HAHA SAGA Escalation League - 5

Introduction

Over 2 years ago, the Helensburgh Alternative Hobby Association (HAHA) set out to run an escalation league for SAGA.  We managed the first two of our planned monthly meetings, in January and February 2020 - then Covid-19 struck.  Since then we have been through lockdowns, isolations and other inconveniences, but as of a few months ago we re-started our event.  This is a momentous post, because WE FINALLY COMPLETED THE LEAGUE!

For descriptions of the league rules and the five planned events, see here:

• Starter for Ten (January 2020)
• Twin Power (February 2020)
• Long Live the Peasants! (October 2021)
• Bonus Round (November 2021)
• Armageddon (now, this article, February 2022)

The plan was always for a climactic, every-man-for-himself battle at the end of the league.  In this, each player would field the entire 4-point SAGA warband that he (or she) had collected over the duration of the campaign.  Although we started with seven or eight players, due to the lengthy delays we only finished with four.  The others had all moved away from the area and were unable to continue participating.  I hope they are still enjoying SAGA as much as they did in the first two events, wherever they are now!

Armageddon

Usefully, the SAGA "Book of Battles" has a scenario for exactly the kind of grand, chaotic game we had envisioned: it's called "Battle Royale"!  This scenario has an alternating placement anywhere on the table.  Victory conditions revolve around Survival Points and successful charges.

We read the rules slightly incorrectly and gave the VP only for a charge which caused more casualties than were received, rather than any charge that made contact.  In the end this wouldn't have made any real difference to the results, though.

Deployment

Initial placement was quite simple: the Skraelings filled the marsh and the wood with bowmen, planning to move all their warriors onto the hill (and not appreciating that the gentle hill gave no defensive bonuses at all).  The Anglo Saxons, Normans and Crusaders mostly kept to themselves and deliberately didn't interleave with their enemies.

Fighting

Much of the action in our game revolved around the foreground hill.  Although the Skraelings climbed it, they were then sandwiched and harried by both the Crusaders' and the Anglo Saxons' elite troops.  Skraelings don't do too well when defending and their forces just melted away.

The other early action was between the Crusaders' crossbowmen and the Normans' spearmen.  The crossbows proved deadly, both at range and in melee (though by the time the melee occurred, there weren't too many spearmen left!)

Little action occurred elsewhere, except that the Norman archers' volley fire was a constant, if minor irritant to anyone in range.

Finally, the Norman knights decided that they'd find out how squishy the nearby Skraelings were.  It turns out that the swamp didn't slow down the knights enough to save the archers and yes - the Skraeling levy were exceptionally squishy.

The game ended after fierce fighting left the Crusader warlord as "King of the Hill".  He had triumphed over all opposition, including all the Skraeling warriors, their warlord, the Anglo Saxon chief and all of his hearthguard.  He did have a little help in doing this, but the Crusader lord had been all but unstoppable!

Results

For this particular battle:

• The Crusaders scored an impressive 17 survival points.  Much of that was due to successful charges, though many of their units still existed at the end of the game - albeit sorely reduced.  For such a clear victory, they score the maximum 3 league points!
• The Anglo Saxons and the Normans scored 11 and 12 survival points respectively.  Mostly this came down to the units they had left, rather than scoring for charges.  Decent second places, so both are awarded 2 league points.
• The Skraelings were hammered by everyone else (though the others all swore that there was no conspiracy against them!).  They gained a mere 2 survival points for the single unit of levy hiding in the forest.  At least the league rules grant 1 league point for just showing up, so their sacrifice had some purpose...

The HAHA Escalation League Conclusion

After all the points have been added up, the standings are as follows:

	January 2020 Starter for ten	February 2020 Powers of two	March 2020 October 2021 Long live the peasants!	April 2020 November 2021 Bonus round	May 2020 February 2022 Armageddon	TOTAL
Byzantines	1	1	(damaged)	(absent)	(retired)	2
Anglo Saxons	3	3	1	3	2	12
Normans	1	2	1	(absent)	2	6
Jomsvikings	1	2	(retired)	(retired)	(retired)	3
Anglo Danes	3	(absent)	(retired)	(retired)	(retired)	3
Skraelings	1	2	3	2	1	9
Crusaders	2	2	1	1	3	9

Congratulations are due to the Anglo Saxons, who won 3 of the 5 rounds outright and thus achieved an unassailable number of league points.  They are the champions!

