Carolingian Archers Ready to Loose (um...NOT lose!)

 

    8 Old Glory 28mm archers to use as a Warrior Bow unit in my Carolingian Saga army

Since I like to mix things up while I am painting, it was the archer's turn to be the next group of figures painted for my new Carolingian Saga army. I'd already finished the first mounted hearthguard and foot warriors batches, so they were next. Once finished with these, my Carolingian army will be half finished (not counting the warlord's base, which I will do last).

    My 3 points of Carolingians so far -- almost halfway there on finishing the army!

The archer figures were not part of the Gripping Beast 4-point starter army, which the rest of the army will come from. They are various Dark Ages archers that I had in my unpainted bin. These eight, I believe, are from Old Glory. Sure, I could have purchased archers specifically for this army from Gripping Beast or Footsore, or any of the other miniature manufacturers that are much more popular with Saga players, now. However, the cheapskate in me just couldn't do that. Especially since I think they look perfectly fine. There were only three poses, I admit. However, divided amongst two planned warrior bow units that means only one figure per unit is a repeat. I can live with that!

    Closeup of 4 of the archers - I thought the helms on the first & third guys from left looked Frankish

An advantage of Old Glory is there was no assembly to be done. I cleaned up the flash with an X-acto knife and affixed them to squares of cardboard with white glue. I have decided to use this batch to do a tutorial post. The intent will be to show beginners how I paint miniatures, so look for that post soon. It'll have LOTS of work-in-progress shots to hopefully give newbies an idea how to approach painting up a batch of miniatures. I scribbled notes on the cardboard squares, selecting my colors for the archer's tunics and pants. Three of the figures had a leather/quilted looking armor, so I chose three different leather shades for those, as well. No cloaks or crazy stuff on these guys, so it was fairly easy to pre-plan my painting.

    Minimal detail on these archers - contrasting color hemlines and simple patterns on quivers, etc.

I did the bronze and steel look on the five figures that had helmets I could do that on, and a simple steel conical helm for the other three. I decided to jazz them up a bit with simple patterns on the quivers and sword sheaths. In keeping with my theme for the Carthaginians, warrior figures receive only a contrasting color on the hemline - no patterned borders or anything like the wealthier hearthguards receive. Nothing fancy in this batch, but these guys will quite possibly be doing the bulk of the killing in the way I plan to run my Carolingians. Their command and control battle board has lots of abilities that can make archery more deadly. 

    Still experimenting with the scratch-built lightbox Jenny built that I used to photograph these

What's next? Well, I am taking a break from miniatures to actually do some terrain, again. Since my current terrain has no specifically designed "rocky areas" -- a popular optional choice for Saga players -- I am creating four small ones. After that, I'll paint the remaining four mounted hearthguard for this army.

First Batch of Carolingian Warriors Finished

    My Carolingian army grows, with nine 28mm Gripping Beast foot warriors joining the ranks

My next Saga army continues to march along on my painting desk. There were 16 foot warriors in the Gripping Beast 4-point starter set that I'm using as the base for my army. However, 9 of them had wrist stumps which needed to have separate fists holding either a sword or axe glued on. Actually, the box came with only 8 matching weapons and fists, but luckily I had a spare left over from my Moorish army. The remaining 7 foot warrior figures had closed fists meant to be drilled out, presumably for spears. Normally, I would do 16 miniatures in two batches of eight, but I decided to do them by the weapons. So, my first Carolingian warriors would be a batch of nine!

    Closeup of three warriors - the yellow and green border on the right was my favorite

I tend to be all thumbs when it comes to using superglue, and prefer 5-minute, two-part epoxy. However, I found when working on my Moors that I could actually handle the wrist stump and fist combination with Gorilla Glue superglue. These axe and sword hands went in equally smoothly, much to my relief. That was all I had to glue as the shields come cast on to the figure. Woo-hoo! That much less to glue! So, the "assembly" portion of these warriors was over quickly, and it was on to priming and choosing the colors for the tunics, cloaks, pants, and more.

    I was happy with how the fists with axe/sword glued onto the wrist stump easily and look natural

One of the reasons that I am a big fan of inexpensive craft acrylic paints (Ceramcoat is my #1 choice) is how affordable it is to purchase a wide variety of shades in various colors. I like to have a range from dark to light when it comes to all of the main colors -- greens, reds, blues, etc. For Dark Ages figures, I like to use the brighter tones for the richer or more noble figures (hearthguard in Saga terms). For poorer figures (warriors and levy in Saga), I like to select more faded colors. For example, I may use a medium or dark blue for a noble, but for the poor troops I would use a faded, grayish blue (like Ceramcoat Wedgewood Blue). Of course, I mix in grays and tans, especially for the pants or leggings.

    The last three of this batch of Carolingian warriors -- I really like these Gripping Beast poses!

