Bonus Saga Game Day & Debut of My Newest Warband

 

    A new Viking army invades central Ohio as Adam brought his army from New York to learn Saga

There are good and bad aspects of just about everything, Facebook included. However, there's no denying how Facebook has helped our Saga Ohio group grow and keep everyone informed about gaming opportunities. Less than a week ago, Adam M posted in our group that he was back in Central Ohio from New York and wanted to get in a game of Saga, if possible. We were able to get a group of six of us together on a Wednesday evening at the Guardtower East game store. Adam had not played a full game of Saga since Version 1, so I paired up with him to help teach him through the mechanics.

    Tyler, at left, deploys his Irish as he finally faces Dave E's Roman army

Tyler P and Dave E had yet to play each other during any of our Saga game days, so they paired up, Irish vs. Romans. Another relatively new player, Allen S, borrowed my Vikings and matched up against Jason S and his Romans. This was only Allen's third game, so Jason helped refresh Allen on the concepts and the two were soon setting out terrain and deploying their armies.

    Tyler's Irish were able to use their considerable missile power to whittle away at Dave's Romans

To make it easier on Adam, we played Clash of Warlords so he could concentrate on my army and not worry about objective markers or other victory conditions. I was fielding my brand new Carolingian army. The warlord stand was flocked and clear coated earlier that afternoon. I showed him my order of battle -- mounted warlord, two units of 4 mounted hearthguard, two units of 8 warrior spearmen, and two units of 8 warrior bowmen. I've always maintained that warrior bowmen are underpowered in Saga rules, but the Carolingian battle board has a number of advanced abilities that really augment their archery.

    Allen, at left, moves his Vikings forward to engage Jason's Romans

Adam fielded a foot warlord, 3 units of 8 warriors, 1 unit of 4 berserkers, and one "hammer" unit of 8 foot hearthguard. That meant he was fielding two hard-hitting melee units with the berserkers and hearthguard. I would have to do my best to keep them from charging my archers. Hopefully, we could attack them with our missile fire and at least soften them up before impact. To that end, I would also need to use terrain to my Carolingian's advantage.

    Romans form a battle line as the Vikings edge closer and ready to charge

Next, I walked Adam through the terrain laying process. He was first player and placed a large woods in the center of the board (I'd warned him about my archery beforehand). I placed an area of ruins in the center right, just short of the middle of the table. He countered with a gentle hill in his center. I added an area of rocky ground on my right. He added another woods on his baseline. At this point, I took the option to move his large woods towards his right, away from the center. Adam decided that was good enough for terrain, and we began our deployment.

    Adam's Vikings swarm between the woods and hilltop towards my waiting Carolingian troops

Adam deployed his three warrior units as a screen across his front, shielding his hearthguard from my archery. They began their advance between the woods and hill, pouring towards Count Drogo's Carolingian border force. The spearhead of my force was one of my archer units in the ruins. The second unit was sheltering behind the ruins. I'd placed them there rather than in the neighboring rocky area because I didn't want them to be far out on the right away from the enemy. The plan was for them to sweep right or left depending on which group of Vikings I wanted to concentrate fire upon. 

    After Carolingian turn 1, the Viking warriors have been whittled down to 3 figures by archery

To the left of the ruins, stepping back towards my baseline were my two units of warrior spearmen. In the rear, my mounted hearthguard were my reserve. I envisioned using them in a "linebacker" counter-attack mode. If a vulnerable target presented itself, they could use their Long movement to charge them. Otherwise, I wanted them to be something my opponents would have to worry about and maybe make them more tentative in their attacks. Count Drogo, the warlord (his banner just attached hours earlier), sat atop his horse behind the ruins, his trumpeter Ranulf holding the leash to his Doberman Pinscher, Griffo.

  Viking counterattack is swift and fierce! 8 Viking hearthguard smash into my archers in the ruins

"Norseman, Count -- so many of them!" Ranulf whispered. Count Drogo nodded in response, scanning the woods and hilltop for signs of more invaders. "They're here for plunder, lord. Should we offer them spoils to leave, like our neighbor Count Nardwin did?"