It's been a long campaign, but we finally got there.  I'm immensely pleased that we completed the schedule, whilst at the same time I'm saddened that it took so long and that we lost so many participants along the way (again, not due to lack of interest, but rather because "real life" got in the way).

Would I do something like this again?  Certainly I would - like a flash!

HAHA SAGA Escalation League - 4

Introduction

<== View part 3 here

We've now reached the fourth session for our SAGA Escalation league at the HAHA games club.  This is the bonus round and here's how it was described in the original manifesto:

Each participant will bring 1 extra item, to be judged on theme and painting quality.  This could be any of the following, or indeed anything else that fits:

• a piece of scenery (Celtic cross, Viking longboat, Dark Age house, wood, marsh…)

• extra – but not “regular” - figures for the warband (a bard, champion, mercenary group…)

• game accessories (objective or fatigue markers: ox carts, groups of civilians, broken shields & wounded warriors, livestock, sacks/chests of loot…)

On the night, only 3 participants were able to enter an item, though all the members of the club (including the non-SAGA gamers) were encouraged to vote.  Let's see how they did:

Skraelings

The Skraelings chose to bring some civilians (though this might be hard to define in a tribal society!): a couple of fishermen in a canoe.  This piece is probably best thought of as a scenic accent, though I suppose it could be used as an objective or game marker.

Anglo Saxons

The Anglo Saxons brought a hut, along with the blacksmith who lives in it.  Seems like a very useful piece of scenery to me.

Crusaders

For the Crusaders, a warrior priest was added to their ranks.  A minor hero is surely going to help them in their fights against all the infidels!

Conclusion

As you can see from the votes cast (attached to each picture), the club members liked the Anglo Saxon hut a great deal; it scored more votes than the other two entries put together!  So we award a further 3 points to them for this excellent entry, 2 points to the runner up and 1 point for all other submissions.

After that, the standings now look like this:

	January 2020 Starter for ten	February 2020 Powers of two	March 2020 October 2021 Long live the peasants!	April 2020 November 2021 Bonus round	May 2020 December 2021 Armageddon	TOTAL
Byzantines	1	1	(damaged)	(absent)		2
Anglo Saxons	3	3	1	3		10
Normans	1	2	1	(absent)		4
Jomsvikings	1	2	(retired)	(retired)		3
Anglo Danes	3	(absent)	(retired)	(retired)		3
Skraelings	1	2	3	2		8
Crusaders	2	2	1	1		6

So, onward!  There's only 1 one more round to go, after which all finishers should have a 4 point SAGA army and a bonus "extra" item.

On to the final round ==>

HAHA SAGA Escalation League - 3

Introduction

Back in December 2019, a group of us at the Helensburgh Alternative Hobby Association (HAHA) planned out an escalation league for SAGA.  Each month we would bring along a warlord and 1 more point of troops and fight a battle.  The original rules for the league are set out here: escalation-league.docx

We only managed 2 sessions before covid struck and everything went on hold.  You can read about these here:

1. Escalation league week 1
2. Escalation league week 2

Well, this is a month of many "first in a long time" events.  We were able to restart the league and play round 3, finally.

The Setup

As per the schedule, each player brought along a SAGA warband consisting of their warlord and 3 points of troops - at least one point of which was not hearthguard.

I had been hoping to arrange a pair of 3-player every-man-for-himself matches for the evening, but with the numbers we had this wasn't possible.  Of the original 7 participants, 2 have moved away from the area in the past 19 months.  One of the remaining armies (the Byzantines) was involved in a terrible shelf-collapse accident on the morning of the club meeting and was therefore unavailable.  I really hope it can be restored in due course...

That left 4 players.  We (well, I) decided that we would play a 4-way every-man-for-himself match.  The scenario was simple: each player would enter on a different edge of a 4 foot square table.  In the centre was an objective.

If any player started their turn as the only force in contact with the objective then they would win the match.  Obviously, this means they would have had to move that unit into position on their previous turn, thus allowing all the other players a chance to respond!  We limited this automatic win to turn 3 or after, to prevent any cavalry-heavy force from dashing in before all the infantry warbands had marched any great distance.

The Game

The Saxons, Crusaders and Skraelings all advanced early on, whilst the Normans spent their time building up abilities and shooting long range volleys of archery.

Fighting started between the Saxons and the Crusaders.  Whilst this was distracting them, the Skraeling "beaver totem" warriors raced through the woods and hurled javelins into one group of Crusader reinforcements.

