Facing Down the Scourge of God in Saga

Bob Bogg's Last Romans (painted in the month since we last met!) fight a civil war against Jim R's Byzantines

A new challenge awaited Nechtan Mac Fergus and his victorious Pictish host this month in Saga. Always dangerous Saga player Jeff Fletcher brought his Attila the Hun army from the Aetius & Arthur supplement. Though tempted to opt out and say "No" to the legendary leader and his two mercenary units, I figured it would be good experience to play against them. Plus, Jeff was maxed out on his horse archer figures and needed the two foot units of warrior foederati to be able to field the army at all. Not owning that supplement (because it is due to be re-released in updated format soon), I was a little hazy on what all their special abilities would be.

Close up of Dave E's Romans marshaled for battle in the second round

Even without their abilities, facing a horse archer army in Saga would be a new challenge. I am feeling more and more confident with my Picts (Scots board from Age of Vikings), so felt we should be able to meet this new, mysterious foe and give a good account of ourselves. In preparation for next month's Saga tournament at DayCon 2020, we were playing one of two scenarios from Book of Battles that Steve and Jason will be using when they run the tournament. By the way, if you are a Saga player (or want to try it out) and can make it to Dayton, Ohio, for this tournament, please come attend! We have slots for 16 players (and loaner armies, too).

The solid Byzantine battleline of Jim R's army, which has been very successful in recent months

The "Change of Plans" scenario has players score an array of victory points throughout the game. On turn 3, they record "Massacre Points" (enemy slain), turn 5 "Survival Points" (your remaining troops), and end of game "Conquest Points" (advancing across the centerline of the board). Jeff had to place the first terrain piece, which meant he was facing more terrain than he probably wanted as a horse archer army. I placed a couple woods, one on either flank, as opposed to Jeff's gentle hill and swamp.

Nechtan edges his Picts forward, making sure each unit's flanks are supported against encircling horse archers

One of his battle board abilities is placing fatigue on enemy who they can encircle between two units, so I would deploy my army in a compact, self-supporting block which took advantage of our woods we'd placed. On the right flank woods not far from my baseline, I placed my Levy archers. Opposite the woods on the left flank, I placed one of my units of warrior long spearmen. Stretching between the two terrain pieces were my other two warrior units, backed up in a second line by my small mounted hearthguard unit and my warlord.

After receiving a bloody nose from the Picts "Reach" ability, the Huns stay far away on the battlefield's edges

On the first turn, Jeff as Attila unleashed his horse archers upon my battleline. Their composite bows allow them to fire for free, but not in consecutive actions. So, they could fire/move/fire, for example. His horse archers were in small, 6-man warrior units. With an armor class of 3, I knew they'd be fragile if I could hit (or shoot) at them. Jeff's plan was to move them up with Saga command dice, have them shoot, and then pull back with his "Endless Horde" ability - which allows all of his units to move. His bowfire caused a few casualties, but Jeff's mistake was to not stay out of the "Reach" range of my troops -- which allows my longspearmen to make a shooting attack at a unit within Medium range. His pullback moves were too short, and I advanced, allowing all three of my warrior units to inflict hits upon his horse archer -- knocking one unit down to a single figure and the other to 4 figures.

The Pictish mounted hearthguards redeploy from the left to right to mount an opportunity charge

Attila seemed unrattled by this setback, though. He sent his horse archers forward again, shooting, then pulling back again with Endless Horde. This time, my save rolls were good, and the Picts jeered all along the battleline as the Hun horse archers pulled back yet again. The Scourge of God did not make the same mistake again, and pulled back a long way from Nechtan's troops. In fact, they were so far away, I wasn't sure what to do. Still, the battleline edge forward, staying supported and presenting no isolated units for the Huns to decimate. My Pictish horse also rode across the board to be poised to strike on the right flank.

