Another go at Saga, a 6pt "Clash of Warlords" debacle

Well I had another go (with my gaming friend Mark and his pack of wild Vikings) of the scenario Clash of Warlords. As I am starting to get more of a hold on the rules, I figured now was the time to get a hold of tactics side. Unfortunately in my older muddled brain I thought I was going to get an armor save bonus for melee in the woods, and it turns out that you only get that for shooting. My kingdom to be young again and have all of my mental faculties working smoothly once more! Oh well, it was a lesson learned, woods don't really help you unless your facing a shooting army which the Vikings are not. We both used 6 point armies this time around. Mark deployed two warrior units of 12 each, and three of Huscarl 4 each (one of which where those Amazon demons he calls berzerkers). This gave him an advantage in that he could afford to lose one unit and not effect the number of saga dice he would get. I deployed two units of warriors 8 each, and two units of Huscarl 6 men each, and one levy unit with bows of 12 men. I deployed the levy on my left flank and should have bloody well put them in the center forward, at least they would have been in position to get at least one shot off. Here is a picture of the starting positions (please excuse the sacrilege of some unpainted units but both of us need to paint one more unit to complete our painted armies).

 

 The battle did not start out well for me. It seems I am doomed to not roll any hits at least once or twice when I play Mark. Of course he taught me a few more tricks about his Viking dogs. Like having your Warriors in 12 man units so you can use the ability Valhalla, where you can remove up to three warriors engaged so you can gain 3 attack die for each. Pretty powerful stuff when you have all 12 engaged and are basically doubling your dice. Yes indeed the Vikings have many little tricks that make them a very offensive oriented army. But getting back to the game. Mark basically took the fight to me right up the middle and starting pounding on my Anglo Danes. He took out one of my Warrior units in his first engagement which left me down a Saga die. I counter attacked and smashed what was left of his Warrior unit (except one model, the other thing it seems I can't do against Mark is take out a whole unit) and my last Warrior unit took two causalities. Here is another picture of the situation at the moment.

 

 On turn 3 Mark used one of his Huscarl units to chase off my Levies, which was fine by me, and reorganized his line. My last Warrior unit then attacked his Warrior unit he moved up into the woods and sadly I plebe with my attack dice once more (again story of my life against Mark), but that not being a problem with Mark he kindly took 5 out of my remaining 6 models. I smartly activated them again for a move back to the rear to save a loss of another Saga die.

Turn 4 Mark finished off my hapless Levies and reorganized his line some more and moved them up. I positioned myself to strike at his Warriors that had moved closer to me in the woods.

Turn 5 I unleashed my Huscarl for a little revenge party against his remaining Warrior unit, hoping and praying to the ancient gods that I would have good fortune with the dice! My dice were good, but not good enough to take out his entire unit. The dog again escapes with three models, but has four fatigue on them. My Huscarl got carved up as well, losing three models.

Turn 6 (and what was supposed to be the last turn, but again I didn't read closely enough and we played out the game for 8 turns) Mark charges in with his Amazon demons and finishes off my poor Huscarl but I was able to take them out as well. Worth the price I must say!

At this point Mark would have won on points alone. We did play on and we bashed each other down to a hand full of models but sadly my Warlord went down giving Mark the game he had in the bag already at the end of turn 6. Playing Mark is always a pleasure. His laughter is contagious and his humor, well let's say he needs to work on that one a bit. My last picture is his humorous memorial to my fallen Warlord....

A 4pt Game using scenario "Clash of Warlords"

So my friend Mark was able to come over and do a quick game today. We played the Saga scenario Clash of the Warlords with 4 point armies (I did mention the word quick). Mark played his Viking Army, and I my Anglo Dane. We were both a little rusty with the rules but it came back to us quickly.

Both of us knowing we had a time limit we decided to throw tactics out the window and throw down (not to mention with these armies it really is all about throwing down!!!). I charged straight up the middle leading out with a Warrior unit and struck one of his warrior units in an even battle. Fortune was not with me and I totally pleeb on my dice throw. Mark did not do much better but did inflict 1 hit that I could not save and this caused my unit to disengage. Unfortunately I had brought up my other units a little to close up, expecting victory, and Mark's quick counter attack with those same warriors threw my line in disarray. Perhaps the word disarray is not appropriate as he totally destroyed my unit for a loss of only two figures and this caused a fatigue on all my other units within short distance.