 "Nardwin's a fool!" the Count growled. "What happens when the raiders return home with tales of easily-won plunder? More will come! There will be twice as many...threefold! There numbers will be uncountable..."

Ranulf sighed. "Yes, my lord. You are the count." Drogo cocked his head at his trumpeter, while Griffo barked, "Woof!"

    After the archers in the ruins recoil the hearthguard, both my units loose arrows - look at this roll!

Adam's first moves used both "Maneuver" free moves and Saga dice to advance all of his troops forward. The foremost unit of warriors had advanced within range of my archers stationed in the ruins. On my turn they loosed their arrows, while the counterparts behind the ruins advanced out to the right and let fly a volley of arrows, too. On turn 1, there was no danger of the Viking's "Odin" ability on their battle board, as the first player gets only 3 dice. Odin is a reaction to an enemy shooting and makes the shooters Exhausted. I wanted to make this first shot count, so maximized the abilities on my board for shooting. I played both "Vinco" (which inflicts two extra automatic hits), and "Potentia" (which lets me re-roll misses). I even used a Saga die on combat bonus, which added more attack rolls. After the first two volleys, I played "Ardor," which let me shoot again for free with those units.

    

 Viking warlord takes matters into his own hands and chases the Frankish archers out of the ruins

We scored 5 hits on the Vikings, which meant Adam's unit would not generate a Saga die next turn. The Viking's response was aggressive and dramatic. The 8-man hearthguard unit double moved into the ruins and crashed into my archers. Uh-oh, I thought. His toughest unit in melee just slammed into my weakest. I had queued up Defensor, which gave me 3 defense dice. I used his fatigue to lower his armor in hopes of whittling his hammer unit down a bit. Surprisingly, my archers gave as many casualties as they received -- aided, of course, by the heavy cover of the ruins and the bonus defense dice. The Viking huscarles recoiled, surprised by the ferocity of the Carolingian archers' defense.

    Count Drogo unfurls his dragon banner, alongside his trumpeter and Doberman Pinscher

This opened the door for me next turn to pour more archery fire into the huscarles. Adam had Odin queued up and made my full strength archer unit Exhausted. However, we shot with everything we had, throwing every Saga ability I could into the attacks. What's more, where my dice were below average in the first round, they were WAY above average in the second. One one shot, I rolled four "6's" out of my four dice! When my archers were done shooting, there was only one lone Viking hearthguard left. While concentrating on archery, my reserve noble cavalry was riding to the left and right to threaten the Vikings flanks. My thought was they could pick off any weakened units he tried to withdraw, or any that ended a turn saddled with fatigue markers. 

    Close up of Adam's Viking warriors, who were next to throw themselves into the attack

Adam knew the Vikings were an attack army, so came right back on his next turn. A second unit of warriors charged into one of my warrior units. The Carolingians closed ranks and played Defensor again, resulting in no casualties. The Vikings lost one and withdrew. Next, the Viking warlord charged into the ruins to take on my archers himself. He triumphed where the huscarles did not, and my battered unit withdrew with only three figures remaining. The Viking hero was Exhausted, though. This presented an opportunity I could not pass up, though.

    The Frankish warriors repel the charge of the Viking warriors

Once again, we concentrated our archery fire. The Warlord was a difficult target - his armor being raised to 6 against shooting by the ruins. Still, with the aid of Vinco, we score 4 hits on him. Adam picked up the four dice to roll. I reminded him that his lone hearthguard was within Short distance, so he could soak off one casualty by sacrificing him if he failed. But he needed to save at least three of the four. In payback for my earlier roll against his hearthguard, Adam saved all four shots! That's was one tough Viking warlord!

