Moors Feast as they Take Home the Bacon

Crusaders advance to contest control of the flocks of pigs we used as objectives in Feasting & Pillaging

Much to my surprise, here I was getting in a second round of Saga at our monthly game day. Normally, I facilitate the matchups, and get in only one game, myself. However, Jason and I finished our first round about the same time his cousins Daniel and Thomas M concluded their match. I tried to talk my friend Allen into a second game against one of them, but he wanted to watch, instead. No one else was available, so I squared off against Thomas. His Crusaders had been on a steamroll since we restarted our Saga Ohio game days, sitting at 3-0 in his last three games.

Thomas usually plays the Levantine Crusaders with a healthy dose of fanatic pilgrims. I had faced him once before, when I was playing Scots and he was just learning the rules. I'd barely come away with a victory, so was really worried how this game would turn out with him being much more experienced. In my opinion, the Crusader board is the strongest in the Age of Crusades book. Thomas changed it up, though, and decided he wanted to try the Baltic Crusader version of the list. We consulted the book and went over the differences. He said he was cool with them, and picked out his six points for a very different looking army than I'd been dreading playing.

    The Crusaders and Moors deploy somewhere in the Iberian peninsula, fighting their timeless war

We decided on "Feasting & Pillaging" from the Book of Battles for our scenario. Thomas said he was open to any, so I picked that one. I think it is a fair one, plus I am leaning towards using it in the Saga tournament at Advance the Colors Oct. 2, 2021. And, most importantly, I don't think I had played Feasting & Pillaging yet! We used my pigs for the three objective markers, placing them on the centerline of the table, spaced apart one Long from each other. We reviewed the rules for seizing -- and more importantly -- moving with them in your possession. Although you may think a mounted army would have an advantage getting to objective markers first, the rules penalize them by essentially giving them a fatigue marker on any turn they move with them (and at a reduced Short distance).

I was first player again, so placed my obligatory large, gentle hill in the center left of the board in Thomas' area (since it had to be a Short distance away from the objective markers). He countered with a piece of terrain on his left towards his baseline. I placed the final piece, one of my new rocky ground pieces, in my center a Short distance from the center objective. I then began my deployment by occupying that rocky ground with my Levy archers. I placed a warrior spearman unit opposite each of the other two objectives, rationalizing that it was an infantryman's game to move the objective markers off the table. As I had placed half of my troops, it was his turn to deploy his army.

    The Baltic Crusader's left of levy bow and center of 8 dismounted knights (foot hearthguard)

Thomas had chosen two levy units, one of bows and the other crossbows, along with a unit of warrior foot and mounted warrior sergeants. The remaining two points were invested in an infantry hammer -- an 8-man unit of foot hearthguard -- dismounted crusader knights. The levy bow guarded his left, the dismounted knights deployed to seize the center objective, and the crossbowmen were set up to advance up the hill I'd deployed on his side of the board. On his right, he had his foot warriors, and on the far right wing, his mounted warriors. I deployed both of my 6-man, mounted hearthguard with javelins opposite them. I had checked their stats and saw they had an Armor of 3 vs. shooting. They would be my first target, hopefully destroyed entirely with javelin shots!

Feasting & Pillaging starts each army off a Short distance from their baseline. On my opening turn, I moved my spearmen and levy forward with Maneuver actions, then moved the Levy again with a Saga dice. I wanted them to be in position in the rocky ground, able to fire on any Baltic Crusader who tried to take the flock of pigs in the center! My cavalry edged forward slightly. I measured to ensure that his mounted sergeants would be outside of their charge range. With all the deadly melee abilities on the Crusader board, it was key that I dictate melees. They have quite a few abilities that give them handfuls of attack dice, I'd learned.

    

    The Crusader foot sergeants were the Moorish cavalry's first victims, killed to a man on Turn 2

Thomas rolled forward in a general advance, including his mounted sergeants, who came almost to the centerline of the table. "Big Mistake, Indy!" I thought to myself. Sure enough, on my turn, my warlord Majik Ibn Battuta al-Waqaa waved his noble riders forward. Both units advanced to within Medium (javelin) range. Each hurled their javelins, whittling the enemy down. I had also queued up my favorite ability, Torrent of Iron. In galloped the far left unit of riders, slaying the last of the sergeants to a man. Frustratingly, for Thomas, I then pulled back both units with Perseverance. 

