To Minneapolis, for a Weekend of Saga

 

    I packed up my Moorish Saga army and flew to Minneapolis for a weekend of Saga

After interviewing both Monty Luhmann and Rodge from Saga Thorsday for my own podcast, we began discussing how much fun it would be to schedule a weekend of Saga in the twin cities. I would fly up, Rodge would drive over, and we'd do two days of Saga with Monty's group and anyone else who wanted to come. We traded weekends that would work back and forth until we finally settled on the last weekend of July. I found a great deal on tickets, Rodge recruited a couple fellow Saga buffs from Wisconsin, and we talked Terry Doner from Chicago into making the drive up, as well.

    With my Moorish cavalry on my right wing, I deployed to face Monty's Ordenstaat crusaders

I got in five games over the weekend -- three on Saturday and two on Sunday. Since Monty's group was using this weekend as a chance to get in some initial games for their Age of Hannibal campaign, and the fact that Rodge and Monty needed to do their climactic showdown in their two-player campaign, we decided not to do a tournament format. It was a very informal affair. People matched up against opponents as they finished their games, much in the style of our old "Rolling Thunder" DBA tournaments. Since I was flying, I really could bring only one army. Monty and Rodge wanted to face off against my Moors, so I loaded up Majik Ibn Battua al-Waqaa and his warband and took them along.

Monty and Rodge's groups have played a LOT more Saga than our Ohio group. Heck, probably most groups out there have been playing longer than our Saga Ohio's two years. So, I fully expected to go up there and get my butt kicked. The only question was would I win any games at all? I may have a good Win-Loss record here, but nearly all of those I would be facing have competed in tournaments. Also, many have been playing Saga since Version 1. Interestingly, the twin cities group is more focused on matchups within "Age of..." books. Here in Ohio, we're willing to play any Age warband against any other. So, many of Monty's "Saga Storm" folks brought Age of Crusades armies, knowing that is what myself, Rodge, and Terry were bringing.

    After the first Moorish turn, my cavalry has moved forward, thrown javelins and withdrawn

I'm going to talk about all five battles in this one post, so there will be less blow-by-blow in these accounts than in previous ones. Also, in the interests of keeping these fresh in my head, I will actually start with Game #5 and count downwards. The more recent ones, I assume, will be most fresh in my head! As such, Game #5 was a rematch against Monty, who I also played the day before in Game #2. He used his same crusader figures, but instead of fielding them as Baltic Crusaders, Monty used the Ordenstaat board. This board represents the Teutonic Knights of the Middle Ages and their crusade against the pagan tribes of the Baltic region. Monty confessed he felt Ordenstaat was a weaker warband than a Baltic Crusaders one, but I think he wanted to give me a chance to face a new army (and -- spoiler alert -- a chance for revenge!).

Game 5: Moors vs. Ordenstaat

The scenario was one Rodge wanted to playtest called "Hallowed Ground." Each player can earn a single bonus point by having enough troops within Medium distance of the centerpoint of the board. Each round, the minimum amount of troops needed inside the circle goes up, so it forces the armies to meet in the middle of the board. I deployed half of my troops first, which consisted of my Levy archers in the swamp on my half of the middle of the board, flanked on their right by a unit of warriors, and backed up by my warlord. Monty then deployed his full army. On his far right were 4 foot hearthguard with heavy weapons. To their left were his levy archers. His warlord on foot was in the center of his army, flanked by a unit of warrior foot and another unit of foot hearthguard. In reserve were two units of mounted hearthguard. Monty admitted he hid them behind his lines to protect them from my shooting. I then completed my deployment, continuing to my right with another unit of warriors and both of my 6-man units of mounted hearthguard with javelins. I planned to skirmish aggressively with my cavalry, running forward to throw javelins and then pulling back out of the range of his counterstrikes, hopefully.

    The end of the game after Monty's last gambit - he has only four figures left on table!