Not being one to be shy I thought I would teach my smiling opponent a little lesson about side by side and struck his now only 6 warrior strong unit with a fresh unit of Warriors and my Warlord. Instead of an overwhelming victory, my troops were further disheartened as two of his warrior's escaped destruction. My now still smiling opponent had a 1 saga die advantage and a secret weapon he was about to unleash on my unsuspecting Warlord. My Warlord was about to learn about the wrath of a woman (or in this case she devils from hell, and not just one but a bunch!). By the way Mark uses Amazon Queens or princesses or something like that for his Berserker's.

The she devils from hell smashed into my Warlord bringing with them 21 dice to roll against my poor Warlords 5. Another lesson taught to me about the Vikings was all the offensive abilities that they bring with them to the table and my opponent was not about to show me any mercy and threw down the hammer. With Thor, Ullr, Frigg, and Heimdal it was a pretty assured thing that he would take down my Warlord. Of course it didn't hurt that the she devils from hell brought 16 dice with them to start out with! My Warlord was so rattled he even forgot to order shield wall and stood there mouth agape as I was taught a lesson about being overly brash with your Warlord.

Yes that's right! Count them up! In the end he inflicted 19 hits of which I saved nine, but could not overcome the ten hits as I didn't have that many troops around me to absorb that many hits for the Warlord. On top of that with the ability Thor, any remaining figures would get to attack again (did I mention I only took down 2 of those accursed she devils).

Game over! Kaput! Finished! Done! Sob.... and a soft sigh.....



Even though it was brutal and quick it was good to get a game in and brush up on the rules. I also must say even though I got a good ass kicking I still had fun and appreciate my opponent for taking some of his time out of his day to get a game in.

Saga rocks!

Saga craziness continues...

Finally put together one of two 4Ground buildings I received lately and I have to tell you I was pretty impressed with them. Wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, more it was I didn't really want to do it. But upon finishing it I was quite happy I forced myself to sit down and do it. Here are some pics of the Pre-Painted Anglo Dane Hovel I put together in sequence.

Saga Anglo Danes!!!

Been a long time posting. Let's see if I can make up for it here and post something of interest to fellow hobbyist and gamers.

A few months back a couple of guys from a gaming club I belong to started talking about this mysterious new ancient rules. At first I paid no attention to them as they discussed this at several meetings. That is until one of them brought in some of his painted Normans and they actually showed me the rules. DARK AGES! Are you kidding me! I love this period and had I paid closer attention I would have gotten into it several months earlier. The bonus is that I don't have to paint up that many figures to have an army and these days it's hard to get me to paint up more than a few. I was so excited that I called my long time friend who now lives 12 hours away from me and told him what glory and treasure I had found. The next thing you know we planned to paint an army each and planned a trip to meet up over the weekend for some gaming glory!. Long story short here is that he has found a couple of good guys where he lives to play against, of course I have mine, but best of all we successfully met up in the great state of Ken-Tuck-key (the halfway point for us) and had a blast. So without further ado here are some pictures of my stuff I painted for the Danes, and a few battle pictures to boot. Enjoy!

Front of Harold Godwinson

Back of Harold Godwinson

Forgive the use of a Japanese home as my back drop, but my Anglo Dane homes have not arrived yet.

Front of Unit A Huscarl

Back of Unit A Huscarl

Front of Unit B Huscarl

Back of Unit B Huscarl

My opponents Army, the flower of the Normans

The Anglo Danes are not afraid

Normans and the Danes mixing it up

 Death by 2 handed Axe

Hessian Fusilier Regiment Von Lossberg

Still tons of work to do, but I am making good progress. The good news is that I am still having fun doing them. After years of painting mostly 15mm, and some 25mm figures, it's amazing how much more work you have to do on these. More painting area, more attention to detail, etc. I am working on four at a time in a rotation. As some dry I am able to continue work on others. Plus it gives you a sense of accomplishment as four near completion. Though I am only getting a few hours a week in on them, I find myself thinking about them and what I want to do next. Something I haven't felt in a while. Here are some more shots of the work in progress.



Fusilier Regiment Von Lossberg

I had set my alarm to arise early, took care of my dogs, had a hearty breakfast, and then sat down for the next several hours slapping paint on some Hessian 40mm AWI figures by Trident (Miniature Service Center in California carries them). I have to say that at the end of the day I was in high spirits and though I am a terribly slow painter, I placed paint on 20 of these bad boys.

