"Torok" the Terrible!

Long known as a cunning warrior and one to switch sides at the drop of a pin if the price is right. Torok, who has come to be known as the Terrible, has long been one of the Steppe terrors.

Many legends have been told of this great warrior but only one needs to be retold here for you to understand this great Warlord:

After a great victory and sitting by a campfire feasting with the Steppe Overlord, the Steppe Overlord asked this question, "Hao! Dai ye! We won again! This is good, but what is best in life?".
Another nomad answered, "The open steppe, fleet horse, falcons at your wrist, and the wind in your hair.". The Overlord barked, "Wrong! Torok! What is best in life?". Torok without missing a beat answered, "Crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Hear the lamentations of their women.".
The Overlord with satisfaction in his eyes said, "That is good! That is good!".

This is all you need ever know when you face Torok the Terrible, fear him!


[As always left click on pics and then right click and choose view image to see larger picture]

4pt mini "Clash of Warlords" Saga match part two of two

Well if you read part one of two of this title, then you know that this is the second match we played as we still had time before Mark had to dash off to work.

As you will note (in part one of this title) I mentioned it was a good idea to not only know your battle board, but your opponents as well, as this will help you make better decisions when it comes to planning. Well I will go a bit further by tweaking this a bit and also say it's a good idea to know your opponent as well (even if he's not your regular, scout out the other guys games when you have a chance). I mention this because we all are creatures of habit and sometimes we fall into this rut of playing the same way over and over again until finally we lose enough times we try changing things up. Since I was losing all the time it came naturally to me to try different things each game, but I knew Mark had victory blindness. I was going to use this to my advantage then!

We played the same scenario, keeping the same troops but allowed changing of formations. So here is how it went for our second game.

Order of Battle:

VIkings:
Warlord
Hirdmen (Huscarl) X4
Hirdmen (Huscarl) X4
Bondi (Warriors) X10
Bondi (Warriors) X6

Anglo-Danish
Warlord
Huscarls (Huscarl) X4
Ceorls (Warriors) X4
Ceorls (Warriors) X4
Ceorls (Warriors) X4
Ceorls (Warriors) X4
Gerburs (Levy) X12

Mark pretty much kept his troops the way they where with the exception of tossing over two Bondi from one unit to the other. So the Vikings had 6 Saga dice to start out with. I, dangerously, broke up my Ceorls into 4 man units. This gave me 7 Saga dice (only can roll 6) and my plan since he had no shooty troops was to make them fatigue bombs (using "Lords of Battle" & "Unforgiving"), but the Vikings have an ability called "Loki" that can make a unit of Warriors of 3 models or less disappear. Mark has only used this one on me once in all our games so I was counting on his "Victory Blindness"!

Mark had the first move of turn one and basically moved his formations up, which was okay with me as he got them in range of my Gerbur unit. He had also selected the ability "Odin" which causes an activated unit for shooting to change it to a move action. This is what I had counted on him to do (this is knowing your opponent bit).

My rolls for my move of turn one where pretty good having rolled a few helmets. I used those to keep rolling until I had a nice little pile of Horsey ones, three to be exact, and placed them all on the Gerbur activation spot. In Saga, as opposed to other rule systems, you only count the models in range not the whole unit just because one model is in range of the target. So I calmly, keeping my poker face on (which is always a stupid smile), stated I was going to shoot at his 10 man Bondi unit knowing only half my models where in range (okay here is where I have to start snickering, it was really hard not to do it in front of Mark). He fell for it! He used it and I promptly moved my unit just enough to have all my models in range. I announced I would shoot (fatigue taken after the shot is resolved), he failed to make the saves and lost two figures. Now with a fatigue on my Gerburs I activated them a second time and asked, "Mark would you like to take a fatigue off my unit to raise your armor value (with my stupid smile on my face)". He Said, "Yes Kevin I think I would".... again this is just what I hoped he would do. Four hits later ( plus failing to save any of them, rolled nothing better than a 3), that poor old Bondi unit had gone from 10 down to four figures in quite a hurry. Visions of Santa Claus coming down the chimney bringing me early Christmas presents where in my head when I announced my third and last activation for the Gerburs to shoot and again asked Mark if he would like to remove my fatigue to increase his armor and once more he agreed. This time I plebed on the dice but the damage was done, and not just to his unit, I'm pretty sure I'd gotten into his head;) Especially after I reminded him ya know all my figures weren't in range right? Also do you remember that Levy are exhausted after only two fatigue. I think that bit really got into his head;)

Poor ole Mark was pretty rift about those cold blooded uber sniper Gerburs, and ordered what was left of those bloodied Bondi into a headlong charge into my poor levy. I was able to weather the storm and saved all but two and gladly backed away, though Mark took no causalities in return.

On my part of turn 2 I again had some good rolls and got a few helmets which allowed me to set up one of my fatigue bomb Ceorls and move my Gerburs out of the way. I smacked into what was left of his 4 man Bondi and wiped them out losing only one of my warriors in return. Today was a good day to be an Anglo-Dane! I had set it up so I could move my fatigue bomb Ceorl unit out of his support range, though this gave me one more fatigue, it did make Mark have to spend two activations to reach them. I had also set up my board with the "Intimidation" which cancels one activation of your opponent. This I thought would help because Mark now only had 5 saga dice to roll with the loss of his Bondi.

At this point I am pretty sure Mark was a bit overcome with the loss of his ten man Bondi unit (or was it he was thinking it was almost time to go?). Again he had a really good Saga dice roll and able to use several of them on the ability to roll more. Here is his set up board before the start of turn 3.

