Moors Drive Off Strange New Christian Military Order

    My Moorish cavalry poised to counter-attack Ted's Order of Crusading Knights

Majik Ibn Battuta al-Waqaa stroked his beard as he squinted across the blinding, snow-covered plains. Odd that the Christians would choose winter's coldest day -- and after a rare snowfall -- to launch an incursion into the lands of his lord, the Caliph of Cordoba. He had heard of a new Christian military order of knights forming, vowing to drive the followers of the Prophet from Andalusia. They called themselves The Order of the Holy Bear, and their blazons and crests featured snarling bears. "By the prophet's beard," Majik shouted, "they DO look like bears!"

The armor and barding of the knights made it appear if the Christians were riding bears rather than horses. Even Majik's cheetah Scirocco, padding at his horse's side, seemed fascinated by the appearance and approach of the Milites Christi. "No matter," Majik spoke to his commanders. "We men of Cordoba are nobly-born hunters one and all. We fear neither beast nor man! Ride, men of Cordoba!!"

    Ted's Milites Christi at top and my Moors deployed at bottom, ready for battle

My opponent for March's Saga game day at the Dragons Guildhall was Ted H, who was fielding a fairly new warband for him. He was playing his army as Milites Christi, though truth be told the miniatures were actually mostly 25mm Fantasy Dwarves. And indeed, the mounted troopers were dwarves mounted on bears, but I am always willing to show leeway to people fielding their armies with proxy troopers. I'd honestly rather play against a fantasy army posing as a historical one than an unpainted force - but that's just me...ha, ha! Ted had a LOT of those mounted bears, in fact -- three units of them! His force was composed of two units of 6 mounted hearthguard and one unit of 4. He also had two units of 8 warrior crossbow and his mounted general.

    The first Moorish toss of javelins is very successful, tumbling three knights from their saddles

I was fielding my Moors against him. I'd given Ted a choice of armies I'd brought for me to use and he selected the historical matchup of Milites Christi vs. Moors (both from the Age of Crusades book). In truth, I was happy to get the chance to field Majik and his army again. They are an incredibly fun and challenging army to play. My own mounted hearthguard with javelin are very vulnerable, being only armor 4 vs. both shooting and melee. A good volley or a hard enemy charge juiced up with Saga abilities could easily devastate one of my two 6-man units. So, I tend to shelter them behind my two units of warrior spear (both 8-man). Together with the levy archers, my Moors try to win the battle first with missile fire, and then charge home only when they see a vulnerable target.

    After pulling his cavalry back, Majik orders a wall of spearmen across their front to shelter them

This game would see those tactics brought to bear against an opponent who boldly charged into my spear wall time and again, seeking to batter it down with his knights. In keeping with his army's bravery, he had deployed all the way forward, well within the Long move (12") and javelin toss (6") of my Moorish cavalry. We decided to oblige Ted and galloped both units forward, hurling their javelins. Our first volley was very effective, downing three riders from their saddles. The next volley was less so, and killed only one. Still, one of his 6-man units was emasculated to 2-figures. A good start! We pulled the troopers back and then covered them up with a wall of spearmen stretching between the ruins on our left and the marsh in the center.  In the marsh, our archers had advanced and fired an ineffectual volley at the crossbowmen.

    Ted's crossbow volleys were even more successful as they winnowed my levy's ranks from 12 to 5

Irked, the Christian crossbowmen raised their deadly devices and sent a volley into the Moorish levy in the marsh. Despite playing Hasty Shot, which gives 2 bonus defense dice, we failed all saves. Ted advanced the unit again and fired another volley. We failed all of those rolls, too, and my 12-man unit had been whittled to five already. One Saga dice down (levy must be six figures or higher to generate a command and control Saga dice). The bearish grand master was not done, either. With a truly ursine roar, the unit of 4 mounted hearthguard galloped across the snowy field and slammed into one of my units of spear. Expecting this, we did our standard tactic of closing ranks and playing Forest of Spears, which gives three bonus defense dice. My horrible saving rolls continued, as Ted rolled six hits. Picking up 9 dice, I failed on all of them to roll a 4 or higher. Counting the levy unit's failures, I had just missed 18 consecutive 50% chances! I don't think I want to know the odds of this happening!!

    The Crusader knights followed up with a thundering charge against my Moorish spearmen

Majik's eyes widened as he saw his infantry being cut down and blood spattering the snow. He waved to his cavalry commanders, though, and the troopers paused to rest, then galloped forward, again. More volleys of javelins tumbled knights from their bear-disguised horses and the unit was slain to a man. My infantry had done little, but the Moorish troopers were once again being the right arm that I relied on in my battles. The second unit of infantry marched across to fill the gap left by their retreating companions, and once again, my cavalry rested behind their infantry wall, safe from immediate counter-attack. 

    With one spear unit devastated, the second takes it place walling off the enemy from the cavalry

On his turn, Ted brought over his remaining 6-man hearthguard unit and hurled it forward, as well. This was truly turning into a punch, counter-punch, type of fight. Once again, the Moorish warriors closed ranks and played Forest of Spears. Once again, our saves were below average, but at least now we were actually rolling some saves! Half the unit had been cut down, but at least at four figures they were still generating a Saga dice for me! 

    Unfazed, the knights charged again and drove back the second unit of Moorish spearmen

In addition, after the first two turns of rolling zero Rare dice for my command and control (and no Uncommons either on Turn 2!), I finally started to get some Rares on Turn 3. This gave me a lot more flexibility on movement (Perseverance is a great one - for one Uncommon die I get to move two units of either foot or mounted). After another brief rest, the valiant horsemen of Cordoba rode out to harry the bearish Christian riders. Once again, our darts found targets, though our first roll was horrible -- only two hits on 10 attack dice at 4+! The second unit's volley made up for it, and we continued to whittle away at the enemy knights until by turn 4 only one was left alive.

    After 3-4 turns of relentless javelin fire, the Moorish cavalry had killed all of the enemy knights

At this point, we could have simply held back from his two units of crossbow foot. We had definitely scored enough points by killing 15 hearthguard to win the game. However, on turn five, we had an amazing run of Rare dice rolls using Activation Pool. I looked at my board and counted the dice. We COULD launch one of our favorite Torrent of Iron charges. Majik signaled his orders to his faithful cavalry commanders and the first unit cantered ahead and cut down the remaining bear knight. With trumpets blaring, and ululations to Allah, the second unit thundered down on the closet unit of crossbowmen. The crossbowmen were Exhausted from their moving and shooting (plus the death of their brethren knights close by). This was my favorite tactic: a charge by my javelin-armed cavalry into an Exhausted unit. I planned on using two of his three fatigues to raise my own armor to 6 so he couldn't hit me...but wait! The wily bear had other plans!

