Lead Legionaries: Trying out the Saga Tourney Scenarios at Dragons Guildhall

Father's Day matchup between father and son - Mike S advance his Vikings while son Jason watches

One of the disadvantages of having a set date for meetings is they sometimes fall on holidays. That was the case this past Sunday at the Dragons Guildhall when our third Sunday also happened to be Fathers Day. We had only nine players show up, down from our usual dozen-plus of the last few meetings. Regular meeting days help everyone stay on a schedule and probably increase attendance long term, but holiday hiccups are always a danger. Our next meeting on the first Sunday at Guardtower East falls on the 4th of July, so we may see a fall off that day, as well.

Jason's Byzantine Saga army patiently waits for the Viking advance, ready to counterstrike

I'd been suggesting to our Saga Ohio group that we should use our game days to test out the Book of Battles scenarios that are planned for the upcoming tournaments at Advance the Colors (Oct. 2) and Cincycon (Oct. 23). At ATC, I will be running Feasting & Pillaging for Game #1 and Old Feud for #2. At Cincycon, Adrian is planning on using Desecration, The Crossing, and Claiming Territory. The attendees must have taken my advice to heart and four of those five scenarios were played in the games at Dragons Guildhall that day. I think playing them in advance will not only help players do better in their games, but it will also make things go more smoothly as more players have some experience in the scenario. Otherwise, mistakes may be made, questions need to be asked, and in general, more time will be taken figuring out the scenarios. As a group, we are not used to timed games, so anything we can do to streamline the games is a plus.

Adrian's Epirote Greeks (and cool objective marke) make their first appearance at a Saga Game day

One of the first games to get underway was a Fathers Day special -- Jason S challenged his dad Mike S to a battle. Jason was playing Byzantines from Age of Crusades and Mike had chosen Vikings. The two were playing Old Feud, so discussed the various characters first before making their choices. Mike was looking for a little revenge from earlier this month when the two squared off in the Epic Saga game. Jason was not influenced by it being a holiday to honor dads and promptly dispatched his father 20-5 in their game.

Aaron moves up his mounted Normans while his brother, Adrian, makes plans to counter their move

Not father-son, but the next match was brother vs. brother. Adrian and Aaron J had yet to play each other in any of our Saga game days, so figured it was time to rekindle the sibling rivalry. They selected Claiming Territory as their scenario to fight out. Adrian was fielding his Age of Hannibal Graeculi (Epirote faction) for the first time at one of our meetings. His brother fielded his Normans, which grow closer and closer to being fully painted. I chided him that he has a deadline of ATC to get them painted by if he wants to enter the tournament. I'm being a bit of a purist and insisting on painted armies. I know other game systems (and other Saga groups) allow unpainted figures on the tabletop. However, I have always held the line on that and insist in my tournaments that armies must be painted. This is miniatures, not board games. And if you can play with them already, what's the real incentive to paint them up? I know others may disagree, but it's just the way I feel.

Aaron's Normans charge across the bridge into their second opponent, Jim B's Vikings

Adrian defeated Aaron 12-0 in their game. I think Claiming Territory is one of the stranger scenarios from Book of Battles. The only real incentive for engaging your opponent's army is to push them away from Objective Markers. You score points only by laying claim to the markers and keeping enemy away from them. It will be interesting to see how the games with this scenario play out. I'm worried that there won't be a lot of action, and instead we will see armies squatting on markers instead of charging their enemies. I could be wrong, though. I did suggest that a scorecard is included on the tabletop for players in this battle, due to the frequent times you count up points in this game.

Dave E's Romans deploy to face Jenny's Vikings in one of our two Claiming Territory scenarios

Another of the battles featured Claiming Territory. This was between Jenny's Vikings and Dave E's Romans. There is a definite learning curve in some of the Book of Battles scenarios. Jenny said that Dave seemed a bit reluctant to move to claim markers and spent a lot of his time sitting back and firing his manuballista at her Norsemen. There were a limited number of melees, she said. Jenny quickly caught on to how to score in this scenario and won handily, 22-11.

