Moors Repel Reconquista at Dragons Guildhall

    Moors and Crusaders clash in another battle of the long, bloody Reconquista of Spain

Majik Ibn Battuta al-Waqaa stroked his beard as he looked to where the scout was pointing. Far away in the dusty distance, he could see the column of Crusaders as it entered the Emirate of Cordoba's lands. By the Prophet's Beard! These Franks were relentless in their desire to seize the lands that Allah had granted them at the point of the spear, hundreds of years ago! Just last month, he had repelled a similar invasion by the Christ-worshippers. Majik nodded his head as he considered the land the lay between the invaders and his own border force, a short ride away. Most of these Franks were on foot, so he knew where he would meet them in suitable open fields that favored his mounted troopers' style of warfare.

  Moors deployment and the Ted's Crusaders after their first turn of movement in Clash of Warlords

It was the third Sunday of the month, which meant more than a dozen Saga enthusiasts were gathering at the Dragon's Guildhall for the second of our two monthly game day. Once again, Crusaders were in abundance, along with Vikings, Romans, Last Romans, Byzantines, Milites Christi, Moors, Saracens, Jomsvikings, Pagan Rus, Normans, and even Skraelings! I was paired up with Ted H, one of the newer players from Cincinnati, to help him hone his Saga warlord skills and have fun. Ted was playing the Levantine Crusaders. Of course, in the mind of my warlord, these were more Spanish crusaders bent on pushing their merciless Reconquista and trying to retake Spain. 

    Ted's mounted knights aggressively advanced towards the center of the battlefield on turn 1

Ted chose "ordinary" pilgrims as his one Levy unit - not the fanatical pilgrims they can take. He also picked two units of 8 warriors with no special equipment, and one unit of warriors with bow. For hearthguard (or knights in the Crusader list), he chose one unit of four on foot and one mounted. To his credit, Ted was choosing units that matched the figures he had available, so this might not have been his most combat effective or deadly list he could have taken. Still, the Crusader board can be nasty against opponents, so I was curious to see how Ted would use its multiple weapons.

    The knights attract the Moors notice and go down under a hailstorm of arrows and javelins

Majik fielded his normal warband -- I haven't changed my list since the first game. I really like its ability to counter multiple threats and play a skirmish style game or use in-your-face, charging tactics. My two units of 6 hearthguard armed with javelins are my primary weapons. Safeguarding them and optimizing my dice to benefit their attacks is my main focus when placing Saga dice on my battle board. I also use two units of 8 foot warriors (spearmen) and one of 12 Levy bow. The foot are my defensive wall that the cavalry shelters behind on the opponent's turn and that stands in the way of enemy advances. The bowmen seize whatever cover is available on the battlefield and try to be able to shoot at the same target that the cavalry is targeting with their javelins.

    As is our preferred way of fighting, the cavalry was pulled back behind our lines after their attack

Ted opened up terrain placement with a medium-sized woods on his center right. I placed a large, gentle hill in the center of the battlefield. Next, he placed an area of scrub along the middle of the board edge on his left. I chose not to place any other terrain and nudged the woods a Medium towards the board edge, leaving the center more open. Ted decided that battlefield looked good enough for my Crusaders. Since most of his troops were on foot, I think he was more worried about terrain slowing down his advance than about providing cover from my shooting. 

    The knights' deaths inspired these guys - warrior spear - who would be Ted's heroes this battle

I opened up deployment with my levy on my far right as close to the scrub as they could get, while the two spear units stretched from their flank towards the center. The spear were not as far forward as I could deploy them, but far enough off my board edge that the cavalry had room to shelter behind them. Ted deployed his entire army with the pilgrims poised to enter the scrubland, followed up by a unit of warriors to their rear. The archers guarded their right, whose own right was guarded by the foot knights. The mounted knights, the other unit of warrior spear, and the mounted warlord all were pushed forward on his right to advance up the center hill.

  Forgot to take photos - so here you see the end of the Warrior Bow, who the Moors attacked on Turn 2

I placed my two cavalry units on either side and behind my left hand spear unit. Examining the Crusader's roster, I had planned to target either his mounted knights (armor 4) or his foot bow (armor 3), if given a chance. Ted would oblige with an aggressive advance up the hill by his mounted knights, urged on and supported by their warlord. "Deus Volt!" they shouted, and the foot warriors took up the cry and hurried along behind them. We were playing Clash of Warlords, so Ted had only three Saga dice on the first turn. That wasn't really enough to launch a spoiling attack, so he contented himself with a move towards the center of the table. 