Then the Normans joined in.  A savage charge of knights almost destroyed one unit of Saxon hearthguard.

After a couple of turns, the Crusaders and Saxons had taken heavy losses (though oddly enough, the Saxons hadn't lost a unit - instead all of their units were reduced to just one or two figures)

This left the Normans free to attempt the objective.  Initial attempts by the Skraeling "beavers" to dislodge them were repulsed bloodily.

...but the other unit of Skraeling warriors (the "pumas") wiped out the nearest Norman knights and sent their warlord recoiling, thoroughly exhausted.

Now we came to an interesting issue that I hadn't forseen when I set up the scenario: the Warlord's Pride rule.  Put simply, a warlord must attack another warlord if able.  In this case, the Crusader general saw the Saxon chief and went for him, ignoring the possibly more significant targets who were actually on the objective.  The heavily-boosted Crusader overpowered his foe, but was considerably tired from the fight.

The Norman commander then saw the Skraeling chief and somehow mustered up enough energy to attack him (I think he used a battle board ability to throw off a fatigue and charge all in one go).  Both captains went down in a mutual knockout.

This left the Crusaders as the only faction with a leader.  He charged the Skraeling pumas - but because of his earlier fatigue the battle was a close one.  Once more, both sides fought to mutual destruction.

By this time there were very few warriors left, although some levy archers hung about the outer fringes.  The one remaining Skraeling beaver made it to the objective.  The last Saxon (a hearthguard) couldn't quite reach it.  That left the advancing Crusader crossbowmen as the only force which might dislodge the Skraelings.  They shot at him, scoring 3 hits.  2 of these were cancelled by the agility ability, leaving one hit to save on a 4, 5 or 6 - for the game.  The Skraeling made the saving roll and victory was theirs!

Conclusion

Well, that was bloody!  The Skraelings, Normans and Crusaders still had all of their archers or crossbows left, but virtually all the other figures had been removed.  Indeed, the Saxon band was reduced to a single model.  It makes me wonder, with all the leaders out of action, if any of the rank-and-file understood why they were fighting over a big rock in the middle of the board!

After round 3 the standings of the HAHA escalation league are this:

	January 2020 Starter for ten	February 2020 Powers of two	March 2020 October 2021 Long live the peasants!	April 2020 November 2021 Bonus round	May 2020 December 2021 Armageddon	TOTAL
Byzantines	1	1	(damaged)			2
Anglo Saxons	3	3	1			7
Normans	1	2	1			4
Jomsvikings	1	2	(retired)			3
Anglo Danes	3	(absent)	(retired)			3
Skraelings	1	2	3			6
Crusaders	2	2	1			5

Part 4 is this way ==>

Early Scots: the Piper

 Introduction

A couple of years ago I showed a mode of a sword dancer that I had prepared for my Dark Age Scots warband.  At the time someone commented that I needed a bagpipe player or other musician as well, to complement the scene.  Well, I have finally built that model!

The Base Model

Models of early or medieval pipers are not very common, which isn't surprising as there is no documentary or archaelogical evidence for them in Scotland before the 16th century!  I did eventually find a suitable model in Antediluvian's "Islemen-Galloglass Command 2" pack.

This model is technically for the later middle ages - maybe 1300 to 1400 - but styles of dress and equipment didn't change that quickly in more far-flung locations such as the Scottish isles.  In the earlier period, bare legs and no shoes seem to be quite a feature of Dark Age celtic peoples, especially the commoners.

The only change I made to bring my model back to 800 or 900 AD was to replace the legs.  I cut off the model's legs-in-hose-and-shoes and replaced them with some bare legs from a plastic Zulu.  As a bonus, my figure is now standing still, rather than marching forwards - that suits my purposes better.

The Piper

Once this simple conversion had been done, painting the figure was very straightforward.  He has a plain, brown tunic and a patterned cloak, vaguely suggestive of tartan.  The pipes themselves are just a leather bag with some wood or bone tubes.

Conclusion

My SAGA Scots now have someone to play music for the sword dancer!  Or he could lead them into battle, I suppose.

Either way, both the pipes and the sword dance are probably anachronistic; neither is documented as being present in the dark ages.  But then again, the origins of both are not entirely clear, so they could have been present at this period.  Please, just allow me my little fancy!

