SAGA: Death in a Tight Place

Another great game of SAGA2 yesterday at the Hobby Bunker. Adam played the Irish and I played the Germanic Peoples with rules from the Age of Vikings source book. We played a scenario of Adam's design and I have to say it was very well done. The inspiration for the scenario is that of a heroic defence at the battles of Stamford Bridge or Thermopylae.

Scenario: Death in a Tight Place

Forces:

Attacker: 6 point war band comprised of a warlord, warriors and levy with auxiliaries. No heroes or hearthguard

Defender: 6 point warband comprised of a warlord and hearthguards. Heroes and auxiliaries allowed.

Terrain:

3x4' Terrain with the attack along the short axis of the table

Setup:

Two large pieces of dangerous terrain are set up in the middle of the table no more then L apart.

Follow the deployment rules as laid out in the SAGA2 Rulebook; a minimum of 3 further pieces of terrain are placed.

Deployment:

The Defender sets up first within M of a line drawn through the centre of the table.

The Attacker sets up no closer than L of the line drawn through the centre of the table. 

The Attacker moves first.

No troops in the dangerous terrain at start.

Special Rules:

Endless Warbands for the Attacker as set out in the original Crescent and Cross rulebook.

Victory Conditions:

10 turns.

Slaughtering Points as laid out in the SAGA2 rulebook with the following change. The Attacker does not gain extra points for eliminating complete units. 

Retreating units double their slaughtering point value.

Leonidas at Thermopylae  Jacques-Louis David

Irish:

Warlord

Curaidh

4 points of Hearthguard

Auxiliary unit of Vagrant Warriors

Germanic Peoples:

Warlord

5 points of Warriors

Auxiliary unit of Scouts

So the game started, as usual I do not remember all the details so will not write a formal report (I will post a link to Adam's blog when this is available as he does a much better job of this). It was a great game which went to all 10 turns taking a little under 3 hours. I found the Curaidh almost impossible to kill and probably could have managed my Endless Warbands a little better but was able to eke out a victory of I believe 3 points. Adam did not have a whole lot of luck with his SAGA dice as the game progressed. I likewise had some problems with scoring hits on my Attack dice as the game progressed, I lent my lucky black dice to Adam for the game.......always a mistake!

Anyway Adam did a great job with the scenario and has written several others as can be found on his blog. I will look forward to playing more of them.

Germanic Peoples on the right. The Scouts were a great addition for this scenario.

Irish Warriors

Irish Hearthguard 

Germanic Warriors

Germanic Scouts leading the Warriors through a swamp with the Warlord looking on

The relentless Germanic attack

The Irish Last Stand......Shoulder to Shoulder

Battle of Stamford Bridge  Peter Nicolai Arbo

Warbands under the Crescent Banner for SAGA

In anticipation of imminent release of the 2nd SAGA source book: Age of the Crusades (which I have just received an email that it has been dispatched), I have been finalising my Moorish warbands. I wanted to have a combination of figures so that I could field any of the 3 eastern warbands. I do understand that the number of warbands detailed will be 12!

I felt I was a little weak on infantry armed with spears/javelins so I recently painted up a unit of 8 infantry. These are the Daylami Mercenaries (or Auxiliaries as they are now called) from Gripping Beast. They were nice figures to paint and as has been my approach, been painted so they are similarly dressed.

I recently also made a terrain mat from an old piece of mat for SAGA, I tried to terrain it in such a way that it would work for Europe or the Middle East. We have found it a bit of a struggle to lay out a 3x4' terrain as required for most SAGA Scenarios. I was quite pleased how it came out, so I took the opportunity to pull out my moorish figures and photographed them.

An overview

The latest addition

A Generic Warlord.