 

I opened by marching my center unit of warrior foot into the Hallowed Ground. Then, both cavalry units galloped forward and tossed javelins at his leftmost unit of foot hearthguard, killing two of them. I then pulled them back out of range of his reserve mounted knights, making sure it would take them more than two moves to reach them. Monty countered by marching his archers forwards and shooting them at my foot who had advanced within the Hallowed Ground. He also edged forward his line, bringing one of his units of mounted knights to a closer position so they could charge next turn, but keeping them shielded from my cavalry. I responded on the next turn with another advance and javelin toss, which eliminated the two remaining figures in the foot hearthguard unit. Stung, Monty double moved his mounted knights to charge one of my cavalry units. A bloody melee ensued which eliminated all four of his figures and four of my six cavalrymen.

My counterstrike the next turn was to charge one of my foot spear units into his warriors who had moved up to support the archers. I played "Inspiration" from the Moorish battle board with a rare die, meaning I could reroll any 1's, 2's, or 3's. Ostensibly, I should get almost 8 hits out of that. Monty's dice were nowhere near as good as our first game, and five of his eight warriors went down, and they were shoved back out of the Hallowed Ground. Meanwhile, my own archers continued to pour fire into his Levy archers, whittling them down bit by bit. Monty next sent forward his foot hearthguard with heavy weapons to support his archers. He declined to go after my cavalry, which I had pulled back towards my baseline. He also chose not to send his last unit of mounted knights into my foot, seeing how I had "Forest of Spears" queued up and ready for his charge.

The opening stages of my second game with my Moors advancing towards the center and Terry's Mongols massed in one corner to strike

I poured in more archery fire, this time into the heavy weapons foot knights. I got very lucky on my two shots and Monty's luck continued to spiral down as the unit was entirely wiped out. Desperate, he sent his remaining foot knights on a charge across the board to my baseline against my remaining full strength unit. He did well, and killed 5 of the 6 figures, but my attacks killed 3 of his 4. This brought Monty down to four figures let on the board, and at that point, he conceded the game. Revenge was mine!

    Terry's Khan takes the 1st objective, but at the cost of two fatigue, leaving him vulnerable (I thought)

Game 4: Moors vs. Mongols

 My first game on Sunday morning was against Terry Doner, who'd brought his Mongols along for his Age of Crusades army. I was really interested to see how they performed since that is my next Saga army that I am painting. We chose to play "Ambush" from Book of Battles. His Mongols and my Moors would seek to attack and loot the three wagon trains marching across the center of the table. This would be interesting because the wagons are all but invulnerable to shooting (Armor 6, and counting as a Hero so you need 4 hits in one turn to take them out). My Moors had played this once before and we knew how useless shooting would be against the wagons.

    My 'Torrent of Iron' charge rolls miserably, and fails to kill the vulnerable Mongol Khan

Terry's army was all mounted, of course. It consisted of mounted warlord, mounted camel drummer, two 4-man mounted hearthguard, and three units of 8 mounted warriors. He was the first to strike at the wagons. He sent in a hearthguard unit which inflicted two casualties (fatigue on the "hero" wagon), but lost one, recoiling back. Surprisingly, the warlord followed up. He was able to finish off the wagon, but ended the turn with two fatigue. I took that as an opportunity and launched a Torrent of Iron charge on his warlord. This is my big strike, and when combined with Wholehearted from my board, meant that I was rolling 16 attack dice against his warlord. I also played Inspiration, allowing me to reroll 1's on my attack dice. I was sure that this would finish off his warlord, even though he had a unit of four hearthguard to use the Bodyguards rule and remove figures as casualties instead. Nope! Between my initial roll and my rerolling 1's, I totaled 8 ones on my dice throw. After his saves, he took only 5 casualties, which meant he ended the turn Exhausted and lost only two hearthguard from my hits. I had used two of his fatigue to raise my armor to 6, which meant he could not do anything to my cavalrymen. With my +1 from javelin, and lowering his armor one, I should have scored 10-11 hits -- not counting rerolls. It was truly a subpar attack, and had I been successful, the game likely would have progressed very differently.