 Count Drogo shook his head and growled, "That Norse bastard is still alive in there, Ranulf!" He watched as the massive Viking taunted his archers, using his sword to snap off several of the arrow shafts embedded into his shield. "I wonder...should I send in the spearmen to corner the rat and skewer him?"

Ranulf curled Griffo's leash around his wrist. "Lord, remember when we watched the movie, 'Conan the Barbarian'? That hero was holed up in an old temple, too. He took out so many of his enemies and never was slain."

The count frowned as he scanned the battlefield, tabulating his surviving Frankish warriors against Vikings remaining alive. "You're right, Ranulf. We could lose more warriors sending them in...not sure how many more losses we can really suffer..."

"You are the count, lord." Ranulf nodded. Count Drogo and his Doberman Griffo both cocked their heads and looked at the trumpeter.

    Late in the game, Carolingian noble cavalry mop up the scattered survivors of Adam's warrior units

Count Drogo ordered the unit of mounted nobles on the left to charge the Viking warriors who'd been pushed back. They spurred their steeds and shouted their warcries. I played my usual Vinco and Potentia, which resulted in all 7 of the Viking warriors being ridden down. The count then waved his victorious troopers back towards the center, knowing the Viking wolf was cornered, but still had teeth.

Adam knew it was time to unleash the most fearsome of his wolves, though - his berserkers. He moved them up and hurled them at one of my units of warrior spearmen. I'd been coaching him on which of the many melee Saga abilities to use when he charged me. I did  NOT close ranks because I wanted to make sure I killed all four of the berserkers. He chose good advanced abilities to augment his attack and eliminated my warriors, with two of his own guys surviving. Next, the frothing at the mouth berserkers piled into my unit of mounted nobles. The nobles were able to slay the last of the berserkers, but at the cost of two of their three remaining figures.

At this point, Adam had played his 6th turn. I offered to forego my final turn and count up the points. Since the other games were finished, and he'd learned quite a bit in this game, he agreed. Count Drogo had repelled the raiders with a 24-14 victory. Sure, I could have racked up a few more points on my sixth turn, but the important thing was that learning game was a success. Adam said he understood the system so much better after this teaching game. He was very enthusiastic about it and was looking forward to more games of Saga.

On the other tables, Allen and Jason had battered each other to a tie, with the Vikings scoring 15 points to the Romans' 14. Tyler's Irish had triumphed again, surprising yet another opponent with their potent missile power. He defeated Dave, 29-10. It was a great midweek bonus night of Saga. Count Drogo's Carolingians had made their debut a victory, and everyone seemed to have a great time.

Stay tuned to my blog for a final painting update with pictures of the last unit of archers and the warlord himself. There's also a chance we may get in another bonus night of Saga, as one of the Saga Ohio group founders, Steve P, is visiting from San Diego for a few days.

 

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.

   Next turn, they do the same against the Crusader warlord, winning the day with their charges!

More Foot Warriors for my Carolingian Saga army

    My second batch of foot warriors from the 28mm Gripping Beast starter set - 5 Saga points done!

I took advantage of summer break to accelerate my painting a bit this last week. I finished off the second batch of my foot warriors for my Carolingian Saga army. These warriors of Charlemagne's Frankish empire are from the 28mm Gripping Beast starter box. I really like the poses and variety of this box. There were four different poses in this batch of seven, all of whom I gave spears.

    I continued my theme of faded colors for the tunics on these Frankish warriors

Besides cleaning excess flash (of which there was very little), my first step was to use my new pin vice to drill out their right fists for brass wire spears. The other warriors in this box came with various hand weapons that needed to be glued into their hands, so I gave them axes and swords. This should provide a nice, irregular look to the units of warriors on the tabletop with three different weapons. Much as I have always said I am super glue inept, I have taken to using Gorilla Glue superglue on attaching the spears. I slide the spear into the hold I drilled for it, dab a little behind the fist, then pull the spear forward through the fist to drag the glue into the cavity. I clean off any excess blobs of superglue on either side and it tends to hold very well. I have dropped them while painting and the spears don't budge.

