Showing posts with label Ancients. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ancients. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 12, 2023

Three Warlords of Saga

 

    My first warlord prize stand for the Saga Age of Melee tournament, a "Welsh-style" general

Last year, I painted up a handful of warlord stands as prizes for the Advance the Colors 2022 Saga Tournament. I wanted to do the same thing again, but figured that doing them in several batches, rather than all at once, would be easier. I am running two tournaments this year, so picked out one batch of figures for the Ancients tournament and one for the Age of Melee (all historical periods). I would be painting at third warlord stand for myself at the same time. With three figures per stand, nine figures wouldn't be so bad, right?

    Using Gripping Beast's "Aetius" figure, I created a warlord stand for Roman-style armies
Wow...these three stands seemed to take FOR EVER...FOR EVER (channeling the movie "Sandlot")! Granted, the warlords themselves were mounted while their standard bearer and bodyguard were on foot. Still, that shouldn't take that much longer than a normal batch of 8 miniatures, should it? Apparently so. Being general or heroic figures, they did have a lot of detail. And being prizes, I wanted to make sure I did a bang-up job on them. How embarrassing would it be if the painted warlord stands were the last prizes chosen? Last year, they were some of the very first chosen, which I found gratifying. I received a lot of kind words and praises for them, so I had to make sure these were up to the same standard.

    I would have to say this stand is up there in my all-time favorite warlord stands I've painted for Saga
The Age of Melee stand would use as its base a mounted general from Gripping Beast (I believe), called "Mounted Welsh Warlord." It is an incredibly cool figure with scale armor and a dashing half-cloak over his shoulder. The horse is rearing majestically and it is simply a great pose. I decided to alternate silver and bronze scales, and was happy with how those turned out. I crossed my fingers and did a tartan for the cloak, which came out great, I felt. The yellow squares at the intersection of the blue and green "grid" really set it off. The shades of green and blue colors gives a nod to current Scottish tartans, so I felt they looked believable.

I added a bard figure to the stand that has been sitting in my unpainted lead drawer for more than a decade. I am no longer sure where this figure comes from, but it is a beautiful casting. I love his sweeping gesture as he points out the subject of his praise. I gave him lots of decoration so that he is dressed to befit his lord's status! The standard bearer was simply a well-armored dark age warrior who I thought fit the look of a Dark Age British style warlord. I want these stands to be relatively generic and useful for at least several or a handful of warbands. In that vein, I made the banner a Celtic-style boar which I found with a Google Image search. I put it in Photoshop and switched out some colors and added a nice border. I made it match the color scheme of the warlord and feel it really stands out.

    I really like how the bodyguard's and standard bearer's shields came out on this stand
Next up was the warlord for the Age of Ancients tournament. I chose Gripping Beast's Aetius, Magister Militum figure for the general. Not only are there Roman armies in pretty much every Saga "Age of..." book, there are other warbands that might have Roman-style equipment in Age of Invasions that it could work for, I feel. Of course, since he is Roman style, I had to go with deep reds for the color scheme, with a dash of purple here and there. I went with a yellow cloak for contrast and think it works well overall with the banner and accents on the clothes. I Googled "Roman Legionary Banners" and sorted through the dozens of images before deciding on the rampaging bull. I added a border of tiny SPQR eagles around it, hoping that it wouldn't date the warlord to one particular period (such as Christian imagery might). You have to remember, Age of Caesars will be out before too long (hopefully), so I want him to be usable for that book's Romans, as well.

    Aethelflaed Alfreds-daughter, Lady of Mercia, is believed to have actually led armies
Finally, the third stand that was for myself -- Aethelflaed, Alfreds-daughter, Lady of Mercia! Ever since watching The Last Kingdom series on Netflix, I thought it would be amazing to have an Anglo-Saxon army with the redoubtable Aethelflaed as a warlord. This daughter of Alfred the Great was raised at court and is lauded by historians both modern and medieval. It is certainly within the realm of Saga to have her as warlord (perhaps even subbing in as a "Legendary Warlord" for her dad?). The miniature (I believe) is from Reaper Miniatures Bones line, but I had long since thrown away the box and had the figure sitting on my desk for years.

