Saga: Franks versus Picts-The Frozen River

 

I got in my last Saga practice game with Eric a couple of weeks ago. This was the 3rd test of my Frankish warband as configured for the Montreal Saga Grand Mélee. I had not played a game with Eric for sometime and I was looking forward to it as he is an excellent player. The other big plus was that we played a modified version of the Frozen River. This is one of the 3 scenarios being played in the upcoming tournament. I should also say this is the first time I ever have played against the Picts.

The scenario is unusual in that you get points for units/figures ending up on the opposite of the river as well as survival points. The interesting bit is that there are only 2 bridges/fords where you can safely cross. You can cross the river itself as it is frozen but every time you move there you risk falling through the river and drowning. This is done by a dice throw. Very tricky.

I used my usual 6 point warband deployed as follows:

Warlord

2 units of 12 Warriors

1 unit of 8 Hearthguard

1 unit of deserters 

Here are some photos:

Starting Positions

Midgame

End Game

This was again an extremely close game with a victory for the Franks 28 to 24. I was able to get Momentum by turn 3. That will be it for Saga until Nov 7. 

Saga: Franks versus the Romans, The Ambush

Two weeks ago myself and Gavin got together at the Abyss to have a game of Saga. We played a slightly modified version of the Ambush from the Book of Battles.  This is one of the scenarios that will be coming up in our Saga Grande Mélee which will be held at the Abyss in Montreal on November 7th. 

We both played the warbands that we are planning to use for the tournament. Gavin is playing his Romans, I should have written down the composition of his warband but you will get a sense of it from the photos below.

Franks

Warlord

2 units of HearthGuard

3 units of Warriors

Deserter Mercenaries

This is the second time that I used a unit of Mercenaries, so this was another test run. This is quite an unusual scenario where points are gained for capturing objectives as well as massacre points. I had played something similar a couple of weeks before with David and got crushed. I felt I had a much better sense of how this scenario worked this time around.

The Game

I went with 5 dice as below. The Frankish Battleboard has a cheap ability, The Frankish People,  that allows you to activate 3 units as long as they are within M of a Hero for a common or uncommon dice. I have noticed that I have seldom had to put my dice on the activations but rather on the advanced abilities. The critical ability on the Battleboard is Momentum and with this once triggered by winning 3 melees you can activate any 3 of your units by Determination. The trick is though that this has to be done early in the game to make it work especially in games that last 5 turns only.

5 Saga Dice

Warlord

Unit of 12 Warriors

Unit of 12 Warriors

Unit of 8 Hearthguard

Deserters

Starting positions after initial movement of the carts.

The Romans quickly grabbed 1 of the Objectives

A dropped Objective

The Franks with 2 Objectives

Using Momentum the 2 Franks were able to end the game with 2 Objectives on their start base. 

So a Frankish Victory of, if I remember correctly, 34-26 points, but I think I was lucky in that Gavin made a very minor error when he picked up one of the objectives with a unit who was already holding an objective (the rules allow only 1 objective per unit). This caused him to drop it which I was subsequently was able to pick up. By then I had Momentum initiated which allowed me to grab it and move it towards my side of the table. Once the points were calculated it was found that the Franks won by holding 2 Objectives, if the Romans had held the 2 objectives they would have won.

Update Saga Terrain

 

I have been working on upgrading some of my Saga terrain and gaming accessories. The initial plates I did were a little boring so I added some flock.

Saga is fun but because of the competitive nature of some of the games, many players like to use 2D terrain. This is a real no for me. The only solution I could see was 2D plates with moveable 3D terrain. I did most of this with a 3D printer.

Overview

Steep Hill

Large Forest

40mm Objectives...sheep!

Flat Hill

Small Forest

Cart

Baggage Train

Small Rough Ground

Small Marsh

Small Rocky Ground

Cart with Small Ruins

Age of Invasion Campaign-Franks vs Britons (S3)

Monday last,  I got together at the David at my place for the third season game in the Age of Invasions campaign. I decided to do a raid on the Britons as I had not confronted David in quite sometime and I wanted to make sure that I get to play all 5 players in the campaign. I suppose I will battle the Welch in season 4. This game was going to be a tough one as David is an excellent player, but I am in it for the fun and it was really nice to have David over to my place as it had been a while.

I had chosen to RAID this season, thus there would be just one game. We played the Pure Profit scenario from the Polish Tournament Battle Pack. As noted below, I completely misunderstood the tactics needed to succeed in this scenario. 

Photos

Starting positions, with the Franks to the left and the baggage train in the middle. 

The Britons are ready.

Turn 2 and the Britons had already captured 2 of the 3 baggage trains!

Game was over essentially at the beginning of turn 4, I will know better the next time.

Results

Well that was a true pounding but an odd one as only a total of 3 figures were killed during the game. I did learn a lot though as this was ot a game about fighting but more about tactics. Both my terrain choices and deployment of my warband was just terrible and by turn 2 I had realised that I missed the whole point of the scenario.

But It was great to get together with David and I believe we spent more time chatting than playing!

Age of Invasions Campaign-Franks vs Visigoths (S2,G1)

Last Friday I got together at the Abyss with Robbie for the start of season 2 of the Age of Invasions campaign. This time I was asking on the Visigoths. In my previous 2 games, I had a loss and a draw so I was not that confident going into this game as Robbie is definitely one of the better Saga players in our club. 

I had chosen to DEFEND this season, thus there would be just one game. We played the Turning the Tides scenario from the Polish Tournament Battle Pack, it was a bit of a weird scenario where we each started in opposite corners with our Warbands. There were 5 objectives (animals) spread across the centre of the table and essentially we had to grab them and then move them to our opposite edge at which time we would gain VPs, so it became pretty clear that this was quite difficult so the route to Victory was Massacre Points.

Photos

Results

It was nice to have victory. Well that is it for this season, on to Season 3.

Age of Invasions Campaign- Franks vs Saxons (S1,G2)

The second game in the first season of our Last Age of the Eagle campaign was played at the Abyss about 3 weeks ago. In this game, my Franks carry on after their minor defeat at the hands of some marauding Romans and move on to the island of Briton to do a Raid on the Saxons.

The Battle

Scenario: Scared Ground

 Post Battle Sequence

That was a tough game but on to Season 2!

Age of Invasions Campaign: Romans vs Franks (S1,G1)

One of the Saga players in our club has put together a campaign for Age of Invasions incorporating the Age of the Wolf and Saga 2. Robbie has put an enormous amount of work into the campaign and it looks like it will be a lot of fun. Five players have signed up for the campaign for season 1 but I see the Welsh have showed up for season 2.

We played the first season in the month of July, the Franks decided to go on a Raid specifically across the water into the lands of the Saxons. Unfortunately on their way before they crossed the sea, they ran into a warband of Romans, who had decided to Campaign against them.

So my first encounter in the campaign was an Ambush against Gavin's Romans.

The Battle

Scenario: Turning of the Tides

Well it was closely fought but a clear victory for the Romans. They were much better at capturing objectives and keeping them.

Post Battle Sequence