    The Moorish cavalry were not done, though, and charged into and overran a unit of crossbowmen

In my impetuosity and haste, I had forgotten look at what Ted had queued up on his board. Oh no! He still had a dice on Spilt Blood on his board. That meant I would not be able to raise my armor above my starting level of 4. His sergeants would get their full attacks. My riders would be taking casualties here, for sure. My plan was to eliminate the unit, though. With Wholehearted (which grants 2 attack dice per enemy fatigue), my +1 for javelins in a charge, and using his fatigue, I would auto-hit with all 18 dice. It is fitting our final combat of the game was a bloody one. Four of my cavalry troopers were slain by their bear sergeants' valiant resistance, while all of their number went to Heaven. Victorious, but grimly silent at the loss of their friends, the noble cavalry of Cordoba pulled back one final time.

    The survivors of the Majik's warband gather out of the range of the remaining crossbow unit

There was some more maneuvering on the final turn of the game, but no significant casualties. I was not going to leave my troopers where they could suffer a volley from the remaining crossbow unit. I had pulled back my infantry, too, so I could keep them alive for victory points at the end. We called it a game, and the Moors had triumphed 17-6. We realized afterwards that we were supposed to keep track of victories in melee for victory conditions. We agreed it would not substantially alter the outcome. At best, that would have given Ted a couple more points and me another. 

The grand master of the Order of the Holy Bear led his sergeants from the field. As far as he could see, bright red patches marked the snow where Moor and Christian had fallen. This had been a bloody baptism for his new order of knights. Still, his men had fought well, and they still had their faith in Christ. They would return one day and drive the Unbelievers from the field, he vowed!

Snakebit at Another Saga Tournament!

    Saga Tournament at DayCon 2021 - 10 participants waging war across forests and steep hill slopes

Okay, so I see how it is. I win at Saga more than my share on our game days. Tournaments, though, it appears that I am snake-bit. I am 2-3-1 in tourneys (Cincycon 2021 and this weekend, DayCon 2021). Both tournaments started out the same way. In round 1, I make a good battle plan, execute it, and pull off a pretty good win. Then, my dice take an absolute dump. Of course, I think I was pretty much doomed from the start with this tournament. My matchups were pretty poor for my Moors. The preset terrain averaged four to five pieces of very large uneven/dangerous terrain on every board. My army's strength is its mounted arm. When I razzed the tourney director about this, he essentially laughed it off and said something to the effect of, "Screw mounted armies!"

    Round 1's Desecration scenario against Joe D's Mongols after my first move (Moors at bottom)

As long as I am making excuses, I also feel that I faced armies that were not good matchups, either. In the first round -- which was the scenario "Desecration" -- I was up against Mongols who could both outmaneuver and out-shoot me. Maneuvering and shooting is what the Moors do. I felt fortunate to pull off a win in that game. Joe D is a great player (3rd place out of 16 at Advance the Colors 2021), but admittedly had only a few games with the Mongols under his belt. I have a lot of experience with the Moors -- after the tourney I still have a 13-4-4 record with them. Plus, the dense forests and steep hills we were battling over didn't do him any favors, either. 

    Moorish noble cavalry prepare to charge into Mongol horse archers in Round 1

In addition, I won the dubious honor of being "Player 1" in all three of my games. In Desecration, I didn't get the usual jinx of only 3 Saga dice. Instead, I was not allowed to charge or shoot in my first turn. Grrreeeaatt! What do the Moors like to do? Shoot. What do you need to do to take Objective Markers in Desecration? Charge. Some people feel the creators of the scenarios are very inventive in the ways they screw Player 1. Of course, in this tournament with pre-set terrain, Player 1 got to choose which side of the terrain-heavy symmetrical board you could have as your baseline. That makes up for it, doesn't it? Doesn't it??

    Joe's khan urges his mounted heavy cavalry to charge into the Moorish javelin men

Still, I chose my side carefully, picking the one where I thought I could hide the objective markers from a direct-line, enemy mounted charge. I must have done a good job as the Mongols did not attempt a charge against enemy of them during the game. Shooting against them is worthless in this scenario from Saga's Book of Battles. I was able to move my heavy cavalry into position and end up charging and destroying two objective markers. That pretty much won me the game, as objective markers destroyed determines a cap on the number of victory points you can score for destroying enemy figures. My cap was 24 points worth, and Joe's was 10. I ended up winning 20-10. It was good to play the Mongols, though, as I am s-l-o-w-l-y painting this army for Saga, too. I had played them only once before. That appeared to be another common theme for this tournament. In my previous 58 games of Saga, I had played those three lists a grand total of three times.

    Oh, look! Another terrain-clogged terrain board...this time my least-favorite 'Claiming Territory'

Round 2 is where the wheels fell off what I thought was my finely-tuned, Moorish battle machine. The scenario was "Claiming Territory" and the clogged the tabletop again. I can now honestly say that Claiming Territory is my least favorite scenario on Book of Battles. I have played it three times and hated it three times. Why? You get no points for destroying enemy troops (or preserving your own). The only way to score points is to squat on one of the four objective markers on the board (you place two on the opponent's half of the board, they place two on your half). There is a chart that says how many points you get per turn of squatting - HEAVILY weighted in favor of bigger units. So, if you have an army that is mostly warrior foot, you're golden. This is your scenario and you should win it every time. With at least 3-4 points of warriors, you can min-max your unit sizes to outscore your opponent every turn. What's more, there is a cap on how much players can score each turn. So, once your opponent gets ahead, it becomes very difficult to catch up. Even if you manage to destroy the enemy's army in the end, it doesn't matter. They have those "banked" points. You lose.

In this game, I played Bob B's Byzantine army -- an army that I had never faced before. He deployed on top of the objective markers I placed, as he was 2nd player. I had to march up to the ones he placed. His 12-man Levy units could shoot the snot out of my troops that marched up to those markers. The Byzantine battle board has a Saga ability that lets him juice up his 6 shooting dice to 10+ dice with very little effort. Half of my army's points are in mounted hearthguard with javelins, who are only armor 4 against shooting. If I left them sitting in the open, squatting on the objective (which all have to be in open terrain), he would shoot them to pieces. Still, I had a battle plan. 

    Two participants, Joe M (left) and Bob B - whose Byzantines I faced in Round 2

However, the wheels fell off when it came to my dice. On the first turn, Bob's 12-man levy shot at my 8 warrior foot squatting on the objective in the middle of the board. He rolled 10 dice and got 7 hits (needing 4+ on 1d6). Ouch. Still, I should save 3-4 of those, right? Nope. I rolled 1 out of 7 saves (also 4+ on 1d6) and lost six of one of my warrior unit's eight figures on his first activation. 

He followed that up by charging in his warrior horse archers into the two survivors and slaughtering them. On my next turn, I went in with my hearthguard and a "Torrent of Iron" charge to take out the impertinent horse archers. I used their fatigue to raise my armor to 6 and yet the five remaining figures (I'd softened them up with shooting beforehand) still rolled three sixes. How many of those hits did I save (5+ on 1d6)? None. My dice were in a death spiral and kept getting worse. 

