One Hour Wargames Medieval: Static Defenese (Scenario 14, Tempus Campaign Game 3)

The Duke of Tenebris continued to fall back after the loss at the crossroads. Reinforcements from Nox arrived from the West, but morale was shaken among the veterans of the last two clashes. Determined to stem the advancing Dies tide, Tenebris ordered Lord Buio to occupy the village of Aube and to hold the hill South West of the woods near there in order to prevent the Duke of Lux from advancing down the main road to the border and force his army to an overland route which would take considerably longer.

If not, Lux would be in Nox territory in a few days time.

For his part, the Duke of Lux sent the wing of his army under the command of Lord Leggero,  with orders to take either the hill or to occupy Aube for the opposite reasons. Either would give Dies the means to control the road and allow the army to advance to the border

(The action is described in the captions below the picture)

Leggero split his force - sending the bulk to take the village, despite the narrow frontage available for the attack. His knights on the left were to be held in reserve until they could be brought around the woods for a finishing blow.

Tenebris had made a wise choice in Buio, who ordered his knights protecting the flanks of the village to ride out and meet the enemy, as the defenders in the village put up a spirited defense.

Aware of the losses his forces in the village had sustained, Buio ordered the knights from the hill to take to the village to aid in its defense.

The first unit of Dies knights fell or fled but the men-at-arms, brimming with enthusiasm of fresh reinforcements prepared to storm the village and finish the job.

As the knights from the hill arrived, they were pursued by Lord Leggero's reserve of knights. Buio's archers prepared to meet them.

And meet them they did. When the Dies nights passed the hill they came under fire from archers there and then from the archers West of the village.  Although the archers near the village were ridden down, the knights were struck down by arrows from their front and back.

Dies men-at-arms seized the village, finally defeating the knights there.

It wasn't enough however - despite defeating the Nox knights, the village, and the men-at-arms within it, were subject to a bombardment of arrows from the remaining Nox archers.Eventually the men-at-arms were forced to abandon the field.

A Nox victory and the Duke of Tenebris keeps his head a little longer.

*****
Scenario 14, Static Defense
Red force - Nox - 3 knights, 2 archers, 1 men-at-arms
Blue force - Dies - 4 knights, 1 men-at-arms, 1 levy

Dies had 1 unit get a bonus of 1d3 hit points. Nox had 1 unit with a 1d3 bonus, and one with a 1d3 penalty.

Red must keep 2 units within 12" of the hill and 2 units within 12" of the village.

Blue has 15 turns to capture either the hill or the village.

Dies was "my" army since they had more to do, Nox was the NPC side, to their benefit. This makes three losses for the side I commanded, in case you were counting.

Inspired by Dale's postings about Mr. Babbage, I spent a lot of time thinking about how I would approach this from the Nox side, and came up with several plans which were diced between. This isn't normally something I do - I usually make a plan just before the game starts and hope for the best. This was a fun exercise to really think about the battle field and the capabilities of the forces involved and where the best deployments could be.


Yes, that's me taking credit for the Nox win even as I am responsible for the Dies loss!

The last few turns of the game saw no movement but were still fun to play out, rather than concede. The men-at-arms had no real options once they had no one left to melee nearby - turn 10. It would have taken two turns to reach the archers, and two turns to get back to the village- the archers had a 1 point bonus to their hit points due to a random event earlier, so they were not going to go down easily. Not a one hit knock-out that's for sure. The only question was whether or not the archers could do enough damage before the game clock ran out.

It didn't look like it on their first attack (men at arms take 1/4 damage in a village). But then the archers rolled 5s and 6s for their attacks and the men-at-arms, already reduced by their fighting with the knights previously, could not hold on.

 The game ended on turn 14.

The next campaign game is the bottleneck. Nox will be attacking as they push back Eastward into Aurora.

Speaking of, here's a very very very rough attempt at a map (a better, larger (this one is 3x5), one will be made eventually, based on this.) so I can keep my directions and country names straight:

Dies is still ahead 2 - 1. Will there be a game 5?