    I really like the "Yew Green" on the middle figure, and have used it throughout this army

I kept with the faded colors look for this army, with pale blues, greens, yellows, and such. My rationale is that people of the Dark or Middle Ages rarely had the closet full of clothes like most of us do today. So, they would wear clothes over and over, again. Repeated washings and time outside in the sun would fade the colors. Each of figure's tunics also had a solid border on its hemline. Three of them had cloaks, so I splurged and gave them a dotted pattern like I have done with the mounted nobles for this army.

    Hand painted shields for this army...not the best of my attempts, but passable

The leather straps and gartering on their legs was the fiddliest part of the figure, of course. Some of them had solid calf-high boots, which meant I could get away with a solid leather color and dry brush over it. For this army, I am giving them a range of hair color with browns, mousy tan, and red brown. This batch appeared to have mustaches but no beards, for the most part. 

    My five points of Carolingians completed so far...two batches to go!

The shields are once again hand-painted. For some reason, I like the designs I did on the previous batch better than these. They're not bad, but not as colorful as the others, I feel. Still, these are not meant to be noble warriors, so a more boring shield design should be just fine!

Next up is my final batch of archers for this army. Who knows? If I really bare down, I may get them AND the warlord finished before our next Saga game day. My guess is that won't happen, but stay tuned to my blog and see. Thanks for reading!

First Game of Epic Saga!

    Normans, Vikings & Romans clash in our first-ever game of Epic Saga at our game days

We had 13 Saga players invade the Guardtower East on the anniversary of D-Day in Columbus, Ohio. Six of those players were involved in a colossal clash in our first game of "Epic Saga" -- three armies per side. Andy S headed up a faction composed of two Norman warbands and one Roman, while Mike S took charge of a coalition of three Viking armies. Andy explained the way "big battle" Saga worked and then each side deployed, with Andy's Normans facing Joe M's Vikings, Dave E's Romans in the center holding off Daniel M's Norse, and Jason S's Normans taking on his Dad's Vikings.

    Dave (red) checks the range to Daniel's advancing Vikings, while Jason watches the slaughter begin

The Norman players decided to hang back and make the Vikings come across the field to them. What with their Volley ability allowing shooting out to two longs (24"), and the Roman's manuballista, they hoped to take out as many Vikings as possible before the two battlelines closed. The Vikings were more than willing and were soon streaming towards their foes all across the table. A spoiling charge on the Norman left by Jason's Normans shattered his father's Viking command, though. This demoralized the first Viking command. The Vikings struck back, though. Joe's newly-painted Vikings slammed into Andy's Normans and broke his command, too.

    Joe's newly-painted Vikings charge Andy's Normans and would eventually break his command

With each side wounded, the two traded blows for nearly four hours of game time. Both sides began to be whittled down. Victory or defeat would come down to which commander failed his roll first and became demoralized from the losses. Eventually, a counter-strike by Dave's Romans was enough to kill enough Vikings to break Daniel's command. It was a long, bloody slog that all six players said was tense and enjoyable. They had fun with the new rules and new abilities that Epic Saga gives players. 

    All six players said they really enjoyed Epic Saga - lots of new abilities to use and tactics to try

One feature that they all enjoyed was for allied commands to be able to leave dice on a shared battle board to boost the potency of an allied player. The Vikings could utilize this the easiest, of course, with all three commands sharing the same board. The Normans had one Roman ally command that hampered their ability to cooperate more fully, but that did not hold them back from victory in the end. The increased playing time for a game of Epic Saga will limit how often we can do it, of course. Essentially, while one player is taking his turn, the other five players are all watching. They can react with Activation/Reaction abilities and roll dice in combat, of course. However, the sequential nature of play means games will take significantly longer than standard 1-on-1 games. All enjoyed it, though. So, I am sure we will see more games of Epic Saga at future meetings!

