Of course we knew that if the enemy were to press their attack we'd be cut off and have to hang on until the reserves came up; but we were confident we could hold off any number of the enemy.

We didn't have long to wait. We had taken up positions in a couple of ruined buildings and corporal Torkelson was looking west, in the direction of the enemy advance. Within minutes - before we'd even had a chance to crack our cans of self-heating tea - he signalled they were in sight and slithered backwards down the pile of rubble he'd been on. In a whisper he told us it seemed to be a patrol of a dozen or so, well armed but approaching in their usual disorderly fashion. We gave our weapons a final check and each found themselves a good bit of cover.

---

The Dunhold War 4730 - present

Dunholm was a Level 3 planet with a largely rural halfling population which survived by farming, fishing and some small industrial ore mining.  The mining and a small amount of light industry to support the other industries was performed largely by a small population descended from gnomish settlers. In 4486 a planetary survey team discovered small deposits of valuable ores as well as large amounts of low-quality promethium on Dunholm. At this point survey teams from dwarf mining companies from the nearby Dwimmer system appeared on the planet and entered into negotiations with local authorities for mining rights. Although this led to a certain amount of industrialisation and commercialisation, the poor quality of the promethium and consequent complex refining kept the overall demographic disruption at a relatively low level.  Dwarf settlement was limited to areas close to the industrial areas and relations between settlers and natives were good.  The only major city, Dunhold, was founded in the 4600s and became the major transport hub.

The Dunhold War began in earnest in late August 4730 following several minor incursions involving Goblin shuttles attacking outlying farms and settlements. An unexpected night landing of two Goblin Infantry Regiments (Sarhbub's 2nd and Egharod's 6th) beside the important railhead of Digger's End allied to the destruction of the local dirigible field at Endoral was the first indication that the conflict was escalating beyond any previous expectation. Over the course of the next few days regimental and battalion size landings beside towns all over in what is now known as 'The Disputed Zone' seized control of large areas of the continent despite attempts by dwarf and halfling militia units to stem the tide.

The sheer unexpectedness of the incursion caused considerable disruption to any defensive plans the authorities on the planet might have in place and there were major enquiries within the intelligence services in the dwarf military as to how an attack of this magnitude had escaped their attention. However, the best military intelligence was able to offer was to point out that goblin army commanders on the outer reaches of the their sphere of influence tended to act independently of the home planetary government on Grdzug, often attacking targets then presenting Grdzug with the fait accompli of either supplying and supporting the incursion and pretending that it was an act of  policy or letting a sizeable force be defeated with the consequent loss of face. In addition, given the low tech level of goblin communications, there was no massive build up in comms traffic as might be expected in a normal military operation of this size.

Since the initial occupation the Goblin IXth army has expanded its base of operations and has been in receipt of reinforcements in the shape of a heavy artillery regiment and two more infantry regiments this year.  With these reinforcements IXth army commander General Ugluk was able to mount a major offensive in the summer which drove the dwarf forces back east to the banks of the Nura river although stiffening dwarf defences, guerilla activity by halfling militias and the autumn rainy season has slowed up any forward progress of late.

J. Osbert Wilberforce
Military Correspondent
Dunhold Gazette
October 4731

---

Combatants of the Dunhold War.

L to R:
Goblin levy; hobgoblin; Westergard light infantry; Karstevik assault infantry; Herthjak special forces infantry; halfling sniper.