    Ted's second wave, pilgrim levy spearheads and advance including foot knights and warriors

Those who have read reports of my Moors' battles can probably predict what happened next. I moved the archers to within range of the Crusader mounted knights and loosed a volley. Next, both units of Moorish cavalry darted out and threw javelins at the small unit of knights. The knight's dreams of glory died under a hail of arrows and javelins -- 18 dice worth in Saga terms. I then used Perseverance to pull back both units behind my spearmen to await his next move.

    Through the first 3 turns, the battle seemed to be going in the Moors favor...

Ted wanted revenge for the death of his nobles, so brought his warrior bow forward and loosed two volleys at my Levy, killing several. On his right, the warrior spearmen also shouted for revenge and crossed over the summit and began descending towards my Moorish spearmen. On his left, the pilgrims sang praises to the knights, doubtless entering Heaven at that moment, and rushed into the scrubland. Ted regularly queued up The Peasant's Crusade all game to give all his warriors and levy a free activation -- one of the many great abilities on his board. He also used Happy are the Humble to make his pilgrims fight as armed warriors rather than Unarmed Levy. I noticed how both those abilities need pilgrims to be useful, so planned to do something about his single unit of pilgrims if given a chance!

    Ted's heroes charge my foot spear and hurl them back, opening the Crusader counterattack

By moving into the gap between the scrub and the hill, the warrior bow had raised their hands and volunteered to be the next target of my missile fire. My remaining archers fired, along with both units of Moorish cavalry cantering forward and flinging javelins. One lone archer remained after our shooting, who quickly took to his heels on Ted's next turn. I could see the dilemma of facing the Moors with a slow moving army was hitting home to Ted. He was also now out of shooting units, so would need to charge me in melee to attempt to rebalance the score.

    Ted's pilgrims charge, then charge my Moorish archers a second time, reducing them to 1 figure

Ted had no problem doing that, though. The Peasant's Crusade allowed him to hurl his warrior spearmen into one of my units of Moorish spear and his pilgrims into my Levy. In fact, the levy were even able to charge home a second time. My poor archers were no match for their enemy's fired up 12 attack dice and only a single archer remained at the start of my turn. That was certainly tit-for-tat, and I saluted Ted's aggression and clever use of his board. Much to my surprise, his warriors spearmen also savaged my Moors. I had closed ranks and played Forest of Spears -- which usually means I take one or even no casualties. Instead, we withdrew, reduced almost to half. It was dawning on me that Ted was not going to sit back and let me pick my battles, and would go down swinging (if he went down at all)!

    Of course, the Moorish cavalry exact revenge on the pilgrims, riddling them with javelins

The pilgrims' follow charge meant that they had extended themselves towards my battleline. They were the obvious target for next turn. Luckily, I also rolled a rare dice, so queued up Torrent of Iron. It takes a lot to kill 12 figures in Saga. That is one of the advantages of Levy in these rules is they can weather a lot of casualties and still be a presence on the battlefield. In this case, my cavalry was going in alone -- no prepping the target with levy bowfire. Each unit threw their javelins once, then for Torrent of Iron, I took the extra shot. When my mounted hearthguards charged home, inflicting another fatigue, seven of the 12 lay on the ground transfixed by javelins. The remaining five were killed to a man in melee. My Moorish cavalry were proving quite the deadly one-two punch, again! Three turns, essentially three eliminated units.

    After both units soften the target up, one charges in with Torrent of Iron, wiping them out

On turn four, I think Ted realized he was running out of troops. The warrior spear on the right continued to be the heroes of the battle. They shouted praises to God and charged home against their previous opponent. Once again, my infantrymen closed ranks, and this time managed to take only one casualty. We had yet to cause a single hit against his hero spearmen, though! Ted brought up his warlord, protected in front by his foot knights - closing in on my other spearmen unit. Despite my playing Forest of Spears to bump their defensive dice, the poor bloody infantry were definitely having a rough day of it (and would continue to do so). However, I felt good that I had basically weathered his turn 4 with no major losses, and that his second warrior spear unit was mired in the scrubland and would likely play little role in the rest of the battle.