Probably the most difficult part of painting this batch of miniatures was the leather cross-hatching on the leggings. I compounded this difficulty by doing my usual two-tone (darker base coat highlighted with a lighter tone) on the leather. It's interesting how painting some parts or equipment of the miniatures is more enjoyable than others. One of my least favorite stages of painting a miniature is the "leather equipment" -- belts, sheaths, etc. Why? I honestly don't know. It just seems that this is more of a chore than the tunics, pants, hair, and other parts. For this warband, I am continuing to favor greens and reds in attempting to go with a "theme" (which I plan to repeat on the warlord figure himself, of course). I don't want it to be the extent of, say, a medieval retinue. However, I am attempting to see with these Carolingians how a hint of a common color theme running through the irregularity of choices turns out.

    A look at the nine shields I hand-painted for these Carolingian warriors - the middle guy is my fave

Four of the figures have cloaks, so I wanted to make sure they had some sort of border or pattern. I decided on the previous batch of four mounted nobles that I would go with a thicker contrasting border on the bottom of the cloak (rather than the pattern running along all four edges). I decided this -- in all honesty -- because bottom edge was the easiest and most accessible on the miniatures. However, I also did a narrow line as an accent color on the edge of all of the warrior's tunics, too. This should give more subtle visual interest to the models than if they were all one plain color.

For the helmets, I kept my theme of bronze and steel that I began with the mounted nobles. This idea of a theme was suggested by Rodge and Monty on the Saga Thorsday blog. This is quite the shift for me because originally I was painting my Dark Ages figures so they could be generic and used across multiple armies. Now here I go making them more tailored! I guess with this being my sixth Saga army, coupled with my plans to have each army using unique and not shared figures, there is nothing preventing me from individualizing armies anymore.

    My two points' worth of Carolingians done -- I'll try to do a "army so far" group pic each update

The next splash of color consideration was, of course, the shields. As always, I did my Google and source research to see what common shield patterns would have been at the time. I admit that a common image that pops up in my searches nowadays are the commercially-available transfers by Little Big Men Studios and others. I rarely copy them exactly, but take themes from them, such as the swirls, crosses, and other devices that seem to be what the Carolingian army used. Once again, I tried to use various shades of reds and greens more than average. Since these are warriors, I could have just gone with plain one or two color shields. However, since Saga armies are so small, I decided to splurge with detail and do individual patterns inspired by my online research. I was definitely happy with how they turned out. 

What's next? The first point of warrior bows (8 figures) has begun its march to being finished, too. These are actually a mix of figures from different manufacturers that I had in my unpainted bin. Hopefully, they'll mix well with the Gripping Beast. Stay tuned for more updates as the army of Charlemagne's empire continues to grow!

New Painting Project: Carolingians for Saga

    The first batch of my 28mm Carolingian army -- Charlemagne's Franks

I'd been planning to get started on these guys for awhile, but had been putting them off to finish a few miscellaneous batches of Dark Ages figures. The intermission is over, though, and it is time to begin painting a new Saga army. The core of my Carolingian army is a 4-point Gripping Beast starter box. The box contains no bow-armed warriors, though, and my planned build calls for two unit's worth of them. Luckily, I have a lot of miscellaneous 28mm Dark Age archers in my unpainted bin. I sorted out 16 suitable looking figures and added them to my round metal tin where I'd dumped the Gripping Box figs into.

    Closeup of two of the riders showing the two-tone helmets and the iron scale armor

Where to start, though? I like to paint in batches of 6-8 figures, but a batch of 8 mounted is simply too large for my sakes. So, I broke the box's 8 troopers into two batches of four. Interestingly, exactly half of the riders are wearing scale armor and the other half chainmail. I chose to paint the scale armored guys, since it would be a change of pace. I did some research trying to decide whether the scales would be bronze or iron/steel. I saw images of both online, and ended up deciding to go with iron/steel. However, I remembered from my 15mm Ancients days how much I liked the look of Republican Roman legionaries who had bronze helmets but steel chainmail. I decided to recapture some of that look by painting their helmets as a bronze bowl with steel reinforcing sections.

    My dappled gray and brindle brown horses, taken from the online horse coloring guide I'd found

I'm getting ahead of myself, though. Lately, for mounted figures I have been actually epoxying the figure to the horse before priming them. And I begin my painting with the horses, finishing them completely before starting on the riders. So, I looked at my chart of horse colorings that I'd found online and picked out four to paint. The chart is kind of cartoonish, but that's not really that bad of a thing considering we are doing a miniature adaption of horse colors. I picked out a nice looking one I'd never done before - brownish "brindle" color (yep, like dogs!), a really nice red bay, a dappled, gray "Chubari Spots," and a lighter brown "Red Dun." I have found that I like how my horses come out so much better since I started actually researching horse colorings online!

