4pts Saga; Vikings vs Welsh vs Pagan Rus

Today I got to put my new Pagan Rus warband on the table to battle it out with my Brother and his tenacious Vikings, as well as my eldest Niece who put my Welsh warband to work. She has a Norse-Gaels warband herself but it was not available at the time. She did however play the Welsh rather nicely.  We set-up outside on the Veranda as it a cracker of a day.

The Warbands were as follows;

Welsh

Mounted Warlord

1 Unit of Mounted Hearthguard 

1 Unit of Hearthguard

2 Units of 8Warriors

Vikings

Warlord

1 Unit of 4 Berserkers

1 Units of Hearthguard

2 Units of 8 Warriors

Pagan Rus

Warlord

2 Units of 4 Varjazi

2 Units of 8 Militia

We set up and played out a victory point scenario that had the Welsh and the Pagan Rus set-up on separate corners of the southern table edge and the Vikings coming down from the centre of the northern edge. The stage was set and the free for all began!


The Welsh coming in from the West

The Viking Menace marches in from the North

                                          The Pagan Rus crossing                  A Raven's Eye view

                                                   from the East

A slow advance from all due to A Great Winter setting in while I tried to get a hang of my new Rus Battleboard.

The Pagan Rus Militia see some shadows in the distance.

The Northmen press on.


My Niece decided to split her forces (as with my Brother) and take the fight to both fronts.
Her mounted Hearthguard charge forwards towards my slow advance,

However as they rode ahead of the rest of the Warband they soon realized they were all of a sudden left all alone.. "Fear of the Dark" crept in causing them to become exhausted...

Once The Exhaustion had set in I followed it up by "Endless Wastes" and that was the end of the poor Welsh Hearthguard..

The Action then heated up to the West as the Vikings made their presence felt and stormed towards the Welsh! This Melee wold go back and forth until the very last turn of the game depleting both warbands..

This However left a Welsh Warriors unit all alone and once again a sudden "Fear of the Dark" set in..followed up by Endless Wastes..and their numbers started to dwindle.. (they would in fact end up being completely consumed by "Endless Wastes".)

On the Eastern side of the battlefield the Pagan Rus formed up to accept the charge of the encroaching Northmen. Using "Standing Like Bears" and "For the Khagan!" together I was able to buff the Militia to take on the Berserkers who had been buffed with "Frigg", "Thor" and "Ullr" which i was rightly afraid of! 

After the crash of shields the Berserkers were done! They did however slay my Militia down to a single man.. He was quickly taken care of when my Brother activated "Loki" in the next orders phase to remove him from the game and securing another victory point.

From here the game pretty much wrapped up on the final turn with the victory points tally being as follows;

Welsh - 6 Points

Vikings - 6 Points

Pagan Rus - 12 points!

So on their first foray on the tabletop the Pagan Rus come away with a convincing Victory! I definitely enjoyed this warband and it plays completely differently to my Welsh, which is exactly what i was looking for; two very different yet rewarding play-styles. As it is with the Saga, on occasion certain scenarios do present better situations for certain factions, and I think this scenario was better suited to the defensive/controlling Battleboard of the Pagan Rus. But, as I'm a humble Warlord I'll be more than happy to admit it was my tactical genius and wit that got me over the line so decisively! 

As the norm when I play against my brother you should treat yourself and check out his battle report over on the Lucid Gaming blog as he is far better at After Action Reports than I am.

Cheers for looking, happy gaming.