The Anglo Saxon's "Sacred Ground" a Saga battle

Well I finally got off my butt and reorganized my Anglo Saxons with a little help from my pal in Georgia. We pulled off a trade and I received a few extra Saxon warriors so I could take advantage of their battle board abilities. I am not quite there yet, 8 more warriors would be perfect, but for now I can at least fight them.

And fight them I did! A few days ago I had a glorious battle against the Vikings using the Saga scenario "Sacred Ground", but with a few twists. There are 3 pieces of terrain placed and the idea in this scenario is to occupy them with your troops to gain victory points each turn. The problem with this scenario is people would send all their troops to one terrain piece and sit in it. Also the person that goes first has an advantage because you only score points for your troops at the end of your opponents turn. This means if you move first you will get victory points while your opponent can not.

So first we used a Convention Tournament rule where the max you could score in each terrain piece was 8 points. Normally this is based on number of figures and type. So in addition to this we used the "Crescent and the Cross" rule set where you score victory points for units of more than 3 troops. In other words if a unit is reduced to 3 figures or less you won't score victory points for it.

To the game!

Order of battle:

Vikings

Warlord
Thralls (Levy) bow X 12
Bondi (Warriors) X 10
Bondi (Warriors) X 10
Bondi (Warriors) X 10
Bondi (Warriors) X 10

Anglo-Saxons

Warlord
Ceorls (Levy) armed with Spear and Shield X 12
Ceorls (Levy) armed with Spear and Shield X 12
Ealdormen (huscarl) X 4
Thegns (Warriors) X 12
Thegns (Warriors) X 12

With the above OOB the Vikings would get 6 Saga die, while the Anglo-Saxons would only have 5, this would leave me depending on a bit of luck to start out with.

Left click on pictures then right click and select view image to see larger view.

The setup had a woods to the Anglo-Saxon left flank, a Hill in the center, and a brush on the right. Here are a few shots of the setup.

My opponent and I both could have taken advantage of the victory point requirements by making a bunch of 4 man units, but hey, where the heck is the fun in that? Besides to take advantage of the Anglo-Saxon battle board requires me to have 10 or more figures in a unit (the max you can have for you non Saga players is 12, and the smallest unit is 4). My opponent knowing I would be placing down large units wanted his a little larger than he runs normally so he could hang in there attrition wise.

I was the lucky guy to get to move first and I used my Saga dice to force march as many of my units that I could move based on the dice rolls. My opponent knowing he could not score on first turn took a risky approach and decided to head straight up the middle to blast me off the hill.

End of turn 1 Anglo-Saxon player:

End of turn 1 Viking player:

At the end of turn 1 he had reduced my 12 strong Thegn unit down to 10 with some lucky shooting rolls and not so lucky save rolls for me.

Turn 2 had me trying to pre-empt his attack on the hill and I charged into his Bondi only to exchange a figure each so I was thrown back. On his portion of 2 he promptly charged right back into action with his Warlord with a side by side (which he was able to do as he was outside of range of my Warlord). I basically got blasted with ULLR ability of being able to re-roll misses and I lost 6 figures to his 4 figures. The big thing was that I survived thus keeping the Saga Die I would have lost if the unit was eliminated. Also during his move he occupied the woods on my left flank with a 10 strong Bondi unit and there was nothing I could do about it.

End of turn 2 Anglo-Saxon player:

 End of turn 2 Viking player:

Turn 3 was where things started turning ugly for me. It looked as if my opponents risky move might pay off after all. I had my Warlord unsupported and hung out to dry. Basically not able to activate him to do anything because of "Warlords Pride", meaning if I activated him and I am able to contact his Warlord I have to do it. So pinned and not wanting to lose him because in losing him I would be losing 2 Saga dice (and that would be devastating to me at this point in the game), I needed some good Saga dice rolls.  Fortunately I did have good dice but I was dancing to my opponents tune right now. Not having any units close other than my Ceorls I was able to use my battle board ability "Saxon Kingdom" that allows me to treat all my Ceorls as Thegns. I was able to consolidate and move my Ceorls close enough to be able to support my Warlord. But I waited to use "Saxon Kingdom" until my opponents turn (it only lasts until the end of a turn, so using it on mine would have been wasted), and I also saved my ability "Bretwalda" for his turn which raises the Armor of my Warlord and allows him to re-roll missed saved dice. Bringing them up saved my Warlord for another turn, because on my opponents turn he launched his Warlord and brought up a fresh 10 figure strong bondi unit at my Warlord with a side by side. The game should have ended right there and then but he only caused 2 hits, which I saved none, and I caused several hits to his bondi and he saved all but 2. Able to use my Ceorls to absorb the hits because they are treated as Thegns with Saxon Kingdom I survived and bounced him off as it was a tie for causalities and defender wins ties. But my wily opponent also brought up another 10 strong Bondi unit onto the hill so he could start collecting more points. As he had successfully pushed me off the hill, things where not looking to good for me. 

