Saga: Battle of Stamford Bridge

 

Last Thursday Korrigan put on a Saga Extraganza for our monthly tThursday Saga Night. We had 3 simultaneous games, two of which featured the final 2 battles of King Harold Godwinson, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England.

I played in the Battle of Stanford Bridge and commanded the king's Anglo-Saxon forces, I was assisted by William who commanded the Earl of Mercia's Anglo-Saxon forces and Michel who commanded the Earl of Northhumberland's Anglo-Danes. We faced off against Luis who commanded Harald Hardrada's Viking force assisted by Eric and François commanding Tostig's and Eystein Orre's Vikings. 

We played the Saga Epic rules at 16 points aside. The main Warlord had 6 point warbands and the ancilliary Commanders had 4 point warbands. The game was 8 turns, and at the same time while we were playing the Battle of Hastings took place with 6 other players. 

Harold Godwinson in the foreground with the Earl of Mercia on his left and the Earl of Northumberland on his right. Harald Haradada in the centre with Tostig on his left and Orre on his right.

I was quite confident that Luis would send in his Viking Hearthguard first. Mercia waited for Hardrada to attack and caused some damage with his Saxon levies...never underestimate the Saxon shieldwall. Harold's warriors were sent in and drove the Viking Hearthguard back.

The Viking made another attack but without much success, by turn 6 Tostig's force was demoralised and the Anglo-Saxon defence of the bridge remained solid.

The Earl of Northumberland's Anglo-Danes had a lot of back and forth at the ford of the River Derwent but was able to keep the Vikings on the far side of the river, news of Hardrada's defeat reached them and at turn 7 the Vikings withdrew.....an Anglo-Saxon victory.

This was a quite a lot of fun, It was actually the best game of Saga I have had for some time. I find Saga pretty gamey at times but this seemed like a true historical event. I should note that Harold Godwinson was able to defeat the Normans at Hastings so remained the King of England.......history was defied.

Battle of Hastings

Hengist and Vortigern

Last Sunday, myself and Robbie got together for our long delayed game to cap our Limes campaign. The campaign was won by Robbie's Britons but we had planned to put together a final battle which included the two Heroes of the Britons and Saxons. 

We decided to play the Fight around the Fire scenario from the Age of Invasions sourcebook which we felt would be historically plausible. As we all know, Hengist and his brother Horsa were invited by the Vortigern, King of the Britons, as mercenary fighters in his battles with the Picts and the Scots. 

We also know that the Saxons betrayed the Britons in the Treachery of the Long Knives. The Fight around the Fire fit this history. 

I was surprised that Robbie showed up with an army of levies accompanied by Saxon mercenaries, he usually selects a hearthguard heavy mounted warband.

Britons

Vortigern

2 units of Saxon Mercenaries

1 unit of Levy Archers

2 unit of Levy 

Saxons

Hengist and Horsa

3 units of Hearthguards

2 units of Warriors

Here are some photos of the game.

Starting Positions with the Saxons to the left

The Saxons split their forces to wipe out the Briton's levy archers

Hmmm! The archers are still there 3 turns later

The Saxons furiously hit the Briton's shieldwall 

Hengist's blood rage gets the best of himself and he throws himself against the shieldwall, supported only by his brother Horsa....unfortunately he fell in battle.

It was a fun game with the Britons winning, I think the score was 20-15 which was closer than I thought before we did the calculations. I had lost all my Hearthguard as well as Hengist. Thanks for the game Robbie, it was lot of fun.

Some Painting

 

A bit of a dramatic painting!

Anyway, over the last 6 weeks, I managed to grind out some figures. Here are some photos.

Mounted Crossbowmen from Bremen for Saga. Figures are from the Perry Light Cavalry Box.

Some French Carabinier Skirmishers for GdA from ABFigures.

Some Moorish Crossbowmen for Saga from V&V Miniatures (1st of 12)

I have some Russian houses to paint next for CoC.

Saga Grande Melee

Just a month ago I competed in the 2025 Saga Grande Mélée that David K and our club has. This has been a very successful event in the past, and follows up on a great year for Saga at Boutique L'abyss with most months having 1-2 Saga nights.

This year there were 14 players, the results were as follows:

I was very pleased to have placed 6th!

Here are some of my photos:

Many thanks to David for putting on a great event.

Some of the Players:

I am the old guy!

Warriors with Pavises

This is my second mercenary unit for the age of chivalry, a unit of Warriors with Pavises. Alternatively they could serve as part of a French Warband who can field warriors with pavises. These are Perry plastics, not sure from which box. I found enough right arms with weapons and left arms which I could use to attach a pavise. This was much easier than I thought it would be. I used a shield design for a Paris unit and printed watershed transfers. I will probably add one more pavise to the warrior with the horn.

Trying what to decide what to paint next as I still have quite a number of figures left. Tempted by 8 Genoa Crossbowmen or Mounted Crossbowmen, both mercenary units for the Age of Chivalry.

Saga-Age of Crusades- Sort Of!

As a part of the Montreal Historical Wargaming Club's AGM yesterday we finished off with some games of Saga. I was interested in getting one of my Age of Crusade's armies on the table and after a lot of discussion about balance and historical relevancy, I took on Luis's Free Companies with my Moors.

Free Companies

Warlord

Cannon

3 Foot Warriors

1 1/2 Mounted Hearthguard

Levy Crossbowmen

Moors

Warlord

Mounted Javelin Hearthguard

Blackguard

Mounted Javelin Warriors

Foot Warriors

Levy Bowmen

Of course I forgot to take photos, but it turned out to be a terrific game which was quite close until the last turn when a series of mistakes by myself ended in a very lopsided victory for Luis. 

In the photo above probably around the end of turn 5 it looked Ok, but in an ill planned attack by my Blackguard, I ended up losing them all in Melee and because of their Paragon's trait, I ended up putting 2 fatigue on my Warlord thus making him unable to take on the Free Company Warlord. I learned 2 things from this game; learn to close ranks and appreciate that the Blackguard are a very strong defensive unit. 

Unfortunately, although I keep on saying I am not adding any more Saga figures, it looks like I might have to buy a unit of Moorish Levy Crossbowmen.

Limes Game 3

 

Myself and Robbie had our third game in the Saga Limes campaign a couple of weeks ago and unlike history the Saxons were driven back by the Britons.

Some Photos

The Saxon Line

I will not bother with a report as I think the game was over pretty quickly and my Morale fell to zero giving the Britons a victory in the campaign.

I am trying not to be negative, especially where I lost, but this is a campaign that I cannot recommend. Even on the Saga Discord where there are thousands of members, hardly any one had played it. I remember when it first came out it got bad reviews. It is structurally a mess, although the individual ideas are quite cool. I doubt if it was ever play tested. You play the same scenario every game which is sort of boring and although it is suggested that the attackers have an advantage as the campaign progresses it is the reverse. The defending player can essentially restore almost every killed figure as the campaign progresses. Thus, the attacker gets no benefit from killing figures and his only chance of victory in a game is if he can get units off the table.