    I like this little diorama for Aethelflaed, and I think the plastic Reaper figure turned out well
Another touch I really liked was the Saxon warrior holding his shield over his head, blocking arrows from hitting his Lady. The Saxon comes from the Gripping Beast's Ceorl Shieldwall pack. When I saw the figure, I got the idea to use him as a bodyguard catching arrows intended for his lord (or lady). So, I saved the figure until I was ready to paint up Aethelflaed. Actually, I thought I had two, but could find only one. I originally wanted an arrow catcher on either side of the horse. I drilled out the Saxon's shield and pushed brass wire through. I added "green stuff" to the end of the wire as the arrows' feathers. It came out okay. I am sure others could do better, but I am still learning with green stuff. I wanted a royal deep red and dark blue color scheme for the Lady, and echoed it on her attendants. The casualty figure at her feet was actually a last-minute addition. I had painted it up for something else, but just loved how it looked, so placed it on the base during the flocking stage. As a final touch, I used Aethelflaed's supposed banner from the Bernard Cornwell novels of the goose holding a cross in its mouth.

All in all, I am VERY happy with how these turned out -- even though they took me about three weeks worth of work! Stay tuned for another batch of warlords over the next month...!


Saturday, January 2, 2021

2020 - Gaming & Painting Year in Review

 Probably my favorite model I painted this year - my Moorish warlord (with bodyguard & pet cheetah)

I sit here in the sun room of my new house (moved in October 2020) and look back on the accomplishments of this past year. First and foremost is the new house, of course. Not only does it have the cozy sun room with its view of the neighborhood, but the new place also has a dedicated painting/crafting cubbyhole down in the basement. No longer do I have to use my desk in the office as a place to paint or organize my projects. What's more, the house has a huge finished basement with lots of room for gaming. That is, once face-to-face gaming starts up again! In fact, I just ordered two 8'x30" folding tables for that area, and there's room for even more gaming down there! I've joked that we can host an 8-player Saga tournament down there, and I think it is pretty close to true.

 Rival Samurai gangs battle it out in one of our last, face-to-face Sunday evening gaming sessions

Of course, year in review wouldn't be the complete without mentioning the 800-pound gorilla in the room: COVID. Our last Sunday evening, face-to-face gaming was on March 15, 2020, when Mike Stelzer ran a playtest of his Samurai miniatures rules he's writing. Yes, March 15...perhaps we should have followed the seer's advice to "Beware the Ides of March!"? Still, we met at our usual spot, my friend Mike's Brewpub/Basement (he usually has two of his homebrews on tap!). His wife, a nurse, had hand sanitizer on hand and we all made sure our grubby fingers were germ free. Allen resisted a bit, but knew we were serious, and after those preliminary precautions, we sat down to game. None of us knew that would be our last in-person Sunday night game session of the year. We were all worried about what was to come, and with good reason considering how this year played out!

Our Saga game days were one of the things COVID curtailed in 2020

COVID also clamped down on our twice-monthly Saga game days in Columbus and Dayton. After our meeting on March 1st, we didn't game together at the game store again till July. We were able to get in meetings until November, when the second wave once again closed the gaming areas of Guardtower East and Dragons Guildhall. I started 2020 off playing my Welsh warband in Saga, which had an amazing success record. I switched over to the Picts (Scots from Age of Vikings) partway through the year. I had a good run with them, too. On a whim, I tried the Carolingians, and enjoyed playing them well enough to pick up a 4-point army Gripping Beast army box from Game Table Adventures in Newark, OH. I also got in a game each with the Pagan Rus and Norse-Gaels using my Viking miniatures. I closed out the year playing my newest army, the Moors.

 Nechtan Mac Fergus' Picts racked up a phenomenal 8-0-0 record over their 2020 streak of games

It was a pretty successful year of generalship in the Saga games. Here was my record with the various armies I played over the course of 2020:

  • Army  Wins-Losses-Ties
  • Picts (Scots), 8-0-0
  • Moors, 4-0-1
  • Carolingians, 2-0-1
  • Welsh, 1-0-0
  • Pagan Rus, 1-0-0
  • Norse-Gaels, 1-0-0

 I began 2020 playing Saga with my Welsh army, led by Lord Gwendawg, here

My run of success is probably in danger, as my luck can't go on forever! Seriously, I have really enjoyed the tactical challenge of playing Saga, though. Learning how to maximize the special abilities of my army, while simultaneously watching out for what my opponent's can inflict on me is a lot of fun. I like poring over a battle board and trying to think of combinations of abilities that can help bring victory on the tabletop. I usually type them into a Notes page on my iPhone and keep it pulled up during the game. Otherwise, I might forget to use a stratagem. 