Attila's German foederati advance headlong and prepare to charge into my levy bow

As uncertain as Nechtan was how to proceed, other than advancing steadily, Attila seemed more baffled. Jeff kept his units far away from mine, along the edge of his baseline and the side edges. My goal was to get close enough to charge one of his two German foot foederati units (legendary units Attila is permitted to take). Their movement was a Medium, like my Pictish spearmen, and I figured I could eventually corner them. After a couple turns, Attila seemed to be willing to take the chance of his high-powered unit against my larger spear units, backed up by a full Scots battleboard of Saga abilities.  One of the two units of foederati charged headlong, making three moves, and crashed into my Levy archers.

Dave's Roman warriors prepare for battle

Although they savaged my archers, taking them below half strength, this brought them within several of my units.  Nechtan marshaled his troops around Attila's German warriors, preparing to use a unit of long spearmen to eradicate them. However, Jeff cannily used the one fatigue on my Pictish warrior unit to make our charge fall short. There was nothing he could do, though, about the Pictish horse crashing into one of his horse archer units, killing four of their six. Surprisingly, the remnants stayed in place. This time, I used Reach, to soften them up some, with the warlord and long spearman. Next, the Pictish horse charged the last of the horse archers, slaughtering them. The Pictish long spear followed, and the foederati died to a man.

A new army for our Saga Game Days - Mike S's Skraelings!

At this point, Attila was willing to call it a day. However, since we had only one more turn, I felt we should finish the game out, so we could see how the dynamics of the Massacre/Survival/Conquest points worked out. I honestly think Jeff was a bit flustered, and wasn't sure how to proceed when his composite bow tactic he'd planned for didn't work out. Talking afterwards, we think he may have fully taken advantage of the number of times he could shoot. That may have enabled his horse archery to wear away at my troops. However, I was quick to use his fatigues that he accumulated for moving a second time in a turn to make him hit me only on 5's, instead of 4's. That also minimized his shooting. In the end, Nechtan's Picts emerged victorious, 27-14.

Round 2 action, from left Dave, Steve, Jenny, Jim R, Mike S, Bob

We had 12 players this time around, only two of which played magic (Andy's Undead vs. Joe's Arachnean Jungle army). Jeff and my game moved too slowly for us to get in a second game, but three others did. The Next Generation (Jason, Daniel, Thomas) had to leave after one game, too. Most of us played one of the proposed scenarios we will use in the upcoming DayCon tournament (Steve and Jason decided on "Feasting & Pillaging" and "Clash of Warlords" as the other two games). I also think a number of players have settled in on which armies they will use in the tournament. We saw a lot more players using the same warbands, again.

Jim's Byzantines provide a solid front to their enemies

It seems Vikings remain popular, but by far the most popular are the various iterations of Roman/Byzantine (three players). I intend to use my Picts/Scots. We saw a brand new army this time, as Mike Stelzer  pulled out a bunch of his bow-armed and melee weapon French & Indian War native Americans and fielded them as Skraelings.

Jenny's Viking archers prepare to shoot out from a grove of trees

Here are the results of this month's Saga Game Day at the Guardtower East:

Round 1

• Mike D's Picts (Scots) defeated Jeff Fletcher's Attila the Hun, 27-14 in Change of Plans.
• Mike S's Skraelings defeated Thomas' Crusaders 25-11 in Change of Plans.
• Steve's Jomsvikings defeated Jason's Last Romans, 44-24 in Change of Plans.
• Jenny's Vikings defeated Daniel's Norse-Gaels, 25-6 in Feasting & Pillaging.
• Bob's Last Romans defeated Jim R's Byzantines, 41-30 in Feasting & Pillaging.
• Andy's Undead defeated Joe's Arachnean Jungle (no score recorded), in Age of Magic.

Another view of the Roman civil war, courtesy of Jenny who fought beside Jim and Bob

Round 2

• Jenny's Vikings defeated Mike S's Skraelings, 29-21 in Clash of Warlords.
• Dave E's Romans defeated Steve's Jomsvikings, 15-13 in Clash of Warlords.
• Jim R's Byzantines defeated Bob's Last Romans, 21-16, in Clash of Warlords.

The Skraeling list uses Totems - here is one on Mike S's Skraeling levy unit

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Steve's Viking warrior and hearthguard units take shelter in the woods

Our lone Age of Magic game with Joe's Arachnaean Jungle warband against Andy's Undead