    Tom send his Welsh cavalry on a flanking action in his first game of Saga against Jenny's Vikings

We also introduced a new player to Saga. Tom G was able to attend and borrowed my Welsh army. Jenny T patiently put him through the paces of playing a game of Saga against her Vikings. The two traded blows throughout the game in a close struggle of Clash of Warlords. Hesitant at first two use his troop's javelins ability, he caught on as the game went on and became an enthusiastic user of them as the game progressed. He learned to fear the "Odin" anti-shooting ability of the Vikings battle board, though. An unwise shooting activation left his warlord exhausted. Jenny made him pay and charged in and slew the warlord. Still, Tom kept fighting to a bitter draw, being ahead 15-13 in points at the close of the game. He said he really enjoyed the system, and would be back for more Saga action.

    Jim B (left) coaches Shane on his return to Saga in a matchup of against Vikings vs. Byzantines

Meanwhile, another new player was getting in a couple games. A former player of Saga Version 1, Shane was finally able to attend one of our game days. He brought his Byzantine army, and bolstered by some figures from my loaner armies, was able to field six points of troops. In his first game, he was arrayed against Adrian J's Pagan Rus in the "Desecration" scenario from Book of Battles. He quickly learned the frustration of facing the Pagan Rus abilities on their potent battle board.  Adrian narrowly edged out a victory against the equally deadly Byzantine battle board, 10-7.

    Shane's Byzantines close in on Adrian's elusive and frustrating Pagan Rus from the far cold north

In Shane's second match, he played Jim B's Vikings in Clash of Warlords. The two were trading blows back and forth until Jim decided to unleash the Ragnorak ability on his battle board. This ended up being a bad call, as the Byzantines could withstand the ensuing big losses in troops with their levy and warrior-heavy warband. Jim's army of mostly hearthguard could ill afford to suffer huge losses. He ended up losing his 8-man hearthguard strike force on that turn. His warlord bravely charged in and tried to remedy his mistake. He survived numerous shots and melees, but was unable to pull out victory. Shane won comfortably, 20-10.

    Jenny's Vikings slowly herd Adrian's Normans who (evaded away all game) to the table's far side

Meanwhile, Jenny and Adrian were each getting in a second round of games. They rolled up the various special rules for Battle of Heroes in their matchup of Normans vs. Vikings. However, their game in no way mirrored the slaughter going on in the Epic Saga game two tables away. Jenny cagily deployed the terrain to limit the maneuver room of the mostly-mounted Normans. She advanced steadily across the table, hoping to force them into battle. However, Adrian's Normans danced away in response to every Viking advance. He refused to commit his forces to battle. In the end, only four Norman levy and two Viking hearthguard died. However, due to the victory conditions this gave Adrian a 3-2 victory in likely our lowest scoring game of Saga ever!

    Jenny's berserkers hurl taunts and epithets at the "cowardly" Normans as they refuse to engage

In the other matchup of the day, Tyler P and I were finally getting a chance to play each other. We had been wanting to square off since before Covid shut things down, but never could make it happen. I am often the odd man out our Columbus game days, and Tyler has not been able to make any of the Dayton meetings, yet. In another first, it would be my first time ever playing against the Irish battle board. I had never faced them with any of my other armies I've played -- Welsh, Anglo-Danes, Norse-Irish, Scots, Carolingians, nor my Moors, of course. From my interview with Tyler in episode 5 of the Saga Ohio podcast, I knew to expect lots of javelin volleys from him. I had looked at the board the night before and thought I had seen some vulnerabilities in the Irish.

    My Moors deploy to face a strange new opponent - Tyler's Irish - in our first matchup ever

We were playing Clash of Warlords because this was Tyler's first game back since the Covid layoff. He wanted to minimize the re-learning curve in case he was rusty on rules. I was First player and placed a large, gentle hill in the center. He countered with a woods. I placed a rocky area on my right towards my baseline. Tyler followed with another woods in an attempt to clutter up the battlefield for my cavalry. I moved one of his woods towards his baseline, and he responded with the final piece of terrain -- another woods towards the center (where I had just moved the other piece away from!). I rolled for deployment and had a choice between the standard method or the diagonal one. I noticed that if I chose the diagonal, it would place most of the terrain on my side of the battlefield. I chose that to give him less cover from my shooting.

