(TFT) Gentlemen, place your bets...

[Sgt Hulka <hulkasgt@yahoo.com>]

It so happened in those days of yore in merry old England that two Knights made acquaintance on the road Christchurch. Being of a charitable nature, the cavaliers decided to share both road and conversation. The pleasantries began most congenially, with the Gray Knight remarking how the fallen autumn leaves beautifully matched the Black Knight's golden spurs. The Black Knight agreed that this was the sweetest of seasons, excepting of course the campaigning season that began in the spring. Finding themselves so like minded, the cavaliers' conversation turned this way and that until they began to wax poetic about the goodly ladies of the realm. The Gray Knight was quite convinced that it was the flaxen-haired girls of the north, plump of face and round of figure, that deserved the greater attention. While the Black Knight was equally insistent that it was the brunette beauties of the South, long, lean and dainty like the darting doe of virgin forest. 

The Gray Knight conceded that such a skittish creature might be a fine companion for the common man, but a Knight aspires to greater virtue and therefore his lady must also aspire to greater beauty. And no greater beauty could be found than in the North, where, he argued, the sun is so oft hidden beneath the horizon that Apollo has seen fit to give some of that celestial orb's grandeur to that clime's women.

That is all well and good if you are dazzled by the gaudy glare of something so boorish as the sun, countered the Black Knight. Who is Apollo, after all, and what role does he play in the adventure of courtly love? Better to be ruled by Cupid, who, taking pity on the fawn, has gifted the women of the south with both that creature's color and its natural grace, turning barb against hunter, and thereby smiting him through the heart with love's sharp arrow.

The Gray Knight was quite unconvinced by that argument. Further, he felt the Black Knight had quite over stretched the metaphor.

The Black Knight believed that comparing anything to the sun was a tired cliche, and that his own metaphor was far superior.

The Gray Knight called out into the forest, asking if there might be any poet or troubador, learned in letters and the poetic arts, who might settle the argument for them. But, alas, all that came back in answer was the drumming of a woodpecker.

Both Knights immediately concluded that the matter could only be decided through the gentle debate of broken lances. Fortunately, some miles down the road, they found a yeoman's hedge that, once hacked by their swords, served admirably as a tilting-yard. Taking up their lances, they prepared to defend the truths that each felt was self-evident. 

THE WORTHY JOUSTING OPPONENTS:

GRAY KNIGHT ST 13 DX 15 (11) IQ 8 Sword, Polearms, Ax/Mace, Shield, Horsemanship
Chainmail (3/3), Small Shield (0/1), Cavalry Lance, Bastard Sword
16 MA Horse

BLACK KNIGHT ST 11 DX 14 (11) IQ 11 Ax/Mace, Polearms, Shield, Horsemanship, Expert Horsemanship, Tactics
Chainmail (3/3), Small Shield (0/1), Spear, Mace
16 MA Horse

TILTING YARD CONSISTING OF THREE STANDARD MELE MAPS:
.=Space marker; ignore
*=Center of Hex
#=Center of Melee Map entry hexes
^=Tilt Barrier
G=Gray Knight's Leaning Hex
g=Gray Knight's Horse Hex
B=Black Knight's Leaning Hex
b=Black Knights Horse Hex

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Who will prevail?
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