The Flying Carpet

 Introduction

Not so long ago, I showed my Saracen force for SAGA.  In that article, I added a few extra elements suitable for fantasy games (a sorcerer, a djinn and a roc).  However, no Arabian-style medieval fantasy army would be complete without a flying carpet.  At the time, I didn't have such a model - but I do now and here it is!

The Flying Carpet

After realising that I had made this grave omission, I looked around for suitable models of a flying carpet.

There are quite a few such miniatures around, but most were not much to my taste.  At one end of the spectrum, many such models are much too highly animated & detailed for me, whilst at the other end are some very "decadent" pieces with lounging slave girls and the like.  They look more like an exotic picnic, rather than an adventure in progress!

In the end I chose a middle-of-the-road model from Midlam Miniatures.  It's a fairly old-school figure, but it works for me.

As cast, the carpet did have mounting points for the rider, but I felt this was too far to the back of the "vehicle".  I filled these and drilled new holes towards the centre of gravity.  I also added a sturdy piece of brass rod as a "flying" support, rather than trying to use a transparent plastic post.  The weight of a metal model would have made any plastic into a weak point, I think.

The carpet itself is an image found on the internet..  I did distort it a little bit to fit the shape of the metal model, but my skills in this area are fairly rudimentary.

Once I was reasonably happy with the shape of the image, I printed it onto paper, trimmed it and glued it to the metal model.  Fortunately the metal has only a few gentle undulations in it (no complex curves or folds!) and it wasn't hard to ensure that the paper followed these contours.

Once the paper insert was dry, I painted the fringes of the carpet in a complimentary colour.  The figure was also straightforward to paint; he's a fairly regular 28mm man.  Mind you, I did have a little difficulty in figuring out his clothing; he wears a lot of different layers; some are trimmed with fur and others are not.

Conclusion

I'm happy with this model.  It's a little crude in detail, but paints up nicely into a very colourful and exotic piece.  And of course there's nothing to stop me from adding further flying carpets to my collection in the future, should I choose!

Saga: the Saracens

Introduction

It's been a while since I posted anything.  The truth is, I just didn't feel like blogging - either authoring or viewing other people's offerings.  It was always something I thought I might return to, though - I never gave up all hope.

So let's see how I feel after this: a straightforward cataloguing of my (as yet unbloodied) Saracen warband for SAGA.

The Warlord

The boss of this outfit is Iftakhar.  He's a subtle, refined character with many talents.  Just because he enjoys poetry and hawking doesn't mean that he's not quite capable in a fight as well!

The mounted model is from Perry Miniatures, whilst the bodyguard with the parasol is (if I remember correctly) from Eureka.

Cavalry

One box of Gripping Beast's "Arab heavy cavalry" has been used to make the Saracen hearthguard.  I've modeled most of them with shield and lance (or sword or mace) and a few with bows in hand.  However, many of the former also have bow cases and could be used as either missile or melee troops.

If anything, Saracen nobility are even more gaudy than samurai!  These have all been depicted with expensive, patterned clothes and horse trappings.  Thank goodness I only had a dozen of them to paint!

In contrast, the light cavalry (mercenary Turcoman archers) are much more drab.  Again, these were built from a Gripping Beast plastic box - which suggests that I must have another 4 models somewhere since the kits come as a set of 12 figures.  Hmm - I wonder what I've done with them?

Infantry

I have a substantial core of basic spearmen for my Saracen warband.  Again, these come from a box of Gripping Beast's plastic Arab infantry - apart from one extra metal figure which I think might be an early casting from Gripping Beast.

A dozen archers (the rest of the figures from the box of Arab infantry above) provide some missile power.  Mind you, these are probably less-than-enthusiastic levies and so shouldn't be relied on too much...

Finally, I have some naffatun - foot soldiers with fire pots or primitive flamethrowers.  Such weapons are mentioned in early medieval texts, but I believe they are not described in any detail.  Consequently, the inclusion of these in any game is somewhat conjectural, if not completely fanciful!  Still, they're usually given rules which make them as dangerous to the thrower as to his enemies.  I'll include them in my force because they add a bit of local "colour".

From memory, my naffatun models are a mixture of Perry Miniatures and Gripping Beast.

Pure Fantasy

So, SAGA has this supplement entitled Age of Magic.  It seems to me that the easiest way to play this (starting from my existing collection) is to add a few fantasy elements to an otherwise "historical" force.  Consequently, I've modeled a sorcerer, a roc and a genie (jinn).  Any before anyone points it out, I haven't yet obtained a model for the very obvious man-on-a-flying-carpet!

