I once fought a 20 minute battle. I was a lord of Swadia, at war with the Nords, I was waiting at a recently captured castle, since it had no garrison. I hoped the king whould give it to me. As i waited i noticed that a Nord Jarl besieged the castle, and not very far behind were 7 of his fellow Jarls, I myself had around 100 men while they where around 1.000 . I hoped that backup whould show up, but when they came, they were too afraid to attack, and left me and this castle to our doom. Soon all the Lords were ready with the siege tower and were pushing it towards the walls.
I used my bow to take down the ones who pushed the tower, buying me some time to kill more Nords. I even managed to knock one of the lords out. When the siege tower reached the walls, the plank fell down and the Nords marched towards us. They had already lost around 50 men by my archers. On and on we held them off the walls, and kept them pinned on the plank. However they managed to break through and spread out inside the castle. All my men were killed or knocked down, i had no men left who were able to fight. At this time the Nords had lost over 200 men. I watched as 3 of them charged me, with another wave of them in the distance, running up the siege tower.
The 3 Nords within my grasps were all dead. They werent much of a challange, i didnt even get a scratch. However, the 30 Nords running up the castle stairs whould most likely kill me in a heartbeat. So i ran up the castle tower and used the rest of my arrows to take down 4 Nords. I resisted them as much as i could in the narrow staircase leading up the tower, killing 5. Until they managed to push me away so they could all fight me at once, But i whould never trap myself like that. I jumped down from the tower, and ran towards the siege tower. As they were climbing down the stairs and running towards me, i picked up as many arrows from the castle walls as i could. I then positioned myself in the doorframe of the second tower, shooting and killing 3 with the arrows i collected. Until they reached me i backed up a little, giving them only enough space to fight me one at a time. 6 more Nords fell by my sword.
My sheild was at the edge of its detruction, so i picked up a new one, who covered my whole body. The fighting in the doorframe was starting to be a little dangerous. I walked backwards, towards the staircase leading up the second tower. I climbed up while fighting, i managed to kill another Nord on the way up. The Nords knew excatly what was going to happen so they didnt bother coming up. Instead, one of them threw rocks at me while another shot arrows. I Turned around and saw that one of them had fallen behind, and was running towards the tower. I stepped up to the ledge of the tower wall, and jumped down with both hands on my sword, holding it up as i fell through the air, before i landed i swung the sword as hard as i could right into the top of the nords head, cutting through him down to the waist.
The Nord i just killed used throwing spears, so i picked them up and quickly turned around too face the remaining besiegers. I threw the spears at them, killing 3 and taking out the shields of all the rest, but one. The siege tower was right behind me, so i jumped up and stood there, waiting for the remaining 7 to come towards me. For some reason the Nords whouldnt get on the plank, so i battled them, 3 at a time, having the option to back away if i felt overrun. After i had killed 4 the rest managed to destroy the shield i had found. I had only my sword to fight the remaining 3. All of the sudden all three of them jumped up to the plank, with me completely surprised and unprepared, they got some nasty hits on me. I managed to kill 2 of them, but i was down to a point where one more hit whould end me. I had no shield and was fighting with a heavily armored man who happened to have a shield. He was so fast i had no time to counter attack. All i could do was defend myself from his blows. This went on until i had backed up down the siege tower and into the grassy hills. That is where a split of a second chance to counter attack flashed before me. My extreme opponent hesitated for half a second. I immediatly swung my sword from the right, into his chest, only less than a 1/100 of a second before his sword split my head in two. As my opponent fell down his helmet fell off, and i recognized his face instantly. It was in fact Ragnar, King of the Nords. I had no idea he was part of the siege, and i felt extremely powerfull, having taken on King Ragnar and 29 of his men, all by myself.
The rest of the Nord army retreated. They had no idea there was only one defender left standing.
Facts:
This was on Difficulty 122% or 112%, cant remember which it was, but it was as difficult as possible. I was around level 40 with very strong armor and a one handed/two handed sword with 42c swing. and my 100 man army were ~ 30/70 - Swadian Seargent/Swadian Infantry. so that is why they managed to kill most of the attackers.