    Another photo from my first game against the Mongols - the "snow board" proved best for photos!

His 6-man mounted hearthguard charged my other warrior foot squatting on the other objective. We closed ranks to increase our save to 4+. He got 7 hits. We saved just one of those seven 50% chances, once again dropping from eight to two figures in one attack. Remember when I said the chart is HEAVILY weighted towards bigger units? I have one warrior unit gone, and another reduced to two warriors left to squat. My archers' ranks were being riddled by his shooting, too, despite the fact were were in solid cover. What's left to send out to squat on the objectives? My mounted javelinmen? So, I steadily fell behind on the squatting points, er "Conquest Points" as they are called.

So, maybe you're sensing my futility here. The game was over by turn 3 when I scored 0 Conquest points, and had no legitimate means to get more. I did my best to attack and destroy his units, though. I destroyed one of his 6-man hearthguard units, his warrior horse archers, and 10 of his 24 levy. Half of his force were casualties by the end of the game. Yet, he won handily, 30-something to 9 points. Saga buffs can argue all they like, but in my opinion, Claiming Territory is a stupid scenario. It simulates NOTHING. Feasting & Pillaging simulates a Raid. Old Feud simulates two rival forces intervening in a civil war. Desecration simulates destroying enemy supplies. The Crossing simulates separate contingents attempting to rejoin in the face of an enemy advance. What does this simulate? A mathematician's idea of a fun scenario?

    Close up of Joe D's newly-painted Mongols, who also struggled with the terrain and went 1-2

It is essentially possible to design your force numerically to make it next to impossible for your opponent to win. In all the games I play, I feel you should win with tactics on the tabletop -- not at the recruiting depot! That's why I avoid Warhammer-esque games where you min-max an army list to take out an opponent in two turns. Give the players the bread and butter troops and let their tabletop tactics win, I have always felt. With Saga, your army's battle board will dictate what troops you should recruit, and perhaps even unit sizes. It shouldn't be the scenario doing that, though. Not all armies are able to do that kind of unit size min-maxing that Claiming Territory requires. So, I will never use that scenario as a tourney director. And if someone suggests it in a friendly game, I'll smile and say, "pick another."

My final game was The Crossing, which features a river running from right to left across the center of the board, with a bridge in the middle. Your army is divided into two halves in opposite corners. The tourney director was able to stuff only three large pieces on this tabletop, but it would be enough to once again disadvantage mounted armies. The river itself as a fourth piece was a huge disadvantage -- foot would have been able to cross it slowly anywhere, but mounted need to use the bridge to avoid extreme penalties. I was matched up against one of the nastiest armies in Saga -- the Normans, run by Jim Randall who loves this list.

    Moorish cavalry approach the bridge, desperately hoping to reunite with its infantry screen

The problem with Normans is that they are, once again, more maneuverable than my Moors. They also have a Levy Bow unit which can shoot two feet across the 3'x4' board. I call it the Norman Levy Bow Artillery Battery. Jim parked them along the edge of a massive forest which let them cover about three quarters of the tabletop. Still, I had a plan. I would deploy my heavy cavalry and warlord together and they would use our speed and Perseverance to dash across the bridge and behind the wall of my warrior foot and levy bow. To accomplish this, I needed to roll at least one common die (three of the six faces on the die) to play Horse of the Maghreb, boosting my movement. And I would need to roll at least one Uncommon (two of the six faces) to play Perseverance. Based on how my dice rolling was going, what do you think the chances are of that happening with my three Saga dice as 1st Player? Yep, you're right. Didn't happen.

Jim shot my foot to pieces, just as Bob had done in the previous game. His double-size, 8-man mounted hearthguard unit charged in with the vicious Norman battle board abilities and destroyed all of my archers. I hammered back at him, tossing javelins with both cavalry units as they crossed the bridge. The last unit charged in and wiped out the survivors. Maybe this game would turn out all right, after all! Jim's counter-attack was devastating, though. His warlord took out my victorious mounted javelinmen and then his mounted warriors charged in and eliminated my own warlord. 

    Close up of Bob's Byzantines shooting Moors to pieces as we attempt to "out-squat" the Byzantines

At that point, I knew the game was over. I kept hammering, though. I made a mistake late in the game and forgot to block off his warlord's path to escape to the other side of the river. On his next-to-last turn, he skedaddled it across the river to join his two warrior foot units and his artillery park, who'd remained motionless all game. For the fun of it, we figured out Survival Points, and he barely edged me 18-15. Adding in his bonus points for units within Medium of his warlord, he beat me eight katrillion to 15, of course.

And so ended another frustrating Saga tournament. Another snake-bitten day of playing Saga and having wild dice swings handicap my chances. This time, we threw in unfavorable terrain and matchups, too, for the fun of it...ha, ha! But hey -- we have game days coming up later in the month. I am sure things will be back to normal and my treacherous dice will act kind to me again. If this report is a bit short on blow-by-blow details of my battles, I apologize. It is hard to keep all the details of three back-to-back games of Saga clear in my head. Plus, the pickle of figuring out the unfamiliar enemy boards and what they might throw at me across the terrain-heavy battle boards sapped the time I would normally use to take photos and document the games. Hopefully, this experience will hone my Saga skills, though. What is the famous Conan the Barbarian quote? That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger!

To Minneapolis, for a Weekend of Saga

 

    I packed up my Moorish Saga army and flew to Minneapolis for a weekend of Saga

After interviewing both Monty Luhmann and Rodge from Saga Thorsday for my own podcast, we began discussing how much fun it would be to schedule a weekend of Saga in the twin cities. I would fly up, Rodge would drive over, and we'd do two days of Saga with Monty's group and anyone else who wanted to come. We traded weekends that would work back and forth until we finally settled on the last weekend of July. I found a great deal on tickets, Rodge recruited a couple fellow Saga buffs from Wisconsin, and we talked Terry Doner from Chicago into making the drive up, as well.

    With my Moorish cavalry on my right wing, I deployed to face Monty's Ordenstaat crusaders

I got in five games over the weekend -- three on Saturday and two on Sunday. Since Monty's group was using this weekend as a chance to get in some initial games for their Age of Hannibal campaign, and the fact that Rodge and Monty needed to do their climactic showdown in their two-player campaign, we decided not to do a tournament format. It was a very informal affair. People matched up against opponents as they finished their games, much in the style of our old "Rolling Thunder" DBA tournaments. Since I was flying, I really could bring only one army. Monty and Rodge wanted to face off against my Moors, so I loaded up Majik Ibn Battua al-Waqaa and his warband and took them along.