    The midpoint of the game - my foot warriors have seized a wagon and the Mongols mass to steal it

As the other two wagons progressed across the table, one came within range of my foot warriors. They charged in and plundered it. The Mongols were having none of that and Terry immediately charged one of his horse archer units into my warriors and snatched it from them. I decided that it was time to start attacking his light cavalry, who were vulnerable in melee. I launched three charges into them, one by each of my cavalry units and the other by my remaining unit of warriors. He lost a lot of figures on that turn, but none of them his hearthguard or warlord, who were doing most of the fighting. He was also able to take back the center objective, which I had seized, and pulled back his depleted units on the wings. Terry retained possession of two of the three markers, while the third wagon continued its slow advance across the center of the table.

    Three Moorish charges kill more than a dozen of his light horse, and take back our objective

I had one more chance to even things up. I shot my archers and threw javelins at his hearthguard, hoping to destroy them with missile fire (their armor class against shooting is only 4). However, he had cleverly played Human Shields on his board, which allowed him to remove his casualties from the light horse who were hovering protectively in range around his hearthguard. My final act was to send my warlord against the final wagon. My rolls were subpar again in melee, and Majik failed to do four casualties. The game ended with losses about even, but Terry in possession of two objective markers, which gave him a comfortable victory. I had a blast playing against him and seeing how he played the Mongol battle board. I'm glad he's planning on coming to our Advance the Colors Saga tournament Oct. 2, so I can drink a beer and chat with him more.

    Majik Ibn Battuta al-Waqaa charges a wagon to seize the objective but fails

Game 3: Moors vs. Carthaginians

Both of my first two games on Saturday went quickly, so when Brent proposed we play a game, I agreed. It would be my third of the day -- a first for me. I told him not to worry about playing an Age of Crusades army. Instead, play what he wanted to play. He chose his Age of Hannibal Carthaginians. We decided to roll up a Battle of Heroes using the "Chaos" option (all random rolls for Scenery, Deployment, Victory Conditions, Special Rule, and Game Length). The most distressing roll for my Moors was Fog, which meant that no charges or shooting could be done from greater than Medium distance for the first three turns of the game. A key part of my defense against his two elephants would be shooting, and a good one-third of my missile power had been declawed.

    'Pincer' deployment meant both Brent's Carthaginians and my Moors deployed in two wings

We had rolled 'Pincer" for deployment, which meant we divided our army into two halves which were deployed widely-spaced from each other on our half of our board edges. Being the first to deploy (as usual), I split my army into two modular sections - each had a cavalry and foot spear unit. The first I deployed also contained my warlord (in the left wing), while the second half had the Levy archers (right wing). Terry put deployed his foot far forward on the wing opposite my warlord, with a unit of Levy slingers, mercenary Thureophoroi, and two separate elephant units of one model. On the other wing, against his baseline, he deployed his mounted troops -- mounted warlord and 16 mounted warriors broken into three small units of Numidian cavalry.

    Both wings of the army have joined up, with the cavalry having pulled back behind the infantry

On my turn, I sent the cavalry on the left wing forward to throw javelins at his mercenaries, killing two, then pulled them back towards the middle. The warlord and the foot on the left also move towards the center. My right stayed put, waiting to see what the Carthaginians would do. Initially spooked, Brent pulled his right wing back, but on subsequent turns sent it in pursuit of my left, which kept withdrawing to form a compact, unified formation, joining up with my right. He sent one unit of Numidian cavalry forward, while the other two and the warlord shifted to join up with their right wing. Of all the targets that my Moorish cavalrymen love to see lined up and within their move and shoot range, mounted warriors with missile weapons are their favorite due to their low armor 3. With 12 dice, I should inflict 8 hits on average, every turn. Both units galloped forward, hurled their javelins, and then withdrew safely behind the infantry battleline. The entire Numidian unit had been destroyed, and Brent's eyes widened and was obviously surprised. He was impressed with the Moors ability to skirmish and then withdraw to safety.