The unit I am painting up is Fusilier Regiment Von Lossberg during 1776. I just love the orange facings (maybe because it's my favorite color) and red lining on this Prussian blue uniform. My idea is to recreate the battle of Trenton, using Sharpes Practice using the AWI supplement (This land Divided, and With Fire and Sword). It should be fun, but like all my projects of late will see what happens. I had actually gotten these figures last year or so when I was reading "Washington's Crossing" by David Hackett Fischer. Then fell off the band wagon until recently when I have begun reading "1776" by David McCullough, which so far has been a superb read.  

Well enough ado about nothing, here are a few photo's of what I have done so far (by the way you would think these bad boys would paint up faster because you can see everything better, not so, more area to cover with paint certainly slowed me down).

First a photo of what the unit looks like from "Don Troiani's Soldiers in America 1754 - 1865

The thin Blue Line

Close up

150th American Civil War commemoration at Fort Wayne Detroit, Michigan

"In compliance with President Lincoln's requisition upon the State of Michigan for military aid to uphold the constitution and maintain the Union of the States, Governor Austin Blair issued a proclamation, dated April 16, 1861, for one Regiment of Infantry to be mustered into the service of the United States.
At this date there were a number of independent military companies in the state possessing military knowledge from long practice and study. Ten of these companies were accepted to form the First Michigan Regiment. Those companies accepted were designated at their home camps as the "Detroit Light Guard", the "Jackson Grays", the "Coldwater Cadets", the "Manchester Union Guards", the "Stuben Guard", the "Michigan Hussars", the "Burr Oak Guard", the "Ypsilanti Light Guard", the "Marshall Light Guard", and the "Hardee Cadets". Orlando P. Wilcox was appointed Colonel of the Regiment and the companies were ordered to report to him at Detroit with the least possible delay.
The organization of the Regiment was completed on April 29th., being mustered into the Federal service on May 1, 1861 with a total enrollment of 798 men. The President had called for these troops to serve in Federal service for three months and they promptly complied."

The above is a excerpt about the "1st Regiment Michigan Volunteer Infantry" from a website called Michigan at War. Today I had the privilege of attending Historic Fort Wayne in Detroit for the 150th Civil War commemoration. As it was told by the speaker of the day, we don't call it a celebration as the nation was plunged into a horrible war, instead we call it a commemoration to honor those (on both sides) who fought and died for their beliefs 150 years ago.

Michigan only had a population of around 750,000 in those days, and yet raised around 30 regiments for the Union of around 90,000 men. That is something in itself. I was only aware of this special day because I have a friend who is a Civil War reenactor who happened to mention the event that I took part in today as an observer. I must say I had a grand time seeing the volunteers of the 1st Michigan mustering at Fort Wayne and it was like stepping into a time machine and going back all those years. You could tell they took pride in their hobby as everything was quite authentic from the uniforms right on down to how they served chow etc.

Another unit taking part in today's commemoration was Michigan's 102nd USCT Co. B (United States Colored Troops). The original regiment was created in July 1863 after an extensive editorial and letter writing campaign by Henry Barns who was then the editor of the Detroit Advertiser and Tribune. It originally was called the 1st Michigan Colored Regiment and retained that name until it was officially mustered into federal service. At that time it was re designated the 102nd United States Colored Troop (USCT). For his efforts Henry Barns was commissioned the regiment's first Colonel, a post he retained until voluntarily stepping down in favor of a regular army officer. The audience learned today that this unit's regimental flag was being preserved as part of the save the flags, a program that was launched on July 2, 1991, to help save nearly 160 fragile, battle-torn Civil War flags that had been displayed for decades in the Michigan State Capitol rotunda.

There is much more to be told of the colorful histories of the Michigan Regiments that took part in the Civil War all those years ago, but I will allow the reader here to research further if they wish too. The following photos I took at the event are posted below, and as always thanks for stopping by and allowing me to share some of my interests with you.

My friend Brian (who is a serious student of American Civil war history and is a reenactor) and the author of this story posing in front of ole Glory

1st Regiment Michigan Volunteer Infantry

 1st Michigan Colored Regiment 

What Ole Glory looked like in 1861