Monty and Rodge's groups have played a LOT more Saga than our Ohio group. Heck, probably most groups out there have been playing longer than our Saga Ohio's two years. So, I fully expected to go up there and get my butt kicked. The only question was would I win any games at all? I may have a good Win-Loss record here, but nearly all of those I would be facing have competed in tournaments. Also, many have been playing Saga since Version 1. Interestingly, the twin cities group is more focused on matchups within "Age of..." books. Here in Ohio, we're willing to play any Age warband against any other. So, many of Monty's "Saga Storm" folks brought Age of Crusades armies, knowing that is what myself, Rodge, and Terry were bringing.

    After the first Moorish turn, my cavalry has moved forward, thrown javelins and withdrawn

I'm going to talk about all five battles in this one post, so there will be less blow-by-blow in these accounts than in previous ones. Also, in the interests of keeping these fresh in my head, I will actually start with Game #5 and count downwards. The more recent ones, I assume, will be most fresh in my head! As such, Game #5 was a rematch against Monty, who I also played the day before in Game #2. He used his same crusader figures, but instead of fielding them as Baltic Crusaders, Monty used the Ordenstaat board. This board represents the Teutonic Knights of the Middle Ages and their crusade against the pagan tribes of the Baltic region. Monty confessed he felt Ordenstaat was a weaker warband than a Baltic Crusaders one, but I think he wanted to give me a chance to face a new army (and -- spoiler alert -- a chance for revenge!).

Game 5: Moors vs. Ordenstaat

The scenario was one Rodge wanted to playtest called "Hallowed Ground." Each player can earn a single bonus point by having enough troops within Medium distance of the centerpoint of the board. Each round, the minimum amount of troops needed inside the circle goes up, so it forces the armies to meet in the middle of the board. I deployed half of my troops first, which consisted of my Levy archers in the swamp on my half of the middle of the board, flanked on their right by a unit of warriors, and backed up by my warlord. Monty then deployed his full army. On his far right were 4 foot hearthguard with heavy weapons. To their left were his levy archers. His warlord on foot was in the center of his army, flanked by a unit of warrior foot and another unit of foot hearthguard. In reserve were two units of mounted hearthguard. Monty admitted he hid them behind his lines to protect them from my shooting. I then completed my deployment, continuing to my right with another unit of warriors and both of my 6-man units of mounted hearthguard with javelins. I planned to skirmish aggressively with my cavalry, running forward to throw javelins and then pulling back out of the range of his counterstrikes, hopefully.

    The end of the game after Monty's last gambit - he has only four figures left on table!

 

I opened by marching my center unit of warrior foot into the Hallowed Ground. Then, both cavalry units galloped forward and tossed javelins at his leftmost unit of foot hearthguard, killing two of them. I then pulled them back out of range of his reserve mounted knights, making sure it would take them more than two moves to reach them. Monty countered by marching his archers forwards and shooting them at my foot who had advanced within the Hallowed Ground. He also edged forward his line, bringing one of his units of mounted knights to a closer position so they could charge next turn, but keeping them shielded from my cavalry. I responded on the next turn with another advance and javelin toss, which eliminated the two remaining figures in the foot hearthguard unit. Stung, Monty double moved his mounted knights to charge one of my cavalry units. A bloody melee ensued which eliminated all four of his figures and four of my six cavalrymen.

My counterstrike the next turn was to charge one of my foot spear units into his warriors who had moved up to support the archers. I played "Inspiration" from the Moorish battle board with a rare die, meaning I could reroll any 1's, 2's, or 3's. Ostensibly, I should get almost 8 hits out of that. Monty's dice were nowhere near as good as our first game, and five of his eight warriors went down, and they were shoved back out of the Hallowed Ground. Meanwhile, my own archers continued to pour fire into his Levy archers, whittling them down bit by bit. Monty next sent forward his foot hearthguard with heavy weapons to support his archers. He declined to go after my cavalry, which I had pulled back towards my baseline. He also chose not to send his last unit of mounted knights into my foot, seeing how I had "Forest of Spears" queued up and ready for his charge.

The opening stages of my second game with my Moors advancing towards the center and Terry's Mongols massed in one corner to strike

I poured in more archery fire, this time into the heavy weapons foot knights. I got very lucky on my two shots and Monty's luck continued to spiral down as the unit was entirely wiped out. Desperate, he sent his remaining foot knights on a charge across the board to my baseline against my remaining full strength unit. He did well, and killed 5 of the 6 figures, but my attacks killed 3 of his 4. This brought Monty down to four figures let on the board, and at that point, he conceded the game. Revenge was mine!

    Terry's Khan takes the 1st objective, but at the cost of two fatigue, leaving him vulnerable (I thought)

Game 4: Moors vs. Mongols

 My first game on Sunday morning was against Terry Doner, who'd brought his Mongols along for his Age of Crusades army. I was really interested to see how they performed since that is my next Saga army that I am painting. We chose to play "Ambush" from Book of Battles. His Mongols and my Moors would seek to attack and loot the three wagon trains marching across the center of the table. This would be interesting because the wagons are all but invulnerable to shooting (Armor 6, and counting as a Hero so you need 4 hits in one turn to take them out). My Moors had played this once before and we knew how useless shooting would be against the wagons.

    My 'Torrent of Iron' charge rolls miserably, and fails to kill the vulnerable Mongol Khan

Terry's army was all mounted, of course. It consisted of mounted warlord, mounted camel drummer, two 4-man mounted hearthguard, and three units of 8 mounted warriors. He was the first to strike at the wagons. He sent in a hearthguard unit which inflicted two casualties (fatigue on the "hero" wagon), but lost one, recoiling back. Surprisingly, the warlord followed up. He was able to finish off the wagon, but ended the turn with two fatigue. I took that as an opportunity and launched a Torrent of Iron charge on his warlord. This is my big strike, and when combined with Wholehearted from my board, meant that I was rolling 16 attack dice against his warlord. I also played Inspiration, allowing me to reroll 1's on my attack dice. I was sure that this would finish off his warlord, even though he had a unit of four hearthguard to use the Bodyguards rule and remove figures as casualties instead. Nope! Between my initial roll and my rerolling 1's, I totaled 8 ones on my dice throw. After his saves, he took only 5 casualties, which meant he ended the turn Exhausted and lost only two hearthguard from my hits. I had used two of his fatigue to raise my armor to 6, which meant he could not do anything to my cavalrymen. With my +1 from javelin, and lowering his armor one, I should have scored 10-11 hits -- not counting rerolls. It was truly a subpar attack, and had I been successful, the game likely would have progressed very differently.