    The brighter colored noble cavalry of the Carolingian army in their red & green coloring

For the riders, I went with brighter colors than I would normally do otherwise for Dark Ages figures. These are the hearthguard -- the wealthiest of the warriors -- and should look the part of upper class Franks. Two of them had cloaks, which I painted a Yew Green and faded Red. Monty and Rodge of Saga Thorsday fame talk a lot about a common coloring system running through their excellently painted armies. For irregular Dark Age folks, that's not something I have done. However, with the Carolingians, we see the beginnings of a more professional army. So, I have decided that red and green will be the common colors running through the warband. By no means will every figure be in those colors. Instead, I will just shoot for more reds and greens than the others. For example, one of these riders is in blue, two in green, and the third is the faded red.

I lined their tunics and cloaks in contrasting colors and gave them suitably Frankish looking shields, I felt. I keep telling myself that "next" army I will follow the crowd and give shield decals a try. I have never successfully been able to use them, though I admit the only time I tried was long ago and in 15mm. So, for now, I will continue to hand-paint my shield designs. When flocking the figures, I decided I would do another "common look" bit to tie the army together (as Monty and Rodge would say). I'm going to put flower tufts on the bases of this army. I actually decided that as I was finishing up when I thought the bases looked a little plain. I'd put rocks and pebbles on the Moorish cavalry bases, so I thought I'd give the Carolingians a bouquet of flowers or two!

Hope you guys like them -- feel free to leave comments below (or follow my blog - it has pitifully few followers...ha, ha!). Next up? A point of Frankish infantry warriors! I actually just put the base coat on their tunics tonight, so who knows? Maybe they will follow these guys onto the field relatively quickly.

Count Drogo Clashes with a Crafty Roman Commander

Count Drogo, the Frankish warlord, urges his archers forward to engage the enemy

The monthly Saga Game Day at the Dragon's Guildhall in Beavercreek, Ohio, was moved up a week due to a conflict with another event. Nevertheless, six warlords were on hand to marshal their troops and wage battle. I brought Count Drogo, the bastard son of the Frankish king, leading a Carolingian warband. For the first time, my opponent was Bob B -- we had yet to play in all the various game days. He was fielding a "Last Romans" warband. On the other tables, Aaron J's Normans and Jim B's Vikings squabbled over loot in Feasting & Pillaging. Adrian ran his Anglo-Saxons against Jenny's Vikings in a variant Clash of Warlords where all uneven terrain was dangerous.

The deployment, with Franks in blue and Romans in purple

Bob and I were playing the standard Clash of Warlords. I loaded up the field with a medium sized woods on either flank and a field of scrub brush in my center. Bob placed a gentle hill in his center, but most of the terrain shifted towards my side when I rolled the diagonal "Method B" deployment. As first player, I wasn't sure how aggressively Bob would move his mostly mounted force. His army was definitely one of the smallest I have every played against, in number of figures. Besides his mounted warlord, he fielded the legendary unit Klibanophoroi 8-man cataphract unit (3 points -- half of his force value!). He also fielded two other mounted hearthguard units, one a 4-man horse archer unit with composite bows and the other a standard mounted unit. His remaining unit was 8 foot warriors with bows. 

A Frankish warrior unit hurries towards to woods to engage the Roman archers

I deployed cautiously towards the rear of my zone, occupying the center scrubland with one unit of foot warriors with bow. The other foot archers were in the woods on my left. Both units of warrior spear were on my right, poised to enter the right flank woods where Bob's archers would end up going. Both of my 4-man mounted hearthguard units were held back in reserve in the center, as was Count Drogo. Bob deployed his two smaller mounted units in the center, while the Klibanophoroi were poised to circle the woods on my right flank. Seeing this, we hurried one of the warrior spear units towards the woods, hoping to be able to drive his archers out of it. We also wanted to get into the woods where we thought we would be safe from the Klibanophoroi.

Just as the Franks are about to contact the Romans, they scamper out of the woods!

I put two of my three Saga dice I rolled as first player into my Proelium section on the board (the third would go in on turn two), using the other on the advancing warrior spear unit. Bob sent his Klibanophoroi around the woods, while the horse archers galloped forward to shoot at my warrior spear before retiring. The foot archers also shot a volley at them, but (as a rarity in this match) I saved well, losing only one figure. When my warriors entered the woods on the next turn and advanced to within charging range, Bob pulled the archers out of the woods before I could contact them. Then he really surprised me by charging the Klibanophoroi into the woods. They came in with two fatigues, but that didn't matter, as he completely wiped out my remaining warriors (who'd taken two more losses from horse archery) to a man. I was stunned that a mounted unit could so easily charge foot in the woods. This was a legendary unit that cost him 3 points, though, so I guess they should be fairly powerful.

