Raid on Fisher’s Farm

A (very) small game played with 3 units per side. I wanted to try out Hauberk’s supplemental rules on the smallest scale possible to see how they played at different sizes. This was really more of a skirmish played with battle rules, because why not try?

To the west we have the faithful servants of Sir Fisher, sounding the alarum and arming themselves to protect the farmstead while their lord is away. To the east, a pair of dastardly knights serving Baroness Irma Vellan have come to raid the fortified farm while Sir Fisher is escorting the local parish priest to a meeting with the Bishop. 

The Premise: The forces of Fisher Farm (2 stands of Mounted Sergeants and one stand of archers) must prevent the attackers (1 stand of knights, 1 stand of archers, 1 stand of bills) from entering the walls of the farm. Once inside the walls, the invaders must use 1 turn, not engaged in combat, to set fire to a building. There are two buildings.

*Side notes regarding the rules: For the defenders, I treated them as defenders in a siege, who need not check morale. I chalked this up to most of them being former soldiers who served Sir Fisher in the Crusades, and that they are defending their home. I also chose to  eschew the fatigue rules, as I still don’t have small poker chips or tokens to keep track of fatigue easily.

Sir Fisher is going to return in 8 turns with his small retinue, sandwiching the raiders. They must complete the raid in 8 turns or less.

The view from the East, the farmstead in view.

View from the West, archers take up position to loose arrows from the wall, while mounted sergeants approach the (invisible due to lack of resources) gate.

The defenders win the initiative, and their medium cavalry sally out to meet these traitorous ruffians!

The end of turn 2. One set of mounted sergeants have been pushed back by a knightly charge, but they will have time to rally, since the knights have boldly chosen to try to complete their goal of burning the buildings themselves—while their infantry are fighting off the other unit of mounted sergeants.

The mounted sergeants sent the bill men falling back from fear of the charge, then turned their attention toward the archers at the beginning of turn 3. I proceeded to apparently forget to take photos between turns 3-7.

After running the robber knights’ infantry off the field, the east-most sergeants whirled around to charge said knights from the rear. The knights were already stuck in melee with the other sergeants, and the Fisher archers, who were empowered by the rallying and valiant charge of their cavalry.

When Sir Fisher arrived with the parish priest, he found an imprisoned knight and and a handful of bodies ready for burial. Once last rites had been administered, the outraged old knight mounted up with his retinue and his prisoner, and prepared to petition the king regarding Baroness Vellan’s disgraceful act.

This may evolve into a further campaign, but it was a fun tester of how much I can bend and stretch Chainmail and Hauberk!