    The midpoint of the game - my foot warriors have seized a wagon and the Mongols mass to steal it

As the other two wagons progressed across the table, one came within range of my foot warriors. They charged in and plundered it. The Mongols were having none of that and Terry immediately charged one of his horse archer units into my warriors and snatched it from them. I decided that it was time to start attacking his light cavalry, who were vulnerable in melee. I launched three charges into them, one by each of my cavalry units and the other by my remaining unit of warriors. He lost a lot of figures on that turn, but none of them his hearthguard or warlord, who were doing most of the fighting. He was also able to take back the center objective, which I had seized, and pulled back his depleted units on the wings. Terry retained possession of two of the three markers, while the third wagon continued its slow advance across the center of the table.

    Three Moorish charges kill more than a dozen of his light horse, and take back our objective

I had one more chance to even things up. I shot my archers and threw javelins at his hearthguard, hoping to destroy them with missile fire (their armor class against shooting is only 4). However, he had cleverly played Human Shields on his board, which allowed him to remove his casualties from the light horse who were hovering protectively in range around his hearthguard. My final act was to send my warlord against the final wagon. My rolls were subpar again in melee, and Majik failed to do four casualties. The game ended with losses about even, but Terry in possession of two objective markers, which gave him a comfortable victory. I had a blast playing against him and seeing how he played the Mongol battle board. I'm glad he's planning on coming to our Advance the Colors Saga tournament Oct. 2, so I can drink a beer and chat with him more.

    Majik Ibn Battuta al-Waqaa charges a wagon to seize the objective but fails

Game 3: Moors vs. Carthaginians

Both of my first two games on Saturday went quickly, so when Brent proposed we play a game, I agreed. It would be my third of the day -- a first for me. I told him not to worry about playing an Age of Crusades army. Instead, play what he wanted to play. He chose his Age of Hannibal Carthaginians. We decided to roll up a Battle of Heroes using the "Chaos" option (all random rolls for Scenery, Deployment, Victory Conditions, Special Rule, and Game Length). The most distressing roll for my Moors was Fog, which meant that no charges or shooting could be done from greater than Medium distance for the first three turns of the game. A key part of my defense against his two elephants would be shooting, and a good one-third of my missile power had been declawed.

    'Pincer' deployment meant both Brent's Carthaginians and my Moors deployed in two wings

We had rolled 'Pincer" for deployment, which meant we divided our army into two halves which were deployed widely-spaced from each other on our half of our board edges. Being the first to deploy (as usual), I split my army into two modular sections - each had a cavalry and foot spear unit. The first I deployed also contained my warlord (in the left wing), while the second half had the Levy archers (right wing). Terry put deployed his foot far forward on the wing opposite my warlord, with a unit of Levy slingers, mercenary Thureophoroi, and two separate elephant units of one model. On the other wing, against his baseline, he deployed his mounted troops -- mounted warlord and 16 mounted warriors broken into three small units of Numidian cavalry.

    Both wings of the army have joined up, with the cavalry having pulled back behind the infantry

On my turn, I sent the cavalry on the left wing forward to throw javelins at his mercenaries, killing two, then pulled them back towards the middle. The warlord and the foot on the left also move towards the center. My right stayed put, waiting to see what the Carthaginians would do. Initially spooked, Brent pulled his right wing back, but on subsequent turns sent it in pursuit of my left, which kept withdrawing to form a compact, unified formation, joining up with my right. He sent one unit of Numidian cavalry forward, while the other two and the warlord shifted to join up with their right wing. Of all the targets that my Moorish cavalrymen love to see lined up and within their move and shoot range, mounted warriors with missile weapons are their favorite due to their low armor 3. With 12 dice, I should inflict 8 hits on average, every turn. Both units galloped forward, hurled their javelins, and then withdrew safely behind the infantry battleline. The entire Numidian unit had been destroyed, and Brent's eyes widened and was obviously surprised. He was impressed with the Moors ability to skirmish and then withdraw to safety.

Brent gave me no more chances at his Numidians. He did send his slingers forward, hoping to squeeze in a shot through my lines at the cavalry. One of my warrior foot units chased them off, doing far fewer casualties than we should have (Brent made up for his bad roll with the cavalry and saved 5 of 11 hits!). I kept my spear units out of range of his elephants' charge, waiting for the fog to lift so I could attack them with missile fire. It was only a five turn game, though, and as we closed in on the final turn, I honestly felt bad for Brent. I had been skirmishing and withdrawing and he had yet to get a chance to charge any units into combat. I felt that I was comfortably ahead on points, so I decided to give him a chance to have some fun. It would likely result in both of us losing a unit or two, but would make the game more interesting for both of us. I know, I know. You can't feel sorry for the "enemy," but in the end -- as I told Brent -- it IS a game. So, let's have some fun!

    My "let's have fun" moment where my cavalry charged his mercenary Thureophoroi

The fun was charging his mercenaries with one of my cavalry units in a Torrent of Iron. As expected, we cut down all six of his remaining warriors. And, as expected, he charged one of his elephants into my cavalry unit and stomped it to pieces. The reason that I thought it would be okay to give up a 1.5 point unit for a 1 point one was that you get a bonus for destroying enemy mercenaries. Also, that would bring the elephants within the range of my archers. For my final turn, I shot and killed the elephant who had charged, and then shot the other one, as well. It came down to one final save. If Brent muffed it, he would lose the second elephant (and the game, certainly). If he saved it, then it would be a close match. He rolled the save and we counted up the points. I thought I would still be ahead, but was surprised that we actually tied, 20-20. It was a blast of a game, though, and Brent is a really fun opponent to play against. Sure, I could have hung back and likely preserved a victory. However, it is more important to me to have a good time and we had a gripping, satisfying ending to our game.

    My Moors after their first turn of advance, lined up against Monty's Baltic crusaders

Game 2: Moors vs. Baltic Crusaders

One of the promised games for the weekend would be my Moors' match against Monty's Baltic Crusaders. We had talked our way through how a game between them would progress on Saga Ohio Episode 12. So, it would be fun to actually play out the game and see how it would actually progress. Monty was the mastermind behind this weekend of Saga, and gaming with him was the reason many of us had made the trip. He is truly one of the hobby's great gentlemen. One of the things I did on the flight up to Minneapolis was to go back and re-listen to that episode of my podcast. We had told each other essentially what we would do, and it would be silly of me to forget all of that!

    The beginning of the end: This 4-man knight unit would kill 16 figures on Monty's first turn

My first sign that things were not going to go as planned came during deployment. We were doing the tactical option of Battle of Heroes. Monty had chosen March Column, which has players dice during deployment. The high roller deploys a unit, then they dice again for the next unit. I "won" (read: lost) every single roll and had to deploy my entire army before Monty had to deploy a single unit. Please don't tell me the odds of that happening, because it was only going to get worse. Monty had deployed in a compact line, book-ended by foot hearthguard with archers and crossbowmen in the center. His mounted knights were in reserve behind his main battleline.

