Wild Welshmen vs. Vicious Vikings

"Dewch i roi cynnig arni os ydych yn credu eich bod yn ddigon caled!"*

As May 8th was International Viking Day (yes, it's a real thing), it was decreed that the club meeting that day should be given over to all things Viking!** RAAAHHHHRRRRR!!!! So in the spirit of the day I selflessly put myself at the disposal of Viking types to have a go at with my longtime Welsh SAGA project which had finally come to fruition after a sluggish mojo-less period of little to no painting (Refer to a previous post for more detail!). 

Anyway, after issuing the challenge, Ian KH (of This 28mm Life) accepted and agreed to meet me on the field of battle. This turned out to be a lovely little 3' x 3' battle-board which was more like a mini-diorama, made from mdf and polystyrene, covered in plaster and a generous coating of flock. It even featured a little pond at the foot of a cliff.

We were both very rusty on the game mechanics and not familiar with our battleboards, so our first game was a little hit and miss. Still, I can't complain, as my new Welsh warband turned out victorious after my Warlord killed his! I found the benefit of the Welsh Holy Ground ability, which reduces the enemy's move to the next lowest distance ie. L to M, M to S, etc. When the Vikings bowled up expecting to contact one of my units, a judicious use of Holy Ground stops them short and allows my unit to piff pointy sticks at them and bugger off next turn!

The second game didn't go quite as well, with Ian wise to my tricks, though I did manage to destroy one of his Bondi units. When it came to the crunch, this time he dealt the killing blow to my warlord, though it was touch and go for a while.

Melee weapon armed warriors

Bow armed levy

Game #1: Ian's Vikings start on the hill over the pool

My Welsh start from the opposite corner

Welsh warriors and levy advance

Levy in action. They did quite well: they remained on the board throughout both games and inflicted more casualties than they took.

One unit of Warriors advances in the open, while the other lurks in the woods. Warlord and Hearthguard standby.

Overenthusiastic Warriors get charged by Viking Warlord and his Hearthguard...

...but find themselves caught short by the judicious use of Holy Ground!

Vikings regroup after their nasty surprise.

With Hearthguards taking each other out, it's down to a mano-a-mano clash between Warloards with the Welsh victorious!

Game #2 started with a straight out advance up the board.

Warlord, Hearthguard and one warrior unit strike at the Vikings' Levy and Warriors...

...while the other Welsh Warrior unit goes on a flanking march through the woods using Children of the Land, which allows me to ignore terrain restrictions.

My Warlord and chums take out the Viking Hearthgurd

Now to repeat last game's ending!

The Warriors in the woods take out some Vikings with javelins...

...before going on into melee and making short work of the Vikings!

The Viking Levy's flank now lies directly in their path!

The Vikings look like they're in trouble.

Warlord vs. Warlord again!

Whoops!

*"Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough!" in Welsh according to Google Translate!

**(Rather disappointingly, we were the only SAGA game that night, with only one other table joining in the Viking-ness of the night playing a FoG game. Everyone else seemed to have missed the memo...)

Holiday Update

Here's another Waterloo teaser!

Sorry for leaving you on a cliff-hanger with my Waterloo appetiser! I've been a bit lax in following up as we've just been on a week's break up in Yackandandah. 

"Yackin'-where?" I here you ask. Well, it's just to the west of Tangambalanga, south of Baranduda and north of Mt.Tawonga! Actually, it's up in the North-East of Victoria in the foothills of the Victorian Alps, in the old Ovens Valley goldfields. Very picture-skew (or picturesque) and relaxing with the rolling hills, vineyards and orchards all around and so many historical gold-rush townships and buildings (mid-19th C = historical in Australia!) to visit.

Anyway, back to Waterloo 2015; I shall write up a proper batrep with a LOT more pictures and description, but let me share with you an anecdote and a couple of pictures which really summed up my weekend.