 My Picts face Jeff F's Huns led by Attila -- a tough, tactical puzzle that solving makes Saga enjoyable

Still, winning at Saga is not all about using your battle board abilities. You need to have a plan for your army, and the ability to change plans in midstream. Two of my more challenging games this year were against Dayton area gamer, Adrian John. In both, he showed up with a superior tactical plan, in my opinion. My usual methods weren't bringing success and he was winning through the first three turns. However, I recognized that and changed tactics. I went with a backup plan (shooting with "Reach" with the Scots and charging home instead of skirmishing with the Moors). Both times, my halftime adjustments eked out a victory. So, Saga requires you to be flexible and adapt your tactics to your opponent and their army. 

 One of my first painting accomplishments of 2020: Finishing off my Pictish army for Saga

As far as painting miniatures in 2020, it was a moderately productive year. Ever since our school switched to online learning in April, and with my decision to teach the students whose families chose all online in the new school year, I have been incredibly busy. Adapting lesson plans to an online format is a constant process. This has impacted my painting time, of course. I kicked the painting year off last January by finishing up the Pictish infantry I needed for that warband. The army requires a LOT of infantry figures. I used four army points of warriors (32 figures), and 1 point of levy archers (12 more figures). Some were done already from our previous Dark Age skirmish games using both Song of Blades and Heroes and Tribal rules. However, a lot of the Pictish spearmen were newly-painted for the Saga force.

 The cover of my newest rules set - Mean Streets (inspired by the 1979 movie The Warriors)

I then switched modes back into terrain building for my gang warfare rules, Mean Streets. Another major accomplishment of the year was seeing them through to publication this past May. I created a number of things to fill my modern cityscape, including

 Wallace's Brewpub - named after one of our Sunday gamers - is one of the buildings I created in 2020

I did some other odds and ends, such as 28mm carts or wagons and their "loads" for Saga objective markers.  I also did some pack mules and handlers for my French & Indian War games with my Song of Drums and Tomahawks rules. I created some more terrain for Saga -- bogs or fens -- with material found inexpensively at Hobby Lobby. 

 The Indianola Mohawks was one of the two new street gangs I painted up this year

Inspired by March's successful final playtest of the Mean Streets rules at Cincycon 2020, I painted up two new gangs. The Indianola Mohawks were a "punk rocker" gang with colorful mohawk hairstyles, punk music t-shirts, and a good bit of black leather. The figures are from Casting Room miniatures, and I really liked them. I modified most, giving them weapons like chains and knives. This was also when I purchased the Wiz Kids gasoline station accessory pack, which you will see the Mohawks posed by if you click on the link. I bought this from Fun Factory Hobbies in Mt. Gilead, OH. Knowing how badly COVID was hitting game stores, I made it a point to buy things I might not have otherwise to help support them.

 Julio is the leader of the final (and 9th) gang I've painted, The Santanas (using Casting Room Minis)

When I ordered the figures from Casting Room Miniatures for the Mohawks, I ordered three packs total, which I had planned into using to create two different gangs. The second gang was your classic, leather-jacketed gang of street punks. Since I am trying to be ethnically inclusive in my portrayal of street gangs, this one would be my first Hispanic gang - the Santanas. I really liked how these came out, though they ended up being the last street gang that I'd paint for the year. With nine gangs painted up, I had enough for about as big of a game as I wanted to run.

Some foot from one of the 3 remaining 15mm armies after my selloff, Caledonian/Pict (still for sale!)

In July, I made a major decision to hone down my miniatures collection. I decided to put all of my 15mm Ancients and Fantasy armies up for sale. I post them here on my blog, and then also took them up to the Fort Meigs flea market, where unfortunately, none sold. However, I began to have success selling them online by posting them in various Facebook groups. The biggest score was when a single buyer purchased all of my remaining fantasy armies (built years ago for Hordes of the Things, which we didn't play anymore). I had been saving them in case we got back into it or a new set of rules took off, but we simply didn't play them for years. It was the same for my Ancient armies. I had been saving the Fall of Rome collection of DBA armies. However, with Saga taking off and me building armies in 28mm, it simply didn't make sense to keep storing them in my closet. I sold a number of them, but still have three left, if anyone is interested (Pictish/Caledonian, Germanic Barbarian, and Briton/Celtic). The Picts in particular are some of my best 15mm work ever, I feel!

