There are battles decided by careful manoeuvre, clever positioning and a sound appreciation of the tactical situation. Then there are battles decided because one knight takes a look at his opponent, lowers his lance and decides that the simplest solution is to ride straight at the beggar. This was very much one of the latter.

The hero of the day was Sir Roderick de Montfort, the Red Knight, resplendent in scarlet surcoat and apparently possessed of the quaint medieval belief that enemy commanders existed principally to be charged. Facing him was Lord Alaric de Veyne, the Blue Lord, whose magnificent blue livery concealed a rather more developed instinct for self preservation.

The lord and noble knight began on opposite sides of the field and, for a glorious moment, it appeared that we were going to get the proper medieval conclusion to the affair. Sir Roderick spotted his rival, spurred his horse forward and charged directly towards him. Lord Alaric watched the rapidly approaching Red Knight, considered the traditional requirements of chivalry and promptly decided that discretion was considerably more attractive than valour. The Blue Lord turned his horse about and retreated, leaving his retainers to discover whether Sir Roderick was as dangerous as he looked.

He was.

Denied his intended opponent, Sir Roderick simply continued forward and crashed into the Blue Lord’s unfortunate retainers. Several of them attempted to bar his path and were promptly cut down, scattered or ridden over as the Red Knight carved his way through the blue ranks. What had begun as a heroic charge rapidly became a mounted pursuit, with Lord Alaric disappearing into the distance while Sir Roderick followed behind, occasionally pausing only long enough to remove another inconvenient retainer from his path.

Lord Alaric’s men certainly did their duty. Unfortunately, their duty increasingly consisted of standing between an angry knight and the man he was determined to catch. One after another they were swept aside, while their noble lord continued his somewhat undignified tour of the battlefield. Sir Roderick, however, refused to be distracted. The Blue Lord had started the battle as his chosen opponent and, regardless of how many retainers had to be demolished along the way, he was going to finish it that way.

Eventually there was nowhere left to run. Sir Roderick finally caught Lord Alaric and the confrontation that should have occurred at the beginning of the battle took place after a lengthy chase across most of the battlefield. This time there would be no convenient line of retainers to sacrifice and no easy escape route. The Red Knight charged home and brought the dastardly Blue Lord down, ending what had become less a battle between two noble retinues and more an extremely determined personal vendetta conducted on horseback.

Thus ended the glorious pursuit of Sir Roderick de Montfort, the Red Knight, and the considerably less glorious career of Lord Alaric de Veyne, the Blue Lord. Alaric had tried manoeuvre, retreat and the liberal expenditure of his own retainers, but none proved sufficient against an opponent whose entire tactical doctrine consisted of “There he is. Get him.”

Sometimes medieval warfare really does not need to be any more complicated than that.

Blade and Banner can be found on Wargames Vault

All figures are from the now out of production Schleich Knights which sometimes can still be found still on eBay.