Dozen Games at Guardtower, Dozen Sagas to Tell

Jenny's Viking berserkers lead the charge against Lowell's Anglo-Saxon battleline

We continue to attract new players to our monthly Saga game days at the Guardtower East game store on the east side of Columbus. With a handful of players out sick with the crud that has been going around, we still managed to have 13 players fight out a dozen battles over the course of a Sunday morning and afternoon between Christmas and New Year's. Once again, I took Sigurd Skullsplitter's Anglo-Danish army of Jorvik.

Close up of the brave (& usually doomed, in the games I've played) berserkers taking on the entire Anglo-Saxon warband

My first game was one of the scenarios from Book of Battles called "Prized Possessions." I would be trying to escort three baggage wagons across the table from my base edge to that of my opponent -- Anthony, also playing Anglo-Danes. I had skimmed the scenario rules this morning to make sure I had the proper terrain, but should have read the victory conditions more closely. I knew that I would get the most victory points if the wagons exited the table on Anthony's board edge, and would lose the most if they were destroyed. However, I incorrectly recalled that if they were still alive at the end of the game I would receive victory points, but a smaller amount. Actually, I would be penalized in this case.

Sigurd Skullsplitter's attempt to punch through on the right, led by a large warrior unit and hearthguard in the woods

What's more, I should have pre-measured the distance from baseline to baseline (two of my wagons would march onto the board on my first turn). As it turns out, the wagons must move a full Medium move distance every turn to have a chance of exiting the table edge. If they're held up for even one turn (such as by the presence of enemy troops), the odds become longer at achieving your victory. I am beginning to become less enchanted with the scenarios from Book of Battles. I simply don't think they are balanced. On the table behind me, Mike S and Dave W were playing Pillage -- which I had played at the last meeting and found very unbalanced against the raider. Their game produced similar feelings - there seems no way for the attacker to win. I would be curious to see how others feel about the scenarios in the book. Honestly, I haven't been impressed, thinking perhaps they weren't adequately play tested?

Sigurd's warrior unit drives off Anthony's warrior unit to try to clear a path for the wagons

Anyway, Sigurd Skullsplitter's force was identical to previous games, with two large units of 12 warriors and two units of 6 hearthguard each. Although this gives me only five units when you include the Warlord himself, I like the survivability of larger units. Each of the three baggage wagons had Determination, so their movement would not be a drain on my Saga dice. I set up my army to punch through on my right, screening the wagons with one of my large warrior units, whose flank was guarded by a hearthguard unit advancing through a forest on my right. Not having played the scenario before (nor counted out the distances), I was WAY too methodical in my advance. I was more concerned with protecting the wagons than a pell-mell charge across the table.

The left half of my force followed along slowly -- our two centers essentially ended up just countering each other

One of the Anglo-Danes' main abilities on their battle board is to put fatigue on enemy units. Both Anthony and I did this regularly, which further slowed down our attempts to close with each other. A unit of Levy archers stood in the way of my advance, shooting at us as we closed. My warriors did drive off his smaller warrior unit which guarded their flank. Anthony countered with a charge by a unit of hearthguard, who shattered my large unit and drove it back into the wagons. I riposted with a charge by my own larger hearthguard unit, which sent his reeling back, down to one survivor. I set it up to use Sigurd himself to drive off the archers, but Anthony astutely launched a spoiling attack on my warlord with his warlord, pushing him back.

Mike S's Last Romans on left attempt to pillage an aggressively-defended Welsh village

Sigurd's attempt to take advantage of his fatigued warlord ended in disaster and the loss of my hearthguard unit. I brought Sigurd back up to try to force the issue, again, driving back his archers. It was simply too little, too late, though. There would be no way we could clear out his units guarding his table edge. Honors in kills were close, with Anthony having a slight edge. Victory points for the wagons took him over the top, though, and Anthony won, 11-3.

Jim's Byzantine army marshals its battle line in one of its two battles

My second game was against a new player, Adam. Steve P had sat him down to play his father, Christian, in the first game. Dad's Normans triumphed over Adam's Vikings, but both were spoiling for a second game. Adam and I set up a Clash of Warlords game, with several forests dominating the flanks and center of the board. I coached Adam on how he could rearrange his points and units, and he chose to combine his two hearthguard Viking units into one big, 8-man unit, leaving the rest at minimum sized units. He placed his double hearthguard unit and his Warlord on the extreme left of his line. I promptly marched my Warrior unit facing them towards the center, and the Hearthguard on that side into one of the woods to delay the clash with these two powerful units.