Mike S's 28mm Vikings charge across the battlefield, eager to come to grips with their Byzantine foes

There was only one second round game today, and that was Jim B (who sat out the first round) matched against Aaron J. Jim fielded his Vikings and Aaron was trying again with his Normans. They played The Crossing, one of Jim's favorites, he said. He enjoys it so much that all eight of his battle boards that he constructed are two-sided. One one side they have a standard flat surface and on the other it is carved to represent the river going across the center of the table. Jim did an amazing job with these, putting in model railroad water material and sculpting a ford for each board. All of his modeling mastery did not help him in this matchup, though, as Aaron was able to defeat him. The Normans got their revenge and Jim got a chance to play on one of sculpted river boards!

Moorish deployment in my game of 'Desecration' against Bob B's Baltic Crusaders

My own game was against Bob Boggs, who I have faced only once previously. I apologized to Bob for the ATC tournament's ban on Legendary Units (or leaders). Every tournament I found except the Saga World Cup seemed to ban the use of legendary units or leaders. Bob really enjoys playing these, whether Henry the Lion with his Baltic Crusaders or the cataphract unit with the Late Romans. I suggested he begin tinkering with his army and get some practice games in without his armies without them. Since armies will be permitted one mercenary unit at my ATC 2021 Saga Tournament, he wanted to field his Baltic Crusaders with Western Knights. I helped him create his list, and he decided to go with 3 points of mounted hearthguard knights in a unit of four figures and eight figures. He chose the Western Knights (mounted warriors), and two points of levy crossbowmen.

Crusader crossbow-armed levy guard two of the objective markers that Bob placed

I would be facing him with my Moors. My Carolingians are down to the warlord stand left to paint, so I will likely soon switch over to playing them for awhile. I went with my usual list of 3 points of mounted hearthguard with javelins divided into two units of six figures. I also fielded my usual two units of foot warriors and one of levy archers. We would be playing the Desecration scenario, which I think I had played -- at most -- only once before. It took us awhile to realize that the Objective Markers are not ones you are trying to seize control of and drag off, like in Feasting & Pillaging. Nor are they the Claiming Territory markers you are trying to stand next to and fend off enemies. These you are literally trying to destroy, or desecrate. The rules encourage you to melee them not shoot at them. Their armor vs. shooting is a "6", while it is a "5" in melee. Furthermore, your opponent rolls twice as many saving dice as you inflicted hits. With shooting, that means they SHOULD save every hit. With melee, the odds are reduced because you save on a 5 or higher, not 4. I thought they would be tougher to take out than we found in our game. No marker ever saved all of its hits and went down immediately when attacked in our game.

After Bob's uneventful turn 1, my Moors charge across the battlefield to slaughter the unclean pigs!

Another provision of this scenario is that the first player (Bob's Baltic Crusaders) can't shoot or melee on the first turn of the game. Nor are they allowed to use any advanced Saga abilities. They received their full first roll of dice, but wouldn't be able to use any advanced abilities. This meant I felt safe to put my entire army as far forward as allowed (Long distance from my baseline). Normally, my mounted hearthguard would be sheltering behind the infantry or sitting in reserve on my baseline for fear of an opponent's double move spoiling attack on them. This game I would not have to worry about that. So, I placed one on each flank of my center, which was composed of one of the warrior infantry units and my levy archers. My far left was guarded by the second unit of warriors, who on the far left guarding one of the three objective markers we had placed. My other two were in the center behind my army and on my baseline on my right.