End of turn 3 Anglo-Saxon player:

 End of turn 3 Viking player:

Turn 4 saw my Warlord still in a bad position. A case where I caused one to many casualties on him as bouncing off him would have worked better for me as I could have used my Ceorls to screen off my Warlord so he could move away, but his troops where too close for me to be able to do this. So I forced marched my Ealdormen to help support my Warlord. Not one to take the foot off the gas pedal my opponent threw himself at me again. The battle was becoming desperate! Again I had saved the ability "Bretwalda" for my Warlord. The Vikings came roaring in needing sixes to cause damage but he used Ullr to re-roll misses and this caused 6 hits, which I promptly saved! That's right, first throw, every single one a save! I was delusional! I directed my attack against his Bondi and got 5 hits, and he saved 2. Maybe things would turn out better for me after all.... not.

End of turn 4 Anglo-Saxon player:

End of turn 4 Viking player:

Turn 5 would see me lose sight of what was really needed and I charged into his Warlord with a side by side thinking I could inflict some pain on him. I rolled 12 dice and did not inflict one hit on him, my only saving grace was I was able to save the hits he inflicted on me so I staggered back to my start position. On his portion of 5 he staged his attack a little more carefully. The Viking player finally wizened up to his battle board and used Loki to remove my 1 figure strong Thegn unit (I wasn't about to remind him of that ability) so I lost a saga die, then he launched his attacks in a well thought out manner. First he shot up my Ceorls with bow fire, then used his unit on the hill to charge into my Ealdormen and he took them down as my saving throws remained horrid (and another saga die lost and a fatigue placed on my Warlord for a unit being destroyed so close), though I was able to take 3 of his with me. Then came the dreaded charge from his Warlord and his side by side into my now support-less Warlord. I once again had saved my "Bretwalda" for my Warlord and a good thing I did. He rolled 2 hits (needing sixes) out of 12 rolls and I promptly saved 1. I caused a few which he saved and seeing as he caused one on me (as it takes two to take down Warlord) we assumed a retreat was in order for my Warlord. I was to live another turn!

End of turn 5 Anglo-Saxon player:

 End of turn 5 Viking player:

Turn 6 basically had me running for my life. Down to rolling 3 saga dice I needed to use them to run away. I used the first to use my Ceorls to screen my warlord so he wouldn't have to charge into the enemy warlord and then made a double move with my Warlord (first using a We Obey to bring the Ceorls back with the Warlord) to get him out of Dodge! I used my last move to get the Ceorls back a bit further as well. The Vikings consolidated their ground and he pushed his units up on the hill. The holding terrain points was starting to even up.

End of turn 6 Anglo-Saxon player:

End of turn 6 Viking player:

Turn 7 had me basically use my Ceorls to screen my units in the brush, but now thinking on it I probably should have just moved them into the brush as my saving throws would have been better. So the Viking player knowing if he could reduce this unit down to 3 I would not be able to use it for victory point claiming on his portion of turn 8. It was a hard choice but I think the correct one for him to shoot at me instead of moving his Thralls on the hill for a victory point on my Turn 8. At this point he was winning and the worst he could do was a draw if he shot my Ceorls down to 3, and I didn't have really good Saga dice. So used his saga dice to maximize number of shots he could take and he shot the crap out of ceorls thus making him the winner...... unless?

End of turn 7 Anglo-Saxon player:

 End of turn 7 Viking player:

So it all came down to what I rolled on the beginning of my Turn 8....

Yessss! Today I would not win, but I would not lose either. My Ceorls now counted as Thegns and I was able to tie the score.

At first it appeared that I would beat my opponent, then it became a slug fest and everything changed. Sure we both could have made better moves, but the most important thing was the FUN we had playing this one. It was quite exciting and we enjoyed ourselves very much.

Until next time my friends!
Kevin