I haven't stopped to work out what part each of these might play in a game of Age of Magic.  The wizard is obviously a magician and I suppose that the genie could also be a magician.  I don't know about the roc, though.

All three of these models come from Shieldwolf Miniatures and can be found in their Araves range.

Conclusion

On the whole, I'm quite pleased with this warband.  I have another hero (on foot) still to finish painting and I might yet want to add some more fantasy elements, baggage & other objective markers.  But what I have completed is mostly well done - certainly good enough for my liking.

HAHA SAGA Escalation League - 2

<--  Part 1 is here, if you wish to start at the beginning

Introduction

So, this is Part 2 of our games club's SAGA Escalation League.  A group of us from HAHA (Helensburgh Alternative Hobby Association) are collecting new SAGA armies to a monthly timetable.  February's challenge was to expand the warlord and 1 point that we had produced in January by bringing a second point of troops.  Heady stuff!

6 of us met on the club's regular Thursday evening.  This was somewhat awkward, since I had planned (without thinking about it very hard) that in session 2 we would fight 2 vs 2 battles.  Of course, that only works if you have 4 or 8 players, or indeed any other multiple of four.

Instead, we decided to play 3 vs 3, with each side having 3 warlords and their respective 2-point entourages.  This makes for a fairly quick battle, so we managed to fit in 2 such games over the course of the evening.

Game 1

In the first game, both sides looked fairly evenly distributed across their base lines.

However, the Crusaders made a beeline for the Saxons...

...whilst the Jomsvikings and Skraelings defended the rest of the table against an aggressive, but somewhat disjointed attack from the combined Norman and Byzantine horsemen.

The isolated Saxons and Crusaders fought each other to an exhausted stalemate.  Much blood was spilt, but neither of these warlords could finish off his opponent before the end of the game.

Result: a significant (but not crushing) victory for the combined Jomsvikings, Skraelings and Saxons.

Game 2

We randomised the sides again and reset for another game.

This time, the Byzantines and the Saxons left their erstwhile allies and traded places.  Both sides tried to implement some form of strategy - but with too many commanders around, such ideas were short lived!

Instead, the Normans and the Jomsvikings knocked lumps out of each other whilst the Saxons hovered about in the centre, looking menacing but not doing much else.  The Normans had the better of it; their archers shot down the Jomsviking leader in exchange for a few peasants, whilst both sides lost some hearthguard.

Elsewhere, the Crusaders charged forwards at breakneck speed.  Initially this took the allies by surprise, but over time the Byzantines and the Skraelings surrounded their attackers and ground them down.  Eventually, only the Crusader leader was left, surrounded by a ring of his enemies.  He was slain by the Skraeling warlord in the last turn, though not before he had done a lot of damage (question: just how do you scalp someone who is wearing chainmail and a helmet?!)

Result: a narrow victory for the Normans, Saxons and Crusaders.

Conclusion

The sharp-eyed reader will have noticed that the Saxons were on the winning side in both games and therefore score 3 league points.  Equally, the Byzantines were on the losing side twice and only score 1 league point.  Everyone else who was present comes in second place with one win and one loss: 2 league points.

Standings are therefore as follows:

	January Starter for ten	February Powers of two	March Long live the peasants!	April Bonus round	May Armageddon	TOTAL
Byzantines	1	1				2
Anglo Saxons	3	3				6
Normans	1	2				3
Jomsvikings	1	2				3
Anglo Danes	3	(absent)				3
Skraelings	1	2				3
Crusaders	2	2				4

For March's challenge, each warband must add a 3rd point to its strength - but these must not be hearthguard.  An additional 8 warriors or 12 levy will almost double the size of many of these warbands!

On to part 3 ==>

HAHA SAGA Escalation League - 1

Introduction

I don't think I've mentioned this before on my blog, but a group of us are running an escalation league for SAGA at the Helensburgh Alternative Hobby Association (HAHA).

What is this?  Well, it's modelled on the "Tale of four gamers" concept which pops up in White Dwarf magazine every year or two.  At the simplest, a number of people commit to collecting forces for some game system over a fixed time period, playing such games as can be managed at regular intervals.

The full rules for our league can be found here: escalation-league.docx , if anyone is interested.

