One Hour Wargames Medieval: Botched Relief (Scenario 28, Tempus Campaign Game 5)

The Duke of Lux had ordered Lever du Soleil to be held by a small force under the command of Lord Alba. Learning of the approach of Nox forces, under command of Lord Buio (in service of the Duke of Tenebris), Alba sent for a relief force. 

To his dismay, the indecisive Baron Nuvoloso had been sent. Ever non-committal the Baron arrayed his force on a hill overlooking the approach to Lever du Soleil but took a wait and see attitude towards the proceedings, even as Buio's small force advanced on the village.

Meanwhile, in the village, Lord Alba organized his men-at-arms and signaled his knights located just North of the town to protect the north side of the village.

Buio's knights raced towards the village intent on driving the Dies force out.

Buio could not help but notice the Dies banners flying and the mass of men and horses on the hill, and so deployed one unit of knights to guard against a flank attack.

As Alba's knights moved to protect the North end of the village, Nuvoloso begrudgingly committed a unit of knights to the defense. They made their way towards the village, taking up the position originally held by Alba's knights.

The battle lines crashed at the village. Buio's levies moved up to bring additional pressure to Alba's force in the village.

Unfortunately, the knights to their flanks were destroyed or driven off the field, leaving the levies engaged to their front with the men-at-arms - who valiantly defended the village under Alba's direct leadership - and exposed to a charge from Nuvoloso's knights.

The result was predictable. 

Judging the combined losses from all of the previous battles be too costly to continue the campaign, and with the heart of winter approaching, Tenebris ordered a general retreat to the Nox side of the Nox-Aurora border - and in doing so, conceded victory to his opposite, the Duke of Lux.

Tenebris then ordered a horse readied and, with a handful of knights and men-at-arms, rode West ahead of his retreating army to personally report his failing to Luna, Empress of Nox.
 
For his part, Lux did not order any pursuit of the Nox army -  the Dies army had suffered their own significant losses and Lux too noted the coming winter weather. Of course, some commanders led raids against the retreating Nox forces, but nothing more than minor skirmished resulted.

Nuvoloso, meanwhile, claimed an outsized role in the victory to any and all who would listen, though he himself had committed just one of his four units to the battle. Alba was not amused but, outranked by the Duke, he kept his growing disdain for the latter to himself, and when asked, would only reply that he was "grateful for the assistance".

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The scenario was 28, Botched Relief.

Red (Dies) had 4 knights, 1 levy, and 1 men-at-arms. Because they lost the last battle, they had one unit with 1d3 fewer hit points.
Blue (Nox) had 3 knights, 1 levy. Because they won the last battle, they had one unit with 1d3 extra hit points.

I created plans for both sides, diced to see which I'd follow for each and used a similar random event method I had been using to provide positive and negative effects, but rolled for each side. That is, I was playing to find out who would win, not to play one or the other side as "mine"

Nox rolled no such events, but Dies did, multiple times, and then rolled favorable events at that. That said, the game only lasted 6 turns. I credit this to a poor plan for the Nox rather than benefits from random events..

I played a second game with a different plan that involved trying to ride around the Red force, to strike at the village from behind, but the end result was the same. That game lasted ten turns, and both sides rolled several random events. As plans go, I think this one was better but as has been observed before, men-at-arms in cover are extremely difficult to dislodge.

And, since a unit once engaged in melee stays that way, they essentially expose themselves to flank and rear attacks at that point - meaning the Nox knights were easily rolled up after trying to engage the men-at-arms in the village.

Also, I decided that contact with any part of the village constituted contact with the men-at-arms within. Looking at the map, the village is a rectangle and it's definitely wider than 6 inches- I eyeballed it as 9 inches wide and 6 inches deep. Maybe when I get a print copy of OHW, I'll take a ruler to it and figure it out correctly.

I'm sure I'll think a bit more about the campaign, and thus have more to say about it, but for now, I'll just note that it was an enjoyable experience being able to write a narrative that continued from one session to the next. I have played precious few wargame campaigns, but I can say that I prefer them infinitely more than one-off games.