EXPERIENCE THE THUNDEROUS CLASH of mounted knights in epic team battles with this premium excerpt from Knights of the Wood: The Duke’s Tourney — Sans AI Edition. Transform your Dolmenwood campaigns with authentic medieval tournament combat rules that balance large-scale tactical momentum with individual heroics!

Dynamic Phase-Based Combat System

Watch battles unfold through five dramatic phases, from Opening Gambit to desperate End-Game fighting. Meanwhile, the innovative Tide of Battle mechanic creates cinematic ebb and flow, ensuring every knight’s actions matter in determining victory or defeat!

Strategic Action Economy

Players make meaningful choices each phase with diverse Mêlée Actions: Rally the Troops to inspire allies, Counter Maneuver enemy tactics, Attack the Standard for decisive momentum, or Escort prize-worthy captives to back to your refuge and ransom them back to their lord!

Complete Tactical Framework

Our comprehensive system handles fatigue, morale, squire support, and the chaos of medieval warfare — all on just two streamlined pages! Additionally, Enemy Actions create dramatic pressure while victory conditions reward both individual prowess and team coordination.

Rich Opponent Gallery

Battle against the same memorable knights from the Joust excerpt, plus champions, finalists, foreign knights, and mysterious elf warriors. Consequently, each opponent brings unique personality, tactical challenges, and story hooks to your tournament.

Professional Game Master Tools

Streamline complex battles with detailed referee worksheets, phase tracking systems, and combat resolution guides. Moreover, generate knights on-the-fly or orchestrate elaborate scripted encounters with confidence.

Authentic Medieval Atmosphere

Capture the pageantry and politics of knightly warfare with realistic consequences, ransom systems, and honor-based victory conditions. As a result, your players will feel the weight of medieval chivalry in every charge.

Rigorously Playtested with Play Example

Learn these tournament combat rules quickly with an extensive play example featuring Sir Roslyn and Sir Gareth, showing how tactical decisions, lucky rolls, and dramatic reversals create unforgettable gaming moments.

Whether you’re running Duke Thespian’s grand tournament or creating your own knightly competitions, this mêlée system provides the depth and excitement to make every team battle legendary.

This excerpt focuses on epic team battles and complements Excerpta 1: The Joust — Sans AI Edition perfectly. Part of the complete Knights of the Wood: The Duke’s Tourney — Sans AI Edition tournament system.

This is an unofficial Dolmenwood-compatible product, under the Dolmenwood 3rd-party License. © 2024 Necrotic Gnome. Dolmenwood® and all related characters and elements © 2024 Necrotic Gnome. All Rights Reserved.

Additional Product Details

Page Count: 19 pages
Publisher: Press Perilous
Author: Malcolm Wolter with Veli-Matti Pelkonen
Compatibility: Dolmenwood RPG, OSR systems, adaptable to other fantasy RPGs
Release Date: October 2025
Product Type: Digital supplement excerpt (PDF)
Parent Product: Knights of the Wood: The Duke’s Tourney — Sans AI Edition
AI-assissted Artwork? None