Friday, August 25, 2017

SAGA, end of season 4: the Burh

We played the Burh scenario from the Age of the Wolf campaign.  The Anglo-Danes were attacking a Norman village.
As with many things in AotW some of the scenario aspects were a bit vague.   Can mounted units cross the palisade/wall?  Can the defenders open the gate to go out?  Or come back in (for those that started outside?)

The layout:  the Anglo Danes attack from the left side.  They get points for every figure over the wall at the end of 7 turns.  Standard victory points for kills are added as well.
I had my warlord and 6 mounted warriors outside the wall on the left flank.
And 7 crossbow warriors on the right defending the wall.
Waiting in reserve was my hearthguard unit (10, including a warbanner).  After the first turn I had to roll a 6 on d6 for them to arrive.  How hard could that be?
The Anglo-Danes approach.  3 units of warriors and 1 unit of hearthguard (i forgot if this was 6 or 8 strong)
The first round of crossbow fire finds several victims.  The crossbowmen are then able to turn away the first unit of Anglo-Danes at the wall, but as it looks like they will be overwhelmed, I pulled them back.
Their expert shooting disappeared after that- they were not able to inflict anymore casualties before the Danes ran them down.
Outside my horsemen were too burdened with fatigue inflicted by Anglo dane battleboard abilities to get into the action.
Rogbert charged forward trying to lure out the Angle Warlord, but he was too cowardly to take the challenge.  I guess he felt too comfortable in his shiny new burgh.
So by turn 7 i was still not able to roll a "6" to bring on my reserve unit.  Garrett called it the "Death Star" because it was so potentially dangerous, just lurking over the horizon, but in the end I had to name them "Jeb Stuart", as they were riding all over the countryside except where I needed them.

Thus ended season 4 of our campaign.  A double loss season for the Normans.
The Anglo Danes and Anglo Saxons picked up a victory each while the Vikings stayed quiet and rebuilt their forces.
 We had a side game going on at the same time.  Dan walked Nate through the rules in a viking on viking hack fest.
They started off playing clash of warlords but Nate managed to kill Dan's warlord right off the bat, so they switched to a 2 player "Feast for crows".  Nate won by a few figures.

Thursday, August 17, 2017

Battle-Troll: Pig hunting in the fjords

We got together to play a game of Howard's "Battle-Troll", a game of Norse dark age skirmish.
In this 4 player game, Howard and Nate played 2 viking bands coming to raid my village.  Dan took a band (my cousin from down the road) who would show up in the second turn.
Howard and Nate head across the beach.
Civilians run for their lives.
Outnumbered,  I held my shieldwall back hoping for reinforcements to arrive.
Howard gets to the village first.
He loots the first of the 3 houses and scores some pickled herring.
We taunt each other.
My shieldwall charges in, inflicting one casualty on a carl.
Dan arrives at the end of the turn.
Nate sends his forces against Dan.

Nate sends an axe through Dan's unhistoric helmet- killing him.
Victory is short lived, as Dan's hearthguard and carls swarm Nate and take him down with serious wounds.
Nate's carls flee for the ship.  Now outnumbered, Howard pulls back with his loot.
Dan's men give chase and catch up on the beach.
My men catch up as well, and in leader on leader combat, Howard's hero succumbs to wounds.

The remaining invaders hop in their ship and flee, leaving their leaders behind.  The pigs are safe!

10mm Marlborough man

 Testing out Howard's new game for 1700s Era. Grid based.  10mm figures.