Camel mounted Hearthguard

Naffatan

Foot Hearthguard

Horse mounted Hearthguard

More Spear/Javelin Infantry

These Warriors are my favourite

Bow-armed Infantry

Horse mounted Warriors

Bow mounted Warriors (Turcomen Auxiliaries)

A Hero........maybe Saladin

And finally some organised Warbands

Mutatawii'a Warband (6 points: 2 units of Mounted Elite, 1 unit of Foot Elite, 2 units of Javelin armed Foot Warriors and 1 unit of Bow Armed Foot warriors)

Moorish Warband (5 points: 1 unit of Mounted Elite, 1 unit of Mounted Warriors with Javelins, 1 unit of Foot Warriors with Spears, 1 unit of Levy with bowes and 1 unit of Levy with Javelins)

Saracen Warband (6 points: 1 unit of Mounted Elite with Javelins, 1 unit of Mounted Warriors with Javelins, 1 unit  of Mounted Warriors with Bows, 2 units of Foot Warriors with Javelins and 1 unit of Levy with Bows)

For Sale: Crescent Root Studio 15mm Western Europe Set

This is probably the last sale for a while, but I maybe putting some painted 4-Ground and Italeri 1/72 Houses up for sale. I am just trying make my WWII 20mm / 1/72 terrain collection visually coherent and I am still thinking about it.

What I am selling is the Crescent Root Studio 15mm Western Europe House collection. I see these are no longer available and it is with a lot of reluctance I am selling them. Unfortunately they just do not really fit with my collection being just a little smaller. As you can see below these are just excellent quality.

As you can see they are superbly painted MDF.

They are double walled and each house comes with an extra top which represents a destroyed layer.

There are a total of 5 houses and as you can see they come on a excellently illustrated mouse pad base

Each house also has an individual base some with walls

As I am reluctant to sell these they are not going for Fire Sale pricing. These are all still in their original individual boxes and are in excellent shape being only used once or twice.

As noted these are no longer available so the selling price is $200 $150, shipping in the US is included. You are not going to get this opportunity again. These are really the best pre-painted building available for wargaming that I have seen.

For Sale: Pedion Tile Set

Next up is some terrain. I bought this set a couple of years ago. Never used it. The hill in the left foreground is missing but there is a bonus plain tile in the box. Each tile is 1' sq so this is a 3x3' terrain. They are on sale on the Pedion Web Site for $165. More info here.

I want this box out of the house, so $50! This does not include shipping which we can calculate at the time of shipping. Shipping as per your request. I believe the box weighs under 7lbs.

For Sale: Unpainted 28mm Napoleonic Lead

Time to get rid of the red tin of unpainted lead. The only thing I found in it that I might use is some Front Rank Portuguese that I may paint for Sharp Practice.

These figures are going to go at a very good price, such a good price that I am actually not going to take the time to count them. They are all metal except for plastic Perry Dragoons. Some are painted. What follows is a rough list, no guarantees here. Numbers are thought to be accurate and are underestimated but not guaranteed!

Front Rank KGL Hussars with Horses x4

Front Rank Light Dragoons with horses x4

Westfalia Miniatures Jaegers x8

Westfalia Saxons x15-16

Unknown 2 French Casualties

Unknown 14 British Casualties

Foundry Infantry x20

Front Rank British Infantry x12

Foundry Scots x12

Front Rank Mounted British/Portuguese Commanders with some horses x15

Foundry/Front Rank Mounted French Commanders with horses x8

Front Rank British Light Infantry x12

Unknown British Flagbearer

Front Rank British Rifles Officers x4

British Sapers x2

Westfalia Medic x1

Limited Edition French Calpe Figures x5

2 Perry British Generals mounted

2 Perry French Guard Generals mounted

3 Perry British Art Officers mounted

So at least 180 metal figures. I believe most metal 28mm figures go for over $2 each, so $400 roughly.

For Sale $100 with Free Postage in US in USPS PP Medium box. I will defray international postage by $15. Paypal only.

For Sale: 28mm French Napoleonic Command Stands

I have finally got around to sorting the remnants of my 28mm Napoleonic Collection. I had held on to these as I was not sure what I would need for Sharp Practice, but a couple of recent games have suggested to me what I need to keep.

These are all painted to a good table top standard and I would like to sell them quickly. There are 16 mounted figures all nicely based as you can see below. I believe most are Front Rank, with some Perry's and I think Victrix. They are all metal.

