Club day - SAGA Tournament

Howdy folks,

Recently, my buddy Mike ran a dark ages tournament at the club using the SAGA ruleset.  To be completely honest, my knowledge of SAGA going into this tournament amounted to pretty much the square root of f all...this was the sum of my SAGA knowledge.  I had heard it down at the club before and when I saw Mike's tournie and offer of loaner armies, I thought, what the hell...why not.

Originally there were three games scheduled for evening with the each loser from round 1 becoming a vassal warlord for the victor for round 2.  The immediate effect of this meant that you could loose approximately half your force at the end of round 1.  Round 2 was a challenge round with the objective being the termination of the opposing warlord.  Unfortunately we timed out and could not get to round 3, the big battle.

Why did we run out of time? Well, it turns out I was not the only one giving this a try...of the 8 players, I think only 2 had previously played...a very steep learning curve for all and many many questions for Mike to answer.

In the end I really enjoyed the ruleset and the time period.  I had never gamed dark ages before, had never really read up any history either, hell, I don't even watch Vikings on TV.  In the end I thought the ruleset was fairly smooth, easily understood, and had some great faction specific specials...gotta love the Vikings Loki ability.  So, here I sit...extra projects on the WIP pile...AND now I am very interested in another gaming era...sigh, 1st world problems, lol.

Anyway, I was able to take a few pics of the night.  Take care all.

Game 1

I had a Viking warband of 2 units of warriors, 1 unit of levies, and my warlord.  I borrowed these folk from my buddy Tod who uses them for SAGA as well as other rulesets...very nicely painted though and very fun to play with.

View of the enemy across the field...Levies on the left, Warriors on the right..

L to R: Warlord stand (banner), Levies (12 stout folk), and one of my Warrior units (8 warriors total...so some mental math to remember).  At the top, my other Warrior unit engages some enemy Hearthguards...tough unit to crack, higher level of armour and more attack dice than my units.

My melee round did not go so well, I was not able to take down any of his soldiers, and his melee return cost me 3 warriors...not a good start.

 

 

Earlier shot of my Warlord with his banner...

 

This game ended with me losing both units of Warriors which resulted in me losing 2pts of units out of 4 total points.  I lost the game...I became the vassal of my opponent for game 2.

 



 Game 2

As my point values were reduced for Game 2, I elected to go with two units of Warriors and my Warlord...I decided to retire the Levies...holding out hope that 8 tough-assed Warriors were still more valuable than 12 folk...in gaming terms, the Levy gave reduced attack die as well as reduced armour (i.e. much easier to hit)

My previous-opponents Warlord standing in the main field for all to see...begin the challenge: inflict 12 wounds on the other Warlord.

 

My deployment was well behind my new master...so sorry, lol...oh wait, our opponent has a mounted Warlord...ooh, this could hurt...is it impolite for the vassal to cheer?!?

A Viking is never really happy unless he's cracking skulls...so away we go.  Warriors moving forward...other side of the ville is an enemy vassal Warrior unit...bring on the pain...

 

Crash of sword an axe as a Warrior unit pops up on my right flank and advances towards my centre...a flurry of melee and my right Warriors are down 4 men...my left unit is down to 1 man...very tough fight...The other vassal also brought in his Warlord on the right.  Next turn I invoke my Loki ability and dissolve his unit on my right because it is below 4 men.  I leave my warriors in place and use my Warlord to deal with the other unit to our front...and then round over to the vassal Warlord and dispatch him as well...

 

Vassal on Vassal violence...

The enemy vassal is defeated from the field...I almost feel bad for him...almost...

 

Now moving onto the opposing Warlord...between myself and the master we're able to wound and take down the enemy Warlord within 2-3 turns of melee combat...the horses provide some attack power and movement, but do hinder armour rating.  Game 2 result: victory for the master and this humble Vassal.

 

 

Very enjoyable tournie and I look forward to trying this out again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Cops...and a couple of Gunfighters

Howdy all,

Looks like today is a two post day...while I've been fairly quiet on the electronic front, I have been plugging away when I've been able to on various figs.  As you may recall from an earlier post I recently completed a couple of The Cops from the North Star Figures range as well as a great looking Hellboy-esque figure from Hasslefree.

Continuing on those lines, I have completed the rest of The Cops...the SWAT and beat cops were fun to paint up and are nice looking minis.  As well, to augment these officers, I also painted up Deano from HassleFree Miniatures.  This guy is awesome, definitely one of the cleanest minis I've had the pleasure to paint up. 

I was inspired to paint Deano up as a RCMP Tactical Response officer after recent events in Ottawa, this is NOT a political message, for those interested, here is some media related to the event...given their response and outstanding professionalism I felt compelled to paint Deano up right...I hope I've done the fig justice.

As well, I have included some recent Artizan Wild West figs that I completed...these folk are from the Doc Holiday and Ringo blister as well as the Frank and Jesse James...


Please enjoy the pics, constructive comments and criticism are more than welcome.

Take care.

picture by the Ottawa Citizen online...

 

The Cops, group shot of the working officers, along with Deano on the upper right.

 

The beat guys... 

 



Deano

 

I was inspired to paint this figure up after seeing the various pics that came out of recent events in Ottawa when our law enforcement professionals were called in.  These folks worked hard to secure a very large area and acted with great professionalism.

 

Hot Fuzz inspired comment, check out his horse...I mean arse...

 

 

The SWAT 

 

 

I'll be your huckleberry...deathly ill dentist with a double barreled shotgun...not a good combination...

Battle Report - AAR for Fate of a Nation...turn 2

Hello everyone,

Recently we had a chance to complete turn 2 of our Fate of a Nation inspired tank aces campaign, feel free to see the background post here.  I was pretty happy as it gave me another chance to get my Israeli tanks out (although, for points, augmented by my Canadian Fireflies) and see some great forces on the table.