Brent gave me no more chances at his Numidians. He did send his slingers forward, hoping to squeeze in a shot through my lines at the cavalry. One of my warrior foot units chased them off, doing far fewer casualties than we should have (Brent made up for his bad roll with the cavalry and saved 5 of 11 hits!). I kept my spear units out of range of his elephants' charge, waiting for the fog to lift so I could attack them with missile fire. It was only a five turn game, though, and as we closed in on the final turn, I honestly felt bad for Brent. I had been skirmishing and withdrawing and he had yet to get a chance to charge any units into combat. I felt that I was comfortably ahead on points, so I decided to give him a chance to have some fun. It would likely result in both of us losing a unit or two, but would make the game more interesting for both of us. I know, I know. You can't feel sorry for the "enemy," but in the end -- as I told Brent -- it IS a game. So, let's have some fun!

    My "let's have fun" moment where my cavalry charged his mercenary Thureophoroi

The fun was charging his mercenaries with one of my cavalry units in a Torrent of Iron. As expected, we cut down all six of his remaining warriors. And, as expected, he charged one of his elephants into my cavalry unit and stomped it to pieces. The reason that I thought it would be okay to give up a 1.5 point unit for a 1 point one was that you get a bonus for destroying enemy mercenaries. Also, that would bring the elephants within the range of my archers. For my final turn, I shot and killed the elephant who had charged, and then shot the other one, as well. It came down to one final save. If Brent muffed it, he would lose the second elephant (and the game, certainly). If he saved it, then it would be a close match. He rolled the save and we counted up the points. I thought I would still be ahead, but was surprised that we actually tied, 20-20. It was a blast of a game, though, and Brent is a really fun opponent to play against. Sure, I could have hung back and likely preserved a victory. However, it is more important to me to have a good time and we had a gripping, satisfying ending to our game.

    My Moors after their first turn of advance, lined up against Monty's Baltic crusaders

Game 2: Moors vs. Baltic Crusaders

One of the promised games for the weekend would be my Moors' match against Monty's Baltic Crusaders. We had talked our way through how a game between them would progress on Saga Ohio Episode 12. So, it would be fun to actually play out the game and see how it would actually progress. Monty was the mastermind behind this weekend of Saga, and gaming with him was the reason many of us had made the trip. He is truly one of the hobby's great gentlemen. One of the things I did on the flight up to Minneapolis was to go back and re-listen to that episode of my podcast. We had told each other essentially what we would do, and it would be silly of me to forget all of that!

    The beginning of the end: This 4-man knight unit would kill 16 figures on Monty's first turn

My first sign that things were not going to go as planned came during deployment. We were doing the tactical option of Battle of Heroes. Monty had chosen March Column, which has players dice during deployment. The high roller deploys a unit, then they dice again for the next unit. I "won" (read: lost) every single roll and had to deploy my entire army before Monty had to deploy a single unit. Please don't tell me the odds of that happening, because it was only going to get worse. Monty had deployed in a compact line, book-ended by foot hearthguard with archers and crossbowmen in the center. His mounted knights were in reserve behind his main battleline.

    The knights continue to pile on charges and kill twice their number of Moorish hearthguard

One of the things Monty had said in our podcast was that he would NOT go racing across the field, pell-mell, with multiple movements and multiple charges. Guess what he did? One mounted knight unit of 4 hearthguard moved, charged, and charged again. Aided by the lethal Crusader battleboard and its multiple "gain 4 attack dice" abilities, he wiped out my entire unit of Levy archers and four of one of my 6-man mounted hearthguard units. The two-for-one trading continued without letup all game. Monty's famed "blue dice" were simply lethal. Fortunately, the memories of his rolls are beginning to fade. Suffice to say, he saved when he needed to save, hit when he rolled to hit, and simply slaughtered my army in less turns that the game was supposed to last. The Moors fell victim to charges and Saga abilities that let him clear his fatigue and charge again. It was without a doubt, the worst loss I have ever suffered in Saga. Monty continually apologized for the uneven die rolling, but that's the way the game plays. I have always had what I consider "streaky luck," and my first matchup of the weekend against Monty had me on a cold streak and he on a hot one. Thankfully, he gave me a rematch on Sunday and my dice woke up and I was given a chance at revenge.

