Thracians Facing Down the Greek Phalanx

    Rusty Parker's Athenian hoplites from Victrix Miniatures were my Thracian's first opponent in Saga

Awhile back, Saga released their Age of Alexander book covering armies from that part of the Classical period. Of the six armies covered, the Thracians interested me the most. These semi-barbarian tribes from the northeast of Greece were a thorn in the side of a number of Ancient kingdoms. They were also known for very colorful cloaks, which I thought might be fun to paint in the 28mm scale. However, they had an unusual mechanic attached to their Saga army list called "Pillage." I thought perhaps I should try them out  for a game or two before purchasing any figures.

    Rusty, left, consults his Greek City States battleboard as he analyzes what to do against the Thracians

I know, I know! That goes against the knee-jerk response of most miniature gamers: "Oooh, shiny!" New army? Take my money, please! For a change, I was being deliberative about the process. So, I read through the list the day before our latest Saga Sunday at the Guardtower East. I drew up an army list and then went downstairs to cobble together forces to be my proxy Thracians. I used my Picts, Irish, some medieval peasants, and Roman cavalry to represent three units of Thracian warriors with javelins (two 9-figure and one 10-figure unit), one 6-man foot hearthguard unit with rhomphaia (a Thracian heavy cutting weapon), one 8-man mounted warrior unit with javelins, and a mounted warlord.

    The two armies deployed for battle - Thracians at bottom and Rusty's Greek hoplites at top

Rusty contacted me and said he'd be coming down from northern Ohio for the weekend for family reasons, but would sneak away for a game of Saga on Sunday. He wanted more practice with his Athenian army from the Alexander book, as well. Perfect! Rusty and I had never played each other in Saga, and we'd both get a chance to test out Alexandrian armies against each other. Rusty's Athenians were composed of a foot general (which we both decided would be better to switch to a mounted one in subsequent games), one 8-man foot hearth guard unit of veteran hoplites, three 8-man warrior hoplite units, and a 12-man unit of levy slingers.

    While Rusty and I fought a historical matchup, Mike S and Andy S play Age of Magic fantasy Saga

We decided to try a straight-forward "Clash of Warlords" game, since we were both learning new armies. Since the Athenians had no mounted, I began terrain placement with a large gentle hill in the right center of the board. He placed fields on his right for his slingers to shelter inside. I countered with a ruins opposite it on my side of the table. He then placed a marsh on my base edge, hoping to mess up my deployment. I then eschewed placing a piece, instead scooting the marsh towards the side edge. With the mostly open battlefield set up, we were ready to deploy. 

    The Thracian cavalry at right pull back after a lackluster pair of javelin tosses at the Greek hoplites

My plan was to use my cavalry and javelin-armed warriors to swing around on my right and enfilade and shoot at the left end of his battleline. I deployed my three foot units of warrior javelin men across the center of my line. Backing up the unit on the right was the hearth guard with their big chopping weapons. I placed the cavalry on the far right, where they would attempt to use an ability on the Thracian battleboard that allows units to throw javelins then move away. If I used a "Rare" die, it was a free move. Otherwise, it would cause one fatigue, as per normal. Either way, the dice used to activate "Elusive" not only gave two bonus shooting dice, it also moved them. A nice ability, I thought, and fitting with ancient skirmishers.

    Stung into action, the Greek hoplites dash forward and shatter a unit of Thracian javelin men

Rusty deployed his battle line close together, as the "phalanx" special rules require. From my right, there were two units of hoplite warriors, then the double-strength veteran hearthguards, then another hoplite warrior unit, and finally, the levy slingers in the fields arrayed against my left. I was first player, so moved forward in a staggered line -- pressing forward on my right and hanging back on the left. We also edged the left towards the center to avoid the enemy's sling stones. The warlord trumpeter sent a long, deep-throated blast on his horn, and with a shout, the Thracian cavalry galloped forward. They tossed their javelins, but I held "Elusive" back because I planned a second volley. Rusty saved against all of my hits. I did the second volley with Elusive and this time nicked one figure for a single casualty. Ten dice and one kill was under average...hmm. Was this a sign of things to come? Rusty had a chance to slow the cavalry down as they withdrew, but decided against it. 

