Australian SAGA Grand Melee 2018

After frantically painting a few extra Hearthguard models and a Christian Priest, I made the hour long drive down the motorway to take part in the first Australian SAGA Grand Melee using v2 rules, held in Brisbane, Queensland.  A solid day of gaming organised by one of the nicest blokes you'll come across here in the Aussie community, Thomas Hitchen. It was a smoothly run event supported by both War and Peace Games and Gripping Beast.

The day consisted of 4 rounds using 6pt warbands, with a further 2pts in reserve that you could sub in before each round. I've got to say that the new edition is pretty damn awesome!

I took a mainly mounted Welsh warband led by Owain of Strathclyde as follows

1x Owen of Strathclyde

1x Mounted Priest

2x Mounted Hearthguard

1x Warriors

1x Levy w/ bows

reserves

1x Mounted Warriors

1x Warriors

A quick recap of the rounds I played;
Round 1 Battle around the Camp Fire: vs Norse Gaels played by Owen. It was a very close game which I lost in the last turn after he managed to take down Owain of Strathclyde.   -loss

Roud 2 The Frozen River: vs Michael and his Vikings led by Ragnar. I managed to get all my warband onto the other side of the river taking minimal loses.   -win

Round 3 Retreat!: vs Dave and his Vikings, again led by Ragnar. The Welsh manoeuvrability proved too much here and came away with the victory and a spot prize for quickest win of the round.   -win

Round 4 Clash of Warlords: vs Greg using Pagan Rus. On the top table and currently second overall. A bit of a bloody affair this one but notched the victory after a well played battle.  - win

So after going 3-1 across the day and accumulating 19 Tournament points and 91 Victory points, I was dubbed "the Northern Raider" and was crowned 2018's Australian Grand Melee Champion!

 Prizes! Prizes! Prizes!

Australian Grand Champion!

After a fantastic day of gaming I was also extremely proud to accumulate the most points and win the Sportsmanship Award as well. This award is the Henry Parsons Memorial,  which was voted 1-5 after each round by the players to promote fun, gamesmanship and gentlemanly behaviour . It really was a great way to cap off an excellent event with a great bunch of blokes.

Thanks to Tom for sending the photos as I didn't take any on the day.

I look forward to defending the crown next year!