SAGA v2: Irish vs Welsh

I had my niece up for the day today and she brought her Irish warband with her for a game against my Welsh. After flicking through the new Book of Battles, we settled on the Tale of Challenges scenario.

Pretty cool scenario in my opinion. After set-up but before deployment each player gets to issue challenges to their opponent from the table provided in the book. There are 12 challenges all up and each has a x/x point system (ranging from 3's to 8's) where if you fulfil the challenge you get to add x to your total, but if you fail to fulfil the challenge you deduct x from your total. So you need to think very carefully about which challenges you issue because if you fail them, it can swing the game out of reach, even if you were ahead on massacre points.

A 6 point game with the lists as follows:

Welsh

1x Warlord

1x Priest

3x Mounted Hearthguard

1x Warriors

1x Levy w/bows

Irish

1 Warlord

2x Hearthguard

1x Irish Wolfhounds

3x Warriors

crows eye view

 Irish battle line

 Welsh centre

 gotta have faith...

 CHARGE!  ..after peppering with javelins of course..

yelp!

A fun game finishing up on turn 5 with a decisive victory to my Welsh. Arwen wasn't able to fulfil any of her challenges and I was able to fulfil both of mine adding to an already hefty massacre point score.

I was really impressed with how she went about the game tactically and was even more impressed with how neat her painting has become. A formidable Warlord in the making that will only get even more fierce with more games under the belt. My brother's Vikings better watch out!

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!

INFINITY: OPERATION FLAMESTRIKE - Sagres Orbital Tracking Station; Caledonian Highlanders vs Combined Army 300pts

I played my first full game of Infinity yesterday against my Brothers Combined Army force. It was part of the current online worldwide campaign; Operation Flamestrike. We played the Seize the Antennas mission at 300pts.

 The Cameronian lays down some smoke and cover fire as the 45th Highlanders surge forward!

 My Brothers Combined Army taking up position. I would manage to render this flank useless with some great shooting from my Sniper and Wulver.

 Again on the East, his forces took up position against the Highlanders.

 The full link team of Scots Guard proved too much for the Alien menace as they mowed down another victim, fire squad style!

 A desperate Umbra charges forward into the link team in a last ditch effort to swing the battle into his favor. While he did take out the Missile Launcher Scot it was too little too late as the rest of the link team took him down with swift vengeance.

An overview of our deployment. Ariadna up top and Combined Army down below.

In the end the Caledonian Highlanders would pull through Victorious! 

The final tally of points remaining being;

Caledonian Highlanders - 243

Combined Army - 85

With th Highlanders taking 6 Objective points to the Combined Armies 1.

Fantastic game that ran pretty smoothly. Cant wait for the next one!

(Cheers to the Bro for the pics. I got too into the game and forgot!)

Thanks for looking, happy gaming.

4pts Saga: Anglo Saxons vs Anglo-Danish

We managed to squeeze in another closely run 4 point game of Saga yesterday. Good action and some hate from the Dice Gods!

I played my newly finished Saxons with my son Phoenix once again taking control of the Anglo-Danes. 

We rolled up for a scenario and got; Sacred Ground!

Victory Points accumulate at the end of each turn for each of your figures inside any of the three terrain pieces.

I won the roll and deployed first with the warband configurations as follows

Anglo-Danish

Warlord

2x4 Hearthguard

2x8 Warriors

Anglo Saxons

Warlord

2x10 Warriors

1x8 Warriors

1x4 Warriors

 Ravens eye view of the Battlefield. The terrain placer in the middle is not counted as a wood, we had to use a tree to hold it in it's place as the wind was blowing viciously this day.. A good omen for the Danes according to the lad.

 In the first two turns the Saxon Thegns used a combination of double move activations coupled with No Surrender to march into the centre terrain area.

 The Anglo-Danes on the East table edge manage to get into the woods before their Saxon enemies.