    Greek phalanx advances 12" with 3 Saga dice on Turn 1 -- everyone is within spitting distance!

Instead, his eyes were focused on my first unit of warrior javelin men who had advanced forward quickly, the rhomphaia men close behind. We were both about to very shocked at how quickly an Athenian hoplite battle line advanced. The Greek City States battle board has a Basic ability (meaning it can be played as many times as a player likes) called "Form Line of Battle." It allows all phalanx unit in the battle line to move a Short distance (4"). Yes, I know, that sounds slow. Remember, though, it costs only one dice for all those units to move. Rusty played it twice, plus used "Marathon" which changes the following Form Line move to "Short plus Short: (8"). So, for just three dice, all four of his battle line units came screaming across the battlefield 12"! One of the Form Line activations can be a charge, so his leftmost hoplite unit slammed into my right wing unit of warrior javelin men.

    Thracian cavalry men charge into the surviving spearmen of the Greek phalanx unit

With all the defensive abilities the Greek City States battle board allows, and three dice for movement, Rusty didn't have any melee abilities queued up. I felt relatively good having 10 guys vs. his 7, though his armor class was one better. Rusty rolled all seven hits (needed 3+), though, and I piled onto this misfortune by missing all seven saves (5+). Yowsa! The dice were definitely showing bias in favor of the Greeks in the early going! We hit him hard in return, though, causing four kills. It was a bloody start to the hand-to-hand fighting! Thankfully, Form Line of Battle allowed only one charge, otherwise he could have decimated my line on turn one!

    Not to be outdone, the Thracian Rhomphaia men wade into the next phalanx in the Greek battleline

On my second turn, our two battle lines were already close, within spitting distance. I used "Elusive" on my middle warrior unit to toss javelins at one of his hoplite units and then pull back a Medium distance (6"). I debated having my horsemen throw javelins at the depleted unit, but I figured it would be too easy for the hoplites to shrug off the hits. Rusty had played on of the four (!) Activation/Reaction abilities on the Greek board to make all of his units save vs. shooting as if they were in cover. I decided to send the Thracian cavalrymen in for a charge instead. Javelins add +1 to the attack roll in melee, and his unit had a fatigue which means I should rack of plenty of hits to eliminate the unit. The dice did not cooperate, again, and there was one survivor reeling back from my horsemen. Still, I decided to follow up the success and send in the hearth guard Rhomphaia men in with their choppers. I expected another slaughter, as this was my best unit rolling 12 dice at +1 against a fatigued enemy. My dice deserted me once more. I rolled a boatload of 1's, plus Rusty continued to save like a demon! Instead of nearly wiping out the hoplites, we killed only three, while he killed one of mine.

    End of Thracian Turn 2: My plan to envelop his left end of his battle line appears to be working

I knew my Rhomphaia men's charge would leave them dangerously close to his veteran hoplites. So, I played another ability to remove the fatigue from our battle, and had queued up the best defensive ability on the board: Protect the Loot. The Pillage mechanic means that when a unit wins a melee against non-levy, it acquires a Loot marker. So, both my cavalry and hearthguard had loot markers, now. Interestingly, this also means they would be harder to activate to move. Still, I was willing to dig in and let him charge my hearth guard and see how Protect the Loot worked. Unfortunately, Rusty wisely kept track of what I had queued up on my board and did not fall for my trap. Either that, or a Greek version of Admiral Akbar was whispering in his warlord's ear!

    The dice begin to go my way -- my unit of Thracian javelin men shatters and drives off a phalanx

Instead, the wily Greek general consolidated his depleted units away from where I was enveloping him, and towards his right. He then moved to the attack on that wing. His warrior hoplites crashed into my Thracian javelin men opposite them. I decided to save Protect the Loot for this fight and have my 9 warriors try to kill as many of his hoplite as I could. We had also killed some of them with javelins last turn. Once again, the melee was bloody. The Thracians got the better of it, though (were the dice changing in my favor?), as only two hoplites were left standing at the end, while four of my javelin men were alive. Crucially, as it would turn out, they also acquired a Loot marker. 

    Thracian defensive abilities are put to the test & enable 4 warriors to drive off 8 hearthguard!

