Saga three ways

A visit to Eric the Shed's place this week for a game of Saga...something I haven't played for several years.  I've played quite a few games in the past when it was a new and shiney thing but not for a few years...people at the club seemed to find it a bit 'gamey' which it is I guess.

I was even tempted into digging out my Vikings from the loft...they were banished there after falling out of the loft hatch and bouncing down the stairs not once, but twice in the space of 10 minutes!  After the second crash I couldn't bear to look in the box to see how bad the damage was so they've languished upstairs since then.

Actually the damage wasn't too bad...a few broken spears and arms and one figure who had snapped off at the ankles but mostly they were surprisingly intact.  Gripping Beast plastics are surprisingly durable!

Eric had set up a 3 way game which set 2 bands of  rival Viking raiders against some Anglo-Danes defending a hill-top church.  Initially the Danes looked hard pressed as both groups of Vikings converged on the hill although my initial attack went badly, losing a unit of Bondi completely and taking a hit on my elite Hearthguard.  This did manage to take out his archers but it was too costly an attack.

My Vikings are in the centre...Warband #2 arrived by sea from the left

The Danes gather around the church

Viking raiders #1

On my left flank I was nervously eyeing up the other Viking band who were pressing the Danes back but I was convinced it was only a matter of time before they turned on me.  My nerve gave out first and my archers turned on the rival Vikings, peppering a unit of Bondi and I followed this up with a charge from my spearman.   Of course this prompted a pretty violent response from the Vikings who unleashed their own attacks leaving both of us weakened and pretty much handing the game to the Danes.  They completed the victory by finally charging off the hill and killing my Warlord....that's what I get for impatience and paranoia!!!

Ready to drive off the Anglo-Danish archers

It took a little while for the nuances of Saga to come back to me but it's a great game and it was nice to get out a long neglected army.

Like all raiding Vikings we were well supplied with rations foraged from the enemy....

Authentic Viking raiding supplies

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.

It's the Snowpocalypse!!!!

I'm updating my blog from the snowy wastes of Surrey where we're in the grip of 2" of snow and have been largely cut off from the outside world.  The Tesco Express next door has row upon row of empty shelves [not even an horse burger to be seen...] and we may have to eat the dog if they aren't restocked soon [... only kidding... he's too skinny, we'll have to eat my son instead!]

It's the annual weekend of snow that we get here and everything grinds to a halt... this is where I should go into a rant about how it wasn't like this when I was young/ they're all southern softies down here in Surrey/ everyone's hysterical etc, but actually I've been mainly preoccupied by the fact that our heating and hot water packed in and it was bloody freezing!!!  We now have heat but not hot water but at least I can grab a shower at work so it's not too bad.

The snow has meant a quiet weekend though so there was a chance to do some more work on my Saxons [see... I really am trying to stick to my plan!]  I've built 20 of my Gripping Beast plastic Saxons and had part-painted them last year so wanted to try and get them finished.  They're now painted and had an ink wash and just need to bases finished off.  Somewhere I have some shield transfers for these and for my Vikings but I couldn't find them anywhere so have had to give them some rather boring shield patterns.  Hopefully the transfers are in a box in the loft and I'll be able to track them down for the next batch as they really did make a difference to the Viking shields.

Saxon Warlord and Standard bearer

 

 



 



 

 

 

On another note I saw that Warlord Games have reduced the price of some of their rule books in the last week or so.  I decided to order a set of Hail Caesar at the reduced price of £20.  One of my quests has been to try and find a decent set of rules for my Italian Condotta and Swiss armies.  I originally used these with DBM but it's a rule system I struggle to love although I really do like DBA!

 

I've tried FoG which is the Ancient/Medieval rule du jour at the club but again struggled to get along with it.  I quite enjoyed them but never really felt like I knew what was going on [... nothing unusual there!]. 

 

I've also been having a look at some of the Perfect Captain rules  [ http://perfectcaptain.50megs.com/captain.html ], especially Strongbow and A Coat of Steel to see if these could suit the early Renaissance period.  I'm a big fan of Black Powder though so Hail Caesar seemed like a good bet for the Italians and Swiss.  I'll let you know how I get on.

The post-Hogmanay guilty planning

First, what did yesternight deliver?
'Another year has gone for ever.'
And what is this day's strong suggestion?
'The passing moment's all we rest on!'
Rest on - for what? what do we here?

Sketch New Year's Day. To Mrs Dunlop - Burns

Well, traditionally this is where I should be reflecting on last year's progress or lack of it and drawing up a set of New Year resolutions and setting out my plans for 2013.

I have to confess I've never been very good at the whole planning thing [which could explain why I often lose games!] but here goes...

Projects lingering on from 2012 that I'm hoping to 'complete' [I know... I know... how many wargamers ever actually complete anything!] include:

• 6mm Samurai... I got these last xmas and made a good start on painting but haven't moved them on much.

Baccus Samurai...sadly not mine!

• Finish the Gripping Beast Vikings and Saxons that I acquired for Saga.  I've just spotted that the latest Too Fat Lardies Xmas special has some rules for including Vikings into their Dux Brittanium rules.  I've downloaded the special but have got round to reading it as yet but reviews of DB sound very promising.

• Finish and add to the Napoleonic figures I have for Sharpe Practice.  The Napoleonic period is one that has always left me cold but I found that I really liked the narrative driven style of SP... much more cinematic and fun.

• And finally... actually do some painting!  We acquired a dog back in October and since his arrival I haven't painted a thing... mainly due to being knackered due to excessive dog walking.  My stamina seems to have finally caught up so hopefully I can now build back in some painting time

Trigger... the anti-painting dog

I made a start this evening with doing some work on the Saxons while my son made much faster progress on his new Dark Eldar army that he got at xmas [the one consolation is that his painting rate is even worse than mine!!]

Some of the Viking hordes... Saxons to follow...