Amongst my command were the infamous Cumberland Hussars, a Hanoverian cavalry unit comprising of wealthy dandies who really felt that this war business cut into their time better spent chatting up the ladies. In the real battle they were kept in the rear, but bottled it once the French started lobbing artillery projectiles over the Mont St. Jean ridge, and high-tailed it to Brussels and beyond screaming "The French are coming!". 

In our game they had special rules. To whit, if they were given an order a roll of the d10 determined their action; on an even roll they obeyed, an odd they stood still and on a 0 they fled screaming for the rear. After the Duke waved his hat for the general advance, I tempted fate by ordering them forward along with all the other cavalry. With baited breath, I rolled the die...

...and this was the result

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Run away!!!!!"

So you can see that this was not my finest hour and that as an indication of my success, it was lucky that the Anglo-Allies were as successful as they were. Indeed, you could say they succeeded in spite of me!

My Analogue Hobbies Challenge progress has suffered, too. My last entry was a couple of weeks ago and I still haven't posted them on my blog! So here they are; The Württemberg Jäger-Regiment zu Pferd Nr. 3 Herzog Louis, using my favoured 1/72nd HaT figures, and a 28mm Gripping Beast Welsh Warlord from my Christmas haul of a 4 point Welsh Warband for SAGA.

The cavalry officer has a plume made from tissue paper and white glue, just to make him a little more obvious from the other ranks.

I'm not overly happy with the results after varnishing the Welsh Warlord. The varnish is getting a little thick and I feel I ruined the cape, even though I tried to salvage it with a bit of dry brushing. Still, not the result I was hoping for.

I'm happy with the free hand shield, though. Sticking with his Romanesque leather muscled cuirass, officer's belt and Spangenhelm, I gave him a Roman style Christian motif for the shield. Also, as the Welsh warlord is allowed thrown missile weapons, I gave him a javelin and a hand axe. The pose is a curious one, but I felt he was winding up to throw his javelin under-arm like a plumbata. He had no sword or scabbard, so I glued on a spare plastic one from my Anglo-Saxons.

I Got Sent to the Norse-pital!

Little pig, little pig, let me come in!

I had my second game of SAGA last Saturday and the baptism of fire for my Anglo-Saxons (using the Anglo-Dane battle-board; still yet to get the rules or the expansion set!)

Darren organised a scenario from the rule book where one player with a 6 point army defended the village and two other players with a 4 point army each tried to take it off them. If the defender has possession of at least one building by the end of the game, he wins.

I was the defender, as the Saxon, while Darren with his Vikings and Pete with his Normans were the attackers. I was a little short of figures for 6 points, so I borrowed a couple of Pete's figures to boost my peasant levy to 12 figures and borrowed 4 of Darren's Vikings to gain an extra hearth-guard unit (mercenaries, maybe?). If I played this again, I think I'd pack the two 8 figure warrior units into the smaller buildings, and one of the 12 figure levy units in the larger building (as I did!) and have the hearth-guard, warlord and missile levy unit act as a mobile reserve.

As it was, I only occupied two of the buildings and had one warrior unit and both hearth-guard units and warlord as forward defense facing each threat. Against Darren's Vikings I had moderate success with the benefit of support from my missile levy unit, but on the other flank I had one hearth-guard unit wiped out by Norman crossbows before I even came into contact with them!

In the end, my most effective units were my levy units, I'd have to say! One unit held the large building against Darren's warriors for several turns inflicting steady casualties on them, and were only evicted by the berserkers led by the Viking warlord! The other unit was my missile levy troops, who knocked off a couple of figures from Darren's warriors and hearth-guard and then survived an attack by said hearth-guard, using some craftily chosen battle-board special abilities for that precise eventuality and even inflicted a casualty on the hearth-guard! It was only the Saxon warriors who let the side down by not following through and eliminating the remaining hearth-guard figure!

In the end, Darren's bucket-'o'-dice berserker attacks made minced meat of my defense, and Pete's Normans battered themselves against my remaining building, whittling down my defense until Darren took out my remaining survivor, my warlord.