Now, the question was where would Rusty send his veteran hoplites -- fully 1/3 of his army points? He chose to have them go in mop-up role against the surviving four javelin men. I played Protect the Loot and also another Thracian ability that allows them to count as in heavy cover. Not only would I be saving on a 4+ instead of 5+, Protect the Loot allows me to re-roll 1's and 2's that missed. If I had a Rare (which I didn't) it would allow re-roll of ALL missed saves. On top of all that, the ability also allows the Thracian player to discard their Loot token to cancel the first two casualties suffered after rolling saves. The Athenian veterans rolled their 16 attack dice and I rolled my two. Amazingly, both were hits, and even more astoundingly, he failed both saves. On my end, I saved all but two of his hits. That means we tied. Since I was defender, and in solid cover, my javelin men drove off the Athenian veterans! The worm had truly turned, I felt.

    The battlefield at the end of Athenian turn 2: Thracian speed, javelin fire & defense are proving key

On my turn 3 (wow, was this really only turn 3??), I sent my only remaining full strength javelin men forward, charging one of the heavily depleted hoplite units he had consolidated onto his right. The survivors were wiped out, which sprayed fatigue around to all units within Short distance. Rusty and I surmised that this is a danger players of Greek City States armies need to watch out for and minimize. Over and over in this game, his tightly-packed units suffered fatigues when one of their number was eliminated. Towards the end of the game, this sometimes meant three units were taking additional fatigue. Encouraged by the mayhem my Thracians were creating, I sent the Rhomphaia men into to assault one of his other hoplite units. It was not nearly as devastating, but brought the five-man Greek unit down to two at the cost of one of my Rhomphaia men.

    Rusty consolidated his depleted units into his line, which left them easy targets for my fresh units

Rusty was in a pickle, he knew -- mainly because of the fatigue he had been suffering. Also, as yet, his slingers had not contributed to the battle at all. He surprised me by sending his Greek warlord charging in against my Rhomphaia men. In continuing with a theme, the battle was bloody. All four of my hearth guard were cut down. In return, he took three casualties. Rusty had planned well, though, and his own veteran hoplites were within "Bodyguards" range. He decided to kill two of them, and take one fatigue. He then pulled the general back to a safer distance (giving him a third fatigue, and exhausting him).

Rhomphaia men join in on the mayhem, whittling down more Greek spearmen & bunching them up

I knew if I could kill the remaining veteran hoplites and his general, Rusty would likely concede the game. So, the Thracian horsemen -- who proved to be a key force in this game -- charged in and trampled the remaining fatigued Greek spearmen. The full strength javelin men unit then raced forward and hurled their javelins at the warlord. It came down to Rusty's saving dice, and this time, they deserted him. The Greek Strategos was transfixed, and fell to the ground. 

    When the Athenian strategos is transfixed by javelins and killed, we called a bloody end to the game

With that, we called an end to a very bloody (and fast-moving) game. The Thracians had triumphed with their combination of speed, javelin fire, and a couple stalwart defensive abilities on their battle board. They DO take some management with the Pillage mechanic. The Thracian board gives good multiple move abilities for units without Loot markers, but the tribesmen become less willing to move once they have one. Both hearth guard and warriors activate only on Rares or Uncommons once they have Loot. The warlord's "We Obey" can be used to remove or give a maker to a unit, but that means you lose that ability to activate a unit to do something else. This is not a beginner's board, in my opinion. It has the potential to be a very fun one, though. I really enjoyed playing them, and thanks to Rusty for providing a fun, hard-fought game.

    Joe's Mutatawwi'a camel riders and foot battle against Dave E's Roman legionaries

Otherwise, it was a lighter Sunday for us, with only 8 players total showing up for Saga that day. Here were the scores in the various games:

• Mike D's Thracians defeated Rusty P's Athenian Greek City State in Clash of Warlords, 28-16
• Dave E's Romans defeated Joe M's Mutatawwi'a  in Clash of Warlords, 16-10
• Andy S's Undead defeated Mike S's Native Americans in an Age of Magic Battle of Heroes, 27-17
• Jenny T's Eastern Princes defeated Mike C's Carolingians in Clash of Warlords, 25-17

 

    Mike S's Native American army battles hordes of undead in an Age of Magic game