Tuesday 13 January 2015

Battle of the Pigsty



Now that normal service has been resumed at the Guildford club I was looking forward to playing a game of Imperial Assault, the new game from FFG, that Andrew had acquired.  A couple of days before he realised that he wasn't familiar enough with the game and it's rules and contents to comfortably run the game this week.  Having had a chance to have a look at his set of Imperial Assault I can well understand why!  It's a hefty box of stuff which hopefully we'll get to grips with soon.

                                     



A couple of emails later I agreed to come up with a quick alternative and following a quick rummage in the loft came I emerged (somewhat dusty!) with Saga.  I haven't played this in ages so it seemed like a good opportunity to dust it off

Andrew hadn't played Saga before and I have a feeling it may have been a bit too 'gamey' for him but hopefully he enjoyed it.  We played out a straightforward clash between two 5 point armies with Andrew leading the Anglo Danes while I took the Viking army.

The game opened with the Vikings milling about looking suitably mob like while Andrew's Anglo-Danes had very neatly dressed lines  (I think he plays too much Napoleonics!).  The  2 Warlords advanced, targeting the enemies slightly weaker Warrior units (neither of us fielded the frankly rubbish Levy troops and neither had missile armed warriors either...this was a straightforward hack).








The neatly arrange Anglo Danes




I tried to be cunning and swung half my forces out wide to the left to try and force Andrew to react but he pulled back, refusing to be drawn out from the village which he'd quickly ensconced himself in.

The Viking flank attack
The initial clashes came from the Warlords, backed up by Hearthguard, attacking enemy Warrior units and not surprisingly causing devastation.  I managed to completely destroy one unit while Andrew left one with a handful of survivors.  I think he was a bit surprised by the level of destruction a unit can cause and by the lack of morale rules as heavily damaged units continued to bravely fight on.


My Warlord was caught out by an enemy Hearthguard and nearly died but luckily I remembered the rule that allowed my to sacrifice a brave Viking who was standing nearby and gallantly through himself on the enemies swords, allowing his leader to withdraw.  Warlords are very tough to kill....


My flank attack was still proving a bit rubbish but I did manage to wipe out a second enemy unit, reducing Andrew's dice total further.  Andrew continued to pick on my damaged unit eventually reducing 2 of them to 1 man each.  I'd also lost a Warrior unit by this point so was also losing activation dice.

We then realised that both Warlords had got too close to each other and had to engage in combat.  I had a cunning plan to use some of my vital dice to activate the Viking 'Loki' power which would have destroyed one of Andrews units and crucially preventing him using it to soak up some the damage to his Warlord as I had done earlier... I then realised (having committed the dice) that I'd misread the power and it didn't apply to Hearthguard...bugger!  The Warlords clashed and I came off worse, losing my Warlord and at that point conceding the game.  My lone Hirdman from one of the units Andrew had battered continued to hold the high ground however






Before....




...and after!


Good fun and an ideal quick 'filler' game for a club evening.

7 comments:

  1. Great looking game. An exquisite battle field.

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  2. Good to see the fellows running around the table. That Star Wars thing looks pretty fearsome. I forsee expansions - many expansions!

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    1. It's a lovely looking thing but I suspect it would cost me lots more than the initial £60... A bit like X wing in that respect. I'm holding out for Star Wars Armada but I think that'll be just the same.

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  3. Saga is such a great little game. It's been a while since we've played it at our club, but we always really enjoy it. I really like your table and the miniatures, it all looks excellent.

    Also, I'd not heard of the FFG Imperial Assault game, but I could do with some more Star Wars miniatures, so will have to look into that.

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    1. I hadn't played it for ages either..its. Always a nice treat to dig out something that has languished in the loft for a while!

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  4. Looks great. Interested about your "too gamey" comment as that was my thought when I read the rules. I think it would be too much for my poor brain!

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    1. it is quite gamey...the special dice and boards for choosing actions can take a bit of getting used to, but it's pretty easy to pick up. Let me know if you fancy a game at the club.

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