    "Eh, you! Hands off my bacon!" shout the Crusader archers as they pincushion the spearmen

I think Thomas was a bit shocked how quickly his unit evaporated. He got revenge, though, with his Levy archers. They advanced and shot twice at my spearmen on the far right, killing three of their eight. The foot knights closed in on and seized the flock of pigs in the center, intent on bringing home the bacon for their Baltic brethren. That caught Majik's eye. On the next turn, the foot knights faced a flurry of missiles. The levy archers fired at them, and both units of cavalry galloped forward and hurled javelins at them. My attack rolls were above average, and Thomas' saving rolls were terrible. After the last missile had been shot or hurled, and both of my cavalry units had withdrawn, only one foot knight stood, trying to hustle the pigs back towards their lines.

    The foot knights are eager to bring home the bacon for their Baltic brethren

Thomas' riposte was once again with his levy, this time with the crossbowmen. He fired two volleys at my left hand unit of warriors, which was closing in on the objective in front of them.  This time, his dice were not nearly as effective. My spearmen actually survived with no casualties! However, the crossbowmen had advanced further along the hill towards the center, which brought them within range of my cavalry. I had wanted my levy archers to shoot down the last foot knight, but Thomas saved all of their hits. So, one of the cavalry had to throw their javelins to finish him off. 

This left me with only one cavalry unit to take on the 12-man crossbowmen unit, though. A shortage of Uncommon dice had left me unable to queue up Perseverance, so there would be no pulling back my cavalry at the end of my turn, this time! Majik nodded to his bannerman, who waved the standard of Cordoba to signal the riders to attack. They galloped forward, hurled their javelins, transfixing some of the crossbowmen. They then charged in with Torrent of Iron. I played Wholehearted to gain additional attack dice from their fatigue, and we managed to eliminate the entire unit. I was worried that with bad rolls, we'd be sitting ducks if the crossbowmen were still around to shoot back next turn.

    Midpoint of the game, Crusader crossbowmen first from the hill while one lone foot knight remains

Thomas is an aggressive player, and wasn't long in deciding upon his response. His warlord charged in at my fatigued -- and uncharacteristically exposed -- cavalry unit. Thomas heaped every ability he could upon their attack, maxing out at the full 16 dice. He rolled enough hits to eliminate the entire unit, but we put four hits on him in return. I teased Thomas that if he whiffed on all four saves his warlord would be dead. Thomas grinned and rolled, getting one save. His warlord survived, but was exhausted.

    After his successful charge, the Crusader warlord about to be charged by the Moorish cavalry

The inevitable Moorish response followed. My remaining cavalry unit charged in (no Rare dice, so it was a non-Torrent of Iron charge). However, we played Wholehearted again, giving us six extra attack dice from his 3 fatigues. We used two of those to raise our armor to 6 so he couldn't cause any casualties. Yes, some say never take fatigue off an enemy warlord, but this is the way my Moors fight: unfairly. If we can charge and have zero chance of casualties, then we do it in fine, light horse style! I rolled my dice, producing quite a few hits, which Thomas was unable to save enough of to keep his warlord alive.

After this, we agreed to call the game. I was in possession of one flock of pigs and was ready to seize the other two. Yes, yes, I know...Moors are Muslim, but these were kosher pigs! Thomas was impressed with the deadliness of the Moors hit and run tactics. I reminded him that it was the first time he'd played the Baltic crusader list, so essentially, he was playing against them with a new army. He reflected that he enjoys the Levantine list much more, and thinks it is much more lethal. I agreed. 

    With the enemy heavy units dead, Moorish spearmen are free to round up the pigs

The Moorish army went home to Cordoba, feasting after their successful pillaging. It was another victory for Majik, and he rode home confident that his status in the eyes of the emir would continue to rise. At his side, his pet cheetah Scirocco prowled, eyeing the pigs being driven along by the foot soldiers, looking forward to his own feast that evening.