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!

Washed Viking

The block painted Viking...

 ... has now been given a good coat of the Vallejo Sepia wash.  This is what we get:

It's far from being a miniature masterpiece but I think he'd look OK as part of a Saga Warband or a Lion Rampant retinue.  He may well serve as an Armorican Bacaudus when I get to that stage.

Another Evening Game

Jamie and I managed to play another game of Saga (our second) this evening.

We stuck to the same forces as last time; Jamie playing the Welsh and I the English (Anglo-Saxons if you insist).  This time the scenario involved two fords over a river.

The battlefield - English in the foreground with two units of levy at
the left hand ford and Warriors and Warlord approaching the right.
Four hearthguard in central reserve.  The Welsh are behind the trees.

I decided to defend one ford with my two large units of Levy.  I figured that, whatever Jamie threw at them, they were likely to last some time defending the river as the sheer number of men in the units would take some killing.  The rest of my army (Warlord, Hearthguard and Warriors) would rush forward and force a crossing of the other ford.  I started with the Hearthguard in a central reserve position to keep Jamie guessing.

Jamie currently plays the Welsh as just three units - Warlord, 12 Levy and 12 Hearthguard!  The last of these is a serious powerful unit.

This time we got the rules right (or at least righter).  Jamie got Saga dice based on the number of units, not their points value, and I used the right dice.  Apparently the pdf for the Anglo-Saxon dice symbols on the Saga website gives you the wrong mix of symbols.  As a result both armies should have been weaker than last time.

Jamie started by moving his Hearthguard into the woods opposite my Levy.  His Warlord and Levy moved through the other woods near the other (right hand to me) ford.  I already had my Levy at the left hand ford and rushed the rest of the army to the other ford.

Saxon levy roadblock

Crossing the right hand ford, the English warriors took the first casualty of the game from Welsh javelins.

On, on you noblest English!

The English Warriors charged into the Welsh Levy and the two Warlords clashed.  Jamie put all of his efforts (and Saga dice) into defence and the Welsh stood their ground heroically.  The English were forced to pull back.

However, now the English Hearthguard arrived across the ford to help.

Meanwhile, the Welsh Hearthguard charged towards the other ford and were met by the English Levy.

Again defensive Saga abilities were played (this time by me) and the English were able to hold the ford.

After turn 7 the final positions saw the English holding the left hand ford...

... and well established over the other for a 9-0 win.

Nine-nil to the Eng-er-land!

I'm beginning to feel like we're over the worst of learning the Saga system now.  We can begin learning the right tactics rather than struggling to understand if we're playing the game correctly.

All of the figures painted by Jamie.

First Go At Saga

Jamie has spent the last year or so building up a nice collection of 28mm Dark Ages figures with a view to trying out Saga.  As the title suggests, we finally got to give the rules a try this evening.  Sadly I only had my iPhone to hand so the pictures are rather poor.

I chose to play Anglo-Saxons (i.e. 7th century English) leaving Jamie with the Welsh.  I had a Warlord, unit of four Hearthguard, a unit of eight warriors and two units each of twelve levy.  Jamie also had the obligatory Warlord but then had two units of twelve figures, one of Hearthguard and one of Levy.  I think the Warlord was called Theakston (but I may have misheard).

Saga is, by repute, a game that you only learn to play properly after several goes.  Neither of us had played before and I'd seen neither rules nor battle board previously so this was very much a learning experience.

The English race for the woods

As Jamie's army were all armed with missile weapons and I had none, I decided to hide my Levy in the two woods and put my Warriors and Warlord in the centre.  The Hearthguard would stay at the back and redeploy as required depending on what Jamie did.

What he did was to move forward with his Levy on the right and his Teulu (Hearthguards) on the left.

He then taunted my Warriors into dashing forward (using a special ability on the Welsh battle board) and into javelin range causing me to take the first casualty of the game.

I was rather flummoxed by the fact that I had nothing that could take on his huge unit of hearthguard in close combat and he could shoot at distance whilst I couldn't.

As time was running out, I launched an all-or-nothing attack by my Warlord (backed up by his hearthguard) against his opposite number.  Sadly I wasn't able to take out the big man.

On the last turn Jamie launched his Hearthguard forward and wiped out my Warriors.  The three Hearthguard I killed in the process meant that Jamie one by four victory points to three.

We've decided to have another go with the same forces so we can get a better feel for what works and what doesn't.  Better photos next time.