It took me 5 months of 2020 to complete my latest army for saga, The Moors

July was also the month I began painting my newest Saga army, the Moors. I ended up completing 24 archers, 16 spearmen, 20 cavalry, and a command stand. I know I talked about this before on my blog, but this army was one that gave me faith in my painting skill, again. Prior to that point, I was honestly feeling that my skills were deteriorating. I felt I had passed my peak, and that the eyesight and hand steadiness needed to do superb work was no longer within my range. I made a commitment with this army, though, to using the lighted magnifying lamp I have attached to my painting desk. I bought new brushes with finer points. And much to my surprise, I found my hands could be steady when I held the figure under the lamp. One thing that help was cutting half of the stem off of my fine-point brushes. That way, I didn't have to deal with the tip banging against the top of the magnifier. Holding this golf pencil sized brush was much easier, and I found I could paint very interesting and colorful patterns for the robes of my Andalusians. I finished the army just a few weeks ago, which brings us up to present.

 Berserkers! The first of the figures from my Viking interlude after finishing my Moors

Although I have a Carolingian Saga army waiting in the wings to be painted, I decided to sneak in some other things I felt I needed. I had no berserker figures in my Viking army, so I painted four fantasy figures up for them. On my table right now, is the second half of 12 Viking archers. My Viking army is probably my most popular loaner army. I had a limited number of archers, so if more than one of my armies was being loaned out, I was scrambling for figures. This should solve that problem. I will also do a couple units of unarmored warriors from the Anglo-Saxon Gripping Beast box that I bought. I have plenty of infantry in chainmail -- which I like to use for hearthguard in Saga. I just don't have many unarmored Saxon/Viking ones, which I like to use for warriors. And speak of Saga, I would be remiss if I did not mention the Saga Ohio Podcast which I began late this year! In homage to the wonderful Northern Tempest Saga Podcast and the Saga Thorsday video blog, I interview and discuss Saga with one of our players. We talk about their favorite army, analyze the special abilities of the battle board, and future plans for other Saga armies. Give it a listen on either Spotify, Anchor, Google Podcasts, or several other platforms!

Other bits of 2020: 28mm Iron Wind Metals Policemen and a Miniature Building Authority dumpster

But wait a minute, this was supposed to be a year in review article! Here I am, discussing future plans!! All in all, I felt 2020 was a productive year in both terrain making and painting miniatures. I had hoped to get more time to work on the next supplement for Song of Drums and Tomahawks (covering Hernando de Soto's march through America), but writing and research was only just underway when prepping for school sucked away nearly all of my free time. Another First Command Wargames product that I had planned to start in 2020 that did not get done was the aerial supplement for the rules. I am pretty happy with the helicopter rules as they stand. I think the fixed wing aircraft rules need a little more work, though. I want to include shoulder-fired Surface to Air Missiles to the rules. That will require a lot more playtesting, which of course, is exactly what COVID conspired to limit this year.

 Owner Steve of Smith's Smoke Shack seems unimpressed by The Santanas anger at his prices

Still -- nothing wrong with a few unfinished projects at the end of a year, right? For such an awful year that COVID-ravaged 2020 ended up being, hobbywise, it could have been a lot worse. How was your hobby year? Feel free to add your comments below -- I'd love to hear!

Sunday, September 13, 2020

Count Drogo Clashes with a Crafty Roman Commander

Count Drogo, the Frankish warlord, urges his archers forward to engage the enemy
The monthly Saga Game Day at the Dragon's Guildhall in Beavercreek, Ohio, was moved up a week due to a conflict with another event. Nevertheless, six warlords were on hand to marshal their troops and wage battle. I brought Count Drogo, the bastard son of the Frankish king, leading a Carolingian warband. For the first time, my opponent was Bob B -- we had yet to play in all the various game days. He was fielding a "Last Romans" warband. On the other tables, Aaron J's Normans and Jim B's Vikings squabbled over loot in Feasting & Pillaging. Adrian ran his Anglo-Saxons against Jenny's Vikings in a variant Clash of Warlords where all uneven terrain was dangerous.

The deployment, with Franks in blue and Romans in purple
Bob and I were playing the standard Clash of Warlords. I loaded up the field with a medium sized woods on either flank and a field of scrub brush in my center. Bob placed a gentle hill in his center, but most of the terrain shifted towards my side when I rolled the diagonal "Method B" deployment. As first player, I wasn't sure how aggressively Bob would move his mostly mounted force. His army was definitely one of the smallest I have every played against, in number of figures. Besides his mounted warlord, he fielded the legendary unit Klibanophoroi 8-man cataphract unit (3 points -- half of his force value!). He also fielded two other mounted hearthguard units, one a 4-man horse archer unit with composite bows and the other a standard mounted unit. His remaining unit was 8 foot warriors with bows. 

