Another Bonus Saga Night to Welcomes Our Co-founder Back

    Saga Ohio Cofounder Steve P, left, gets in a game against Keith F while visiting for a few days

Our growing group of Saga players here in Central Ohio owe their thanks to a couple people who did the necessary hard work of hosting games, teaching, and providing loaner armies. One of those is Steve P, who was back in town for a few days after moving to San Diego last year. Eight of us met at our usual haunt, the Guardtower East game store in Columbus, to welcome with a little war, Saga-style. He had not brought an army with him, though, and said he wanted to play something he had never tried before. So, he borrowed my Scots/Picts and matched up against Keith, who was also trying something new. Keith wanted to see how the Huns from Age of Invasions would play. I had warned him previously that mounted horse archery armies are hard to win with in Saga, but he wanted to see how the whole composite bow thing worked in the rules.

    Keith's Huns close in on Steve's Scots, who proved a very difficult nut for the horse archers to crack!

Two of our long-time players, Jenny T and Andy S (the other Saga Ohio co-founder), had yet to play each other in any of our meetings. So, they matched up, with Jenny using her Vikings. Andy also had a case of the "try something new" bug, and used his Norman figures to field a Polish army from Age of Crusades. He had a few questions about how the battle board abilities worked, and we did our best to figure out what made the most sense. It was the first Polish Saga army that had taken the field so far in our game days.

    Jenny & her Vikings take on Andy (wearing an appropriate shirt) as he tries out the Polish faction

Jeff F, a good friend of Steve's, also put in a rare appearance at a Saga game night. He had played extensively in version 1 of the rules, but only sparingly in version 2. He was fielding Normans against Dave E's Romans. Dave E changed up his list and decided not to use the manuballista this time, substituting in a unit of mounted hearthguard instead. Afterwards, he said he'd wished he'd gone with the ballista to be able to engage the elusive Normans. I have noticed that many Norman players really play in a Breton historical style -- skirmishing with javelin-armed cavalry. Although the board allows you to charge home in true, impetuous Norman fashion, many players are drawn to the abilities which allow your mounted troops to scamper away whenever an enemy tries to engage.

    Trying out new armies was the theme for the night. Here are Andy's knights standing in as Poles

The final match was between Lee P and myself. Lee is working on a Milites Christi army, but isn't quite finished painting it, yet. Jeff and Andy graciously lent troops from their Norman armies to allow him to field the list he is planning on running. Lee's army list included two units of 4 mounted knights (hearthguard), 3 units of ordinary foot warriors, and 1 unit of warrior crossbowmen. I was facing him with Count Drogo's Carolingian army (two units 4 mounted hearthguard, two units of 8 foot warriors, and two units of 8 warrior bow). I had never before played against Milities Christi -- nor even read through their battle board, honestly. This would come back to haunt me this game!

    Jenny's newest unit of Vikings warrior women advances towards the mostly mounted Poles

We decided to play Old Feud so we could get another game of that Book of Battles scenario under our belts. It will be one of the scenarios we are playing in the Advance the Colors Saga tournament, Oct. 2. Even though I was "first player," I let Lee choose his character first, and he chose the Soldier. I chose the Counselor - mainly for his extra "We Obey" ability. With three Saga dice sitting idle in the Proelium section of my board, I essentially end up fighting the battle with only five dice. I figured the extra "We Obey" activation would be helpful, and it definitely was!

    Dave E's Romans have faced many foes since he has been playing them, including Jeff's Normans

For terrain, I placed a ruins in the center of the battlefield, on my side of the midpoint. Lee countered with a gentle hill opposite it. Next, I placed a rocky area to the left of the ruins. He passed on placing another piece of terrain, and scooted my ruins back towards my baseline a Medium distance. For the final piece of terrain, I placed a forest on my right, also just short of the midpoint. Old Feud has an interesting deployment, with each side placing their character first, then alternating one unit at a time. Units must be deployed within Very Short (2") of another friendly unit. This means the armies end up grouped together closely.

    Count Drogo's Carolingians deployed against Lee's Milites Christi (note t-shirt!) in "Old Feud"

I deployed my two warrior bow units in the rocky ground and ruins. The warrior spear units were behind the ruins and in the open area between it and the rocky ground. My two units of mounted nobles were in the rear in reserve with my warlord. I placed my chosen character, the Counselor, in the ruins with the archers. 

    Lee's stand-in Milites Christi army (Normans borrowed from Jeff), deployed for battle in 3 lines

I had warned Lee prior to deployment about the very dangerous shooting ability of the Carolingians. He took my caution to heart, and arranged his troops in three lines. In front were the warrior crossbowmen and a unit of warrior spear. The middle line was composed of another unit of warriors and both of his units of mounted knights. The reserve line consisted of the third unit of warrior spear and his warlord and chosen character, the Soldier. Like me, Lee was intent on protecting his character. In Old Feud, if your character is killed and the opponent's survives, you lose. Otherwise, the game is decided by Massacre Points (killing enemy troops).

    Count Drogo's army was forced to abandon its excellent defensive terrain and march to attack

Count Drogo noted the arrival of the well-disciplined warrior monks, and how they kept their distance from his lines. He sent each of his noble cavalry to guard a flank. The archers edged as far forward as they could in their ruins and rocky ground, but the enemy remained frustratingly out of range. The foot warriors edged forward only enough to guard the flanks of their archer brethren. Would the enemy Knights of the Hospital advance? Or would they remain out of range and try to lure Drogo's Frankish warriors forward?