    The knights continue to pile on charges and kill twice their number of Moorish hearthguard

One of the things Monty had said in our podcast was that he would NOT go racing across the field, pell-mell, with multiple movements and multiple charges. Guess what he did? One mounted knight unit of 4 hearthguard moved, charged, and charged again. Aided by the lethal Crusader battleboard and its multiple "gain 4 attack dice" abilities, he wiped out my entire unit of Levy archers and four of one of my 6-man mounted hearthguard units. The two-for-one trading continued without letup all game. Monty's famed "blue dice" were simply lethal. Fortunately, the memories of his rolls are beginning to fade. Suffice to say, he saved when he needed to save, hit when he rolled to hit, and simply slaughtered my army in less turns that the game was supposed to last. The Moors fell victim to charges and Saga abilities that let him clear his fatigue and charge again. It was without a doubt, the worst loss I have ever suffered in Saga. Monty continually apologized for the uneven die rolling, but that's the way the game plays. I have always had what I consider "streaky luck," and my first matchup of the weekend against Monty had me on a cold streak and he on a hot one. Thankfully, he gave me a rematch on Sunday and my dice woke up and I was given a chance at revenge.

    In my first game of the weekend, my Moors square off against Rodge's Pagan Peoples

Game One: Moors vs. Pagan Peoples

I had been looking forward to playing a game against Rodge of Saga Thorsday, this weekend. I had NOT been looking forward to facing his Pagan Peoples battle board, though! This army represents the various Lithuanians, Estonians, and other Pagan tribes of the Baltic region who were targets of the crusades launched by the Teutonic Order and other Christian kingdoms in northern Europe. As Rodge had explained in Episode 13 of Saga Ohio, it is a surprisingly lethal and effective battle board. Rodge has honed its deadly edge through his run of victories against Monty in their two-player Baltic campaign. He has figured out how to maximize his six points into an army that would generate 9 Saga dice, if you were allowed that many. The battle board rewards small units, and I believe Rodge deployed his army as mounted warlord, one unit of mounted hearthguard with 4 figures, one unit of foot hearthguard with 4 figures, a unit of 11 warrior bowmen, unit of 5 warrior bowmen, four units of 6 levy javelinmen. 

    The beginning of the encirclement - Moors have already lost 1 hearthguard, 6 warriors, 5 levy

Why would you want to a unit of 6 levy javelinmen? Well, one ability on their board gives ALL units that shoot or melee that turn 2 bonus attack dice. So, let's say all his units shoot on any given turn. That is 12 bonus dice alone from one ability -- if they shoot only once each! Those 6-man levy units generate 5 attack dice - not insignificant. Plus, he has a BASIC Saga ability (meaning you can put as many Rare dice on it as you roll) that lets him activate three units for one die. Now, Rodge and Monty will tell you that makes them vulnerable to a cold streak on Rare dice. Well, Rodge did not start out on a cold streak, I can tell you. He rolled 1 of 3 rares on his first turn, and then on turns two and three rolled 3 Rare dice each! For what should be a 1 in 6 chance, he rolled more than twice that -- just under half his Saga dice rolled on turns 1-3 were Rares!!

    A depleted Moorish spear unit forms a wall to protect the cavalry against archers arriving in the rear

So, my first game of Saga on the Minneapolis weekend was a bit of deja vu of my Moors' only previous defeat at the hands of the Tyler's Irish. We were simply swarmed by javelin (and bow) men. I had kept my cavalry units back on my left baseline and advanced my foot warriors and levy forward. They were shot to pieces. Many of his attacking unit activated multiple times, meaning that they kept taking advantage with every shot of that +2 attack dice. When Rodge's Saga dice cooled off a bit on Turn 4 & 5, I counter-attacked savagely with my mounted hearthguard. I eliminated several of his units and began to whittle down his available Saga dice. However, at that point, he unleashed his hearthguard and warlord. I had expended all my energy and lost big numbers fighting his warriors and levy. When Rodge sent them in to mop up, all of my units were depleted. 

    Although Rodge has honed his army to prime effectiveness, he doesn't have them all fully painted yet! Note the warlord and hearthguard...

It was a hard-fought game. The Moors killed lots of his men, but in the end, we were simply overwhelmed by one of the deadliest lists in Saga in the hands of an experienced player. It will be interesting to see if the Pagan Peoples are "nerfed" at all in the upcoming FAQs and modifications (rumored to be out before the end of 2021). Although they are not #1 on the need-nerfing list (Peter the Hermit's Levantine Crusaders win that dubious honor), they are pretty high up there. 

Despite starting off with two quick defeats at the hands of master Saga players Monty and Rodge, it was a fun weekend. The people I played with were gracious and fun to sit across the table from. Thank you to Monty for organizing the weekend. Thanks to Brent for giving me a ride to the airport on Sunday, and Scott for buying my dinner on Saturday night. I truly enjoyed meeting everyone and had fun, even though my Moors' successes were limited. Hope to see you all again one day!

Trying out the Saga Tourney Scenarios at Dragons Guildhall

Father's Day matchup between father and son - Mike S advance his Vikings while son Jason watches

One of the disadvantages of having a set date for meetings is they sometimes fall on holidays. That was the case this past Sunday at the Dragons Guildhall when our third Sunday also happened to be Fathers Day. We had only nine players show up, down from our usual dozen-plus of the last few meetings. Regular meeting days help everyone stay on a schedule and probably increase attendance long term, but holiday hiccups are always a danger. Our next meeting on the first Sunday at Guardtower East falls on the 4th of July, so we may see a fall off that day, as well.

    Jason's Byzantine Saga army patiently waits for the Viking advance, ready to counterstrike

I'd been suggesting to our Saga Ohio group that we should use our game days to test out the Book of Battles scenarios that are planned for the upcoming tournaments at Advance the Colors (Oct. 2) and Cincycon (Oct. 23). At ATC, I will be running Feasting & Pillaging for Game #1 and Old Feud for #2. At Cincycon, Adrian is planning on using Desecration, The Crossing, and Claiming Territory. The attendees must have taken my advice to heart and four of those five scenarios were played in the games at Dragons Guildhall that day. I think playing them in advance will not only help players do better in their games, but it will also make things go more smoothly as more players have some experience in the scenario. Otherwise, mistakes may be made, questions need to be asked, and in general, more time will be taken figuring out the scenarios. As a group, we are not used to timed games, so anything we can do to streamline the games is a plus.

    Adrian's Epirote Greeks (and cool objective marke) make their first appearance at a Saga Game day

One of the first games to get underway was a Fathers Day special -- Jason S challenged his dad Mike S to a battle. Jason was playing Byzantines from Age of Crusades and Mike had chosen Vikings. The two were playing Old Feud, so discussed the various characters first before making their choices. Mike was looking for a little revenge from earlier this month when the two squared off in the Epic Saga game. Jason was not influenced by it being a holiday to honor dads and promptly dispatched his father 20-5 in their game.