A Frankish warrior unit hurries towards to woods to engage the Roman archers
I deployed cautiously towards the rear of my zone, occupying the center scrubland with one unit of foot warriors with bow. The other foot archers were in the woods on my left. Both units of warrior spear were on my right, poised to enter the right flank woods where Bob's archers would end up going. Both of my 4-man mounted hearthguard units were held back in reserve in the center, as was Count Drogo. Bob deployed his two smaller mounted units in the center, while the Klibanophoroi were poised to circle the woods on my right flank. Seeing this, we hurried one of the warrior spear units towards the woods, hoping to be able to drive his archers out of it. We also wanted to get into the woods where we thought we would be safe from the Klibanophoroi.

Just as the Franks are about to contact the Romans, they scamper out of the woods!
I put two of my three Saga dice I rolled as first player into my Proelium section on the board (the third would go in on turn two), using the other on the advancing warrior spear unit. Bob sent his Klibanophoroi around the woods, while the horse archers galloped forward to shoot at my warrior spear before retiring. The foot archers also shot a volley at them, but (as a rarity in this match) I saved well, losing only one figure. When my warriors entered the woods on the next turn and advanced to within charging range, Bob pulled the archers out of the woods before I could contact them. Then he really surprised me by charging the Klibanophoroi into the woods. They came in with two fatigues, but that didn't matter, as he completely wiped out my remaining warriors (who'd taken two more losses from horse archery) to a man. I was stunned that a mounted unit could so easily charge foot in the woods. This was a legendary unit that cost him 3 points, though, so I guess they should be fairly powerful.

I think I was as surprised as my warriors when the Klibanophoroi charged into the woods!
Meanwhile, Count Drogo had ordered the Frankish archers out of the terrain and hurried them towards the enemy. We used Ardor and ordinary Saga dice to pepper the Klibanophoroi with four shots. Bob saved every hit -- even the four automatic hits I got from using Vinco and Domine on my board! He then withdrew the Klibanophoroi out of the woods (and out of sight) of my archers. His own archers advanced and shot at my mounted hearthguard on the left flank, who rolled atrociously, and lost two of their four figures. This encouraged Bob to send his own small mounted hearthguard unit to charge them. He had finally rolled well enough with Saga dice to use Strategos, so his unit had 12 dice to my 4. However, I used his fatigue to raise my armor class to a 6, and Bob rolled only one "6". Did I save that hit and drive back his charge? No, of course not! 

Count Drogo urges his troops forward to contact the elusive Romans
Still, Bob had exhausted his Saga dice and his surviving three hearthguard ended their turn within range of my archers. I spent all of my dice to power my two archer units -- Ardor, Vinco, Domine, Potentia -- every ability the Carolingian battle board had to improve its shooting. The Roman cavalrymen were wiped out to a man, and an additional shot savaged his foot bow unit, too. While my attention was focused on shooting, Bob was able to rest his exhausted Klibanophoroi and move them around the woods towards where my remaining Frankish spear and mounted hearthguard watched our right flank. 

"Fire!" Drogo roars, as the Romans are finally within range of Frankish bows
At that point, I decided to gamble. Knowing that his battleboard was empty, and that when HE charged, whoever they hit would be likely wiped out, I decided to charge him first. I loaded my battleboard up with my combat abilities -- Fortis (which gives me 3 dice and takes 3 away from him), Potentia (allowing rerolls of up to six misses), and for the first time ever, Damnatio -- which gives +1 attacks against the declared enemy unit. He would have 14 dice, minus the 3 Fortis would take away, giving him 11. I would have 8+3 = 11. But he had a fatigue, which I used to make my armor a six. So, 11 vs. 11, and I hit him on 4's (with rerolls of up to six misses), while he hit me on sixes. It should go my way, except the Klibanophoroi's pesky Resilience (1), which meant he could convert the first three casualties into fatigue.

Stung by a couple turns of Frankish archery, the Romans rally near the right flank woods
The Frankish nobles shouted their warcry and charged in! I rolled a total of 7 hits (probably one or two under average). However, Bob saved rolled 5's or 6's on four of his seven dice. NO CASUALTIES! Meanwhile, I had lost two killed (my saves remained abysmal). Since this as Turn 5, I was pretty sure that meant Count Drogo would lose this contest. On his half of turn 5, Bob killed the remaining two hearthguard with shooting and then withdrew as much of his force behind the woods as he could to avoid my shooting. 