    Tyler's Irish advance, confident of their ability to outshoot the Moors and repel this Muslim invasion

Tyler's forces consist of three units of 8 javelin-armed warriors, one levy sling, one "warrior dog" unit, and the two Curaidh champions. As I scanned his ranks, it seemed to me that nearly his entire army was vulnerable to shooting. My plan was to concentrate my shots on his champions and take them out first. Although they have "Resilience 1" -- meaning they can trade casualties for fatigue markers until Exhausted -- my Moors have Wholehearted, which gives extra attack dice for enemy fatigues in shooting or melee. As it would turn out, the damp Irish weather must have fouled the bowstrings of my levy and warped the shafts of my cavalry's javelins. I had my worst shooting dice of any of my games, which wasn't helped in that Tyler's saving rolls were phenomenal!

    So eager to get to grips are the Irish, they inflict fatigue on themselves to close within range

Our opening shots were against his war dogs, whose armor is 3. I miscalculated the distance and wasn't able to unleash my full 18+ dice against him on turn one. Still, we killed three of the Irish wolfhounds -- enough to make him withdraw them on his turn. Tyler began to shift his battleline away from my levy archers, though, moving to my left while he advanced. On turn 2, we targeted one of his champions with my two mounted units. As he took fatigue from the first unit firing, I used Wholehearted on the second shot. In the first of Tyler's great saving rolls, he saved the exhausted champion from death by one roll!

    The frustrated Moors pull back their cavalry units, unable to inflict significant casualties on the Irish

Tyler got a bit of revenge when I pulled back my cavalry units. One unit got within a Short of the rocky area in our rear and he used "Sons of Dana," killing one of my noblemen. I quickly learned to stop my fall backs short of his targeting range with that ability! Tyler then showed me the power of the Irish shooting on his next turn. He brought a champion forward to throw javelins at my Warrior spear unit on the left. He then played "Sidhe," which allows him to discard all of his attack dice (only two) in return for a +1 for all subsequent units shooting at that same unit. That is an amazing ability for an Uncommon dice, and he exploited with with three units throwing javelins, bolstered with bonus attack dice by "Firbolg." I always joke that it is not a good thing to be hired on as a foot warrior in my Moorish army. They are the wall that I use to hold off the enemy, and often suffer major losses. However, Tyler's shooting attacks definitely seemed more potent, at this point, than the Moors'.

    The Irish, though, were having no trouble whittling down the Moorish ranks with their javelins

I decided to concentrate all of my shooting the next turn on one of his javelin units. The levy archers fired twice (12 dice), and each mounted unit once (11 dice). So, 23 attack dice against an armor class 4 unit should cause 11-12 hits, likely causing 5-6 kills with a saving roll of 4+. What did we get? One. One lone Irish warrior died in this massive outpouring of shooting, due to my poor rolling and his exceptional saves! On his turn, Tyler repeated his nasty combination of shooting abilities. My saves were decidedly lackluster and I was suffering way more casualties than him in this skirmishing.

    Frustrated, the Moors charge the Irish, killing all but one warrior in a unit

On the next turn, I made my first major mistake. I decided to take advantage of the Irish warrior's armor of 3 in melee and switched gears. I queued up a "Torrent of Iron" charge. I had rolled only one Uncommon, though, and forgot to put it on Perseverance. That meant after my charge, my mounted hearthguard would be left exposed. We crashed in and killed seven of the eight warriors in the unit. Finally! Some real casualties!! Tyler patiently lined up his shots as a counterattack and even took fatigue for extra shooting activations to completely eliminate my six mounted hearthguard.