    Aaron moves up his mounted Normans while his brother, Adrian, makes plans to counter their move

Not father-son, but the next match was brother vs. brother. Adrian and Aaron J had yet to play each other in any of our Saga game days, so figured it was time to rekindle the sibling rivalry. They selected Claiming Territory as their scenario to fight out. Adrian was fielding his Age of Hannibal Graeculi (Epirote faction) for the first time at one of our meetings. His brother fielded his Normans, which grow closer and closer to being fully painted. I chided him that he has a deadline of ATC to get them painted by if he wants to enter the tournament. I'm being a bit of a purist and insisting on painted armies. I know other game systems (and other Saga groups) allow unpainted figures on the tabletop. However, I have always held the line on that and insist in my tournaments that armies must be painted. This is miniatures, not board games. And if you can play with them already, what's the real incentive to paint them up? I know others may disagree, but it's just the way I feel. 

    Aaron's Normans charge across the bridge into their second opponent, Jim B's Vikings

Adrian defeated Aaron 12-0 in their game. I think Claiming Territory is one of the stranger scenarios from Book of Battles. The only real incentive for engaging your opponent's army is to push them away from Objective Markers. You score points only by laying claim to the markers and keeping enemy away from them. It will be interesting to see how the games with this scenario play out. I'm worried that there won't be a lot of action, and instead we will see armies squatting on markers instead of charging their enemies. I could be wrong, though. I did suggest that a scorecard is included on the tabletop for players in this battle, due to the frequent times you count up points in this game.

    Dave E's Romans deploy to face Jenny's Vikings in one of our two Claiming Territory scenarios

Another of the battles featured Claiming Territory. This was between Jenny's Vikings and Dave E's Romans. There is a definite learning curve in some of the Book of Battles scenarios. Jenny said that Dave seemed a bit reluctant to move to claim markers and spent a lot of his time sitting back and firing his manuballista at her Norsemen. There were a limited number of melees, she said. Jenny quickly caught on to how to score in this scenario and won handily, 22-11.

    Mike S's 28mm Vikings charge across the battlefield, eager to come to grips with their Byzantine foes

There was only one second round game today, and that was Jim B (who sat out the first round) matched against Aaron J. Jim fielded his Vikings and Aaron was trying again with his Normans. They played The Crossing, one of Jim's favorites, he said. He enjoys it so much that all eight of his battle boards that he constructed are two-sided. One one side they have a standard flat surface and on the other it is carved to represent the river going across the center of the table. Jim did an amazing job with these, putting in model railroad water material and sculpting a ford for each board. All of his modeling mastery did not help him in this matchup, though, as Aaron was able to defeat him. The Normans got their revenge and Jim got a chance to play on one of sculpted river boards!

    Moorish deployment in my game of 'Desecration' against Bob B's Baltic Crusaders

My own game was against Bob Boggs, who I have faced only once previously. I apologized to Bob for the ATC tournament's ban on Legendary Units (or leaders). Every tournament I found except the Saga World Cup seemed to ban the use of legendary units or leaders. Bob really enjoys playing these, whether Henry the Lion with his Baltic Crusaders or the cataphract unit with the Late Romans. I suggested he begin tinkering with his army and get some practice games in without his armies without them. Since armies will be permitted one mercenary unit at my ATC 2021 Saga Tournament, he wanted to field his Baltic Crusaders with Western Knights. I helped him create his list, and he decided to go with 3 points of mounted hearthguard knights in a unit of four figures and eight figures. He chose the Western Knights (mounted warriors), and two points of levy crossbowmen. 

    Crusader crossbow-armed levy guard two of the objective markers that Bob placed

I would be facing him with my Moors. My Carolingians are down to the warlord stand left to paint, so I will likely soon switch over to playing them for awhile. I went with my usual list of 3 points of mounted hearthguard with javelins divided into two units of six figures. I also fielded my usual two units of foot warriors and one of levy archers. We would be playing the Desecration scenario, which I think I had played -- at most -- only once before. It took us awhile to realize that the Objective Markers are not ones you are trying to seize control of and drag off, like in Feasting & Pillaging. Nor are they the Claiming Territory markers you are trying to stand next to and fend off enemies. These you are literally trying to destroy, or desecrate. The rules encourage you to melee them not shoot at them. Their armor vs. shooting is a "6", while it is a "5" in melee. Furthermore, your opponent rolls twice as many saving dice as you inflicted hits. With shooting, that means they SHOULD save every hit. With melee, the odds are reduced because you save on a 5 or higher, not 4. I thought they would be tougher to take out than we found in our game. No marker ever saved all of its hits and went down immediately when attacked in our game.

    After Bob's uneventful turn 1, my Moors charge across the battlefield to slaughter the unclean pigs!

Another provision of this scenario is that the first player (Bob's Baltic Crusaders) can't shoot or melee on the first turn of the game. Nor are they allowed to use any advanced Saga abilities. They received their full first roll of dice, but wouldn't be able to use any advanced abilities. This meant I felt safe to put my entire army as far forward as allowed (Long distance from my baseline). Normally, my mounted hearthguard would be sheltering behind the infantry or sitting in reserve on my baseline for fear of an opponent's double move spoiling attack on them. This game I would not have to worry about that. So, I placed one on each flank of my center, which was composed of one of the warrior infantry units and my levy archers. My far left was guarded by the second unit of warriors, who on the far left guarding one of the three objective markers we had placed. My other two were in the center behind my army and on my baseline on my right. 

 

    Our plan was to toss javelins at his large mounted knight unit, but they danced away as we arrived

Bob was also protecting his objective markers. One was located midway towards his baseline in a large woods in the center of the board. The other was near his left baseline, protected by all of mounted knights and warlord. The final one was the furthest forward -- in the center just outside of his large woods. Was this bait to draw me in? He did have both of his crossbow levy deployed to fire on anyone in contact with the objective. One levy unit was sheltering in the woods while the other was advancing towards the plowed fields on his right. His Western knights also guarded the gap between the woods and the fields. On his first turn, Bob marched his levy unit towards the fields and his Western knights began plodding forward. Though mounted, they move only Medium distance (but charge the usual Long). They would actually never get into contact the entire game, which I felt was a mistake on Bob's part. Then again, with an armor value of 4, maybe he was worried about them shot to pieces by my Moorish cavalry? His knights did not move much and remained a solid presence near his baseline, guarding his right.