Our plan was to toss javelins at his large mounted knight unit, but they danced away as we arrived

Bob was also protecting his objective markers. One was located midway towards his baseline in a large woods in the center of the board. The other was near his left baseline, protected by all of mounted knights and warlord. The final one was the furthest forward -- in the center just outside of his large woods. Was this bait to draw me in? He did have both of his crossbow levy deployed to fire on anyone in contact with the objective. One levy unit was sheltering in the woods while the other was advancing towards the plowed fields on his right. His Western knights also guarded the gap between the woods and the fields. On his first turn, Bob marched his levy unit towards the fields and his Western knights began plodding forward. Though mounted, they move only Medium distance (but charge the usual Long). They would actually never get into contact the entire game, which I felt was a mistake on Bob's part. Then again, with an armor value of 4, maybe he was worried about them shot to pieces by my Moorish cavalry? His knights did not move much and remained a solid presence near his baseline, guarding his right.

Unable to hit the knights, we threw javelins at the warlord then charged into, destroyed a 2nd objective

I measured and saw that the "bait" objective marker just outside the woods (a herd of pigs) was within a Long + Short distance of my cavalry on the left. Majik Ibn Battuta al-Waqaa waved his noble cavalry forward and they charged into the squealing pigs. With our javelin bonus when charging, we should have scored six hits, but rolled only four. Bob picked up eight dice to save, but could not roll enough 5's and 6's. The Moors had seized the first objective! My other cavalry unit galloped forward, intent on throwing javelins at his powerful, 8-figure mounted knight unit. However, Bob had queued up God of War on his battle board. He cleverly played this as an Activation/Reaction AFTER I had moved my unit within range, but before we took our free shooting activation with our javelins. The armored knights nimbly danced out of range, relocating towards the corner and out of our range. We switched our target to his warlord general, but once again rolled poorly, inflicting only one fatigue on him. I had another hearthguard activation dice on my board, so thought why not? We charged the objective marker that they knights had been protecting and destroyed it, as well.

Satisfied desecrating two objectives on turn 1, my Moorish cavalry pulls back to the rear of our lines

I am pretty sure Bob thought I was playing into his plans at this point. However, I played Perseverance and pulled back both of my mounted units. The left-hand unit returned near my baseline with one fatigue on the left hand one and the right-hand unit with two. Next, I was to learn how aggressively Bob plays with his mounted hearthguard. In our only previous game -- his Last Romans vs. my Carolingians -- he had even charged his cataphracts into the woods! Bob launched his 8-man hearthguard unit on an across-the-board charge against my cavalry, j-u-s-t under 24" away. Yes, he arrived in melee with a fatigue from his extra move, but mine had two already. Plus, my battle board was empty and his loaded up. This was NOT going to be pretty, and was definitely not the way my cavalry were used to fighting! Bob used Find Chinks in Their Armor to raise the number of dice he rolled to 21. He also played Blessings of the Righteous, which allowed him to reroll a number of defense dice. The knight's charge slew my Moorish cavalry to a man. He did lose several, even with his rerolls.

Infuriated, the Baltic warlord shouts for his knights to charge and avenge the Moorish insults

On the next turn, I fired my archers into the over-extended knights. However, he immediately played Gods Host, allowing them to back up out of our archery range after our first shot. I also pulled back my foot spearmen to block any double-move charge on my remaining cavalry unit. On his turn, the knights came charging back in, this time against my levy unit. I decided to not use any of the knight's fatigue, so that they would be easier to counterattack on my turn. The Moors have some good abilities that can gain extra attack dice on units that are fatigued. Surprisingly, Bob did not kill all 12 archers -- three survived. Even more shocking, the archers inflicted two kills on him in return. The 8 figures had been whittled to this point down to three. On the other flank, his crossbowmen began raining bolts into the ranks of my other warrior spear, who were rolling very poorly on their saves. They would be slowly whittled down until only one remained at the end of the game. He also charged his 4-man knight unit across to support their brethren, and they easily destroyed my objective marker on my baseline.