"Well, that didn't work out like planned!" The Frankish nobles' charge caused no kills
As the final turn of the game dawned, I noticed that Bob's warlord had advanced far enough around the woods that my one of my archer units could draw a bead on his with a full advance. I used all of my dice to give them two maximized shots with Vinco and Domine, hoping that Bob's deep well of good saving rolls would run dry at this critical moment. After the first shot, his warlord was exhausted. The second shot (with Domine allowing me to replay Vinco for two more automatic hits) came up all misses. He still had to save vs. the two auto-hits, though. This time, the Roman warlord failed, and he fell from the saddle pin-cushioned. Bob tried to exact revenge on the archers with a Klibanophoroi charge, but I was able to use his fatigue to prevent him from making contact. 

The Roman warlord advances just a bit too far around the woods, opening him up to bowfire
It was time to count up points. Would the death of his warlord be enough to make up for Bob's lead? As it turned out, Bob score 15 points and I got 14. However, in Clash of Warlords, you have to beat the opponent by three or it is a draw. So, Count Drogo had narrowly avoided defeat against a very crafty Roman warlord. Bob played masterfully with his small, mobile force. He continually avoided my archery fire, keeping distance enough from me or using the terrain to mask his forces from my arrows. I was impressed. In hindsight, I made a serious mistake taking on the Klibanophoroi. I should have backed away to draw them within range of my archers. I think they are one of the few answers the Carolingians have against them. Even then, their Resilience (1) means they can take fatigue instead of hits till they're exhausted. If I face a similar legendary unit in the future, I will be more cautious, and make sure both archer units are in position to cover all approaches.

Jim B's Viking warlord takes control of a loot token in his battle against the Normans
In the other battles, Aaron's Normans swiped most of the loot tokens and defeated Jim's Vikings, 26-19. In the remaining game, Adrian's six points of Anglo-Saxon levy overwhelmed Jenny's Vikings. Jim B was his usual generous self and bought gift cards for all participants so we could go home with goodies from the store, in addition to the normal good time playing Saga. I picked up a new pin vice, as mine is getting old and stripped. Thanks to Jim and Adrian for hosting, and to Bob for a great, challenging game. Good times, as usual, playing Saga!

Adrian's Anglo-Saxons hordes about to overwhelm Jenny's sorely-outnumbered Vikings

Sunday, September 6, 2020

Saga is Alive & Well in Ohio

A historical refight at our Saga Game Day - Andy's Normans advance against Lee's Normans
Despite the fact COVID seems to show little signs of letting up, the Saga wargamers of Ohio were gathering (masked and socially distanced) at the Guardtower East in Columbus. Due to a couple last-minute conflicts, we dropped to eight players this time around. Half of the players got a second game in, as well. We had one brand new player (welcome, Lee!) and plenty of familiar faces across the table. I decided to give Count Drogo the Carolingian Count another battle this time around. I've been very successful with my Pictish army, but I felt it was time to change things up!

Count Drogo's Carolingians (at bottom) take on Jenny's Vikings in the Desecration scenario
 In addition to my Carolingians, we had two Norman armies, one Pagan Russ, one Viking, one Irish, one Anglo-Saxon, and one Last Roman army take the field, this Sunday. In the first round, Jenny asked for a rematch of her Vikings against Count Drogo. Apparently, the Vikings were back for another raid on Frankish territory. We decided to try a scenario from the Book of Battles. A week or so ago, I had posted on of the Saga Facebook groups asking which were the most balanced scenarios from that book. Behind Clash of Warlords was Desecration in 2nd place. So, we thought we'd give it a try.

Count Drogo's warrior spearmen advance on the right, intent on seizing an objective marker
In this game, each player places three objectives markers on their half of the table (only one of which can be in uneven terrain). The opponent is trying to destroy these, which then affects the "cap" a player can receive in massacre points against their opponent. If you destroy none, you can receive only 10 points, for example. But for each objective you melee (or shoot) and destroy, your cap is raised. This forces you to go on the attack, I feel, and so I examined our terrain to figure out how best to take one or more of Jenny's' markers.

