One Hour Wargames: War Comes to Tempus

The land of Tempus has long been the stage for the bitter rivalry between two countries, Dies and Nox. Independent buffer states - Aurora, Mane, Vesperum, and Nocte, - sprang up in the distant past and have variously served to cool or exacerbate the tempers of the dominant pair. Presently, it is a time of the latter, and the uneasy truce in their war over control of the continent has come to an end yet again. This time, it is hapless Aurora that is caught in the middle.

The Duke of Lux, vassal of Sol( the King of Dies, also known The Sun King (not that one)), having raised an army at his king's behest, advanced this force into Aurora under diplomatic pretense. However, such is the nature of courtiers and intrigues that Luna, Empress of Nox, Queen of the Night (not that one), quickly learned of the deceit. In turn, she commanded the Duke of Tenebris to raise a force and prepare to meet the threat.

With a preternaturally prescient understanding of the situation, Lux ordered an advance guard to race to, and take control of, a strategic hill overlooking the main road between Eastern and Western Aurora. The remainder of the holding force would follow.

The Nox army under Tenebris moved eastward into Aurora, where, it comes as no surprise, the leading elements of the force collided with Lux's avant garde.

And so it was that the inevitable new war began.

The Nox knights were ordered to dislodge Lux's units from the hill as quickly as possible in hopes of controlling it before the remainder of the Dies force arrived.

A maelstrom of clashing steel, men, and horses swirled about the hill.

The new arrivals for Dies charged into the fray, with a unit of knights held back and ordered to run down the Nox archers - who, it may be said, had quite literally become a thorn in their side.
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Flaunting a previously captured banner of Nox, the knight's charged. They would pay dearly for their indiscretion.

Men fell and fled on both sides, but the scale of victory tilted heavily towards Dies.

The last of  the remaining Nox units fought fiercely, but in the end, they were outfought by the Dies men serving under Lux.

But, to be sure, the war had only just begun.


*****

This is scenario four, "Taking the High Ground" from Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames, The rules used are the medieval rules from the same book.

As I have noted before, I know little to nothing of the period, so I find these rule adequate (with OHW I think the more invested in a period you are, the less satisfying the rules will be, without making at least some adjustments for your pet aspects of the period) - they do tend to lead to a scrum, since units can't leave melee once engaged and forces will have at least 4 melee units. However, a large scrum of warriors is what Hollywood tells me is period correct, and I assume at least some of the writers have done the research, so it works for me. Heaven help me if I read an Osprey on period tactics though.

The main thing I have to remember with OHW is to not think I have the rules internalized - it's too easy to forget a modifier when you're a little rusty (+2 for shooting with archers for example). The other is that that men-at-arms on a hill are really hard to beat (they take 1/4 damage).

Of the other rules I have, I am most intrigued by Charlie Wessencraft's medieval rules in Practical Wargaming but that would require re-basing (as these are just Blu-Tacked to coasters it's not that big of a deal but never the less). Morschauser's shock rules could work if I used single figure "trays" and used say, 4-6 trays per unit, as the melee rules are truly brutal there.

Other areas of note:

The game officially ended on turn 10 but I could have called it on turn 7 or so, when the Nox force only had two units left. This is typical of OHW - games in my experience rarely last until 15 turns. Total time for setup and tear down was about an hour.

I played both sides and used the same solo mechanism I used for the Morschauser game the other day, because I was rooting for Nox. It clearly worked well in that "my" side lost.

The next scenario will be number scenario 11, "Surprise Attack".