Blog discription

What will you find here? Ramblings from an aging gamer-miniature painter. When I first started out in this hobby computers were in their infancy and finding other gamers could only be done by going to conventions or as in my case bumping into somebody who happened to see me reading "Panzer Leader" on the school bus. Look how far we have come! The internet has allowed our small community to be able to connect on a level I never dreamed of when I was but a small lad. What I do hope you will find here is something interesting from one wargamer/miniature painter to another. I paint miniatures somewhat decently, so I will be posting some pictures of my work, and perhaps a review or two of games and/or miniatures. Most of all this is just about having fun and anything I post here is meant to be for that reason.

Friday, February 13, 2015

Vikings meet their match against the man himself "Charlemagne"!

My Saga pal was able to come over this past week to game and I have always tried to be a good host by always having a surprise for him. I believe I succeeded.

Of course my buddy knows I am painting Franks but I kind of didn't tell him what Warband I was going to put out. He expected to meet the same ole Anglo Dane's over our past meetings. So he didn't read up on them. I know, I am evil:)

SCENARIO
Clash of Warlords

VIKINGS
1 X Warlord
2 X 4 Hirdmen (Hearthguards)
1 X 4 Berserker (Hearthguards)
2 X 8 Bondi (Warriors)
1 X 12 Thralls bow (Levies)

FRANKS
1 X Charlemagne himself
1 X 4 Mounted Caballarii (Hearthgurards)
1 X 4 Mounted Caballarii Charlemagne's Guard (Hearthgurards)
3 X 8 Miles (Warriors)


SETUP
We used the scenario placement from "The Crescent & The Cross" rules which I find far superior to the old way. Mark only picked one terrain piece, and I picked two. I put out a building and a woods, he also placed a woods. I diced to move his only piece up to M distance, and Mark diced to remove or move one of mine, and instead of taking the building off, he moved it closer to the center.
 
Setup looking from behind the good guys
Setup Side/Top view
The above picture is at the end of turn 1 for both sides. Mark had the first move and just moved straight forward, where as I entered the building with a warrior unit and swung my Cavalry to my left flank.

Charlemagne (being a Hero of the Viking age and thus costing a build point) was probably not a good choice for me as my first game using the Franks. Why? Because I need to learn how to use the Frank battle board without that crutch. There are two main reasons why I should not have used him. 1, he gets to choose up to three units for a We Obey at L range, and 2, he gets a household guard of up to 6 mounted figures with a raised armor value to 6 (5 against shooting). That's like having Tiger Tanks on the field of battle! As you will see later it had a profound affect on my opponents morale.
Above picture is at the end of turn 2 for us both. Mark started pushing his left flank at me and caused a couple of casualties with his shooting, so on my turn I swung my Cavalry on my left back to the center and tried to smack him upside the head. I also brought my warriors inside the building out so he couldn't get in behind my Cavalry and cut them off. In the end I put down 3 of his warriors and 5 of his levy but this really didn't hurt him much. What is nice about the Frank battle board is the ability "Planification" which allows me to do a Activation/reaction and move a unit before the enemy can move a just activated unit for movement. I chose this on purpose so my Household Cavalry could jump back within M range of Charlemagne so they wouldn't take two fatigue at the start of my Activation.
Above is the end of Viking Turn 3 and the beginning of an important series of events. Mark first charged his fresh warrior unit (8) into mine just outside of the building and he got the better of it. These two units basically slugged it out for the next two turns and both would not give ground. A true shield wall! He launched his hearthguard at my mounted hearthguard and they chewed each other up. More importantly I used Planification to dance away from his troops with my Household Cavalry and put them back within M of Charlemagne.

The one thing Mark likes to do is use his battle board ability "Ullr" which allows him to re roll his missed attack dice. So I made sure I used my ability "Interdiction" and kept designating the "ullr" ability. This is where Charlemagne comes in, because I could afford to always leave three dice in my Battle Pool as Charlemagne insured I could still move three units. So I was ready to plunk down 3 fatigue on those berserkers in case he got any ideas.  
The big shield wall scrum!
Above the end of turn 3 for the Franks. I got my badly hurt Cavalry unit out of dodge and tried to steam roll his 5 man warrior unit with my Tiger Tanks.... ahem... I mean my Household Cavalry. I got four of them but he saved one. One must never count on finishing off a unit and think about being out in the middle of hostile territory at the end of his move. Fortunately... yes you guessed it, I had a nice little saga die sitting on Planification. 
Above is the end of the Viking turn 4 with the continuation of our mighty shield wall battle both sides whittling each other down but both hanging in there making key saves. Of course my Household Cavalry danced away from his bererker unit and the Frank Saga dice next to the units show that they get a defensive bonus if attacked this turn coming from my ability "anticipation". Though he didn't have the gas to keep on going to get me. Yet.
At the end of the Frank turn 4 you can see I got a little crazy with my Household Cavalry (over by the building) as I used them to finally destroy his warrior unit that caused my warrior unit so much trouble (I sort of got Tiger fever), but it was costly as I lost one of my Tig... I mean Household Cavalry. But I was feeling a bit cocky as you can see I have two fresh Warrior units in my rear to push forward with if need be.
Here is where the battle ended with my opponents morale being crushed. Again I danced away with my Household Cavalry but this time I couldn't go very far as I had to protect Charlemagne. So I put them in a blocking position and Mark promptly brought up his Warlord and Berserker using activations, and then used side by side to launch his berserkers and Warlord into my Household Cavalry. He used Frigg to get rid of the fatigue on his Warlord and ended up with 22 attack dice. Out of 22 dice he rolled exactly two hits. Two! Which I promptly saved by rolling a five and six. At this point he threw in the towel, plus we had run out of time. I know one thing, Mark will be studying the Frank Battle Board for our next fray.

As always a hearty thanks goes out to Mark for coming over to game before he has to go off to work.Truly the definition of what being a hardcore miniature gamer is all about.

Cheers
Kevin










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2 comments:

  1. PrufrockFebruary 14, 2015 at 9:49 AM

    Nice report! Saga does look like a good game...

    Cheers,
    Aaron

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    1. KevinFebruary 14, 2015 at 11:26 PM

      Thanks Aaron, and it is fun! But first and foremost a skirmish game, not everyone's cup of tea. The Battle Boards are what bring character to the warband (armies) by giving them different attributes they can use.

      Cheers
      Kevin

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