Mark, I think, made a small mistake for he was too worried over my ability to cancel one of his activations and didn't set up his board for any abilities for the upcoming melee. I am sure he thought he could steam roll my Ceorls with his Hirdmen, but first he lined up his Bondi to charge into my Huscarl. With no offensive abiltities to add on, they were doomed before they started. He had to move twice to come into contact with my Huscarl and took a fatigue doing so. When his 6 man Bondi unit slammed home I used that fatigue to lower his armor value and though he took down two Huscarl, in return I caused 8 hits and he saved only two wiping out his unit. At this point Mark's morale was broken, but I am sure it was mostly he had to hurry up and go, and gave me the game. It would have been fun to see what he could have done with his Hirdmen and then my counter move, but I am pretty sure I had this one in the bag (but then I always think that;)).

If you read down this far, thanks for taking the time to do so.

Cheers
Kevin

4pt mini "Clash of Warlords" Saga match part one of two

Well I haven't posted much of anything of late because..... okay I have no excuse other than laziness;)

My regular Saga partner had been working midnight shifts and just went back to afternoon shifts so we were able to get in a game the other day before he had to go to work. Because we had a time limit I decided to limit our warband to 4 points. I laid out a generic terrain board which basically mirrored each half so there would be no advantage to one side or the other. The Scenario we used was "Clash of Warlords" as the game ends when your warlord goes down or at the end of six turns when you then count up the points for the winner.

Mark brought over his Vikings (the only army he has right now, but has done a wonderful job improving them by doing up more of his bases and making a nice Warlord base where he can take the figure off of it and place another) to fight my Anglo-Danes (the only army I have right now, but soon the Franks will join my collection). Mark just loves his little Amazon "Berserker" Queen's (yes he painted up Amazons for his berserker's, but they do look pretty cool), but decided not to play them in our match, much to my relief as I have never had any luck against them. It was, I thought, a good test of his Offensive board against my more Defensive board. I've played almost a dozen games now and feel I am starting to get a hold of a strategy now that I am more familiar with the rules and (at least) our two battle boards. That is one thing that you clearly better know well in this game and that is the battle boards. It's not all about just getting to know yours, but your opponents as well so you know what he can do to you so you can plan better. Well enough banter for now, let's move on to the battle!

Order of Battle:

VIkings:
Warlord
Hirdmen (Huscarl) X4
Hirdmen (Huscarl) X4
Bondi (Warriors) X8
Bondi (Warriors) X8

Anglo-Danish
Warlord
Huscarls (Huscarl) X4
Ceorls (Warriors) X8
Ceorls (Warriors) X8
Gerburs (Levy) X6
Gerburs (Levy) X6

Now this gave the edge to the Vikings as they got to roll 6 Saga dice for orders as opposed to my 5 Saga dice. But I had a plan.... I thought;)

I started the first turn by moving my Gerburs up on the flanks to take some pot shots (Moving and then shooting causing them a fatigue) at his Warriors and "Yeehaw!" I actually took out two figures from his Bondi on his right flank. I do believe these to be the first shooting kills my Gerburs have ever made. Things were looking good for the Danes already!

[Remember to left click on image and then if you right click on image select view image to see larger view]

Mark countered on his turn by moving up his Bondi on his right flank to try and sweep away my Gerbur's. I was prepared for this move having selected "Hard as Iron" ability so I could reroll any defense dice that failed to cancel a hit. He had to move twice to reach them but used his ability "Frigg" to shake off the fatigue gained and used "Ullr" to reroll any failed to hit dice. Now this was fun as he ended getting 8 hits, but because of Hard as Iron I saved all but two and lived to tell the tale. One of my scrubby little peasant dudes even knocked off one of his Bondi. Today was a good day to die, my Levy yelled out!

Turn two started with me thinking I could take advantage of his now isolated Bondi on his right flank. So I moved my Ceorls on my left flank up to engage his Bondi, and my Warlord used the "We Obey" to move within support distance of the Ceorls with his Huscarl body guard. Hoping to eliminate his Bondi or at the very least hurt him bad I selected "Lords of Battle" which gave me three extra dice and cause him two additional fatigue at the end of the battle (We forgot to put the fatigue on but caught it later in the turn). I ended up only causing two causalities after his saves and taking one in return.

Mark got crazy and charged his Bondi right back into the fray and of course used Frigg to remove his fatigue, Heimdal (to gain 3 dice and go down one in armor), and his favorite toy Ullr to reroll his misses (I hadn't caught the fatigue error but with his excellent order rolls he would have been able to get down to one fatigue and still get all his abilities because of all the rolling two more saga dice from expending all the S's he kept rolling). He, of course, had great dice, mine sucked and I promptly watched 6 of 7 of my Ceorls perish and only causing him in return two.

Okay I guess I freaked out a bit, but for some reason I felt I had to do something crazy and decided to chance that my good die rolls were coming up (Mental note, never, EVER, let yourself go to Vegas with these ideas!). I charged my Huscarl into his Hirdmen, and let my Warlord charge into his beat up Bondi unit. The statistics say I got this.... r i i g h t! Anyways even using my Lords of Battle and the Push with my Huscarl (I wasn't planning on losing, but then no one does) I watched my Huscarl disappear and his Hirdmen survive with one left, though they were mighty tired after the brutal fight. But the fun part was yet to come. I figured my Warlord could handle three stinking Bondi, and he did! I vaporized his Bondi, BUT he inflicted three hits. Really? I saved only one, and with two left it was game over!

We finished in time to play another game and I will make a different post to keep this short. Overall this game I felt was a good refresher, as neither Mark nor I had played in a while. We both could make better use of our battle boards. Especially the Vikings. He has stuff on there he has never used that would certainly have made me go ouch.

Thanks as always for taking the time to have a look.

Cheers
Kevin