Ill Met At Woodfell Hall

Stephen reports on a solo game using Song of Blades and Heroes
Apologies from the editorial team, we messed up the publishing schedule.

It is the year 1266. The Baron’s War, led by Simon de Montfort, is at an end – de Montfort and his supporters were beaten decisively at Evesham the previous year.

Since then, not all has been lost. Many of those still devoted to the cause, though dispersed and leaderless, still resist King Henry’s rule.

We find ourselves somewhere in the hills overlooking the Wye valley, early autumn, 1266. A young and idealistic knight, Sir Hugh Bolton, a loyal follower of de Montfort’s, has been lying low on the Welsh border, as have so many of the rebels.

Sir Hugh has received word that another rebel knight, Sir William le Bleu, is also in the area.

Together, they have decided to meet at an isolated traveller’s inn – Woodfell Hall – high above the Wye valley. As night falls, the two knights and their accomplices make their way to their secret rendezvous.

However, what Sir Hugh does not know is that Sir William is not all he seems. His real name is Sir Peter of the Wash, and he is a loyal retainer of Prince Edward! Sir Peter has been sent on a mission by the prince to seek out rebels hiding in the marches and either arrest them or, better still, kill them!

With Sir Hugh is a knight companion, Sir Aymer, plus four experienced men at arms and another four archers – all veterans of Evesham. Sir William/Peter is also not alone. Prince Edward has sent with him two other knights, Sir Fulkes and Sir Gilbert, plus a troop of five spearmen led by a man at arms, and three crossbow-armed sergeants.

The first couple of turns were quite quick, with each side only managing to activate one or two models. Sir Peter gave an order to the crossbows to advance up the road, but then the spearmen (presumably tripping over something in the dark) failed. Similarly, Sir Hugh attempted to get his retinue to head down the road toward Woodfell Hall, but only the archers made it.

It was a slow initial advance.

Things changed for Sir Peter though – he made a group activation of the crossbows again, and they rolled three successes, meaning they could take three actions. They double-timed down the road, coming up to Woodfell Hall, and seeing Sir Hugh and his men further down the road, raised their crossbows and let fly!

This obviously took Sir Hugh by surprise. But fortunately for him (well, those who had been targeted) the shots had no effect. Two can play at that game, thought Sir Hugh, and he ordered his archers to return the gesture. But since the archers, like the crossbows, had been shooting at long range the effect was the same – no hits.

The pace soon picked up.

One of the crossbowmen climbed up the side of the inn to take position on a veranda where he could snipe.

Meanwhile Sir Peter tried to give more group orders to the spearmen to bring them up in support – his encouragements worked this time.

Sir Hugh’s men also started pouring into the battle. The archers came up to the road junction, formed a line, and let loose. This was a much better tactic – one of Sir Peter’s crossbowmen was struck, and not only struck, but hit with a gruesome shot! Down he went with blood shooting all over the place from the arrow that had severed his jugular. This caused a morale check amongst Sir Peter’s men. The knights held firm, but the tardy spearmen all fell back a little, not wishing to be the next ones to suffer such a terrible fate.

The remaining crossbowmen showed they could do just as well. Raising their weapons, they took aim at two of Sir Hugh’s men at arms. Both bolts hit home – one of the men at arms fell down dead, and the other was knocked down with a bolt sticking out of his thigh.

Sir Hugh got the rest of his men going, urging them to advance through the scrub and bushes that ran alongside the road. The archers drew their arrows again and had another go.

And the same thing happened!

Down went the crossbowman hiding on the veranda, another gruesome kill! This left the remaining crossbowman feeling nervous and, with his morale faltering, he made a run for the rear before an arrow found him and left him a messy, bloody, heap like his friends.

All this missile fire was well enough, but both sides were keen to get stuck in with sword and shield and sort this out the honourable way. Sir Hugh and one of his men at arms had been using Woodfell Hall for cover as they advanced, and the others had moved through the bushes, which meant they had the drop on Sir Peter, whose retinue had stalled under the effectiveness of the longbows.

By the horse troughs outside the inn is where the two sides finally came to blows.

The archers tried to stand back and get in a shot where they could, but in the darkness it would be reckless to shoot into the melee. Sir Peter barked out his orders to the spearmen to urge them forward into the melee, and his knight companions also came into the fight.

It was turning into quite a mess. Sir Hugh’s force was split into three – Sir Hugh with one of the men at arms coming down the road, Sir Aymer with another man at arms coming through the bushes, and the archers waiting to take a shot at any target that presented itself.

Meanwhile Sir Peter’s troops were more consolidated, though this had been more by accident than design. But what this meant was that one of Sir Peter’s men knocked down one of Sir Hugh’s men whilst another was able to come up and finish them off as they rolled around on the ground.

Then the telling blow happened. Sir Hugh and Sir Peter faced off against each other, and in only a brief exchange Sir Hugh was knocked to the ground and then Sir Fulkes came up and struck Sir Hugh the killing blow!

The fight continued for another couple of rounds, but it was obvious the rebels had been beaten. Realising their cause was lost the remaining rebels made a break and ran.

Sir Peter and his retinue had come out the winners. They had earned their blood money.