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Ashland Tactical Challenge Event Round 2

Ashland Tactical Challenge Event Round 2

This event is now closed.

The Winner is Gromschlog!

Runner up is Terham!

Congratulations again to Gromschlog and as a reward a gift card prize!

Greetings Elyrians! In the interests of community building and general fun Ashland is hosting an ongoing event for the next few months!

The premise and rules are simple. Every month, or thereabouts, a scenario for a battle will be posted to the forums. These battle scenarios will all be based on historical battles. Each scenario will be presented in such a way as to most accurately represent the historical situation.

Only the situation leading up to the battle such as the general strategic situation, disposition of the commanders, composition of the armies, and other relevant information will be provided. The historical battle the scenario is based on and the historical participants will be omitted. Further, the scenario will be presented from the point of view of the historical winner.

Each round the battle scenario presented will become progressively more difficult, but the side presented to the contestants will always be the side of the historical winner. There are by definition no unwinnable scenarios despite how difficult the third and final scenarios may be.

In this contest every contestant will submit at least one page and no more than three pages explaining their plan to win the battle scenario presented. Submissions ought to be in Times New Roman 12 pt font and double spaced, or similarly formatted. Please include your forum name on the submission, and title the submission with your forum name so that the reviewers can tell them apart from each other. These rules are meant to keep the review process flowing smoothly so that everyone’s proposals are fairly judged, so please be concise. If a submission is deemed exceed these parameters too an excessive degree it will be disqualified. Please be considerate of the reviewer’s time.

At the end of two weeks all the submissions will be reviewed and an overall winner selected. The winner of Round 2 will receive a $20 gift card to the COE store. The winner’s proposal will be updated in this post and they will receive their $20 gift card at that time, along with the runner ups submission. We will present the historical outcome of the battle, its name, date, location, and the participants. Finally, any honorable mentions if applicable will also be seen here. Please post any questions in the comments below.

The Challenge

Your army is a professional force of well trained, disciplined, and well-equipped soldiers numbering around 7,000 soldiers in total with 1,300 knights. Your soldiers are all heavily armed and armored. Even your infantry are well armored with heavy mail and among some superior units partial plate. Your knights are all in full plate armor, and they are all quite experienced warriors. There are no significant ranged units in your army.

You are responding to an invasion force by a coalition of allied nations who have deployed a united army against you. The allied army numbers around 9,000 soldiers with around 1,500 knights. Their units are just as well armed and armored as yours, however their soldiers are less experienced than yours. There are no significant ranged units in the enemy army.

The allied army consists of three divisions of roughly equal size with the third division being slightly larger than the other two. Division F consists of predominately infantry with some cavalry support. Division G consists of equal parts infantry and cavalry. Division E consists of mostly infantry with cavalry support. All three divisions are under the command of different leaders, but all are under the overall command of the Division G leader. Of special note, Division F is the army of rebellious lords from your own kingdom.

You have just reached a village on the banks of a substantial river when news of the enemy’s location and movements reaches you. The enemy is bearing down on you as fast as their army can move and will be on you within the day. Division F forms the vanguard; Division G the center; and Division E the rear. As the King of your nation, now facing two invading nations commanded by a foreign monarch and allied with rebels against your own crown, the political consequences of withdrawing in the face of their advancing forces would most severe, and bring you great dishonor, leaving you little real choice but to fight. The village you army is now located in is not fortified in any way. It is located on a large flat plain surrounded on the west by the river, and in all other directions by marsh or sparse woodlands. The weather is fair and there has be no recent significant precipitation.

Closing Details

It is your job to formulate a strategic and tactical plan for defeating the enemy force while preventing as much of their force from escaping as possible. Only the forces mentioned in the scenario should be taken into consideration; it is assumed that neither side will receive further reinforcements in the foreseeable future.

In your submission please be as detailed as you can. If you have any questions please post them in the comments below.

Due to the fact that the scenario is based on a real-world battle exact numbers for army elements may not available for every battle. As such a certain amount of leeway will be given as regards interpretation of exact army compositions. Please be reasonable and use your best judgment.

All submissions should be sent via e-mail to: [email protected]

After the winner has been chosen all submissions will be available to be viewed on

Google Drives at: Ashland Tactical Challenge Round 2

Please Note:

I, Sev Kimura, am merely helping promote and sponsor these events, but am not running them. Please refer to Barleyman in this regard and if you have any questions, please reply to this thread and I hope you have a little fun with this contest!