 As The Anglo-Dane Warlord and his Hearthguard reach the edge of the Centre terrain piece the Saxon Thegns charge forward while maintaining ranks!

 Being devout Defenders of the Realm and standing Shoulder to Shoulder, the Thegns manage to eliminate a whole unit of Hearthguard sending the Dane Warlord himself into a swift retreat the next turn!

 Along the East edge the 8 man unit of Saxon Thegns slowly advance towards the woods ahead.

 The Anglo-Danish Warlord barks orders from behind the ranks and his Warriors swiftly charge into battle. They run head on into the Saxon Thegns Shieldwall. The Saxon unit count after the initial fight with the Hearthguard had left them depleted and under strength however the men rallied with their Stout Hearts and the unit fought as though they were at full strength of 10+.

 The Anglo-Danes were once again repelled from the centre terrain piece but managed to take out 2 more Thegns for their troubles. 

As the turns rolled on the Saxon Warlord along with his 4 warriors managed to sit unopposed in the Western Woods. Phoenix realised he needed to eliminate them or at the very least get into one of the terrain areas to keep up with victory points.

 The battle for the Eastern Woods continued with both units going toe to toe each turn and both contributing nicely to their VP tallies. 

 On the 6th turn the Anglo-Danish Hearthguard pressed into the Western Woods to eradicate the Warriors and hopefully the cowardly Warlord with them!

In a fierce melee both units suffered two casualties, the Danish Hearthguard were pushed back but gathered themselves and charge in again! 

Defeat! Two pairs of Snake-Eyes vs double 6! The Anglo-Danish Hearthguard were miraculously slaughtered by the much inferior Saxon Warriors with what is easily the wildest dice rolling I've seen in some time!

That last melee took the (not so vicious anymore) wind out of the Anglo-Danish sails and there was no hope now to catch up on Victory Points...

VICTORY TO THE ANGLO SAXONS!

Cheers for looking, Happy gaming.

4pts Saga: Anglo-Danes vs Pagan Rus

Another game of Saga during the week. Anglo Danes (Phoenix) vs Pagan Rus (me). We rolled up for our scenario and got; Clash at the Ford

Here's a quick breakdown.

Anglo Danes

Warlord

2x4 Hearthguard

2x8 Warriors

Pagan Rus

Warlord

2x4 Hearthguard

2x8 Warriors

Ravens eye view. We had to shorten the table size just a little bit.

The Pagan Rus starting on the East.

The Anglo Danes moving forward from the West.

The first few turns saw the Pagans move very hastily towards the River, the Hearthguard gaining fatigue in the process. As they approached the River the Danes let out a battle cry to Intimidate the Rus.

Once the Ford was crossed the battlefield was taken by The Great Winter and some of the Danes became Frozen

The Danes held their ranks awaiting a charge from the Pagan Rus, using the Saga Dice heavily on Melee abilities in preparation. However the Pagan Rus Warlord suddenly burst forward from the ranks and let his Eastern Anger rain down from the skies! A bold move that would take a total of 6 Anglo Danish Hearthguard to their graves.

Capitalizing on the Rus Warlord being out in the open alone Phoenix charged in with his Warlord and a Hearthguard followed his leader into the fray. The Rus Warlord held his ground and pushed back the Danish menace! By this time the game had slipped away from Phoenix, with not enough turns left to make it over the Ford and both paths to do so heavily camped now with Pagan Rus.

He threw down a challenge to have our Warlords, already brused and battered to clash in a 1v1. 

I of course accepted!

So, once more into the Fray the Pagan Rus Warlord mustered his strength and lurched forward.

With a clash of steel the two went at it furiously... And then...

They struck each other down simultaneously, leaving it all, life and limb on the field of battle...

Victory to the Pagan Rus

Another great game, Phoenix is trying a few different factions to get a feel for which suits his playstyle. Despite the landslide result in this game i think he did really well with the Anglo Danes and was using the Battleboard very well.

Cheers for looking, Happy gaming.