Starter for Ten

2 games in progress, with various dice, boards and other paraphernalia scattered around the edges 

Since this was the first meeting for our league, each participant brought along a warlord and 1 point of troops for their chosen warband.  Most people chose 4 hearthguard, but a few had 8 warriors as their 1 point's worth of troops.  Interestingly, everyone had selected a different faction, so we didn't have the monotony of 8 Viking warbands 😃.

There were 8 players present for this meeting, which was far more than I had imagined would be interested when the idea of a league was first proposed back in November 2019.  We even had a visitor who had travelled from Fort William (some 2 hours away) especially for the evening.  I hope we were sufficiently good hosts to make this level of dedication worthwhile!

The players were a mixture of veterans like myself and relative newcomers who wish to start playing SAGA.  Most/all of us are collecting a fresh army for the Escalation League, even if a few of us already have quite a lot of figures for other warbands.  After all, one of the main purposes is mutual encouragement!

The "Duel" Scenario

The format of the evening was a series of individual duels.  We created two simple 2x2 foot boards; the rules for the scenario were thus:

• Each warband will deploy in the centre of one tile, diametrically opposite to their opponent (i.e. slightly more than a standard 'M' foot move from the table centre).
• The game will last for 3 turns.
• At the end of the game, any player whose warlord is standing on the board's centre spot will score 2 victory points.
• Any player who eliminates his opponent's warlord will score 1 victory point (unless he/she is already scoring 2 points for 'centre of table').

...and that's it!  Really simple.

We managed to rattle through quite a few of these short matches over the course of 2 hours or so.  Some of the games were a bit slower where new players weren't as familiar with the rules as the old hands, but everyone played at least one match and most played two or three.

Highlights

Skraelings are massacred by a very skillful (and probably very lost!) Jomsviking warlord.

Saracens take the fight to Normans in what looks to be quite an uneven match

The "to hit" rolls from a boosted charge by Crusader knights.  They needed 5+ to hit and this looks like a dramatic result.  Ironically, the player had activated an ability that required him to re-roll 6s - ouch 😢!

Crusaders trying to toss the Jomsviking chieftain over a cliff and into the sea.  I cannot remember if they succeeded or not.

With all their hearthguards already dead or dying, Anglo Saxon and Anglo Dane warlords kill each other in a final, deadly embrace.

Skraeling (with Moose totem) and Anglo Saxon warlords fight to mutual exhaustion - but the Saxon holds the centre ground

Conclusion

As the primary organiser of this league, I was really not sure how the first evening would work.  I need not have worried: everyone had a great time and the "duel" format worked really well.

It became quite obvious over the course of the evening that some faction's battle boards are better suited to very small forces than others.  At the extreme ends, the Anglo Saxons couldn't use any of their abilities which work for very large units, whilst the Anglo Danes' "Intimidation" effect was particularly potent.

Even though there may have been some minor balance issues, everyone was good-natured and took their wins and losses gracefully.  It probably helped that about half the group (including myself) failed to score a single victory point all night - at least there wasn't one poor soul left alone at the bottom of the scoring!

Part 2 of the escalation league is here -->

SAGA v2: First Game

Introduction

I've played a few games of SAGA before (most recently, here), but this time it's different.  At least, it's slightly different, as we recently played our first game of SAGA Version 2.

There are a number of differences between v.1 and v.2, though overall the game is much the same.  Others have reviewed these changes in depth, but here are some of the more obvious alterations:

• The way that the number of SAGA dice is calculated is more even: all units & heroes generate 1 die each (though levy and warrior units have a minimum size below which they don't count any more, so there's no point in hiding that 1-man warrior unit just for its dice-generating potential any more).
• Warlords/heroes are beefed up in combat, but cannot join with another friendly unit in a fight.  All combat is therefore one unit against one unit.
• Melee is one entire unit against another.  No more measuring to try to figure out which figures are involved and which are not.
• Movement is in a straight line; no fiddling around to measure weird curves.
• All the battle boards have been reworked and at least some of the abilities are quite different.

Overall, I think these changes make everything simpler and more consistent, but we have only just scratched the surface in terms of gameplay...

Our Game

So, nothing terribly subtle here.  We lined up 6 points of Vikings vs 6 points of Anglo Danes and threw a couple of terrain pieces on the table, then set to.

My Anglo Danes had fewer men overall than the Vikings, but more of them were armoured.  With that in mind, my central hearthguard charged forwards, whilst my warriors tried to avoid the Viking berserkers who were running a long way around a flank.

The initial clash between these well-trained & motivated fighters and their Viking equivalents was...bloody.

