Blocked Passage

A retinue under the command of Sir Henry of Havering is attempting to pass through Sir William of Oxton's territory.  Sir William tries to block their passage.

Sir Henry with two units of mounted Men at Arms, two units of mounted Serjeants and two units of Bidowers (Skirmish bows).

Sir William with two units of mounted Men at Arms and two of expert Archers.

Initial positions, Sir Henry in the top left corner has to exit at least half his force off the bottom right corner.

Sir Henry's force heads for the exit as the enemy moves to close the gap.

Bidowers claim first blood...

As the rest of Sir Henry's retinue ignores the approaching knights on their flank.

The Bidowers are cut down.

Sir William advances far enough to provoke a wild charge from Sir Henry and counter charges, losing two men to Sir Henry's one.

A wild charge from Sir Henry's other unit of mounted Men at Arms, counter charged also, and the results two losses to one in the opposite direction.

Sir William charges in again, to crushing effect.

As does his other unit.

Causing disruption to the foe.

The mounted Serjeants and the Bidowers head off to clear the Archers from blocking the route rather than go to Sir Henry's aid.

Another charge sees Sir Henry slain.

Only the mounted unit on the hill failed the morale check for his demise.

The Bidowers skirmished forwards and slew an Archer.

The mounted Serjeants moved into position as the Archers failed their activation roll to fire.

Another failed morale sees the mounted Men at Arms fall back with one of them fleeing.

The Bidowers take advantage of the Archers inactivity to kill three more of them.

The mounted Serjeants charge in on the weakened Archers and three Archers fall for the cost of two Serjeants.

And then both units fail their morale and decide to quit the battle!  

The field suddenly looks rather empty.  

Another compulsory charge, another knight falls.

And the Archers finally get to loose some arrows.

Another knight falls.

And Sir William falls back disordered.

The Serjeants charge uphill into the Archers and both sides take two casualties.

The Serjeants fall back, but it's the Archers who are disordered.

The Bidowers head over to assist the two surviving knights.

The archers fail their morale and fall back a little, one of them making a run for it.

The last of Sir Henry's knights on the hill goes down fighting.

And the men who killed him decide to go chasing fugitives rather than continue in the fight.

The last knight falls to Sir Williams mace, and the fight is over, the survivors retiring to lick their wounds.

Sir William won a victory, but it was a pyrrhic one.  Poor activation rolls for the Archers and the fact he was too far away to use his special ability to give them a reroll were his main problems.

Sir Henry's men tried to concentrate on the objective of the scenario, exiting the table, when they would have been better concentrating on their mounted opponents first.  This, combined with wild charges (made worse by Sir Henry being rash) led to his downfall instead of what could have been an easy victory for him.