Romans Defend Idols Against Crusade

    My Roman legionaries moment of glory - 5 Warrior infantry repel the charge of 8 mounted knights

We had 9 players at our August monthly Saga game day at Guardtower East. Jenny graciously bowed out as the extra person, which allowed my Republican Romans to take the field at second time. This time, we were matched against the black-robed crusaders of Lee P's Milites Christi. I encouraged players to try out one of the scenarios we will be using in the upcoming Advance the Colors Saga Tournament (Oct. 8). Two groups of players chose Wrath of the Gods, a scenario designed by Joe M of the Northern Tempest Saga Podcast. I apologize if this is a nuts and bolts analysis of Saga game mechanics - so, if you're not interested in Saga, you may want to skim this report!

    'Wrath of the Gods' scenario involves players trying to seize control of 3 pagan idols on the board

In this scenario, players are attempting to control one of three objective markers in the center third of the board. If they have a unit within Very Short (2") distance and there are no enemy within Short (4") of them, they may force the opponent to remove 1 figure per objective marker controlled. These count as losses and the game is scored with Massacre Points. I had recently created a bunch of appropriate objective markers for the pagan idols that the scenario encourages you to use. My favorite were the tree idols made using the Enchanted Tree Stumps from Bad Squiddo Games.

    Two tables played 'Wrath of the Gods' - Lee and I in front and Bob B and Mike S in the back

The first marker goes dead center of the board, and each player places another. Both Lee and I placed our markers as close to our side (just past 12" Long distance) of our board edge, and moved up to the markers with our first turn movement. I had a quandary on how to take the battle to Lee, though. I knew he had one unit of Warrior crossbowmen and a mercenary unit of Turcopoles. So, once again, my Republican Romans were up against a warband with significant shooting capability. I view that as the chief weakness of the battle board, though after Game 2 with them, I think there are some other vulnerabilities. I decided to make a strong push in the center with 3-4 infantry units. My Velites were my only shooting unit, and I was worried about a long range charge against them by Lee's 8-man, Hospitaller knights. So, I moved them forward then into the heavy cover of the ruins in my center half of the board.

    View from the Roman side at the end of our Turn 1, making a general advance towards the objectives

I deployed my big 8-man unit of Roman legionaries on the far right to contest Lee's control of the objective marker closest to him. It was a waste of time and resources, though. After moving them up on the first turn, I never moved them the rest of the way to get within Short of his Hospitaller foot sergeants that had seized the objective. Otherwise, it was a steady advance by my Roman legion. Lee responded with a similar advance, but also proved that his shooting was going to be something I would have to worry about. In one shot with his crossbowmen, he killed three figures of a six-man unit (one Saga dice down already!). His Turcopoles also shot down another legionary from the unit which had moved up to contest the center objective. In my five, supposedly 50% chance saving rolls, l had made only one roll. Sigh. I sometimes wonder why my Romans even wear armor??

    Each of us seized our closest objective on Turn 1 - here my legionaries defend one pagan idol

I did have a slight edge in this scenario as the Milites Christi are not allowed to take any Levy troops in their list. So, when I forced him to lose figures with the Wrath of the Gods, he was losing Warriors while I would be losing Levy (until he eliminated that unit on turn 3!). On my Turn 2, I brought my Levy out of the rocky area, tempting his knights to charge. Meanwhile, I advanced to control the center pagan idol, and would hold it for a couple turns. I left my board loaded up with defensive abilities for his counter-thrust, which I had a good feeling was coming on his half of the turn.

    I kept pushing forward with my legionaries, reaching the center page tree idol and controlling it, too

Luckily for me, this time his shooting did little damage. He planned to make up for that, though, with the charge of his knights -- two full points of mounted hearthguard against one unit of 5 Warriors. Slam dunk, right? However, this was the strength of the Romans (supposedly). I had played Exhortation at the start of his half of the turn, giving all my units within Long distance of my Roman Consul warlord two bonus dice (either attack or defense) in melee. I also had queued up three melee abilities on my board. I closed ranks, but still would roll 9 attack dice and receive 6 bonus dice. This combat would prove to be my high water mark for die rolling for the whole game, though! The five Roman legionaries shrugged off more than a dozen hits from his knights. Lee had played a number of dice on his Orison battle board ability, too, allowing him to shrug off our hits, as well. Neither side suffered casualties, so his knight recoiled.

    The 'one that got away'...15 shots against Armor 4 mounted knights result in only 2 casualties!

On my next turn, I decided to go after those knights with shooting. Mounted hearthguard are 4 vs. shooting, but armor 5 in melee.  So, I moved up my Levy and took two javelin throws with them. In addition, another 6-man unit of legionaries tossed their pila (3 more shots) and charged in. I rolled 15 shots at a 50% chance to hit (7.5 hits, right?). We killed just two knights with the shooting instead of the four we should have, and two more in melee. His unit of 8 was down to 4, but my 6-man unit failed every single save and was eliminated. My streaky/bad die rolling with the Romans was continuing and would keep it up all game.