Jenny ponders how to react to the Carolingian advance - she gets more and more skilled each game!
There were three pieces of terrain. A field in the center, a marsh on my left, and a woods on the right. I placed my forward-most objective in the marsh, guarded by my two warrior bow units. Jenny placed her forward-most marker in the woods, which she occupied with her levy bow. I sent a unit of warrior spear into that woods to seize it, backed up by another warrior spear. So, both of my warrior spear units were on the right and both my warrior bow on the left. Each was backed up by a small 4-man mounted hearthguard unit. The warlord stayed in the center to discern what the Vikings battle plan would be.

My Carolingian warriors charge and drive off Jenny's Viking levy archers - a key part of my plan!
Jenny placed her two 6-man hearthguard units opposite my center, with her 8-man warrior units on each flank. The levy bow were lined up opposite my right, where my main thrust would go. I immediately marched my two warrior spear unit forward on the right, while advancing and launching arrows against one of her hearthguard units in the center. 

My victorious warriors prepare to "desecrate" the Viking objective marker hidden by the trees
The Carolingian battle board has good shooting abilities. I used "Ardor" every turn, which allows a number of units equal to your "Proelium" (where I kept the maximum 3 dice all game) to move or shoot for fatigue-free. This means that if I activate my warrior bow with Saga dice (or the Warlord's "We Obey") I can then activate them again with Ardor, getting off 4 shots with no fatigue to me. And if I throw "Vinco" in, as well, one of those shots includes two automatic hits. And if I'm lucky enough to roll a rare flag die (happened only 3 times in the game), I can play "Domine" which allows me to duplicate Vinco and get another shot with two automatic hits.

The bitter end for the Viking thrust towards our closest objective marker
I've listened to a number of Saga podcasts and weblogs, and none of them rave about the Carolingians. However, I think they are very, very strong. This is not to brag at my success with them (only 2-0), but rather to point out that players must immerse themselves in the strengths and weaknesses of their army. I plopped those three Proelium dice on my battle board (two in turn one, and the final third one in turn two) and kept them there all game. This makes my Ardor movement more efficient (3 free moves) and my Vinco (2 automatic hits), Fortis (gain Attack or Defense dice equal to Proelium and opponent loses the corresponding dice), and Potentia (reroll misses equal to x2 Proelium) more effective. Honestly, I sometimes wonder if I turn the Saga armies I play into "one-trick ponies." I never seem to use a good 1/3 to 1/2 of the advanced Saga abilities on my battle board. I seem to pick a good 3-4 and use them every turn. Or is it, I am simply choosing the abilities that work best with the way I have fielded my army? Maybe. It is hard to tell, but I feel I have been successful with my methods, so why quibble?

Andy prepares to teach Lee, our newest recruit, the Clash of Warlords scenario
Back to the battle! After dealing out damage to one of the Vikings' center hearthguard units, I hurried my warriors towards her archers. She shot them on her turn, but caused only one casualty. The warrior spear charged in and killed five of her levy at the cost of another archer. More importantly, this cleared the way for us to charge her forward-most objective marker in the woods the next turn. The warrior unit caused two hits on it, and she saved only one of those, so one of her markers was mine! In response, Jenny began to maneuver her hearthguard unit and warlord towards the woods which I had seized. I responded by attacking the archers again with the same warrior unit, rolling a phenomenal seven hits! Jenny responded with an even more impressive five saves, though. At this point, I had taken her levy unit down below wher it generated a Saga dice, so I pulled my warriors back to avoid her counterattack.

Andy's 8-man, mounted hearthguard unit prepares to turn the tables on their Norman foes
Jenny charged a warrior unit in the center against an "Odin"-exhausted archer unit closest to my objective marker in the swamp. She paid for her fortunate roll with the levy and actually lost the battle (to be fair, her warrior unit had been depleted to four figures from shooting previously), recoiling. Things were not going well for the Vikings. She had sent a counterattack forward on my right, but I pulled back out of its way. Her thrust at my center had failed. And now things were about to get worse. On each flank, one of my small mounted hearthguard units swept around the terrain to put them into position to charge.

In our fastest game of the day, Tyler studies how his Irish can best attack Anthony's Pagan Rus
On my left, my mounted hearthguard charged a unit of her hearthguard that had been depleted to one figure, and eliminated it. On my right, my unit of hearthguard charged an objective marker on her baseline. Both charges were successful -- the last Viking died, and the objective marker was taken. About this point, Jenny began to feel helpless against my shooting and my "Ardor" ability. She was in no position to take any of my objective markers and I had taken two of hers. She was losing on the Massacre Points that would decide the scenario. She did get revenge when a unit of 6 hearthguard charged in and massacred three of four figures of my mounted hearthguard unit on the left. Her warlord similarly charged the one who had destroyed the objective on the baseline, killing three of four there. I was fine with that, though, and withdrew both units on my next turn.