"Following our defence of Firebase Ragnhild the 33rd was withdrawn from the front line. We were billetted in a tented camp, far too big for the 33rd, and a few days later we were told the 33rd was to be merged with another regiment, the 19th. They arrived next day and we messed together and were well-provided with pipeweed and beer. They were a good lot, miners from the Skallarberg mostly, and almost as big as us lads from Westergard. They had some strange habits though. Most had shaved their heads, and others partly shaved them leaving tall sticking-up combs in the middle. All had trimmed their beards, some short, some shaving a bit in the middle bare for some reason, and a few even shaving them completely off. They were heavily armed too. Neither group was re-equipped or re-armed, so you could tell by looking which regiment anyone had come from - we kept our greatcoats, and they wore coats in a variety of styles and materials. We were reorganised though, a squad of us paired with a squad of them, and trained together for a couple of weeks.  Our beloved corporal Torkelson was no longer in charge; instead a sergeant from the 19th., a dreadful half-mad creature called Torgeirsson, who strode about shirtless under his coat, commanded the merged unit.  No-one even mentioned what a nightmare logistics were going to be, with the mix of weapons we carried - the dozen of us in our re-formed section carried SMGs and pistols, assault rifles, a shotgun and a rotary gun, all requiring different ammunition.

"There was a smaller tented area over a stream from us, and we recognised the group camped there as being from Karstevik. That short, paunchy shape was recognisable anywhere, and as their beards were cut short so they fitted in their full-face helmets there was some banter across the stream. Their bellies were comically accentuated when they put on their armour, because of course they were assault troops, as most of the troops raised in Karstevik were. They were resting for a couple of days before heading up to the front and soon moved on in battered lorries. Other lorries also passed, in both directions, and one carried some troopers from Herthjak, humourless little guys wearing breathing-masks pushed up on top of their helmets. Ordinarily we would have mocked them for their tiny size and joked with them that they probably had some gnome ancestors somewhere.  Even at the best of times the folk from Herthjak made up in irritability what they lacked in size and held a grudge like no-one else; as we had heard rumours about some gnomes, the snaggle-toothed little bastards, going over to the enemy we thought we had better keep quiet."

Dunhold pages:
Introduction:
http://www.spodilicious.com/dunhold.html

A detachment of the dwarf 33rd Infantry Regiment clashes with a goblin patrol:
http://www.spodilicious.com/dunhold-i---the-raid.html

Dwarves & goblins vie to recover an important piece of technology:
http://www.spodilicious.com/dunhold-ii---the-guffinsson-device.html

Halfling snipers of the 3rd Bywater Sharpshooters encounter a goblin patrol:
http://www.spodilicious.com/dunhold-iii---a-walk-in-the-country.html

The 3rd Bywater Sharpshooters escort a picked sniper to assassinate an enemy staff officer:
http://www.spodilicious.com/dunhold-iv---assassins-greed.html

A desperate defence of an outpost:
http://www.spodilicious.com/dunhold-v---assault-on-precinct-xiii.html

The 3rd Bywater Sharpshooters search for a downed dwarf aeronaut:
http://www.spodilicious.com/dunhold-vi---hostage--rescue.html

A dwarf engineer has to examine an abandoned enemy wonder-weapon:
http://www.spodilicious.com/dunhold-vii---the-gun.html

The goblins deploy armoured vehicles, much to their enemies' dismay:
http://www.spodilicious.com/dunhold-viii---tank-shock.html

A dwarf squad attacks an enemy aerodrome:
http://www.spodilicious.com/dunhold-ix---raid-on-beteneb.html

The enemy make a determined attack on the defences around Dunhold:
http://www.spodilicious.com/dunhold-x---firebase-ragnhild.html

An elite sniper makes his kill and must escape his target's guards.
http://www.spodilicious.com/dunhold-xi---hit-and-run.html

A daring raid by the dwarves on enemy supply lines.
http://www.spodilicious.com/dunhold-xii---just-in-time-logistics.html

The enemy employ a new strategy, attempting to infiltrate raiders through porous areas of the front:
http://www.spodilicious.com/dunhold-xiii---infiltration.html

Halfling deserters are hunted down by their comrades:
http://www.spodilicious.com/dunhold-xiv---applewhite--nettles.html

The enemy deploy new and fearsome infantry recruited from the ethnic minorities of Dunholm:
http://www.spodilicious.com/dunhold-xv---theyve-got-a-cave-troll.html