At this stage of the battle, Majik paused and surveyed both his and the enemy battle lines. The Crusaders had suffered ruinous losses, but were still moving forward energetically on the attack. How to dishearten them? He looked down to his side where his pet cheetah, Scirocco, watched the mayhem with a typical big cat's disdain. Nothing would deter the speedy hunter -- short of something happening to Majik. That was it, by the Prophet! The enemy leader was the key. Nothing would bring despair into their hearts more than seeing their Crusader Lord fall. He called to a pair of messengers, relayed his commands, and watched them speed off to his cavalry units...

    The battlefield after the Moorish cavalry's first "drive by shooting" of the enemy warlord

As Majik had determined, my next target would be the enemy warlord. I rarely do "Assassin's strikes" on enemy warlords. However, all four foot knights were within Short (Bodyguards) range of their leader. Still, I rationalized, what better way to target foot hearthguard (armor 5) than by shooting at their mounted warlord (armor 4)? It was time for what Ted jokingly called a "Drive By Shooting." Both cavalry units galloped towards the warlord, pausing to throw their javelins, then continued a Long move away. Ted was faced with a dilemma. Should he take the fatigue, making his warlord vulnerable to a charge, or cancel the hits by removing his foot knights. Ted wisely chose neither and both, and split the casualties among fatigue and the bodyguards.

    Ted's heroes -- still full strength -- continue to attack my Moorish spearman units

Next, Ted launched his foot knights and heroic spear unit into the fray against my full strength spearman unit. We closed ranks -- just surviving was the key thing -- and actually repelled the heroic warrior spear for the first time this game. We even killed four of them! The enthusiasm of the Crusaders MUST be on the wane, I hoped. When the foot knights charged in, we did no casualties, but ended up repelling them because we closed ranks and outnumbered them. That was Ted's gambit for Turn 5, which left me open to retry my drive by shooting on my half of the turn.

    After another turn of throwing javelins at the Crusader warlord, the Moorish cavalry charges in

Majik's bannerman waved the great banner of Cordoba and the Moorish horsemen shouted and waved their javelins in acknowledgement. Once again, a dozen horsemen thundered in and hurled their deadly shafts. Once again, Ted was given the choice between taking bodyguard casualties or warlords fatigue. He took some of each. That was enough for me to play Torrent of Iron again. The uphill unit charged down upon the warlord, who was now Exhausted from fatigue. Since hearthguard casualties are one-for-one victory points in Clash of Warlords, we violated the maxim and removed all of the warlord's fatigue. Two were used to raise our armor to 6 (making us invulnterable to an Exhausted unit), and the other to lower his armor. With our javelin +1, we'd be hitting on 3+. I rolled eight hits on 18 dice (I had played Wholehearted to get 6 bonus attack dice for his 3 fatigue) -- definitely under average. However, Ted chose to kill his warlord rather than eliminate the hearthguard unit AND have his warlord be still Exhausted.

    Ted's heroic spear unit meets an end worthy of song, ridden down by the Moorish cavalry

At this point, the game was pretty much over, we both acknowledged. I finished out the next turn with a couple charges, mopping up the heroic spearmen with another Torrent of Iron and that lone archer from turn 2 who was trying to hide behind the bushes. It had been a fun game. Ted never gave up, and charged and charged till he had little left to melee with. I was surprised he never played Find Chinks in Their Armor for its bonus 4 or 6 attack dice. I don't think a turn goes by that Thomas M doesn't play that battle board ability! Still, in his remarkably few games of Saga, Ted proved he is picking the game up very quickly. After my three quick kills on turns 1-3, Ted pretty much won rounds 4 & his half of 5 on casualties, I felt. Still, the Moors continued their winning streak, and the reputation of Majik grows ever higher in the courts of the Emir of Cordoba!  

Here are the results from the games we played at Dragons Guildhall:

• Jenny T's Vikings defeated Daniel M's Vikings 24-15 in Battle of Heroes (Tactical Version)
• Jason S's Byzantines defeated Thomas M's Levantine Crusaders, 34-12
• Bob B's Last Romans defeated Aaron J's Normans, 30-24
• Adrian J's Saracens defeated Tom's Crusaders, 11-4
• Mike D's Moors defeated Ted H's Crusaders 26-11 in Clash of Warlords
• Dave E's Romans defeated Michael C's Milites Christi, 22-12
• (2nd Round) Jim B's Skraelings defeated Jason S's Pagan Rus (no score)