Slaughter in Hibernia

Jamie and I played a game of Saga on Tuesday evening.  In honour of our forthcoming visit to the Emerald Isle, Jamie played Norse-Gaels and I played Vikings.  It was the first time we'd used these forces so we had to get to grips with two new battle-boards.

The scenario, if such we can call it, was a simple go-out-there-and-kill-the-enemy job.  The setting was farmland on the edge of a Norse-Gael village.

I had two units of Warriors and two of Hearthguard in addition to my leader.

Jamie's Warlord had brought one unit of Warriors and two of Hearthguard, one of which was a double sized unit (eight men).  Jamie's Warriors had javelins and his big unit of Hearthguard had Dane-axes.

I decided to try and steer clear of the big unit and charge forward to bring the rest of Jamie's warband to battle as soon as possible.

My two units of Hearthguard led the way while the warlord led forward one of the groups of bondi (Warriors)...

Meanwhile the other group of Bondi tried a right hook around one of the huts...

Jamie's Warlord advanced in the centre with the smaller unit of Hearthguard and the javelin-armed Warriors.

A rain of javelins fell on my foremost unit of Hearthguard but no-one was killed.  There then followed a battle between two units of Hearthguard.  Jamie started it off by challenging one of my men to a duel (duels are big for the Norse Gaels) but he managed to lose.  We then fought the melee between the survivors and thanks to kind Saga dice I was able to wipe Jamie's guys out for but a single loss.

At this point my Warlord arrived on the scene.  I'd lined up the Saga dice to allow a charge by the Warlord and the unit of three Hearthguard at Jamie's Warlord.  I would use a couple of Saga abilities to add a shedload of combat dice and to reduce his armour but Jamie was alert to the danger.

He used a Saga ability of his own to challenge my "champions" to a series of duels.  Rolling five dice to my two, he won all three duels to leave the Warlords fighting one-on-one...

Fortunately, I still had one usable Saga ability lined up and my Warlord scored three unsaved hits  to win the single combat.

That left just the large, Dane-axe-armed unit of Hearthguards left to fight.   By this time Jamie was down to one Saga dice so I was able to power up my as-yet unused Warriors with every relevant ability going.  I think we may have rolled a couple more dice than I strictly should have but with the option to trade friendly casualties for additional combat dice and with a reroll on each miss I was able to build up a frightening quantity of hits.  Jamie's last unit was wiped out.  Truly a slaughter in Hibernia!