SAGA- Skraelings meet the Jomsvikings!

Two weeks ago, Myself and PY got together for another game of SAGA at his house in Lachine. PY has been rapidly painting up figures for SAGA in anticipation of our clubs invitational SAGA tournament at the Abyss on November 25.

This was PY's first AoV game, I like playing my Skraelings and I was expecting to face off against Vikings and had brought their BattleBoard with me. I was shocked to find out that he was planning to play the JomsVikings which are certainly quite a bit different than the vanilla Vikings who I have played against several times in the past. I had never faced the Jomsvikings and their novel mechanic of Wrath. 

Basically, the Jomsvikings opponent has to choose whether to cancel the BB advanced abilities by giving them Wrath. I thus started the game with no idea what I was facing! 

Jomsvikings-6 Saga Dice

Warlord

3 points of Warriors

3 points of Hearthguard

Skraelings-6 Saga Dice

Warlord

5 points of Warriors

1 points of Hearthguard

Set-up-Chaos

Vanguard

Pitched Battle

Marshy Country

Forced March

Target

The Game

We started quite close together with minimal terrain.

Anxious to wipe out those invaders

What in the hell is this coming at us.

I had to deploy first so essentially I had to run my troops to the opposite flank from whence I started. This was a tricky game as it was only going to be 5 turns. I believe I might of rushed in a little to quickly and because of this I set up well and never got to use my totems, except one. 

I put the eagle totem on my 10 man band of javelin armed warriors but before I knew they essentially got multiple casualties early on. 

I was able to put some damage though on 2 of the Jomsvikings HG units.

I like using the Skraelings as they are quite nimble.

Before we knew it 5 turns were up, we tallied up the points. The difference was less than 3 so a draw. I do like this action shot of 2 Jomsvikings HG running away.

I enjoyed the game and certainly the Jomsvikings are a novel opponent, certainly the next time I meet them, I will have their BB in front of me. I have to decide what to play in the tournament, the Skraelings may not be a good choice, I am tempted to use my Anglo-Saxons. 

Death in a Tight Splace Redux

Myself and Adam got together to yesterday to replay Adam's excellent scenario Death in a Tight Space. On our last outing, I played the defender. Yesterday, we reversed roles: Adam decided to go with the Norse-Gaels as the attacker and I decided to use the Vikings as the heroic defenders. We played from the Age of Vikings source book for SAGA2.

Vikings:

Ragnar Lothbrok

3 points of Hearthguard

1 point of Berserkers

Mercenary unit of Jarl Sigvaldi's Jomsvikings

Norse-Gaels:

Warlord

4 points of Warriors (half Dane-Axes)

2 Points of Levy

Unusually, I had a bit of time to think about the game before I played so I had actually generated a plan. As laid out the last time the Attackers have the Endless Warbands rule and the game was to last 10 Rounds (nightfall we could say). Victory was based on Slaughtering Points. With this in mind, I felt that I had to try to not engage the attackers for at least 4 rounds to prevent having to face multiple endless warbands. At the same time, I planned to position my Berserkers so they could take out the largest group of warriors while screaming Valhalla. Best laid plans of course, as I think the Berserkers ended up attacking in Round 3 and being wiped out without accomplishing their mission. I then had to play a game of cat and mouse taking out the Norse-Gaels when an opportunity presented itself while trying to survive until nightfall. The below photos will illustrate what happened.

Here is a view of the starting position, Vikings to the right. It was 25 Vikings vs  57 Norse-Gaels. I went with two 6 figure units of Hearthguards and two 4 figure units of Berserkers and Jomsvikings. Ragnar generated 2 SAGA dice for a total of 6. The Norse-Gaels had two units of 12 Levy, three units of 12, 10 and 10 Warriors as well as a Warlord for 6 SAGA dice.

A scary prospect.

I missed a few photos here but in a early clash I lost 3 Hearthguard but was able to kill a unit of Warriors.  I had already sacrificed my Berserkers without taking them out.

Ragnar advances with 3 Hearthguard to take out the these two units of Norse-Gael warriors . The game ended on turn 9 with the Vikings having 43 Slaughtering Points while the Norse-Gaels had 20, a clear victory for the defenders.

I enjoyed the game and believe I put together a pretty good warband for this heroic stand. It went quite smoothly although I am not sure if I played the Jomsviking's Fury correctly. Adam kindly let me play the Fury as a Activation/Reaction which I am not sure is right.

Coming up

I really have nothing up next on the painting table so have been trying to decide what to do. I am thinking about a Christian Warband for the SAGA Age of the Crusades. But I decided to add a unit of Shieldmaidens to my Swords for Hire reserve. I had been searching about for a while and I found these this morning and although plastic they were purchased within minutes. This is exactly for what I was looking. No dumpy Viking females for me.

Update on Jarl Sigvaldi

• Sigvald gains a Fury Token automatically at the beginning of the controlling player's activation (there are multiple other ways to gain tokens as well)
• Sigvald burns his Fury Tokens only at the beginning of the controlling player's activation and the effects last through the opposing player's turn.
• Sigvald only switches sides if he loses a melee when he has no Fury Tokens in hand.

This actually sounds like quite a mess if you read the series of posts, but from what I understand a FAQ is near and should clear things up.

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