$100 will get you all 16 figures (+ a free standing ADC) with free postage in the US. I will defray cost by US$12 for shipping abroad by USPS Priority post medium box. You can click here for postage cost to any country. Put in Medium PP Box as shipping vehicle.

Colonels and Chef de Batallions

The Perry wounded dragoon set

Generals de Brigade and a General de Division base

ADC's

Marlet: The Last Battle

Myself and Mike got to play our next game in our Operation Martlet campaign, our last game was more then 6 months ago and for the British (me), it was do or die. This was turn 8 and I was trying to capture table 4: Striking at Saint Nicholas.

The campaign is 11 turns and to win they would have had to capture table 6 by the end of this turn so an impossibility. If the Germans hold Table 4 it is a major German victory, it was felt if the Brits could not move on in this turn they would resign the campaign as there was no way they could win.

This had been a long and difficult slog for the British, the first 3 turns got messed up because we misinterpreted the German OB and they had 30 troops rather than 20 in their core platoon. It took the Brits 4 turns to get off Table 1! This was followed by a back and forth with alternate British-German victories, but without the Germans suffering any attrition as each British victory was achieved by the Germans withdrawing without significant loss. By Turn 8, the German morale was quite high with a +4 on Force Morale rolls, while the Brits had a -1. Chain of Command is all about Force Morale and to win one has to diminish one's opponents FM.

I was quite positive though going into the game and felt I could win and try to achieve a draw in the campaign. From looking at the above table it appeared to me that the Germans would end up in a highly fortified position and really success could only be achieved by HE bombardment. I set up a nice terrain for our game.

British start position 

British JOP's in blue. I am not really sure what I was thinking about the flank JOP in the foreground.

German JOP's as expected. I left the patrol markers on for the photo.

Starting Forces

British (21 Support Points)

Starting FM 8

Core Platoon w/ 2" Mortar and Piat Teams

Churchill AVRE

Sherman

2 extra Piat Teams

Forward Observer

Germans (12 Support Points)

Starting FM 11

Core Platoon w/ PanzerIV

extra PanzerIV

Forward Observer

Adjudant

My game plan was to get the AVRE and FO on the table as soon as possible so I would be in good position once Mike started to place his troops in the 3 stone buildings. I also had to get an least 2 sections on to protect the FO and any Piat Teams that I had to position in order to take out the German Tanks. I really was hoping to accumulate CoC dice as well as I was pretty confident that Mike would take a FO. Having the ability to continue and end barrages is a big part of the game.

It actually went pretty well although early on in the game I had a lot of double phases which are sometimes not that helpful. I even threw 4d6 once and we had to dice on the Random Events table. It is nice to have double phases but if you do not get 1's and 3's it is hard to move things around.

I will not go into the whole game and in the heat of the action, I took few photos. It was actually the first game where I killed more troops then had killed. The high point of the game was collapsing a building with a full German squad and killing the FO. Despite this I just could not get the German FM down while mine went down rather quickly. Mike had a lot of excellent dicing to save hits and on the FM table. I use the photos below to explain some of the result.

These 2 PzIV's were my bane, Mike did a great job of playing them to take down my armour and once this was done to rain HE and HMG fire on my troops. I did get a few  shots at them but Piat's and Shermans are just not that good for taking out the well armoured PzIV. You can see that after the house collapsed Mike withdrew all his troops to behind the building out of range of my mostly intact sections.

On the other end I just could not generate good armour saves and my AVRE and Sherman were taken out  by the 2 PzIV's. Mike mentioned that maybe if I brought both them on at the same time it might have been helpful as he would have to split his fire. I can only agree as I never brought on the Sherman until just before the AVRE was destroyed.

Despite having minimal core platoon loses and still having a section and 2 Piat Teams  to bring on, the loss of several Support Teams plunged my FM to zero......game over.

Final Butcher's Tally: 

Germans

Ending FM 10

6 riflemen

Supports

1 FO

British

Ending FM 0

JL

3 Riflemen

Supports

2"Mortar Team

AVRE

Sherman

I actually felt this was the best game I played in the campaign, I had a pretty good plan which might of worked but Mike's excellent tactics and dicing caused the game to go otherwise. I was a little disappointed not to win, but there is always another campaign!