Lord Gwendawg Rides West to Fend off Viking Incursion

Vikings at top face off against Lord Gwendawg's men of Gododdin (Welsh) at the Dragon Guildhall in Beavercreek

Adrian and Jim from Dayton were hosting a Saga game day at the Dragon Guildhall, and things worked out for Jenny and I to be able to drive over from Columbus and attend. Jenny wanted to play Vikings, so I picked out her army list from the Viking and Saxon figures I have available. I decided that I would pull out Lord Gwendawg, Guardian of Gododdin (Welsh Saga list), and let him and his oft-victorious warband ride again.

I decided to bring out Lord Gwendawg and my victorious Saga Welsh list since Jenny wanted to play Vikings

As it turned out, four of the six players wanted to do Saga: Age of Magic. So, that left Jenny and I as the only Age of Vikings armies. Our hosts apologized that we drove an hour and a half to play against each other, but I'd never been to the Dragon Guildhall, and was interested in checking it out. What's more, Jenny needed to exchange some Christmas presents with her brother in Dayton, so we visited him before the store opened. And we finished off the afternoon with a visit to her favorite pizzeria -- Cassano's, in Dayton.

The Welsh left, with the levy javelins advancing into the woods, while one of my large warrior units marches forward

Jenny and I set up the Clash of Warlords from the rulebook, and I threw out three medium to large woods. Jenny placed only a gentle hill, perhaps realizing that one of my Welsh battleboard abilities allowed my foot units to move through terrain at no penalty. So, terrain is good for me -- but not too much, as my strongest unit is a double-size (8 figure), mounted hearthguard unit. Rounding out my six points were two 12-man warrior units, a 12-man levy unit, and my mounted warlord. All figures were armed with javelins, which I've found to be very useful with the free shot when moving.

The standoff between the Welsh javelinmen and Viking archers was precisely that -- neither unit driving the other off

I deployed half my army first, intending my levy javelinmen to sweep around the woods on my left, but she blocked them with her own 12-man Viking bow levy unit in the woods. In the center, I placed both of my large warrior units, backed up by both my mounted troopers and my warlord. Jenny deployed her berserkers on her far left, with two additional small units of hearthguard on the center left. Her two 8-man warrior units guarded the center, with the warlord in reserve.

A mistaken charge by one of Jenny's warrior units left her right vulnerable to the Gododdin counterattack

I sent my javelin levy forward to exchange volleys with her archers, successfully soaking up her very nasty battleboard "Odin" ability. I brought my mounted hearthguard up to fill the hole created by the right hand warrior unit moving to a woods on the right to await the certain charge of the berserkers. As the berserkers ran foward, taking two moves to engage, I used my battleboard ability to get a shot in on them at the halfway point, killing only one of the four (disappointing die rolls). However, it was enough to lessen their impact. The berserkers died to a man -- as they seem to do in every game -- while my large warrior unit was whittled down from 12 figures to four (juuust enough to generate a Saga dice...whew!).

The 8-man, mounted hearthguard ride down the remaining Viking warrior unit in the center with a "Wild Charge"

In an equally aggressive spirit, she launched one of her warrior units forward to take on my 1/3 larger warrior units. With no dice left on her battleboard, it was a straight roll of 12 dice vs. 8, which she lost horribly. I lost only one, while she lost all but two. The same warrior unit immediately followed up and charged the survivors next turn, slaughtering them. This put a fatigue on another 8-man, Viking hearthguard unit. Lord Gwendawg waved forward his mounted riders to seize this opportunity. With the "Wild Charge" ability on my battleboard, we rolled 24 dice and wiped out the outnumbered Vikings.

After evading the Viking counterattack, the troopers returned to ride down a Viking hearthguard unit next

Jenny tried to counterattack with a fresh hearthguard unit, but my mounted troopers pulled back with "Evade." Why give them anything close to a fair fight, when I can go back in on my turn with overwhelming attack dice? Which is exactly what the mounted nobles of Gododdin did on the next turn -- after the Vikings had been softened up by javelins volleys from Lord Gwendawg and the depleted warrior unit on the right. Another Viking hearthguard unit was eliminated. Desperate to counterattack, the remaining unit of hearthguard ran foward to engage my larger warrior unit on my left. We once again threw volleys of javelins to soften up their charge in between their two moves.

Jenny cleverly used the "Loki" ability on her battleboard to limit my use of her unit's fatigue on her turns, as well as the advanced ability I'd saved up to defend against her counterattacks. However, even that couldn't save her last unit of hearthguard, who were swarmed under by overwhelming numbers of Welsh javelinmen. We called the game at that point, as only her levy archers and warlord remained. All Welsh units were still on the board, though a few were getting chewed up in the process of defeating the Vikings.

A picture of the Age of Magic game going on at the other table, where Adrian and Jim taught two new players

Adrian and Jim VERY generously gave both Jenny and I $25 gift cards to the Dragon Guildhall for driving over. Each of us picked out some treasures, and then celebrated our bounty with pizza at Cassano's. The guys say they want to have a regular monthly Saga game day there, so players of the game will have yet another venue and date to get in more games of Saga. A fun day, and successful day, as once again Lord Gwendawg and his doughty warriors protected their kingdom of Gododdin.