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.