This is a brief account of a battle played this week between myself, Sir Chris- Baron of Lactose and Sir Jeffrey, baron of Bamph.

Our two leaders had much in common. Jeffrey, an Englishman, and myself were both Barons. I was in charge of Clerical lands for my Duke in Germany. He was serving out his duty for his king. However I was of royal lineage, related to the queen herself. Jeffrey and I clashed in the lands of Normandy, each on a mission for our respective overlord.

I raised my army and drew a queen as part of the process. This army was made up of 21 points including my house hold and those of my followers. Included in this small force was a unit of 8 stands of trained spearmen and their champion. Provided for me by my queen. This would prove to be a mixed blessing.

I created my warlord. He was a Chivalric motivation. I also chose to have in my domain a knight bannerette and a knight. I loaded my skill points up on the obvious. Personal Combat Skill and Combat. I decided to adopt a battle stance of raid for this adventure. After all I had but 1 point more than the minimum army requirement.

This stance allowed me to ignore all formed infantry minimums and half of the formed cavalry minimums. Again the spears would hinder me. I raised 7 stands of clerical knights in two units (4 stands and 3). The second could be deployed in wedge. It never happened! I then raised 8 stands of skirmishers in two units as well as a unit of 6 crossbows. This force was drawn up into 1 battle line. I left my knight at home and rode forth with my bannerette as a hero attached to my larger unit of knights. I deployed my terrain but as a chivalric leader I was prone to charge. I had to have all of my terrain features touching a table edge or another piece of terrain.

The battle was simple and quick, over in just 30 minutes time (2 turns). I decided early on to raid and that meant I had to stall for time. If I could hang on an hour (4 turns) I felt I could justify my position and then melt from the field. The problem was spears don’t melt away that well.

My deployment is not important for this narrative. Let me say that the troops of note, my knights were on my left facing the only open ground. I had a unit of 4 stands supported by a unit of 3 stands. In front of them were 4 stands of skirmishers. I should have had one unit of 2 stands of knights and left the others home.

I decided that my best option (for honor of course) was to challenge Jeffrey to man to man combat. I felt quite capable of winning and so as the armies marched forward I and my herald (double honor points, you have to love it) galloped out to the middle field. My herald went forward and issued my challenge. He rode back and said that Jeffrey would not accept. Ah I said that is good. I was looking to slow him down and the penalties and loss of honor to him was just what I wanted. "No it will not effect him" my herald replied. (in game turns Jeffrey was a raider motivation and as such oblivious to all that chivalric stuff). Damn, I said, I gazed the ranks and soon spied a hero nearby. Off rode my herald. Soon he returned, followed by the hero and his retainers. I advanced towards him, bade my own men to stay where they were and charged. He did the same. As we clashed I felt confident, then my horse trip and I went flying to the ground. ( I rolled a 20 on my personal combat skill check, go figure). When I finally awoke I was sitting in Jeffrey’s camp, watching the battle with my herald and retainers near by. They explained my horse had fallen and I had been rendered unconscious and captured. None could help me as it was a challenge. But my herald assured me he would make it sing well in the songs ( I would get some honor points anyway)

As I looked at the battle field I saw my bannerette desperately charging and clashing with Jeffrey’s knights. He harassed them off the hill, through their own archers. These fine soldiers never got a shot off at the knights. On the first bash my knights got the best. However they were themselves disordered. Jeffery ordered his men quicker and counter charged. In the melee I saw my bannerette's banner falter and go down. Not a good sign. The knights, fighting bravely till then decided to retreat and left the field. This caused their supporting knights to fallback to cover the retreat.

As they did this I was joined by my bannerette with a nasty wound to his leg. We were both captured and there was no one left to command the raiding force. The men quickly surrendered and the scuffle was over. Jeffrey and I mad peace and bellowed about endeavors. I got a few good stories in about my troops and gained 21 honor points. Enough to raise one of my skills. Guess which one, my personal combat skill.