Peppered with bolts

Today was pretty much the last gaming day for the year, although a few of us are still around next weekend for some games.

As it was, the weather turned it on and we all started to swelter in Mark's garage! Hopefully the sun sticks around for awhile this time!! :)

Lee had joined us today, so to kick things off we played a game of Saga. Lee with his Welsh and I would continue trying out the Anglo-Danes.

This time round, I wanted to try out a scenario. The one that we played involved having to get your units into terrain and hold it (not sure what it is called).

I would field the same force as last time...

Warlord
8 Hearthguard (with Dane axes)
8 Warriors
8 Warriors

Lee had something like...

Warlord
4 Hearthguard
4 Hearthguard
8 Warriors
10 Warriors(?)

Lee's force

Anyway, we deployed... and both of us sent Warrior units racing for the small terrain pieces in our halves of the table....

A bit of intimidation slowed Lee and, through taking some fatigue..., my Warriors got into their piece first giving me an early start on the points counter.

But the real battle would be for the centre-piece... we both advanced quickly (well tried to in-between dirty tricks)...

Lee forced his larger Warrior unit onto the terrain, but my Hearthguard were close. I figured taking the fatigue was going to be worth it to get in combat (helped by Lee's Warriors also having a fatigue on them...)

So I charged.

And things got messy... I can't remember what abilities we each had, but my Dane axes made short work of the Warriors. Disappointingly though... I couldn't kill them all off in one go. I  lost 4 Hearthguard for my troubles... A few more than I had wanted, but I was racking up the points quickly now as my last Warrior unit also entered the terrain.

This meant Lee had no choice but to get his Warlord into the terrain and to try to switch direction with his Hearthguard...

At least his Warrior unit was in some terrain now.

As his Warlord was close... I couldn't resist and charged with my Warriors, but then Lee pulled out a dirty trick I was unaware off... using the fatigue my Warrior unit had to slow them down! It meant only a couple would get into combat.... uh oh....

Suffice to say it didn't go well. So I charged with my Hearthguard. Should have just charged them in first anyway.

And that saw the end of the Welsh warlord.

And with it the game. By now (turn 7) I had racked up so many points that Lee had no chance of catching up, especially with only 1 turn to go.

The mission seems a little harsh as you gain points at the end of each players turn for holding terrain. Getting  a unit in early just seems to give a pretty strong lead that your opponent will always struggle to catch-up with. The game might be a little closer if points were calculated at the end of each turn instead?

Still, I did get a little lucky. Lee told me afterwards that he was annoyed with his Saga dice rolling. He never got a 6 which he could have used to "taunt" me as that would pull me out of the terrain. That would definitely have changed things.

Whilst we were playing Saga, Rob & Phil rolled out a game of Bolt Action (which I believe Rob even won!)

With Lee having to go at this point, Mark and I played a game of Saga. This time we tried a scenario from Crescent & Cross - "Assault at Dawn".

My force was the same as above.

Mark fielded his Milities Christi:

Warlord
4 Hearthguard
8 Warriors
8 Warriors
8 Warriors (with crossbows)

Deployment was a little different for this scenario....

... as we were able to deploy our units secretly. It could have made for some interesting tactical maneuvering, but neither of us could be bothered. Heading straight into a clash of arms seemed like the best tactic for both of us...

Mark charged his Warriors into mine, but did little damage.... So he charged in Hearthguard, but some good rolling on my part meant the end the of the Christian Hearthguard. That allowed me to charge my Hearthguard into another of Mark's Warrior units.... but again I couldn't kill them off in one go!

Things were looking pretty good for me. Until these guys popped up that is...

One very good round of shooting later and my second Warrior unit had effectively been neutered by crossbow bolts...

Seeing the impact of shooting... Mark just loaded up with Warrior unit activations and kept up the shooting where he was able to kill off most of my troops leaving just one or two to be mopped up by his other units or Warlord.

And then it was just my Warlord vs. the rest....

I figured there was nothing better to do other than die a glorious death and so he did ending the game. One that looked promising early on to a complete reversal in fortunes. I hate crossbows....

Not sure I had many other options. Perhaps charging the crossbow armed Warriors as soon as I could? Although, I couldn't be sure which marker they were (although I had a fair idea). I initially used the fatigue on them to improve my armour against the shooting, but maybe it would have been better to take the pain and ensure the crossbow men built up fatigue? Most of my units were in pretty poor shape by now anyway, so may not have made much difference.

A pretty convincing win for Mark in the end.

Anyone got any good anti-crossbow tips? :)

Finally, it was too hot to do much else so we played King of Tokyo. I got to be the cute panda :)

Mark won the first game, but I quietly racked up the points in the second to take victory in that one :)

A bit of chit chat brought the afternoon to a close as we headed off to get ready for a couple more days of work before the holiday season.

Which I can't believe is only a few days away...

Happy a very merry Christmas everyone! :)