Unable to hit the knights, we threw javelins at the warlord then charged into, destroyed a 2nd objective

I measured and saw that the "bait" objective marker just outside the woods (a herd of pigs) was within a Long + Short distance of my cavalry on the left. Majik Ibn Battuta al-Waqaa waved his noble cavalry forward and they charged into the squealing pigs. With our javelin bonus when charging, we should have scored six hits, but rolled only four. Bob picked up eight dice to save, but could not roll enough 5's and 6's. The Moors had seized the first objective! My other cavalry unit galloped forward, intent on throwing javelins at his powerful, 8-figure mounted knight unit. However, Bob had queued up God of War on his battle board. He cleverly played this as an Activation/Reaction AFTER I had moved my unit within range, but before we took our free shooting activation with our javelins. The armored knights nimbly danced out of range, relocating towards the corner and out of our range. We switched our target to his warlord general, but once again rolled poorly, inflicting only one fatigue on him. I had another hearthguard activation dice on my board, so thought why not? We charged the objective marker that they knights had been protecting and destroyed it, as well.

    Satisfied desecrating two objectives on turn 1, my Moorish cavalry pulls back to the rear of our lines

I am pretty sure Bob thought I was playing into his plans at this point. However, I played Perseverance and pulled back both of my mounted units. The left-hand unit returned near my baseline with one fatigue on the left hand one and the right-hand unit with two.  Next, I was to learn how aggressively Bob plays with his mounted hearthguard. In our only previous game -- his Last Romans vs. my Carolingians -- he had even charged his cataphracts into the woods! Bob launched his 8-man hearthguard unit on an across-the-board charge against my cavalry, j-u-s-t under 24" away. Yes, he arrived in melee with a fatigue from his extra move, but mine had two already. Plus, my battle board was empty and his loaded up. This was NOT going to be pretty, and was definitely not the way my cavalry were used to fighting! Bob used Find Chinks in Their Armor to raise the number of dice he rolled to 21. He also played Blessings of the Righteous, which allowed him to reroll a number of defense dice. The knight's charge slew my Moorish cavalry to a man. He did lose several, even with his rerolls.

    Infuriated, the Baltic warlord shouts for his knights to charge and avenge the Moorish insults

On the next turn, I fired my archers into the over-extended knights. However, he immediately played Gods Host, allowing them to back up out of our archery range after our first shot. I also pulled back my foot spearmen to block any double-move charge on my remaining cavalry unit. On his turn, the knights came charging back in, this time against my levy unit. I decided to not use any of the knight's fatigue, so that they would be easier to counterattack on my turn. The Moors have some good abilities that can gain extra attack dice on units that are fatigued. Surprisingly, Bob did not kill all 12 archers -- three survived. Even more shocking, the archers inflicted two kills on him in return. The 8 figures had been whittled to this point down to three. On the other flank, his crossbowmen began raining bolts into the ranks of my other warrior spear, who were rolling very poorly on their saves. They would be slowly whittled down until only one remained at the end of the game. He also charged his 4-man knight unit across to support their brethren, and they easily destroyed my objective marker on my baseline. 

    ...and they JUST make it! A big mistake leaving my mounted javelinmen open to countercharge

Although I had destroyed two objectives and he only one, I had a feeling that the way his crossbowmen were rolling that he would soon get another. Majik knew that to win this battle he HAD to kill the crusader knights. To kill the remaining three figures in his first knight unit, the warlord of Cordoba galloped forward and waved in the foot warriors. I played Inspiration, and galvanized by their famous warleader's presence, they charged in. I used fatigue to lower his armor. With my rerolls of misses from Inspiration, the warriors scored eight hits. The knights went down, slaying three Moorish footmen in return. 

    On my left, Crusader crossbowmen whittle down my spearmen while Western knights plod forward

Bob responded on his turn with a countercharge of his remaining knights against the victorious warriors. The spearmen closed ranks and were able to repell the knight's charge. Enraged, the Baltic crusader warlord joined the fray and charged the warriors, as well. We closed ranks again, and though one warrior was slain, the warlord had to recoil. My goal at this point was to kill not only his remaining unit of knights, but also his warlord. However, the casualties inflicted by Bob's units meant it was going to be difficult to do. Luckily, I rolled a rare and could launch a Torrent of Iron charge with my full-strength mounted javelinmen into his knights, who had two fatigues. Torrent of Iron gave them a third, exhausting them, and my Wholehearted gave my cavalry a bonus 6 attack dice. I rolled 18 attack dice, and as expected, slew them to a man. This left their warlord exhausted now, as well. I had PLANNED to have Majik charge in and slay him, but simply did not have enough Saga dice for the final activation.

    His knights are worn down to just three after being shot & charging (and killing most of) my levy

On his turn, Bob rested his warlord and then tried to withdraw him. I one of his remaining fatigue to lower his move to a Short distance. Meanwhile, his crossbowmen charged into my objective marker on the left flank and destroyed it. We were now even on markers. It would come down to slaughter points -- whoever caused more enemy losses! I felt that if I could kill his warlord, I would win. If not, it would be a close call on who'd be the winner.

    A rare honor, the foot warriors were given the task of charging in and finishing off the knights

On my turn, I was fortunate to roll both a rare and two uncommon dice. This meant that I would be going in with a final Torrent of Iron on his warlord. The Moorish nobles shouted their battle cries to Allah and hurtled forward. Adrian gasped as I used all of the warlord's fatigues to make my hearthguard armor 6 (thus, could not be hit by an exhausted unit), and lowering his armor to a 4. He said that he NEVER takes fatigue off of a warlord prior to melee. I reminded him that I had 18 attack dice, hitting on 4+, which should produce 9 hits. We rolled well and scored 10. Bob was unable to save seven of the hits, meaning his warlord went down at the end of my turn 5.

    

    My Moorish cavalry hurl javelins at the Western knights, who never were able to make it into contact

Fittingly, Bob then rolled to see if we would play a turn 6 but rolled a "3" meaning the game was over. We counted up the points, and the Moors edged out the aggressively-played Baltic crusaders, 20-16. Both of us agreed it was a great game, full of triumphs for both of us. My shooting and saving dice were subpar, but my melee dice made up for it by being usually above average. When Bob took his second objective marker, tying us up, the match hung on a knife's edge. My infantry had done well against his knight's charges, and inflicted hits on them. We suffered casualties, but drove them off. My mounted javelinmen were perfect in the last two turns of the game, too. They destroyed his last knight unit and his warlord. If I had had rolled poorly and flubbed either of those charges, the game might not have ended in victory. Bob is a dogged, tough opponent, and I felt fortunate to come out of the game with a win.

    The Moorish cavalry unleash Torrent of Iron upon the remaining knight unit

Here are the compiled scores of our Fathers Day Saga game day:

• Adrian J (Graeculi - Epirote) defeats Aaron J (Normans) 12-0 in Claiming Territory.
  
• Jason S (Byzantines) defeats Mike S (Vikings) 20-5 in Old Feud.
• Jenny (Vikings) defeats Dave E (Romans) 22-11 in Claiming Territory.
• Mike D (Moors) defeats Bob B (Baltic Crusaders) 20-16 in Desecration.
• Aaron J (Normans) defeats Jim B (Vikings) in The Crossing.

   Next turn, they do the same against the Crusader warlord, winning the day with their charges!