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.