The Battle Ends

To counter the assault of the Saxons the Normans had decided to bring the fight to the hard working Saxons. First an ambush unit of knights was prepared to strike at the Saxon tower. Two other Norman knight mounted up to make a sallie. One unit of Knights would charge from out of the ditch on the right and a second unit from out of the ditch on the left. The lord of the castle lead the charge on the castle's left. The knights mounted up as crossbowmen lined the bailey walls raining a hail of bolts.

By all accounts the sorties and general defense of the bailey was a complete failure for the Normans. Being arrogant as Normans can be the lord of the castle placed all of his crossbowmen along the wall rather than scattering them in various places. They were all picked off. The crossbow fire was generally terrible in regard to accuracy. By the end of the game there were few if any crossbowmen left and the advantage of the higher shell keep walls was lost.

On the right flank of the bailey the Norman knights dashed out hitting unit after unit. Eventually they were fought to a stand still and had to retreat. Their retreat was covered by a single unit of knights sent by the Duke. Between the two Norman sorties the Saxons managed to knock in the gates and fought desparately to fight their way into the bailey yard.

In advance of the the lord of the castle the ambushing Normans managed to reach the tower and burn it. Eventually they were driven back by fresh Saxon units. The lord of the castle made the fatal error of charging in column as the Saxons pursued the fleeing Norman knights who destroyed the tower. This meant that the Saxons could stand and receive in line giving them an advantage in numbers in each melee. The Normans would not give up making charge after charge. In the end the Norman lord was killed, all the garrison in the bailey killed or driven back into the shell keep and the battle lost.