6/19/2019 7:36:49 AM #1

Is the enemy crossing the river to attack me, or am I crossing the river to reach the village? Any bridge?

Are there any particular reasons the enemies are rushing towards me? lack of food? fear of winter?

Is the village big enough to house the whole army?

Do the enemy know my army size?

Is it safe to assume the enemy has to get through forest / woods to reach me?


Never argue with an idiot, cuz he will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

Vice mayor of Lux Verloren

6/19/2019 4:31:02 PM #2

@Roarer

Seriously thought I put the enemy is on the same side of the river as you, (sigh). I guess not. There is a bridge over the river in the village, fyi.

They are rushing at you because they are impetuous and overconfident.

No, if it was that big it would probably have fortifications.

Roughly, yes.

The terrain they are crossing isn't particularly difficult ground, but yes, they will be passing through some sparse woodlands and some marshy areas. We're not talking German black forest though, it's not particularly thick.


6/19/2019 5:23:26 PM #3

is the bridge the only way to cross the river or are there other ways? so... could you simply cross the bridge to have it between your armies which would by far decrease the effect of army size and make skills/experience far more important? Is there even enough time to cross the bridge with the whole army, before the enemy arrives?


Friend Code: 30EF47

6/19/2019 7:35:00 PM #4

@Gromschlog

The bridge is the only way to cross the river. The river is too big for a bunch of men covered in metal to ford.

I don't know... why don't you try it and find out? XD

Good question. Given the size of the village (small to medium) and the probable corresponding size of the bridge; about how long do you suppose it would take to move 7000 soldiers and their baggage train across it? If the enemy is only a few hours away do you think you could make it in time? It's a bit of a gamble, but revealing my interpretation of the likely results is kind of telling. It's your call.


6/20/2019 6:42:22 PM #5

@Gromschlog

To be more direct in reference to your last two questions. What you are asking me has to do with the outcome of decisions. You're not asking me about information which exists at the beginning of the scenario. You're asking me about what the outcome of x or y decision would be.

I'm not going to tell you the outcomes of possible decisions so there's no point in asking. If I tell you the potential/probable outcomes that defeats the purpose of the challenge.

I apologize for being a bit flippant toward you to begin with as I would have thought this was obvious, but if I start telling people what would or could happen for every hypothetical decision they could make it stops being a challenge and will pretty quickly become a debate hall since everyone and their poodle is going to want to argue with me about tactical theories.

It was specifically for this reason that we are restricting the subject of the challenge to real world warfare only. When it comes to the real world there's much less speculation and theory crafting and much more genuine data. If you want to see some sources/credentials I'd be happy to provide them.

As far as your questions go, however, you're never going to get answers to those kinds of inquiries. I'm not going to tell you the results of a decision in advance. If you think that's unfair then consider that people fought many life and death struggles on real battlefields where every decision could only be made once, there were no do-overs and few second chances.

Could you simply cross the bridge? Uh... yes. Obviously. So, you're asking implicitly would you be able to cross the bridge without disaster. Well, that's a good question, you've been given all the information available; make a judgement call, that's the point of the whole exercise.

I don't know if there's enough time. It's mid to early morning and the enemy might be on you before lunch, maybe it will be later than that. Maybe the first elements of the enemy army will attack as soon as they arrive. Maybe they'll form up and wait for the rest of their forces to join them before attacking. Why would I tell you in advance what's going to happen? Think about it and make a judgement call, roll the dice.

How far away was the enemy when your scouts encountered them? How fast is the enemy moving? You don't have exact detailed maps, and you don't have eyes on the enemy at all times. You can't get exact numbers, they don't exist. How long would it take to move your army across the bridge? If you move across the bridge will the enemy bother to attack you? Maybe, maybe not. I'm not going to give you my personal estimation, use your best judgement.


6/20/2019 7:00:35 PM #6

6/20/2019 7:13:46 PM #7

@Gromschlog

Gosh, I didn't even consider how your proud knights, nobles, and soldiers are going to react when they realize you're moving them across the bridge in order to avoid the battle. Are your knights going to be annoyed because you shrunk the front line down to width of a bridge where only infantry are useful? Are you going to manage it in a timely manner if your troops are actively opposed to your orders, or if moving across the bridge puts them into confusion or disorder? The questions are just piling up, and simply asking them of you is giving you more information and assistance than you should really have. The point is these are not plastic figurines. The fog of war means losing contact with your own units as soon as they're out of sight.

