In reply to Sir Dalan (msg # 20):

Perfect.  Sir Gracian can feel free to respond in thread.

Nice to know we raise our boys the same way :D

Sir Perin is free to respond to the messenger's news.

So,it seems that Sejanus's estate is further north then the others.But I assume the entire area is under threat of fire and sword.

Yes, Sir Sejanus's manor is well north of the others.  He has no idea that anything is going on to the south, he has onlyt been told that a manor to the west on a river crossing is under attack and likely to fall.

Well,silly me. I should have placed Sej more close to the others. AH well, no use crying over spilt milk,as they say.

Meh, what would be the fun in that?

Actually having folks from all over is a good thing.  Lets us get a clearer picture of it all, and allows us to take action in more places.

Or all die alone.  You know, whatever.

Well the three of us are at least going to die horribly together, so neener neener?

Sej is playing the role of Pizza Delivary Driver for the Irish. He being the Pizza,as it where. "Those of us about to die, Salu....flip you off."

Could we make a pass at the Irish and still have time to escape before their knights arrive?  Last thing we want to do is get bogged down and swamped by weight of numbers.

It seems that the knights have been charging at the front of the foot soldiers at an angle, forcing the front ranks to stop, and then veering off.  Since there are not as many knights as there used to be, this is still a dangerous maneuver.

Going straight at them and through with lance damage would end with you being each surrounded by three footmen who would probably do their best to kill your horse or knock you off of it.  This is because there is a column of ~10 across that goes back a long way.  There are more than 200 foot soldiers and three dozen knights.

You can probably make a charge in an attempt to get the foot soldiers to block the knights that are riding up.  The knights are the real problem as the foot soldiers all move at roughly the same pace.

So we ourselves should be looking to charge at an angle and 'clip' the Irish foot, rather than straight on?

Yeah, coming from a shallow angle along the front, aiming to just take a tithe from their first rank and immediately wheel about and retreat.  I'm hoping we wound more men than we kill outright actually.  Wounded men require treatment and their fellows to drag them away, slowing things down.

Did we manage to kill/wound Irish soldiers on our charge?  Or were we just aiming to cause panic and not actually hit with lances?

It is not worth the risk to try to engage.  Anyway, killing a few would be fairly insignificant.  :)

Nicely done,Sir Knights. :)

Not good, not good at all. The GM won't even describe what hapepned to Sajanus.I hope the Irish at least give him a wake. ;)

Thanks Sejanus!  However it's now time to continue to retreat with our tails tucked between our legs.

Teller, what's the approximate strength of our force once we count the reinforcements?  Obviously not enough to hold here, but I'm just curious.

You currently have 28 knights and 40 soldiers.  It is probably as many as you will get.  You can round up a dozen or two people who could throw things or shoot a bow.  None would be terribly effective.  The town is emptying as fast as people can leave it.

It is afternoon and although they are bringing up materials for a siege, or at least to batter down your defenses and crush you, they do not appear to be planning an imminent attack.  The bridges over the Naddar and Wylye Rivers are outside of the gates, you cross them to get to the city.

They can't combine armies without taking Wilton but the army to your west can go north and cross the Wylye River at Stoford and get between you and Sarum.

Grr, if you'd told us the bridge across the Naddar was outside the walls we'd have destroyed that first.

Bridges on solid line roads (Good Roads) are stone.  Bridges on other roads are wood.  Destroying a bridge is not a simple task, as you could tell from when the Irish set the one in Escavalon on fire.  Even wooden bridges do not just go up in flames.


The bridge across the Naddar is what you used to go to and from Ebble.  Destroying it would have doomed those defending Ebble.  Since the knights were in hot pursuit of you afterwards, there was no time to destroy it, something that would take a great deal of effort anyway.

So the Wylye River runs just outside the walls of Wilton as a sort of moat to the South and West of the City.  There is a stone bridge over the main river to the south prior to it forking, which is on the road to Ebble.  There is another bridge to the West after the Wylye splits.  That is a wooden bridge that goes along the road out to your manors.

So there is no way we can prevent the Irish crossing?

I will try to draw a map that shows everything (I think).

It is just going to take a while.