After several disrupted weeks, my planned game of Saga 2nd Ed: Age of Magic finally arrived. During lockdown, I underwent temporary insanity and painted roughly 1000 points of Flesh Eater Courts. I'll never play AOS but don't mind the army as I have always enjoyed ghouls in horror or weird fiction.
In this 8 points game, I played the special ghoul list from the Undead section of Age of Magic. It consisted of a warlord, a behemoth, 3 biped large humanoids, 3 flying large humanoids, two units of 12 warriors and 1 unit of 8 warriors. I was playing against the Lords of Under-earth and was concerned about their shooting units and access to magic - as I had none.
The crypt in the above image was my undead special terrain giving me a restorative bonus to necromantic saga abilities.
We planned a standard battle and alternated terrain choices. I was happy with the woods I placed on the table as it restricted deployment spaces for my opponent.
My opponent, Nick, had come with the wrong figure cases so I substituted my dark age miniatures for dwarfs. Above is the entrance to his tunnel system. Warily, I deployed a unit near its exit but it would not be used in the game.
Nick deployed his forces in depth but also placed two hearthguard units behind some woods. This would result in them marched around and through to reach the action. Ultimately, they were caught out of place.
With the initial turn, I surged forward with everything trying to close the gap and lessen shooting options. Nick replied with several shots and, more tellingly, he opened a chasm with quite a few ghouls fell into. This only worried me more as - of this continued - it would reduced my units of warriors in each round. These troops were the backbone of my forces.
And then we discovered how fantastic the necromantic battle board abilities are for restoring troops ... Ghouls thought lost leapt back into action and the tide of slavering cannibals surged on afresh.
On my right, I threw out my small warrior unit to block Nick's warriors then pressed my monstrous creature forward. It shrugged of paltry shots from the levy. My flyers were centrally placed to threated the back line or flanks on either side of Nick's underground forces.
In the middle of the above image, a 12 strong warrior unit plugged the gap in the trees meaning all fire was directed toward this. A well placed saga dice saw regeneration of these losses with little effort.
My large humanoids stood menacing at the rear and left flank. They were waiting for the dwarfs flying war engine to come close.
As the dwarf bowmen withdrew, my flyers pounced mauling the unit. They used their resistance to avoid losses stacking up fatigue. When attacked by hearthguard these fatigues were used by the enemy giving my forces the chance to do it all again. They annihilated the hearthguard for not losses but were then slain by a unit of 12 warriors but it took significant saga dice for this to occur.
My other large unit double moved to catch the flying war machine and dismantled it for only fatigue point losses. The ghouls were looking unstoppable.
Over on the right, the ghoulish behemoth had simply eaten some levy. The warrior unit used the Already Dead saga ability to hold off the dwarf warrior unit. This gave them resistance 4. The undead have 2 fantastic defensive abilities.
The warriors were then another course for my ravenous behemoth.
At this point we called it quits. The dwarfs had lost three units and had 3 more savaged. The ghouls had lost their flyers - at fearful cost to the enemy - both otherwise only had fatigues. The ghoul warlord and one 12 warrior unit was completely untouched. The undead seem extremely tough with a wonderful supporting cast of saga abilities perfectly suited to keep them in the fray and negating losses. I would love another game, but I might put a Great Kingdoms army on the table before I return with my Ghouls.