Battlelines formed, Anthony's Pagan Rus (at bottom) advance upon Tyler's Irish
The points were going to work out in my favor. She could get no more than 10, and with two objective markers and lots of enemy kills, I would have a much higher total. Jenny rolled to allow us to play a turn 6, but she declined, and we counted up victory points. Count Drogo won 16-9. Jenny felt that the Ardor ability was way too tough, though I pointed out to her that "Odin" and "Loki" are similar game-changers on the Viking battle board. 

It was good to have my friend, Mike S, back and running his Last Romans again at our game day
The results of the Round 1 games were:

  • Mike D's Carolingians defeated Jenny T's Vikings 16-9 in Desecration
  • Tyler P's Irish crushed Anthony B's Pagan Rus 24-9 in Clash of Warlords
  • Adrian J's Normans came from behind to win Battle of Heroes against Mike S's Last Romans 10-9
  • Andy S's Anglo-Saxons defeated Lee P's Normans in Clash of Warlords

Adrian J's Normans, at right, advance upon Mike S's Last Romans in a round 1 game
A number of players had to leave after Round 1, so we ended up with only two battles round two. Tyler P got a rematch against Jenny's Vikings (who he'd fought a month ago), and Anthony's Pagan Rus took on Adrian J's Normans. I actually missed most of round 2 as I went outside to talk to Jim B. He works in the medical field and was on call and unfortunately got called and had to monitor an operation from his vehicle. I gave him a Viking warlord stand I'd painted for him in appreciation for all the gift certifications he'd given to participants in the Saga Game Days at the Dragons Guildhall in Beavercreek, Ohio. I was gratified that he seemed to really like the stand I'd painted and based for him. Hopefully, I'll see it across the table one day soon!

Never one to shirk a fight, Tyler P's Irish advance through the woods towards Jenny's Viking army
Round two's grudge match between Irish and Vikings was a complete and total bloodbath. Tyler plays very aggressively with his Irish, using their shooting ability to inflict lots of casualties on his opponents. Jenny gets better and better every game with the timing of win to use the "Odin" and "Loki" abilities on her battleboard. She held off the Irish and the two battled to a vicious draw, 23-22 in favor of Tyler. It was our only tie of the day, but considering that it was Irish vs. Vikings, it seemed appropriate!

The Irish warlord (at left) and Viking leader trade blows to decide the outcome of their battle

On the other table, it was another battle royale! Trying out the seldom (in our area) played Pagan Rus battle board, Anthony was giving the very skilled Adrian a challenging game. Time and again his warlord shrugged off attacks by the numerous Norman mounted troops. In the end, Adrian came out on top, 21-16, but both admitted it was a very close game. Learning a new battle board is difficult, which is why I tend to play the same one in streaks until I feel comfortable with it. Anthony enjoys the challenges, though, and if I remember correctly, has played a different army every month he has attended our Saga game days!''

Norman cavalry flow around the right flank of the Pagan Rus army seeking a weak point
For those interested in joining us, we have a schedule change for the Dayton-area Saga game days. Instead of the normal third weekend, our Saga Game Day at the Dragons Guildhall will be NEXT weekend, Sept. 13. Join us there at noon and play one or two games of Saga. We have plenty of loaner armies, so this is the perfect chance to try out a fun and challenging game. Honestly, that is one of the appeals of this game to me. I like trying to figure out how to field an army (composition and armament) and how best to utilize it on the army's battle board. Your success at Saga is not due only to good die rolling (which helps, as in all games), but also due to how cleverly you capitalize on its strengths and attack the enemy's weaknesses.

The Norman cavalry charge home against the Pagan Rus warlord in one of many attempts to slay him
I hope our Saga Game Days continue to have good turnout until that day when the whole COVID crisis is gone, and we can go back to gaming in person full time. Yes, wearing masks can seem a pain at times. But to me it seems like a small sacrifice to pay for the joy of in-person gaming and the panorama of Dark Ages army battling it out for supremacy on the tabletop!

Tyler's Irish warlord encourages his followers to charge into their Viking foes