...and they JUST make it! A big mistake leaving my mounted javelinmen open to countercharge

Although I had destroyed two objectives and he only one, I had a feeling that the way his crossbowmen were rolling that he would soon get another. Majik knew that to win this battle he HAD to kill the crusader knights. To kill the remaining three figures in his first knight unit, the warlord of Cordoba galloped forward and waved in the foot warriors. I played Inspiration, and galvanized by their famous warleader's presence, they charged in. I used fatigue to lower his armor. With my rerolls of misses from Inspiration, the warriors scored eight hits. The knights went down, slaying three Moorish footmen in return.

On my left, Crusader crossbowmen whittle down my spearmen while Western knights plod forward

Bob responded on his turn with a countercharge of his remaining knights against the victorious warriors. The spearmen closed ranks and were able to repell the knight's charge. Enraged, the Baltic crusader warlord joined the fray and charged the warriors, as well. We closed ranks again, and though one warrior was slain, the warlord had to recoil. My goal at this point was to kill not only his remaining unit of knights, but also his warlord. However, the casualties inflicted by Bob's units meant it was going to be difficult to do. Luckily, I rolled a rare and could launch a Torrent of Iron charge with my full-strength mounted javelinmen into his knights, who had two fatigues. Torrent of Iron gave them a third, exhausting them, and my Wholehearted gave my cavalry a bonus 6 attack dice. I rolled 18 attack dice, and as expected, slew them to a man. This left their warlord exhausted now, as well. I had PLANNED to have Majik charge in and slay him, but simply did not have enough Saga dice for the final activation.

His knights are worn down to just three after being shot & charging (and killing most of) my levy

On his turn, Bob rested his warlord and then tried to withdraw him. I one of his remaining fatigue to lower his move to a Short distance. Meanwhile, his crossbowmen charged into my objective marker on the left flank and destroyed it. We were now even on markers. It would come down to slaughter points -- whoever caused more enemy losses! I felt that if I could kill his warlord, I would win. If not, it would be a close call on who'd be the winner.

A rare honor, the foot warriors were given the task of charging in and finishing off the knights

On my turn, I was fortunate to roll both a rare and two uncommon dice. This meant that I would be going in with a final Torrent of Iron on his warlord. The Moorish nobles shouted their battle cries to Allah and hurtled forward. Adrian gasped as I used all of the warlord's fatigues to make my hearthguard armor 6 (thus, could not be hit by an exhausted unit), and lowering his armor to a 4. He said that he NEVER takes fatigue off of a warlord prior to melee. I reminded him that I had 18 attack dice, hitting on 4+, which should produce 9 hits. We rolled well and scored 10. Bob was unable to save seven of the hits, meaning his warlord went down at the end of my turn 5.

My Moorish cavalry hurl javelins at the Western knights, who never were able to make it into contact

Fittingly, Bob then rolled to see if we would play a turn 6 but rolled a "3" meaning the game was over. We counted up the points, and the Moors edged out the aggressively-played Baltic crusaders, 20-16. Both of us agreed it was a great game, full of triumphs for both of us. My shooting and saving dice were subpar, but my melee dice made up for it by being usually above average. When Bob took his second objective marker, tying us up, the match hung on a knife's edge. My infantry had done well against his knight's charges, and inflicted hits on them. We suffered casualties, but drove them off. My mounted javelinmen were perfect in the last two turns of the game, too. They destroyed his last knight unit and his warlord. If I had had rolled poorly and flubbed either of those charges, the game might not have ended in victory. Bob is a dogged, tough opponent, and I felt fortunate to come out of the game with a win.

The Moorish cavalry unleash Torrent of Iron upon the remaining knight unit

Here are the compiled scores of our Fathers Day Saga game day:

Adrian J (Graeculi - Epirote) defeats Aaron J (Normans) 12-0 in Claiming Territory.
Jason S (Byzantines) defeats Mike S (Vikings) 20-5 in Old Feud.
Jenny (Vikings) defeats Dave E (Romans) 22-11 in Claiming Territory.
Mike D (Moors) defeats Bob B (Baltic Crusaders) 20-16 in Desecration.
Aaron J (Normans) defeats Jim B (Vikings) in The Crossing.