I think I was as surprised as my warriors when the Klibanophoroi charged into the woods!

Meanwhile, Count Drogo had ordered the Frankish archers out of the terrain and hurried them towards the enemy. We used Ardor and ordinary Saga dice to pepper the Klibanophoroi with four shots. Bob saved every hit -- even the four automatic hits I got from using Vinco and Domine on my board! He then withdrew the Klibanophoroi out of the woods (and out of sight) of my archers. His own archers advanced and shot at my mounted hearthguard on the left flank, who rolled atrociously, and lost two of their four figures. This encouraged Bob to send his own small mounted hearthguard unit to charge them. He had finally rolled well enough with Saga dice to use Strategos, so his unit had 12 dice to my 4. However, I used his fatigue to raise my armor class to a 6, and Bob rolled only one "6". Did I save that hit and drive back his charge? No, of course not! 

Count Drogo urges his troops forward to contact the elusive Romans

Still, Bob had exhausted his Saga dice and his surviving three hearthguard ended their turn within range of my archers. I spent all of my dice to power my two archer units -- Ardor, Vinco, Domine, Potentia -- every ability the Carolingian battle board had to improve its shooting. The Roman cavalrymen were wiped out to a man, and an additional shot savaged his foot bow unit, too. While my attention was focused on shooting, Bob was able to rest his exhausted Klibanophoroi and move them around the woods towards where my remaining Frankish spear and mounted hearthguard watched our right flank. 

"Fire!" Drogo roars, as the Romans are finally within range of Frankish bows

At that point, I decided to gamble. Knowing that his battleboard was empty, and that when HE charged, whoever they hit would be likely wiped out, I decided to charge him first. I loaded my battleboard up with my combat abilities -- Fortis (which gives me 3 dice and takes 3 away from him), Potentia (allowing rerolls of up to six misses), and for the first time ever, Damnatio -- which gives +1 attacks against the declared enemy unit. He would have 14 dice, minus the 3 Fortis would take away, giving him 11. I would have 8+3 = 11. But he had a fatigue, which I used to make my armor a six. So, 11 vs. 11, and I hit him on 4's (with rerolls of up to six misses), while he hit me on sixes. It should go my way, except the Klibanophoroi's pesky Resilience (1), which meant he could convert the first three casualties into fatigue.

Stung by a couple turns of Frankish archery, the Romans rally near the right flank woods

The Frankish nobles shouted their warcry and charged in! I rolled a total of 7 hits (probably one or two under average). However, Bob saved rolled 5's or 6's on four of his seven dice. NO CASUALTIES! Meanwhile, I had lost two killed (my saves remained abysmal). Since this as Turn 5, I was pretty sure that meant Count Drogo would lose this contest. On his half of turn 5, Bob killed the remaining two hearthguard with shooting and then withdrew as much of his force behind the woods as he could to avoid my shooting. 

"Well, that didn't work out like planned!" The Frankish nobles' charge caused no kills

As the final turn of the game dawned, I noticed that Bob's warlord had advanced far enough around the woods that my one of my archer units could draw a bead on his with a full advance. I used all of my dice to give them two maximized shots with Vinco and Domine, hoping that Bob's deep well of good saving rolls would run dry at this critical moment. After the first shot, his warlord was exhausted. The second shot (with Domine allowing me to replay Vinco for two more automatic hits) came up all misses. He still had to save vs. the two auto-hits, though. This time, the Roman warlord failed, and he fell from the saddle pin-cushioned. Bob tried to exact revenge on the archers with a Klibanophoroi charge, but I was able to use his fatigue to prevent him from making contact. 

The Roman warlord advances just a bit too far around the woods, opening him up to bowfire

It was time to count up points. Would the death of his warlord be enough to make up for Bob's lead? As it turned out, Bob score 15 points and I got 14. However, in Clash of Warlords, you have to beat the opponent by three or it is a draw. So, Count Drogo had narrowly avoided defeat against a very crafty Roman warlord. Bob played masterfully with his small, mobile force. He continually avoided my archery fire, keeping distance enough from me or using the terrain to mask his forces from my arrows. I was impressed. In hindsight, I made a serious mistake taking on the Klibanophoroi. I should have backed away to draw them within range of my archers. I think they are one of the few answers the Carolingians have against them. Even then, their Resilience (1) means they can take fatigue instead of hits till they're exhausted. If I face a similar legendary unit in the future, I will be more cautious, and make sure both archer units are in position to cover all approaches.