    Lee's one that didn't 'get away' - his Hospitaller knights prepare to charge and wipe out my Velites

With the eliminated legionary unit, the Velites received a second fatigue. Of course, on his next turn, his knights charged and totally destroyed that Levy unit. Despite inflicting 1-2 casualties on Lee through Wrath of the Gods every turn, I began to feel that my army was  coming out on the wrong end of the casualty exchange. His shooting was wearing my legionary units down, and more importantly, I was not capitalizing on my attacks where I had the advantage. With the missed flubbed shooting turn and my charge that killed only two figures, I felt I was losing. However, during his half of the turn, I counted up the casualties. To my surprise, we stayed surprisingly close all game. 

    Romans are stubborn, and keep up the pressure. My Triarii (right) cutting down his crossbowmen

I sent my legionaries in against his knight unit, which had been whittled down to 2 figures. I played "Pilum," and an extra dice in combat bonus. This time, our javelins finally struck home and both knights fell! On the next turn, I brought my Triarii hearth guard forward and charged into his crossbow unit. We ended up killing all but two. Things were finally getting better, it seemed. At this stage, I might even be ahead, I felt. 

    Hospitallers don't give up either - his Turcopoles mercenaries ride down a battered legionary unit

Lee still had his warlord and mercenary Turcopoles, and they both charged home next turn to redress the odds. My dice deserted me again and his warlord not only completely destroyed the Triarii, the Turcopoles also wiped out the remnants of the legionary unit next to the center objective. This set up my turn 6, though, and I felt I knew a way to seal the win. His warlord was Exhausted, meaning one more casualty would eliminate him. I set up my remaining Saga dice and prepared to see my legions through to victory.

    Another vicious, hard-fought battle was Mike's Jomsvikings clash with Dan N's Poles

However, it was not to be. Lee received an urgent text from his wife and had to pack up and leave right away to take care of a family matter. We didn't have time to count up points. So, sadly, this hard-fought game had to be called with no winner and no loser. I think I could have pulled out a victory by eliminating both his warlord and the remaining two crossbowmen. However, the dice had not been kind to my Romans this game, except for a couple of instances where our saves were good. So, my final strike could have fallen flat. Equally, Lee could have turned the tables in his half of the 6th turn. We'll never know, though. 

    Poles and Jomsvikings batter each other in this brutal, 23-23 tie in Clash of Warlords

After the game, I reflected again on the Republican Roman battle board and warband. We covered this faction in depth on the most recent Saga Ohio podcast. Three other Republican Roman players and myself analyzed the board in a great conversation. As I expressed in that podcast, I don't know if the Romans have a "Plan B" if getting to grips in melee is not successful. In the beginning, I thought loading up on defense dice and letting the enemy wear itself out in fruitless attacks would be a winning strategy. After two games, I'm not so sure. 

    Earlier in their match, the Jomsvikings on left close with the Polish battleline

Perhaps another big vulnerability is whether an army that relying on mostly Warrior infantry can roll enough "Common" Saga dice to be able to move and maneuver its army? Some of the better abilities on the board also require Rare dice. In both my games, I have failed to roll Rare dice on most of my turns. In fact, I think I rolled a Rare on only two of six turns against Bob's Age of Invasions Romans. I know I rolled them on only one of my five turns against Lee. So, that's three of eleven rolls with no equivalent "6" on a Saga dice for an army that generates seven dice when fresh. Crucially, if the Republican Roman player rolls no Rares and instead mostly Uncommons instead of Commons (as I did at least a couple of turns in each game), they are severely handicapped. So, at this stage, I think the jury is out on the effectiveness of this army. 

    Joe D (L) teaches his friend Bob how to play Saga in a Viking vs. Viking battle

Perhaps even more key, I am simply not having a lot of fun with this army. Loading up defensive abilities to blunt an enemy's attacks is not the most exciting part of a game of Saga. Their ability to launch offensive melees is also not overwhelming. Since most of their battle board abilities are Melee oriented, and if they really aren't that great in melee, uhmmm...what can they do?? I think I will give the army one more try, though. If third time is not a charm and I am not having a lot of fun with these guys, it is likely they will go on the shelf except for Age of Hannibal type events.

    Bob B's Byzantine army takes control of the center objective in his 'Wrath of the Gods' match

Elsewhere, my game with Lee was definitely NOT the only close game. In our four games that day, three games were ties (counting mine as a tie). Here are the results from our game day:

• Dan N's Poles tied against Mike H's Jomsvikings in Clash of Warlords, 23-23.
• Lee P's Milites Christi tied against Mike D's Republican Romans in Wrath of the Gods (unknown score).
• Bob B's Byzantines defeated Mike S's Milites Christi in Wrath of the Gods, 56-8.
• Joe D's Vikings tied Bob's Vikings in Clash of Warlords, 29-30.

    Byzantine and Knightly cavalry struggle for control of one of the objectives on the flanks

Both boards that played Wrath of the Gods said they enjoyed it, so looks like we have a fun scenario lined up in October for the Advance the Colors tournament. I hope folks can make it out for this event! 

    Vikings vs. Vikings in a Clash of Warlords, somewhere in Scandinavia