    In my first game of the weekend, my Moors square off against Rodge's Pagan Peoples

Game One: Moors vs. Pagan Peoples

I had been looking forward to playing a game against Rodge of Saga Thorsday, this weekend. I had NOT been looking forward to facing his Pagan Peoples battle board, though! This army represents the various Lithuanians, Estonians, and other Pagan tribes of the Baltic region who were targets of the crusades launched by the Teutonic Order and other Christian kingdoms in northern Europe. As Rodge had explained in Episode 13 of Saga Ohio, it is a surprisingly lethal and effective battle board. Rodge has honed its deadly edge through his run of victories against Monty in their two-player Baltic campaign. He has figured out how to maximize his six points into an army that would generate 9 Saga dice, if you were allowed that many. The battle board rewards small units, and I believe Rodge deployed his army as mounted warlord, one unit of mounted hearthguard with 4 figures, one unit of foot hearthguard with 4 figures, a unit of 11 warrior bowmen, unit of 5 warrior bowmen, four units of 6 levy javelinmen. 

    The beginning of the encirclement - Moors have already lost 1 hearthguard, 6 warriors, 5 levy

Why would you want to a unit of 6 levy javelinmen? Well, one ability on their board gives ALL units that shoot or melee that turn 2 bonus attack dice. So, let's say all his units shoot on any given turn. That is 12 bonus dice alone from one ability -- if they shoot only once each! Those 6-man levy units generate 5 attack dice - not insignificant. Plus, he has a BASIC Saga ability (meaning you can put as many Rare dice on it as you roll) that lets him activate three units for one die. Now, Rodge and Monty will tell you that makes them vulnerable to a cold streak on Rare dice. Well, Rodge did not start out on a cold streak, I can tell you. He rolled 1 of 3 rares on his first turn, and then on turns two and three rolled 3 Rare dice each! For what should be a 1 in 6 chance, he rolled more than twice that -- just under half his Saga dice rolled on turns 1-3 were Rares!!

    A depleted Moorish spear unit forms a wall to protect the cavalry against archers arriving in the rear

So, my first game of Saga on the Minneapolis weekend was a bit of deja vu of my Moors' only previous defeat at the hands of the Tyler's Irish. We were simply swarmed by javelin (and bow) men. I had kept my cavalry units back on my left baseline and advanced my foot warriors and levy forward. They were shot to pieces. Many of his attacking unit activated multiple times, meaning that they kept taking advantage with every shot of that +2 attack dice. When Rodge's Saga dice cooled off a bit on Turn 4 & 5, I counter-attacked savagely with my mounted hearthguard. I eliminated several of his units and began to whittle down his available Saga dice. However, at that point, he unleashed his hearthguard and warlord. I had expended all my energy and lost big numbers fighting his warriors and levy. When Rodge sent them in to mop up, all of my units were depleted. 

    Although Rodge has honed his army to prime effectiveness, he doesn't have them all fully painted yet! Note the warlord and hearthguard...

It was a hard-fought game. The Moors killed lots of his men, but in the end, we were simply overwhelmed by one of the deadliest lists in Saga in the hands of an experienced player. It will be interesting to see if the Pagan Peoples are "nerfed" at all in the upcoming FAQs and modifications (rumored to be out before the end of 2021). Although they are not #1 on the need-nerfing list (Peter the Hermit's Levantine Crusaders win that dubious honor), they are pretty high up there. 

Despite starting off with two quick defeats at the hands of master Saga players Monty and Rodge, it was a fun weekend. The people I played with were gracious and fun to sit across the table from. Thank you to Monty for organizing the weekend. Thanks to Brent for giving me a ride to the airport on Sunday, and Scott for buying my dinner on Saturday night. I truly enjoyed meeting everyone and had fun, even though my Moors' successes were limited. Hope to see you all again one day!