What do you think would happen? Use your best judgement.


6/24/2019 4:18:54 PM #8

Knights = cavalry, right ? No mercenaries, for instance ?


Barony of Kern’s gate

6/24/2019 4:19:59 PM #9

Posted By Terham at 10:18 AM - Mon Jun 24 2019

Knights = cavalry, right ? No mercenaries, for instance ?

There are no mercenaries. The enemy force is a force of mixed nationalities, but none of them are mercenaries. For the sake of simplicity I lumped mounted man-at-arms into the same category with knights. Technically not all the cavalry on either side are knights. As for numbers, the enemy outnumbers you by a small margin.


6/24/2019 10:02:00 PM #10

As the allied enemies invade our country and only a part of them are rebels from our country... is it right to guess that we know the area much better than the enemy? As in, we know quite exactly where swamps/marshes are, while the enemy only has a rough idea of the terrain? Or is the terrain well-known to everyone, as the rebels are partly from where the battle will likely be? We know those rebels and where they are from, dont we?

Is the "large flat plain" much larger than the village itself, as in large enough to be a battlefield on solid ground? How far can one generally look where we are... are there some hills (or are the woods dense enough) to hide troops and ambush or something like that or would moving troops be clearly seen early enough to react?


Friend Code: 30EF47

6/24/2019 10:57:14 PM #11

Is there any light cavalry and if so what are the general ratios of the forces cav wise?


6/24/2019 11:24:47 PM #12

Posted By Gromschlog at 4:02 PM - Mon Jun 24 2019

As the allied enemies invade our country and only a part of them are rebels from our country... is it right to guess that we know the area much better than the enemy? As in, we know quite exactly where swamps/marshes are, while the enemy only has a rough idea of the terrain? Or is the terrain well-known to everyone, as the rebels are partly from where the battle will likely be? We know those rebels and where they are from, dont we?

Is the "large flat plain" much larger than the village itself, as in large enough to be a battlefield on solid ground? How far can one generally look where we are... are there some hills (or are the woods dense enough) to hide troops and ambush or something like that or would moving troops be clearly seen early enough to react?

The enemy has as much awareness of the terrain as you do. Given that they are aware of your presence their scouts have been making the rounds as it were. The rebels are not from anywhere close by.

The plain is large enough for the battle. I believe the horizon is about three miles away for the average human, further if you're on a horse. It depends upon their numbers, a large force is likely to be spotted.


6/24/2019 11:26:34 PM #13

Posted By LordMayorMatt at 4:57 PM - Mon Jun 24 2019

Is there any light cavalry and if so what are the general ratios of the forces cav wise?

The forces involved have already been described. There are enough cavalry, typically armored man-at-arms, to scout the surrounding area efficiently, but I wouldn't call them light.


6/25/2019 3:20:36 PM #14

Posted By Barleyman at 01:26 AM - Tue Jun 25 2019

Posted By LordMayorMatt at 4:57 PM - Mon Jun 24 2019

Is there any light cavalry and if so what are the general ratios of the forces cav wise?

The forces involved have already been described. There are enough cavalry, typically armored man-at-arms, to scout the surrounding area efficiently, but I wouldn't call them light.

well... wikipedia does^^ "The battle opened with an attack by 150 light cavalrymen" :P And actually, the wiki mentions roughly 2000 mercs on the french side (none for the allied troops though). But I dont like the historical battle... besides one or two interesting moves, thats just a boring massacre with the usual medieval reports: the knights, as the clearly superior troops, slaughtered everyone and were the only relevant fighters, while the infantry simply got massacred... Sure, realistic and usual... but boring. So I guess, I'll try a more interesting tactic, even though that wont make me win a trophy^^


Friend Code: 30EF47

6/25/2019 3:42:34 PM #15

Posted By Gromschlog at 09:20 AM - Tue Jun 25 2019

Posted By Barleyman at 01:26 AM - Tue Jun 25 2019

Posted By LordMayorMatt at 4:57 PM - Mon Jun 24 2019

Is there any light cavalry and if so what are the general ratios of the forces cav wise?

The forces involved have already been described. There are enough cavalry, typically armored man-at-arms, to scout the surrounding area efficiently, but I wouldn't call them light.

well... wikipedia does^^ "The battle opened with an attack by 150 light cavalrymen" :P But I dont like the historical battle... besides one or two interesting moves, thats just a boring massacre... So I guess, I'll try a more interesting tactic^^

PM, what you think the historical battle is.