Jim B's Viking warlord takes control of a loot token in his battle against the Normans

In the other battles, Aaron's Normans swiped most of the loot tokens and defeated Jim's Vikings, 26-19. In the remaining game, Adrian's six points of Anglo-Saxon levy overwhelmed Jenny's Vikings. Jim B was his usual generous self and bought gift cards for all participants so we could go home with goodies from the store, in addition to the normal good time playing Saga. I picked up a new pin vice, as mine is getting old and stripped. Thanks to Jim and Adrian for hosting, and to Bob for a great, challenging game. Good times, as usual, playing Saga!

Adrian's Anglo-Saxons hordes about to overwhelm Jenny's sorely-outnumbered Vikings

Saga is Alive & Well in Ohio

A historical refight at our Saga Game Day - Andy's Normans advance against Lee's Normans

Despite the fact COVID seems to show little signs of letting up, the Saga wargamers of Ohio were gathering (masked and socially distanced) at the Guardtower East in Columbus. Due to a couple last-minute conflicts, we dropped to eight players this time around. Half of the players got a second game in, as well. We had one brand new player (welcome, Lee!) and plenty of familiar faces across the table. I decided to give Count Drogo the Carolingian Count another battle this time around. I've been very successful with my Pictish army, but I felt it was time to change things up!

Count Drogo's Carolingians (at bottom) take on Jenny's Vikings in the Desecration scenario

 In addition to my Carolingians, we had two Norman armies, one Pagan Russ, one Viking, one Irish, one Anglo-Saxon, and one Last Roman army take the field, this Sunday. In the first round, Jenny asked for a rematch of her Vikings against Count Drogo. Apparently, the Vikings were back for another raid on Frankish territory. We decided to try a scenario from the Book of Battles. A week or so ago, I had posted on of the Saga Facebook groups asking which were the most balanced scenarios from that book. Behind Clash of Warlords was Desecration in 2nd place. So, we thought we'd give it a try.

Count Drogo's warrior spearmen advance on the right, intent on seizing an objective marker

In this game, each player places three objectives markers on their half of the table (only one of which can be in uneven terrain). The opponent is trying to destroy these, which then affects the "cap" a player can receive in massacre points against their opponent. If you destroy none, you can receive only 10 points, for example. But for each objective you melee (or shoot) and destroy, your cap is raised. This forces you to go on the attack, I feel, and so I examined our terrain to figure out how best to take one or more of Jenny's' markers.

Jenny ponders how to react to the Carolingian advance - she gets more and more skilled each game!

There were three pieces of terrain. A field in the center, a marsh on my left, and a woods on the right. I placed my forward-most objective in the marsh, guarded by my two warrior bow units. Jenny placed her forward-most marker in the woods, which she occupied with her levy bow. I sent a unit of warrior spear into that woods to seize it, backed up by another warrior spear. So, both of my warrior spear units were on the right and both my warrior bow on the left. Each was backed up by a small 4-man mounted hearthguard unit. The warlord stayed in the center to discern what the Vikings battle plan would be.

My Carolingian warriors charge and drive off Jenny's Viking levy archers - a key part of my plan!

Jenny placed her two 6-man hearthguard units opposite my center, with her 8-man warrior units on each flank. The levy bow were lined up opposite my right, where my main thrust would go. I immediately marched my two warrior spear unit forward on the right, while advancing and launching arrows against one of her hearthguard units in the center. 

My victorious warriors prepare to "desecrate" the Viking objective marker hidden by the trees

The Carolingian battle board has good shooting abilities. I used "Ardor" every turn, which allows a number of units equal to your "Proelium" (where I kept the maximum 3 dice all game) to move or shoot for fatigue-free. This means that if I activate my warrior bow with Saga dice (or the Warlord's "We Obey") I can then activate them again with Ardor, getting off 4 shots with no fatigue to me. And if I throw "Vinco" in, as well, one of those shots includes two automatic hits. And if I'm lucky enough to roll a rare flag die (happened only 3 times in the game), I can play "Domine" which allows me to duplicate Vinco and get another shot with two automatic hits.

The bitter end for the Viking thrust towards our closest objective marker

I've listened to a number of Saga podcasts and weblogs, and none of them rave about the Carolingians. However, I think they are very, very strong. This is not to brag at my success with them (only 2-0), but rather to point out that players must immerse themselves in the strengths and weaknesses of their army. I plopped those three Proelium dice on my battle board (two in turn one, and the final third one in turn two) and kept them there all game. This makes my Ardor movement more efficient (3 free moves) and my Vinco (2 automatic hits), Fortis (gain Attack or Defense dice equal to Proelium and opponent loses the corresponding dice), and Potentia (reroll misses equal to x2 Proelium) more effective. Honestly, I sometimes wonder if I turn the Saga armies I play into "one-trick ponies." I never seem to use a good 1/3 to 1/2 of the advanced Saga abilities on my battle board. I seem to pick a good 3-4 and use them every turn. Or is it, I am simply choosing the abilities that work best with the way I have fielded my army? Maybe. It is hard to tell, but I feel I have been successful with my methods, so why quibble?

