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!

Last efforts of 2015

Happy new year! Just thought I'd share a few bits and pieces from the last few weeks of 2015.

I'm very excited to now be painting some Infinity models as I want to get more games in and possibly a tournament this year. I find the models fantastically detailed and a pleasure to paint. I purchased this box of Highlanders a few months ago now, but they had been left behind while I pushed ahead to get most of my Pagan Rus stuff for Saga painted. Plus I wasn't too confident in taking on the kilts at the time but after the stripy goodness of the Rus and some practice runs  random warhammer mini's I figured I'd give it a crack.


I'm pretty happy with the kilts, I'll definitely get better as I get more of the figures done. I'm onto the starter box next (have already started the SAS model) so will be practicing my camouflage as well!

 45th Highlander Rifles

 Conner MacLeod, Stephan, Ramirez and Rob Roy!

I placed an order with War and Peace for a unit of Joms and a Character figure for Saga. The latter of which was a gift to my Brother. I'll have to sort a photo out of the finished product with him as I've already given it to him for Christmas. The Joms will fit nicely into my Pagan Rus warband as a warrior unit. They are pretty much complete and have seen a few battles already, I just have to highlight the pants and will put a photo up with my next post. 

This dude looks like a beast! He will be a worthy opponent for any Warlord who dares cross his path!

 We squeezed in a few more practice games of Saga before our little family/friend Christmas Saga Bash. This feast for Crows was a fun and bloody match up with a heap of laughs and crazy dice rolls!

 I would end up leading my Pagan Rus to victory in the end of year tourney in what was a fun day and one of the best Christmas get togethers I can remember.

Cheers all, thanks for the inspiring blog posts you all shared in 2015!

Happy gaming!

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.

6pts Saga; Welsh vs Vikings

Managed to get a game of Saga in today. A 6pt battle against my Brother's menacing Vikings. It was a was a heap of fun and I knew I was in for a good day when I got to deploy first due to having a stunning Beard! 

I tried to use the battleboard to the best of my ability and use the Welsh in a way which I feel was more tactically sound. Last time I faced these Vikings (here) I didnt really stand a chance given my poor tactics. I have a tendency to use a very aggressive playstyle and it's just not how the Welsh should be played. Today as I mentioned, I played them in a much smarter way and used Hit and Run tactics more befitting the Welsh battleboard. While still learning at this point I think my Welsh will become a formidable opponent for whoever dares to challenge them!

The overall result was a victory for me, winning 13 points to 8!

The warbands were roughly as follows;

Welsh

Mounted Warlord

1 Unit of 8 Mounted Hearthguard

2 Units of 12 Warriors

1 Unit of 12 Levy w/bows

Vikings

Warlord

1 Unit of 4 Berserkers

2 Units of 4 Hearthguard

2 Units of 8 Warriors

1 Unit of 12 Levy w/bows

And a few photos from the day. Check out my brothers blog here for a batrep and some more/better pictures.

 A shot of the Warbands before we start.

 Unit of warriors PoV

 Hearthguard, roll out!

 Hearthguard vs Berserkers. After realising how much of a threat these berserkers posed, I needed them gone asap. Lucky for me, I was able to survive an initial attack and pepper them down with javelin!

 Levy just hung on after a crashing attack from the viking warriors. They actually managed to dish up some pain too which was nice!

What may have been.......

A cracking game that has left me keen for more! Cheers.