Charging into Saga 2.0

I ordered, after a LONG procrastination period, Saga 2.0 for my Father's Day present. I read it, liked it - as I had done with ALL Studio Tomahawk rules I own (3) - and was keen to play it. 

BUT, I was uncertain that my gaming friends would accept it. We already have so many games in our roster and meet but once a week. 

I introduced the rules to my friends over two weeks. On the third week, we played the pictured game and all have fallen badly for the rules. Two have order the rules plus all the period books they could lay their hands on. Saga 2.0 has taking flight - and I couldn't be more thrilled. 

The images show a 6 point Clash of Warlords, as per the Book of Battles, between Anglo Saxons and the Vikings. The Saxons decided to select 4 points of levy spear, 1 point of levy bow and 1 select fyrd. The Vikings chose 1 levy javelin, 2 hirdmen/huscarls (combined into a single unit) and 2 units of 12 warriors. This somewhat limited Viking Saga dice generation. 

The victory would be decided by survival points giving the Saxons an immediate advantage with their far larger numbers. The battlefield was a marsh. 

The Saxons deployed in a very pretty square. I'm yet to understand why ... but didn't it look impressive. They utilised their movement saga ability to activate units about 12 men. They attempted to flank on their left side but underestimated the short time span. 

The Vikings pushed their javelinmen up followed by the Warlord and hirdmen/huscarls. They invested their Saga dice in special moves rather than movement. For the battle their warrior units struggled to play a role. 

Above and below, the Saxons edge to the left to try and turn the Viking flank. If successful, they would catch the warriors of Ubba Ragnarson between hammer and anvil. 

The Vikings pressed down the centre in depth.

Later in the battle, the Viking huscarl unit was ordered forward to slay as many of the Saxon great fyrd as possible. The Vikings were peppered with arrows and their charged were absorbed by the mass of Saxons. Spears everywhere stabbed back at them and shields were interlocked. 

Casualties began to mount as the Viking elite are called upon to charge, and be charged, again and again. Fatigue mounts. 

Ubba, oh Ubba ... why not order forward more of your bondi?

At the final gasp (the Saxons called to end the game in round 4 - giving the Vikings only one more turn to wrestle victory from defeat), Ubba went forward and finished off one unit of great fyrd before being hacked down by the Saxon select fyrd - bondsmen of the mighty Earl Athelwulf. 

When points were tallied, all gained the bonus for being more than L from their table edge and the numbers of Saxon fyrd did indeed count. It was a victory of 21 points to 25 after survival points were tallied. The Saxons had thrown the invader back! 

And the other result ... players loving Saga! As I've painted around 230+ 28mm Dark Age miniatures, it makes me quite happy. I love the period, the literature and the history of the Dark Ages (or more correctly the early medieval period.) We all can't wait for more Saga and I'll be making another two sets of saga dice this weekend to enable me to use the Welsh, different Viking style armies and others. I may even get a box of Irish gripping beast miniatures - or maybe the Atlantic one with all the doggies. 

Let our saga begin! 

 

Splintered Fang Painting

With the help of Mr Pertwee (in glass form), I decided to take a couple of snaps of my latest painting project - the Splintered Fang. 

I very much like the "bespoke" (whatever the hell that means) warcry warbands much more so than AOS ones. The bespoke warbands give me a sense of small scale skirmish combat that better suits the theme of the warcry game. I find it a little incongruous that players are allowed to take extremely rare and exulted members of factions in such a small game. Why would a incredibly powerful and divinely blessed authority figure choose to wonder the woods with 3-4 common soldiers? 

I would imagine such individuals might have armies to lead or grand strategies to prosecute ... 

In any case, I decided on Splintered Fang for two reasons. I love the concept of a small cult of snake worshippers. I don't necessarily see them as chaos related (I only VERY loosely ascribe to any of the GW fiction - I reject the concept of such third rate fiction being consider 'lore.') I envisage the group much more akin to a mystery cult of the ancient world ... which brings me to the other reason for choosing the group - their Hellenistic theme. 

I found them a joy to paint. Say what you will about GW but those boys know how to make miniatures. They were easy to assemble, all parts fitting extremely well, and the pronounced details on the miniatures make painting very rewarding. 

I'm very pleased with my painting. I think the overall colour scheme is effective and my painting (uncultured as it is) created a good appearance. I have two boxes of these figures (which I also found quite well priced for the high quality product) and intend to paint most of them - all except the leader. 

I'm very keen to play these in warcry but foresee their use in a range of games. I'd use these in Mordheim or even In Her Majesties Name. An ancient snake cult would be a worthy addition to some VSF fictional tales. 

Mind you ... I think they will be belted with mercy by most of the AOS type warbands in Warcry. Their stats seem far from competitive. I just don't see how they can do any more than act as a speed bump against a 36 wound Ork or other somesuch killing machine. 

For me, Mordheim is much better thematically (and in a few other ways eg: morale) than warcry in creating a setting where desperate combat erupts between lowly warriors and their modest leaders. With any figure almost capable of humbling any other, it creates far more tension and visceral action rather than the direction warcry has turned with monsters and 36+ wound models running about (who can barely be killed within the 4 turn limit and thus face no real threat.) In a wargame there is supposed to be war, not just positioning models near a non-descript area of grass for the win. 

Mind you, I'm really keen to play more warcry, shape it to my will and imagination, using narrative play.