Andy prepares to teach Lee, our newest recruit, the Clash of Warlords scenario

Back to the battle! After dealing out damage to one of the Vikings' center hearthguard units, I hurried my warriors towards her archers. She shot them on her turn, but caused only one casualty. The warrior spear charged in and killed five of her levy at the cost of another archer. More importantly, this cleared the way for us to charge her forward-most objective marker in the woods the next turn. The warrior unit caused two hits on it, and she saved only one of those, so one of her markers was mine! In response, Jenny began to maneuver her hearthguard unit and warlord towards the woods which I had seized. I responded by attacking the archers again with the same warrior unit, rolling a phenomenal seven hits! Jenny responded with an even more impressive five saves, though. At this point, I had taken her levy unit down below wher it generated a Saga dice, so I pulled my warriors back to avoid her counterattack.

Andy's 8-man, mounted hearthguard unit prepares to turn the tables on their Norman foes

Jenny charged a warrior unit in the center against an "Odin"-exhausted archer unit closest to my objective marker in the swamp. She paid for her fortunate roll with the levy and actually lost the battle (to be fair, her warrior unit had been depleted to four figures from shooting previously), recoiling. Things were not going well for the Vikings. She had sent a counterattack forward on my right, but I pulled back out of its way. Her thrust at my center had failed. And now things were about to get worse. On each flank, one of my small mounted hearthguard units swept around the terrain to put them into position to charge.

In our fastest game of the day, Tyler studies how his Irish can best attack Anthony's Pagan Rus

On my left, my mounted hearthguard charged a unit of her hearthguard that had been depleted to one figure, and eliminated it. On my right, my unit of hearthguard charged an objective marker on her baseline. Both charges were successful -- the last Viking died, and the objective marker was taken. About this point, Jenny began to feel helpless against my shooting and my "Ardor" ability. She was in no position to take any of my objective markers and I had taken two of hers. She was losing on the Massacre Points that would decide the scenario. She did get revenge when a unit of 6 hearthguard charged in and massacred three of four figures of my mounted hearthguard unit on the left. Her warlord similarly charged the one who had destroyed the objective on the baseline, killing three of four there. I was fine with that, though, and withdrew both units on my next turn.

Battlelines formed, Anthony's Pagan Rus (at bottom) advance upon Tyler's Irish

The points were going to work out in my favor. She could get no more than 10, and with two objective markers and lots of enemy kills, I would have a much higher total. Jenny rolled to allow us to play a turn 6, but she declined, and we counted up victory points. Count Drogo won 16-9. Jenny felt that the Ardor ability was way too tough, though I pointed out to her that "Odin" and "Loki" are similar game-changers on the Viking battle board. 

It was good to have my friend, Mike S, back and running his Last Romans again at our game day

The results of the Round 1 games were:

• Mike D's Carolingians defeated Jenny T's Vikings 16-9 in Desecration
  
• Tyler P's Irish crushed Anthony B's Pagan Rus 24-9 in Clash of Warlords
• Adrian J's Normans came from behind to win Battle of Heroes against Mike S's Last Romans 10-9
• Andy S's Anglo-Saxons defeated Lee P's Normans in Clash of Warlords
  

Adrian J's Normans, at right, advance upon Mike S's Last Romans in a round 1 game

A number of players had to leave after Round 1, so we ended up with only two battles round two. Tyler P got a rematch against Jenny's Vikings (who he'd fought a month ago), and Anthony's Pagan Rus took on Adrian J's Normans. I actually missed most of round 2 as I went outside to talk to Jim B. He works in the medical field and was on call and unfortunately got called and had to monitor an operation from his vehicle. I gave him a Viking warlord stand I'd painted for him in appreciation for all the gift certifications he'd given to participants in the Saga Game Days at the Dragons Guildhall in Beavercreek, Ohio. I was gratified that he seemed to really like the stand I'd painted and based for him. Hopefully, I'll see it across the table one day soon!

Never one to shirk a fight, Tyler P's Irish advance through the woods towards Jenny's Viking army

Round two's grudge match between Irish and Vikings was a complete and total bloodbath. Tyler plays very aggressively with his Irish, using their shooting ability to inflict lots of casualties on his opponents. Jenny gets better and better every game with the timing of win to use the "Odin" and "Loki" abilities on her battleboard. She held off the Irish and the two battled to a vicious draw, 23-22 in favor of Tyler. It was our only tie of the day, but considering that it was Irish vs. Vikings, it seemed appropriate!

