100th Post

Yay! 100 posts reached.

So.... who's read all 100? :)

The topic for my 100th post is another gaming day report. It's been a few days now, so some of the game play is starting to get a little hazy, but I think I remember how most of it went down...

I enjoyed playing a Viking force a couple of weeks back, but I'm still keen to get a feel for a few forces before making my final decision on the right Saga force for me.

This week I decided to give Anglo-Danes a go. I kinda liked the idea of some crazy dudes wielding giant axes!

My force would be:

Warlord
2 units of 4 Hearthguard (all with Dane axes & combined into 1 unit of 8)
2 units of 8 Warriors

My tactic for the games.... get the Hearthguard into combat quickly as I figured they were going to be doing some damage.

Mark, Rob and Phil were also keen to play Saga. Lee also popped in just after we started. To spice things up a bit, we decided to play the Saga multi-player mission - "Feast of Crows". The premise of the game is to kill as many of your opponents models as possible. Most kills wins. It's definitely a fun mission.

If I recall correctly...

Mark had his Milites Christi force:

Warlord
8 mounted Hearthguard
2 units of 8 Warriors

Phil ran a Crusader force:

Warlod
2 units of 4 Hearthguard
1 unit of 8 Warriors (with crossbows)
1 unit of 12 Levies

And Rob kept it simple with Vikings:

Warlord
4 units of 4 Hearthguard

Mark starts his moves will Lee & Rob discuss "tactics"

Again, LoTR models stood in for Anglo-Danes, Crusaders and Vikings.

Beserkers as Danes with giant axes...

Mark's Milites Christi

Men of Gondor as Crusaders

(Easterlings represented Vikings - no good picture sorry)

Phil got first turn and started to split his force. Hearthguard heading my way, the rest to Rob. Rob made a beeline for Mark and Mark headed for me... I was having none of Phil's Hearthguard. Mark's Warriors heading my way seemed like a much more tempting target, so off I went. Hearthguard leading the way.

The first few turns were pretty uneventful as we all closed with one another. I think some crossbow shooting dealt with some Vikings before the Vikings charged in and butchered them. Mark and I slowly continued our advance towards each other. Both a little too chicken to commit until we had the right dice....

Phil's Hearthguard were still trying to chase me down. But very slowly.

After a little bit of ribbing and general goading (mainly from me :) )... Mark committed his Hearthguard (along with his Warlord) and charged them into my Hearthguard and those giant axes. Something went wrong for Mark though, either he couldn't or just didn't, use his piety to get some benefit. So he had no additional melee abilities. I did though. "Lords of Battle", "Hard as Iron" and "The Push" were all ready to go. Here are the before and after photos....

It was my turn next, so my remaining Hearthguard eyed up the Milites Christi Warlord and charged. Suffice to say he didn't last long and it meant I quickly took the lead in the overall kill tally.

Our Warrior units also clashed, with the Danes performing well. Alas, Crusader & Viking Hearthguard were joining the fray now and they finished off our Warrior units.

Turn 7 came to a close and we tallied up our kills....

My pile of "kills"

My pile of kills (and especially the Warlord) put me easily in first place winning the game.

The day was getting a little late, but we figured there was enough time for another game. Mark dropped out, so Lee could roll some dice. This time we opted for a 2 vs. 2 game. Phil and I would take on Lee and Rob.

Lee was fielding his very nicely painted Welsh force which consisted of:

Warlord (mounted)
1 unit of 4 Hearthguard
1 unit of 8 Warriors (mounted)
2 units of 8 Warriors

I'd pretty much be facing the Welsh....

The game started and the Welsh mounted Warriors headed straight for me and started playing some dirty tricks with moving and throwing pointy sticks at my Warriors.

It caused a few casualties. Enough to make me stop and think about whether I really should charge the depleted Warriors in. Especially since "Unholy Ground" was proving annoying....

My Hearthguard were getting close now though...

They were ready to charge, but the Welsh dirty tricks ("Unholy Ground") stopped them. I figured I'd take the fatigue and activate them again. This time they made contact.... I think I had "Lords of Battle" and "Shieldwall" ready to go this time...

The end result...

Meanwhile, there was all sorts of carnage going on over on the other side of the table...

Phil and Rob were busy fighting each other to a stand still.

On my side, the cowardly Welsh refused to advance, so I pushed my Hearthguard forward...

...into another unit of Warriors. This battle hurt a little more as I lost 4 Hearthguard (I can't remember what abilities I had during the melee).

Retaliation was swift as Lee's Hearthguard and Warlord were nearby. They destroyed my Hearthguard, but not without some pain.

My Warriors then charged in.... aiming for the Welsh Warlord! But it wasn't to be. The remaining Welsh Hearthguard sacrificed himself so his Warlord could live another day.

The game pretty much ended at this point.

The most amusing thing of the whole day.... Phil's Levies stopped dead right in front of a unit of Welsh Warriors unable to do anything as the rest of Phil's force had been wiped out. That meant no Saga dice for Phil.... Still... Rob only had 2 individual Hearthguard left.

At the end of the game, I think my win over the Welsh had tipped the balance in our favour giving Phil and I the game.

Good fun as always and I am enjoying Saga.

As for forces, I did feel that the Vikings felt more fun to play, but the Danes were pretty cool too. I like that fact that they are another quite aggressive force. And who doesn't like giant axes!?

My thoughts on the Danes probably aren't helped by getting their abilities wrong. I completely missed the fact that there was a plus symbol on some of the abilities.... I was trying to get both dice for intimidation rather than just one. So I never really got to use one of the Danes more annoying abilities...

I think I need to try both the Danes and Vikings in some actual scenario play since that will change the game dynamics/play significantly. Playing through a few scenarios should give me the best feel for which force I like best. Then I'll have to commit..... :)

Thanks for reading!