One Hour Wargames: Down at the Crossroads (scenario 11)

Following their victory near the border between Eastern and Western Aurora, the Duke of Lux, vassal of Sol, King of Dies, crossed his army into Western Aurora, intent on capturing a major crossroads that would give him access to all of Aurora. He did not expect to encounter any resistance from the Nox forces, as they had been observed moving deeper into Western Aurora back towards their own border.

For his part, the Duke of Tenebris, in service to Luna, Empress of Nox, had left a small holding force East of the crossroads to cover their withdrawal, but he had little reliable information about the movements of the Dies army.

Initially confusion reigned  and some doubt from the Nox holding force about their life choices, and neither side was able to effect much of anything. A lone rider from the holding forced raced Westward to alert the the commander for the Nox rear guard.

Meanwhile, the aggressive commander of the the Dies vanguard charged with his main body of knights and the sounds of a bloody battle rang out through the woods. A third unit of knights, and their men-at-arms, made their way around the Northern woods, intent on outflanking the enemy.

Alerted by the rider, the commander of the Nox rear guard sent two units of knights to join the fray. They arrived in time to intercept the flanking Dies units - but it was still too late, as their own holding force had crumbled.

Then, too, the reinforcements were overwhelmed.

Having driven the enemy from the field, the crossroads belonged to Dies, but a second wave of Nox reinforcements arrived from the Southern road.

Outnumbered and facing two units of well armored men-at-arms,  the odds were not in favor of the new arrivals. Indeed, the Nox archers managed to get off  just a single volley before being charged.

When the dust settled, Dies had uncontested control of the crossroads and access to all parts of Aurora.

Suffering a second defeat, the Duke of Tenebris lead the remnants of the Nox army in a further withdrawal deeper into Western Aurora, and closer to the border with Nox itself. Certainly, his queen would be forgiving of one loss. She would be less so about this one. A third loss would come at a great personal cost.

The Duke of Tenebris entered his tent that night with much on his mind.


*****
This is scenario 11  from Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames, "Surprise Attack".

Nox was Red, Dies was Blue.Because I use 4" squares and the Blue army arrives via the road on turn 1, I extended one dimension by 6", to fit them all on the table on the first turn. So the table was 36" x 42". I went with the forces I rolled - which was unfortunate for Nox - they really could have used two units of men-at-arms.

Once again the rules used were the medieval rules from that book.

This time the game went all the way to turn 14, although the conclusion was obvious from turn 8 when the Dies army eliminated the last of the Nox units on the table and could leisurely wait for the last two Nox reinforcements to arrive on turn 9. That two of the four remaining Dies units were men-at-arms further cemented the likelihood of their victory (half damage). Even when they lost their last unit of knights, they were in no real danger of losing the battle over all.

I debated including the archers in the initial force on the table - thinking perhaps they could weaken one of the knights in front. That may have been a better option - saving them to mop up was far too optimistic.

I do wonder how much a 4' x 4' table would have changed things : I think the archers would have gotten off two volleys at least.

This time not being able to leave the scrum was less of an issue because there wasn't a single focal point of the game - although I suppose the crossroads could be if the Blue army chooses to completely by-pass the Red units blocking the road. Instead, there was some movement, with the Blue army flanking the woods and the Red army riding to meet them, while a battle raged by the woods.

I used the same solo chance mechanism this time as last. Again I played both sides, and again Nox was my side, so the chance events favored Dies.

Also, because this is a campaign, I gave one unit of the Dies army a 1d3 hit bonus because Dies won last time, and one unit of Nox a 1d3 hit penalty because Nox lost - which units received the adjustments was  randomly determined.

The next scenario is "Static Defense" and so I will play the Nox force as they are the attackers and have more interesting choices. Since we are closer to the border now, Nox they will have one unit with a 1d3 bonus, to represent an influx of troops over said border, but they will again have a unit with a 1d3 penalty (because they lost). The Dies army will have a single unit with a 1d3 bonus.