The Irish warlord (at left) and Viking leader trade blows to decide the outcome of their battle

On the other table, it was another battle royale! Trying out the seldom (in our area) played Pagan Rus battle board, Anthony was giving the very skilled Adrian a challenging game. Time and again his warlord shrugged off attacks by the numerous Norman mounted troops. In the end, Adrian came out on top, 21-16, but both admitted it was a very close game. Learning a new battle board is difficult, which is why I tend to play the same one in streaks until I feel comfortable with it. Anthony enjoys the challenges, though, and if I remember correctly, has played a different army every month he has attended our Saga game days!''

Norman cavalry flow around the right flank of the Pagan Rus army seeking a weak point

For those interested in joining us, we have a schedule change for the Dayton-area Saga game days. Instead of the normal third weekend, our Saga Game Day at the Dragons Guildhall will be NEXT weekend, Sept. 13. Join us there at noon and play one or two games of Saga. We have plenty of loaner armies, so this is the perfect chance to try out a fun and challenging game. Honestly, that is one of the appeals of this game to me. I like trying to figure out how to field an army (composition and armament) and how best to utilize it on the army's battle board. Your success at Saga is not due only to good die rolling (which helps, as in all games), but also due to how cleverly you capitalize on its strengths and attack the enemy's weaknesses.

The Norman cavalry charge home against the Pagan Rus warlord in one of many attempts to slay him

I hope our Saga Game Days continue to have good turnout until that day when the whole COVID crisis is gone, and we can go back to gaming in person full time. Yes, wearing masks can seem a pain at times. But to me it seems like a small sacrifice to pay for the joy of in-person gaming and the panorama of Dark Ages army battling it out for supremacy on the tabletop!

Tyler's Irish warlord encourages his followers to charge into their Viking foes

Count Drogo's Franks Drive Off Viking Raid

Count Drogo waves his banner, urging his Carolingian warband to attack the raiding Viking force

Jenny wanted to get some more practice with her new Viking Saga army, so we decided to take advantage of a Saturday evening with no plans and get in a game. I had been interested in playing Carolingians, so what better matchup for Vikings than their favorite punching bag on the continent? I had been close to buying figures for a Carolingian Saga army a couple times, but hadn't pulled the trigger. Maybe this would make me want to finally make the purchase...or not!

The Viking army deploys for battle, with its deadly 6-man hearthguard units in the center

I studied the battle board and read the Age of Vikings section on the army. The most unusual thing about this army is the Proelium aspect of its board. You can have 0-3 Saga dice in this section (one of each of the three faces of the dice -- common, uncommon, and/or rare). They remain there until you either play Combat Bonus (when you lose one) or play Vides, which allows you roll them and place them on your battle board. I never used Vides, which I see as a last-ditch attempt to repopulate the board before a potentially calamitous opponent turn. By turn 2, I had three dice in the Proelium section, and they remained there until the final turn when I used Combat Bonus and dropped to two.

Count Drogo plans an advance on the right headed by the warrior bows, while his center and left will echelon back

So what that means is your are playing with fewer command and control dice -- five instead of eight. However, it is worth it, I think, simply by the Ardor ability -- which allows you to move or shoot as many units as you have Proelium dice...and these activations DON'T cause fatigue. This would be a crucial part of my strategy in the upcoming game. I played Ardor all but one turn (the first), which means those three Proelium dice gave me three movement or shooting activations every turn. It seemed a fair tradeoff to me!

The Carolingian right wing - a unit of warrior bows in the woods, supported by a unit of foot warriors

Seeing how I needed to stock the Proelium quickly, I decided to go with small, standard sized units. I chose two 4-man mounted hearthguard units, two 8-man foot warrior units, and two 8-man warrior bow units, along with my warlord, Count Drogo. Why foot bows -- and especially two of them? Two advanced abilities on the Carolingian board, besides Ardor, jumped out at me immediately: Vinco and Potentia. Vinco allows you to inflict a number of automatic hits in either shooting or melee equal to half your Proelium (3 dice = 2 hits). Potentia allows you to reroll a number of attack dice in shooting or melee equal to twice your Proelium. Although some may see the potential devastation in hand-to-hand, I saw the potential for it to be very deadly with missile fire.

The Viking Levy prove resilient, and cause far more casualties (and take fewer) than Count Drogo had expected

What's more, the Domine ability allows the Carolingian player to trigger any Shooting, Melee, or Shooting Reaction advanced Saga ability a second time. So, yes, you can hit somebody with Vinco and two automatic hits -- in addition to what you roll -- a second time. What's more, since Ardor's actions don't generate fatigue, you can shoot the same unit twice and end the turn with zero fatigue! Now, perhaps you see why I chose not one, but TWO foot bow units. The question was -- would my tactic work? I had never used foot bows in Saga, and in fact, always scoffed at players who chose them. Eight guys that fire with only four dice? What a waste! Take Levy that fire with six dice for the same points, right?