    Huge mistake - I did not have an activation to pull the troopers back, who are eliminated by missiles

In Las Vegas, gamblers are cautioned not to throw "good money after bad." In other words, don't keep raising the stakes when you're losing in attempt to win it all back on one roll. So, what did I do? Doubled down! I saw a way that I could potentially destroy two units, creating two "fatigue bombs" in the middle of his forces (units within Short distance of an eliminated unit take a fatigue). My warlord charged into the single, lone warrior. This would be followed up by my remaining mounted cavalry unit charging his (by this time hopefully Exhausted) levy slingers. Remember what I said about dice rolling? Not only did my warlord somehow manage NOT to kill a lone warrior, the hearthguard equally failed to wipe out the 12 levy.

    Moorish warlord & hearthguard risk all on dual charges to break the Irish's fighting ability

This left my warlord and his remaining hearthguard sitting atop a hill amidst a sea of Irish. Tyler knew he was ahead on points, and would likely stay that way as he shot down more of my cavalry. So, he resisted the temptation to charge in with either his warlord or champions. Instead, it was all hands on deck chucking every rock, javelin, stick, or clod of earth they could find. One by one, the fatigue piled up until the warlord was Exhausted. Then, one by one, the hearthguard died to protect the warlord. It was masterfully handled by Tyler as he used every unit activation he could to pile on the shooting attacks. 

    Irish hearts were unbroken, and the Moorish warlord & cavalry about to be encircled & shot down

In the end, the warlord remained standing, but all of his horsemen lay dead around him. At this point, I pulled him back to my far right. My levy fired shots at the war dogs who were prowling forward, and the foot warriors moved in to protect the levy from charges. Tyler was merciless, though, and until the final action of the final turn, piled on every shot he could. My saves were as abysmal as his were fantastic. In the end, the Moors slunk from the field, routed 27-11.

    Another look at the opening stages of the first Epic Saga game, Vikings vs. Normans/Romans

I had known a day of reckoning had to be coming in Saga, and as it turned out on this day of numerous firsts, it was today! My Moors lost their first battle. I admitted that I had a LOT of good fortune in my winning streak, so certainly don't begrudge Tyler his "luck of the Irish" with the dice. It was bound to happen sooner or later! 

    Closeup of Adrian's surprisingly un-aggressive Norman cavalry in their matchup against the Vikings

I had studied his battle board, but I think I underestimated the sheer volume of fire his warband could put out. I was looking for weaknesses, rather than his strengths. Counting it up, his fresh army with only a single activation, can put out 26 shooting attack dice per turn. If he ditches two of those dice with Sidhe, those can potentially all be at +1 against the target. And that is before you add in Firbolg's bonus 3 attack dice (which also make 6's rolled additional hits) and second shooting activations. I had thought MY army had a lot of firepower, but I can see I did not have a plan to deal with his. No one in my army has an armor against shooting of greater than 4, so I can see that as vulnerable as I thought he was, my forces were much more vulnerable.

    Jim's warlord (with two, very cool new fatigue markers) charges Shane's Byzantine levy

 I could easily dismiss all of this and chalk this up to his great saves and my lousy shooting. However, that would be unwise and ignore the lessons that the day taught me. So, a tip of the tam o shanter to Tyler -- congratulations on stopping the Moors victory streak. Now, you can lay claim to History as Charles "The Shillelagh" O'Martell for saving Europe from the Moorish invasion!!

    Jenny's Vikings and Adrian's Normans play a chess game of a matchup in Battle of Heroes

       

Results from today's 1-on-1 games of Saga:

• Tom G's Welsh tied Jenny's Vikings, 15-13, in Clash of Warlords
• Adrian J's Pagan Rus defeated Shane's Byzantines, 10-7, in Desecration
• Tyler P's Irish defeated Mike D's Moors, 27-11, in Clash of Warlords
• Shane's Byzantines defeated Jim B's Vikings, 20-10, in Clash of Warlords
• Adrian J's Normans defeated Jenny T's Vikings, 3-2, in Battle of Heroes