I was able to get a couple of games in...was able to get a better grip on the rules and had some fun.  For this round, the forces were capped at 700 points.  For the United Arab forces, this allows the horde to fill out a bit more...if you field T-34/85s then we're talking HORDE...if you're fielding T55s, then we're talking Horde.  For the Israelis, this means that you can start to fill out towards 2 combat platoons of Sherman based tanks, or a platoon of Sh'ot with some Amx backup.  Comparing forces by number of hulls still leaves a very large divide...

Enjoy the pics and the narrative, any comments, questions, or constructive criticism...fire away.

As well, if you're interested, my buddy Mike posted his AAR for turn 2 on his blog as well, Mike's blog here.

Cheers,
Stan

Turn 2 rules...pretty much the same as turn 1, all teams are considered warrior/independent teams, 700 pts this time, any non-tank elements in your force are not deployed.  Scrapyard mission with rolling for random layout/deployment (i.e. halves, checkerboard, quadrants).

Game 1

 

Initial deployment, Syrian armored deployed in extended line at the hilly edge of the fields...IDF deployed in extended line through the town.  I have to be totally honest, as deployment was occurring a couple of us advised my opponent that non-tank teams don't deploy...he was frustrated as he had missed this stipulation...no worries, we had extra T55s and 34s that he could have made up the difference in tanks.  I prodded him a couple of times about no infantry...he wanted to deploy them anyway.  Okay, I went with this, in all fairness I may have come off a little bitchy, but for some reason this irked me...a little more on this later...

 

Second shot of the deployment from IDF side

 

 
IDF view of the battlefield, left flank

 

Extended line into the town...

 

 

IDF first blood, 7 IShermans shoot, 7 Syrian tanks burst into flames...pic on the top, Cheesy Microsoft paint pic above...

 

IDF stormtrooper-esque like moves to capture tactical edge 'cards'...these are bonuses in the tank aces system that allow reroll of specific die rolls...these can come in handy and in this case, 4 of 6 were randomly selected and then deployed on table...2 by me, 2 by my opponent.

 

 

I put my camera down for approx. 3 turns...big picture, IDF continued to try long range shots at the Syrians, the Syrians try to keep moving forward and absorb shots with the thicker armor of their T55s...the Syrian infantry continue to move forward.  There were a couple of recoiless rifle teams in the mix...these guys scored various shots along the way but initially only resulted in bails...although the infantry teams weren't deployable, we carried on anyway...because of this and because I was irked, my compromise was to have 'auto' unbails if my tanks were bailed by the infantry.  I also told my opponent that if all his armour were killed then his infantry would auto retreat from the field...I did this out of bitchiness and because I really didn't know what else to do...the Scrapyard mission on the first couple of turns was really a tank slugfest...don't bring a knife to a gunfight.

 

 

 

As you can see here, my opponent is getting some hits on my tanks, by this time I have lost 2-3 of my IShermans...he is down only a couple of tanks and I have killed one of his recoiless teams...I had to make some bold moves out of cover to get at his last couple of T55s as they entered town.  As well, my lone ISherman that moved towards the Syrian deployment edge is taken out by the last recoiless team.

 

Meanwhile, on the left side...my tanks are trying to finish off his last T55 that is hull down on ridgeline enough to be concealed but not enough to be out of line of sight...

The folks on the left couldn't contain him, but when he made for the plateau, I was able to bring 2 tanks to bear, with stabilizers and tactical edge cards that allowed a reroll...and down the last T55 went...

 

The mess on the right...didn't change too much during the game, I kept 2 tanks on that flank and they pretty much stayed for the game.  I had played John in round 1 and had a bugger of a game with him then...his force of T34s, T55s, and ISUs were nasty...I think he should have stayed with that mix.  For myself, the extra points allowed a couple of extra IShermans which came in real handy for staying in the fight.  Good game was had.

 Game 2

 

I totally forgot to get an overhead pic of the deployment...I was having some camera issues and I may have gotten one...but it was so blurred that I can't tell you what it was...I squared off against Mike and his Jordanian M48s...great looking tanks.

 

View of the field from my Ace...Jordanians in the ville in the distance

 

Long view of the ville with the first results of my shooting...Mike has awesome markers, I really like them...I was able to get initiative in the first turn.  I made a mistake and forgot that all my tanks were considered to have moved already...on hindsight, this sucked and I felt bad, but as Mike accidentally deployed an extra tank, I'm willing to let it go.

Another view of the carnage...2 burning M48s...

 

Trying to sneak paste the ville with my ISherman Firefly...

 
I think this is turn 3...by this time, I'm moving around the field, staying near cover as best as possible and am getting some great long distance shots.  The IDF have a special rule that allows re-rolls to hit on tanks that are over 16" away...ROF 2 and re-roll and re-roll to hit with my Ace, very very handy...4 burning Pattons...

 

Jordanians on the move...they kept trying to stay out of range...and with the M48 they had an extra 8" of range than I did...plus Mike's Ace had an extra 4" of range...long range death...potentially...

 

Luck runs out for IDF...my Ace tries to hide behind the burning hull...

 

Another score for the Jordanians...

 

Literal action shot of IDF running for the ville with more burning M48s in the distance...action shot of Mike rolling a save...

 

 

I don't think he made that one...his Ace goes up in flames in the lower left...I had no other shots...like I said, my camera was having a bugger of a time and I ended up blurring about 5-6 other shots.  Overall, the IDF lost 3 IShermans and the Jordanians loose 8 M48s...ville secured.

 

Another great game with Mike.