Things begin to unravel on the right as the Viking hearthguard exact revenge on the depleted warrior unit

Jenny and I were playing Clash of Warlords, and I deployed first. Our battlefield had two medium sized woods on either flank, a gentle hill in Jenny's half of the central sector, and a farmer's field with crops in between the center and right. I concentrated my two bow units on the right where her own Levy archers were located hoping to overwhelm them and drive them off. My foot warriors were placed in support of their bow brethren, and the mounted hearthguards in the rear in reserve.

Things aren't much better in the center where another Viking hearthguard unit has killed half of the supporting warriors

We began a slow advance on the right, while keeping back our center and left in echelon. My archers on the far right entered the woods for cover from Jenny's levy bowfire. Jenny took the first shot and it was a good one -- killing two of the warrior bow in the woods. Our return fire on the next turn did little, even with tossing in Vinco and Potentia. She had lost only about four figures out of 12 -- hardly devastating. My backup plan was for a foot warrior unit to charge the levy, who had moved into the field for cover from our archery. The warriors charged and drove the Viking archers out of the field, but at a stiff cost -- we lost three figures. She lost only another four figures, and my depleted warrior unit was in danger of being countercharged by one of her large, 6-man hearthguard units.

The Viking hearthguard appears unstoppable, slaughtering Frankish warriors and chasing the Carolingian bow

Jenny saw the opportunity and took it, slaughtering the remaining warriors to a man. Things were beginning to unravel on the right where I was attacking in force! I have learned that in Saga, the dice are fickle. Momentum shifts. Don't be discouraged -- if one method of attack is not working, try another! Jenny brought up here other 6-man hearthguard unit and charged my second warrior unit which had advanced in the center to support the archery. Luckily, we lost only four of eight this time, so the depleted unit was still generating a Saga die. However, this left the Viking hearthguard exposed in the center of the battlefield. My archers concentrated on them, with my full strength unit taking two shots and the one in the woods one shot.

But perhaps not! Archery fire depletes the center warrior unit, who are then ridden down by the Carolingian nobles

The Viking Huscarles had lost one of their number in the battle against my spear. They lost three more to the archery, leaving them with just two. That was enough to tempt the Carolingian nobles to charge. They galloped around the archers and smashed into the side of the remaining Viking hearthguard, eliminating them to a man. Perhaps Jenny had baited me just as I baited her with the foot warriors. She double timed her Shield Maiden unit into my mounted hearthguard, tossing in Thor, Loki, and a Combat Bonus Saga abilities into the melee. It was a bloody battle, but in the end, two of the maidens stood tall, while the four Carolingian mounted nobles lay dead at her feet.

The Shield Maidens charge, slaughtering the Carolingian nobles. It look grim, but can our archery save the day?

Jenny could have guessed what was coming next, though. More Carolingian archery, and soon the last of the lady warriors lay bleeding on the ground, pin-cushioned by arrows. Undeterred, she advanced her remaining hearthguard unit which had destroyed my warriors. However, I used their fatigue to shorten their move which meant their charge fell short of my bow unit in the woods. Half of the hearthguard unit protruded from the woods. Once again, Lord Drogo ordered his archers to loose their hailstorm of arrows and soon all of the Viking elite warriors lay dead.

Had this charge struck home, the answer probably would have been no, but a fatigue caused them to fall short

At this stage, Jenny was left with only one 8-man warrior unit, two Levy archers, and her warlord. I had two units of warrior archers (13 figures total), one unit of 4 warriors, one unit of 4 mounted hearthguard, and my warlord, Lord Drogo. She decided that the day was lost, and withdrew her troops back to the far side of the hill. The Franks cheered at the departure of the raiders - they held the field and had driven off the feared Northmen!

Two turns of devastating Carolingian archery and all the Viking hearthguard and shield maidens lay dead -- victory!

We counted up the points and though it looked one-sided, 23-13, the score did not reflect how the Vikings were winning through the early part of the game. If her Shield Maidens and remaining hearthguard unit had been able to shrug off our archery, things would have ended fairly differently. Did my strategy work? Definitely. Ardor more than makes up for keeping three of my Saga dice in the Proelium. The deadliness of Vinco and Potentia ensured my archery fire was effective. All in all, I feel the Carolingian list is a very deadly one. Now, I admit things would have been different if Jenny had used the Odin ability on her Saga board. She chose not to do so on the first turn, and then didn't roll the proper symbols on the second turn. By the third turn, she was seeing the need for melee abilities to follow up her successes. By the fourth turn, she had lost too many units, and couldn't afford to use Odin, or didn't have the rolls. So, we were fortunate with how it worked out. A forewarned opponent may not be so obliging at letting the Carolingians riddle them with arrow storms. Still, I look forward to having Count Drogo ride forward into battle again, and see if we can follow up our initial success.