One warrior unit occupies a building

The levy occupy another

Slingers and archers protect the approach from one direction...

...supported by a unit of warriors....

....and the warlord and his two hearth-guard units face the other direction

Viking mercenary hearth-guard: some of Darren's lovely figures, sporting some nifty shield transfers.

Darren's Vikings: One unit of warriors, one of levy, one hearth-guard and one of berserkers, plus his warlord.

Pete's Normans: One unit of levy, two of hearth-guard and one unit of  cross-bow armed sergeants

First moves!: Darren and I close in on each other

Pete starts off...

...while my warlord and hearth-guard move out determined to act as cross-bow bait! 

In the first clash, the action was inconclusive,

 but then Darren unleashed his special Valhalla-endorsed bucket-'o'-dice move

...which chews up and spits out my warrior unit! Ouch!

Pete's cross-bows shoot from the hill top

Twang! My missile-men shoot at Darren's pesky warriors, inflicting a casualty

My second warrior unit abandons the building it was occupying to confront the Viking threat!

The warlord encourages his men forward into crossbow range.

They take a casualty and then the warlord encourages them out of crossbow range! 

On the other flank, my missile-men take aim at the Viking hearth-guard and bag one!

Enraged, they charge the levy troops expecting an easy meal. Not only do they not destroy the levy, but the levy take another hearth-guard figure in the melee! Huzzah (or whatever the Old English version was)!

Odin's finest hammer at the walls of the large building occupied by my other levy unit...

...who blow raspberries at them...

...and send them packing!

Pete's sergeants let fly another volley...

...and kill the warlord-led hearth-guard!

My warriors smell blood and attack the weakened Viking hearth-guard!

But in the rugby scrum, they could only knock off one figure! Darren keeps the SAGA die for the moment!

The Saxon warriors are pushed back

...and the lone viking hearth-guard stands triumphant!

The warlord and his Viking mercenaries occupy the building to deny the Normans (as well as to deprive them of target practice. See? I do learn!)

My missile levy try to knock off the last hearth-guardsman, but miss!

The Viking warriors attack the levy-held building again, with the same result!

The berserkers and warlord move up.

As do the Viking archers.

It's warrior vs. warrior!

Even though I have the numbers...

...I lose the combat and retire.

If you want a job done right...

...bring the berserkers!

I traded an attack dice for a defense dice, so I got 1 attack die...

...vs. 19!!!

I lose...

...Vikings win!

The Normans assault the building held by the warlord and his Viking hearth-guard.

The warlord takes several hits but passes the damage down the line to his minions!

The Normans try again...

...and the warlord finds himself alone!

On the other side my warriors go the Vikings again...

...but are repulsed for their troubles! I just couldn't crack the last few Vikings to deny Darren those couple of dice

My last few levy occupy the 3rd building after taking a mauling from their Viking counterparts

The Normans attack fruitlessly again

But Darren's berserkers charge the 3rd building effortlessly despatching my levy and denying the building to Pete

My last two warriors join their warlord to try to retain the last building

Darren's last warriors and hearth-guardoccupy the building vacated by his berserkers just in time!

Pete can't take a building for quids!

His levy were pipped at the post by Darren's berserkers, and now have arrows flitting their way, too!

The berserkers and warlord scythe their way through the Norman levy.

On to the last building and victory!

State of play: Darren owns the two right hand building and I own the last. Pete has no buildings.

"Come and get me, if you dare!"

Always up for a challenge, Darrens berserkers say, "Ok!"

And kill my warlord and take the last building. Viking victory!

While I had a lot of fun, only my second ever game, it struck me how there is little consequence to losing figures, besides losing a SAGA die when a unit is destroyed. There is no loss of morale, or any other consequence to the slaughter of huge numbers of friendly troops. While the game is a very abstracted version of history, I still feel that the lack of a morale check is a glaring omission.

I've downloaded the Brytenwalda rules which do have a morale element and a generally less random feel to them, so I'd like to persuade the chaps to have a go with these to compare. Stay tuned!