One Hour Wargames Medieval: Bottleneck Situation (Scenario 24, Tempus Campaign Game 4)

Seizing the momentum with his victory at the Battle of Aube, Tenebris sent Lord Buio with a fresh force to probe for an opening by which to attack the Dies army. As this force moved Eastward in two columns, it ran into a blocking force under the command of Lord Luminoso, in service of the Duke of Lux, near Lake Dageraad.

Buio sent his knights around the lake to strike the Nox force from the rear.

The Nox men-at-arms advanced down the road where they came under fire from peasant archers shooting from the thick woods North of the road.

Unable to effectively engage the archers, Buio ordered the men-at-arms forward in close order - willingly exposing one unit to an onslaught of arrows,so the lead unit could engage the Dies men-at-arms holding the road.

As  his knights made their way around the lake, they discovered that their opposite number were maneuvering to counter their efforts.

Men and horses massed in preparation for what was to come.

Luminoso's men-at-arms advanced towards the Nox column on the road, in order to contain them between the lake on one side and the archers in the woods on the other.

Both on the road and to the East of the lake, the forces clashed..

Seizing opportunity, a unit of Nox knights raced past the melee in an effort to outflank the Dies men-at-arms blocking the road.

Buio hadd mistakenly held his levies in reserve too long and they were too far back to cover the exposed rear of his last unit of men-at-arms. Arrows rained on them from the forest.

Fortunately for Buio, his enterprising knights were positioned to strike.

As the Nox men-at-arms crashed into Luminoso's men-at-arms, Nox knights crashed into them from the rear. The Dies men-at-arms were utterly destroyed. Meanwhile Luminoso's knights, though badly battered, prepared to face the other unit of Buio's knights.

Pinned by the lake to their rear, facing an enemy to their front, and the possibility of a flank attack as well, the Dies knights fought bravely, until all fell, fled, or surrendered.

The peasant archers remained but they  were of little concern to Buio with the road before them open. Indeed without additional troops to deal with the enemy definitively, at best, the archers could hope to harass the Nox force from a distance.

When the messenger reached the Duke of Tenebris with news of the victory, the Duke set into motion a plan for forcing the total capitulation of the Dies army.

*****
The scenario was number 24, Bottleneck Situation. It lasted 8 turns.

Edit: I forgot to include the Orders of Battle! And some other things too - in my defense, I wrote up the rest of this post at 1 AM.

Red (Dies) - 2 knights, 1 men-at-arms, 1 peasant archer (functionas levies with bows, only unit that can enter woods)
Blue (Nox) - 3 knights, 2 men-at-arms, 1 levy

Nox was "my" army, Dies had a few setup options I came up with and diced between (again I put some effort into this, a few days in advance, and it was a lot of fun - adding what amounts to an entirely different kind of game. They were also the beneficiary of the simple solo system I use and indeed, it helped keep one of their knights on the table when they would have otherwise been eliminated.

Also, it wasn't clear to me exactly how the woods were to function. Neil Thomas isn't terribly specific - how close to the edge must a unit be to shoot out? If a unit in the woods is touching the edge of the woods and an enemy unit contacts them, can they engage in melee even though no other unit type can enter the woods properly? 

I decided that the peasant archers had to be within 1" of the edge of the woods to shoot out and that  Blue units, save for any archers, could not attack the Red unit in the woods - since units aren't exactly where the bases are, an attacking unit, being in base to base contact with a unit in the woods is essentially the same as trying to enter the woods and that's not allowed.

This is quite an advantage for Red, but as they have only 4 units total, it's not unfair. In the event, Blue had no archers. However, by using one unit of men-at-arms to absorb hits from the peasant archers, they could prolong the survival of the lead attacking unit of men-at-arms and more or less render the unit in the woods ineffective.

With this victory, Nox evens the score, 2-2, and so it looks like game 5 will decide the campaign!

Game 5 will probably be my last game in 2020 and is tentatively scheduled form Monday 2019-12-30.