Elsewhere, a group of Viking warriors struggled against some unusually feisty Anglo Dane levy, who first dropped several of the Vikings with sling shots and then saw off the warriors' charge with minimal loss.

The remaining Anglo Dane hearthguards fought a war of attrition with a slightly larger group of Viking warriors.  Over a series of clashes, each side would win their charge and cause a small number of casualties, only to be driven back in turn when the other side counter-attacked.  Neither group was prepared to admit defeat and eventually they pretty much wiped each other out.

So, after a few turns, the situation was thus:

• The Viking berserkers still hadn't caught up with any enemies, though they were getting closer.
• In the centre, units from both sides were queuing up to fight each other.
• Both warlords were hovering just behind their front lines, looking for an opportunity to make a difference.
• There were lots of Vikings behind the wood on the left, but these hadn't made it into the fight yet.

Seeing a remnant of the axe-wielding Anglo Dane hearthguards retreating, the Viking warlord charged through the middle of the battle and cut them down.  This was brave, but left him tired and horribly exposed!

Vengeful Anglo Dane warriors from their second line swarmed all around the solitary Viking hero.  He fought to the last, taking 5 of the attackers with him, but the odds were just too great and the Viking leader fell to a well-aimed spear thrust.

Finally, the Viking berserkers arrived.  They charged into the Anglo Dane slingers and slaughtered them, leaving just one shocked man from the levy.  This wasn't without loss though: 2 berserkers fell as well.

In yet another tit-for-tat move, the reserve Anglo Dane warriors now attacked the depleted group of berserkers.

Knowing how dangerous these frothing loonies could be, the Anglo Dane warriors were boosted by a couple of battle board abilities: Like Rocks and Crush the Weak.  Despite this, they still lost two of their own number before they killed the remaining Vikings.

So, one more fight before the end of the game?  Anglo Dane warriors declared a charge on a slightly smaller group of Vikings.

Despite one of the Vikings declaring "Valhalla!", the defenders were wiped out.  The few remaining victorious Anglo Danes were promptly shot down by the nearby Viking archers.

Having finished off the berserkers, the last group of Anglo Dane warriors then assaulted the Viking archers.  The archers had the worst of it, though the slaughter was high on both sides.

The End

At this point, the turn limit for the game was reached.  As you can see, there weren't many survivors!

We counted up the "slaughter points" for casualties caused and it turned out that each side had exactly the same number!  But wait - bonus slaughter points are also awarded for entire units destroyed:

• The Anglo Danes had lost a large number of men, but surprisingly only 2 units were completely eliminated (one of hearthguard and one of warriors).  The other hearthguard, the other warrior and the levy unit all still had at least one figure left (and just one figure in most cases!)
• The Vikings had lost completely 2 units of hearthguard (including the berserkers) and 2 units of warriors (plus their warlord, though I'm not sure if he counts for these purposes).

Thus I declare that it was a (very) narrow win for the Anglo Danes, who have managed to drive off the seaborne invaders and defend their lands from pillage and ruin!

Conclusion

This game took just short of 2 hours, which wasn't too bad considering that we were learning and still referring to the rulebook on a number of occasions.  We had enough time to reset and play a second game; this went much more quickly (and led to a climactic battle between the two opposing leaders, where the Viking was ultimately cut down by the heavily boosted Anglo Dane hero ("Lord of War" is a very powerful ability for this type of duel 😃).

So, what did we think of the rules?

• Once we were familiar enough with the basic concepts, we fairly rattled through the turns.
• Sometimes a great plan was stymied by not throwing the right faces on the SAGA dice.  Of course, more forethought might have meant that a "plan B" could be followed instead...
• Similarly, melee (especially, but shooting as well, to a lesser extent) would produce unexpected results.  The dice could be especially kind or unkind at times, though this isn't really different from many other games.
• Warlords can be very vulnerable if they become isolated from their bodyguards!  Remember to use their free activation every turn either to move them to a place of safety or to engage the biggest threat.
• There were certainly some occasions where we forgot about free activations of all sorts (the warlord's personal activation, his "we obey" ability, the free manoeuvre for units more then 'L' from an enemy...).  This can be frustrating when you realise part-way through your opponent's next turn that you didn't make all the moves you had planned!
• Overall, I think we enjoyed both tester games a great deal.  We'll certainly play again, though I'll probably try to vary the scenarios a bit, rather than just using the single "pitched battle" setup that comes in the SAGA v.2 rules.