    Though not exactly "corner sitting," the Milites Christi were very reluctant to advance into battle

On his turn, Lee made it apparent he had no interest in advancing down the center into bowfire range. His army relocated towards my right, massing in the corner of the battlefield. Count Drogo watched the enemy movements with a frown. Beside him, Griffo the Doberman Pinscher growled. "Indeed, my sharp-eyed friend," the Count rumbled. "These knights appear craven." He waved towards his unit commanders on his left, and the archers, spearmen, and noble cavalry on that side advanced towards the center, forming a hinge with his archers and spearmen near the ruins. The noble cavalry on the right galloped out further to guard against a sweeping maneuver around the woods.

    Impatient at his adversary's caution, Count Drogo orders his troops forward into the center

Across the battlefield, the cautious Hospitaller Lord directed his troops, as well. The crossbowmen and warriors advanced to just outside of the archer's range. Meanwhile, another unit of spearmen followed a unit of knights galloping towards the woods. "Ah," Drogo nodded. "The monks do plan on trying to turn our right." Drogo let the enemy creep ever nearer. He even waved his line of troops in the ruins forward to make it look like he was focused on the center. The archers crowded behind the spearmen, ready to loose their arrows if a target came within range.

    Avoiding the deadly Carolingian archery, the Knights Hospitaller sweep around the woods

At this point, Lee struck. His flanking unit of knights swept around the woods and then charged into my mounted nobles guarding against such a move. Neither of us had faced the other's battle board, and were not fully aware of the ramifications of the advanced Saga abilities we had queued up. I played Vinco and Potentia, which gave two automatic hits and let me reroll up to six misses. Surprisingly, Lee played "Lamb's Peace," which raised both of our armor classes from 5 to 6. This meant I would very likely score more hits than him, which I did. Unfortunately, he absorbed all four of those hits with the Orison BASIC Saga ability, where he had two Uncommons and one Rare stacked. Lee rolled only one six, which I failed to save against, of course.

Drogo sends the archers forward behind the spearmen, keeping an eye on the flanking movement

In fact, his Orison ability would bedevil me all game long. There would be only one combat or shooting that occurred during the whole game when he did not have have at least three dice sitting on Orison (ready to cancel up to 4 hits). This is mainly because the board has three separate advanced Saga abilities that allow him to restock Orison in either the Orders, Shooting/Reaction, or Melee phases of the game. This is a VERY tough defensive ability, and unless you are hitting the Milites Christi with multiple shooting or melee attacks in a turn, they will likely cancel much of the damage you inflict without even having to roll saves!

    Contact at last! The warrior brethren's knights charge the Carolingian noble cavalry

Since my noble cavalry took a casualty, we recoiled. Lee did not intend to leave his knights over-extended on my half of the battlefield, though, and activated them to pull them back. Count Drogo was having none of that, though! I used the fatigue he received from the melee to reduce their move to a Short. This left them potentially in range of my archers. Count Drogo's trumpeter Ranulf blew a loud blast on the horn and both units of archers turned and moved quickly towards the right and rear. With the help of the Ardor ability, I was able to loose three volleys of arrows from the archers, which killed the knights to a man. 

    The archers redeploy to the right and rear and riddle the knights with arrows, killing them all

Infuriated at the loss of his brethren, the Hospitaller warlord charged into one of my units of spearmen. We closed ranks, but rolled horrible saves again, losing four figures. In Old Feud, the game can end on a die roll after the 4th or 5th turn. If I had been trying to just go for the win, I could have (and probably should have) hunkered down and made him come to me. I was way ahead on points. However, this was only Lee's fourth or fifth game, and I wanted it to be a learning experience. This is the army he is building, so the more practice he got using its battle board and troops, the better.

    Although I should have hunkered down for victory, I sent the archers to engage their crossbows

On Turn 5, I moved the archers to the front and they loosed two volleys at the enemy crossbowmen. Aided by automatic hits, I should have killed quite a few of them -- even with the four cancelled hits from Orison (or Ray Orbison, as I called it!). However, my rolls shooting rolls all night were awful. Only one crossbowman was killed. Knowing he was down on points, Lee sent his remaining knights into the archers, killing five. He followed up the recoil of the surviving three and charged them again. My rolls resulted in a total of only two knights dying (even with using his fatigue to lower his armor).

The store was closing shortly, so we had to call the game at this point. Both our characters had survived, so we counted up the points. I had killed six hearthguard (6 points), 1 warrior (1/2 point), and destroyed one unit entirely (1 point). Lee had killed one hearthguard (1 point), 12 warriors (6 points), and destroyed one unit (1 point). So, I told him he won by 1/2 point. However, when I got home, I double-checked the rules. It turns out you round up any fractions. There are no half points in final scores. So, the actual score was an 8-8 tie. It WAS a very defensive struggle, so the close score was not surprising. I had once again made the mistake of not looking at my opponent's battle board prior to a game and analyzing what he could do with it. I was focused on what I could do to him, not how he could either counteract it or do damage in return. 

Still, it was a fun game, and Lee is a great guy to play with. The only problem is that, seeing how his battle board performed, I now have another Saga army that I want to build! Thanks, Lee, for the great game!