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