Close up of Jim's Byzantine infantry and their draco standard

In the meantime, I marched my other large warrior unit forward and hurled back one of his 8-man warrior units. My warrior's left was guarded by the advance of a hearthguard unit, which was hurrying to close the distance with a unit of levy archers shooting at us from a wooded hill. I felt bad for Adam when he brought up a fresh 8-man warrior unit, loaded up with abilities from his Viking board, and charged into my bigger unit. He sacrificed two figures with Valhalla and used another ability to roll 17 dice to my 10. Uh-oh, I thought. He's beating me at MY game. However, Adam's dice completely failed him. He caused only two casualties, while I savaged his unit. Bad luck for the new player!

Anthony's Anglo-Danes advance against Jim's Byzantines in a second round matchup

I followed up and destroyed the depleted unit on the next turn. His first Warrior unit charged in, again, driving my unit back, but whittling us both down to three figures. These two remnant units spent the rest of the game resting and eyeing each other warily. My hearthguard crashed into his levies, but Adam's luck returned, and he lost only two of them to one of my figures. I would spend the rest of the game charging into his levies with the hearthguard, eventually destroying them on the last turn of the game.

Stop me if you've heard this before: Jenny's berserkers lead the charge...this time against Jon's Irish

Meanwhile, the showdown on the center-right was looming. I slowed his advance enough with fatigue enough to be able to concentrate three units against his two -- one large warrior unit, a hearthguard unit, and Sigurd himself. What followed was a knock-down, drag-them-out slugfest. Both of our hearthguard units were slowly whittled down, as were my warriors. Although both warlords were brought to exhaustion, neither of us could strike the killing blow. There were tense moments for each of us, but all five units were still facing off against each other when the sixth turn ended.

The climax of game two - Sigurd Skullsplitter trades blows with the Viking warlord

It was VERY close on points. I ended up squeaking out a victory, 20-16. Adam played a great game, and showed he was picking up the tactics and use of the Viking battle board well. I was impressed. With a couple breaks, he could easily have won this game. His awful start on dice rolling handicapped him, but his luck returned at the end when I could have killed his warlord. Fun game!

Dave W borrowed my Welsh (being of Welsh ancestry) and went 2-0 for the day, defeating Steve's Romans

Only one of the 13 players had to leave after round one (Steve P had not played the first round, shepherding Christian and Adam through the rules). Here are the results of a great day of Saga gaming:

Round One

• Anthony's Anglo-Danes defeated Mike D's Anglo-Danes in Prized Possessions, 11-3.
• Jenny's Vikings tied Jon's Irish, 20-19 in Clash of Warlords. 
• Dave W's Welsh defeated Mike S's Last Romans in Pillage, 19-7.
• Lowell's Anglo-Saxons tied Daniel's Norse-Gaels in Desecration, 16-16.
• Andy's Anglo-Saxons defeated Jim's Byzantines in Desecration (no score tabulated).
• Christian's Normans defeated Adam's Vikings in Clash of Warlords, (no score tabulated).

Round Two

• Mike D's Anglo-Danes defeated Adam's Vikings in Clash of Warlords, 20-16.
• Jenny's Vikings defeated Lowell's Anglo-Saxons in Clash of Warlords, 29-20.
• Christian's Normans defeated Mike S's Last Romans in Clash of Warlords, (no score tabulated).
• Dave W's Welsh defeated Steve P's Romans in Clash of Warlords, (no score tabulated).
• Jim's Byzantines defeated Anthony's Anglo-Danes in Clash of Warlords, (no score tabulated).
• Andy's Anglo-Saxons defeated Daniel's Norse-Gaels in Clash of Warlords, 33-20.

For those counting, we had two players each using Anglo-Danes, Vikings, and Anglo-Saxons. We had all varieties of Rome, with one player each using Romans, Last Romans, and Byzantines. Representing the Celts, we had Welsh, Norse-Gaels, and Irish. And finally, one player used Normans. The bulk of the armies continue to come from the Age of Vikings book, with only the Byzantines being from the Crusades book. The Romans are from the Aetius & Arthur book, of course.

Another great day of Dark Ages wargaming -- worthy of the sagas! We look forward to welcoming back our friends who were under the weather, today, and growing even more!