Saga 2: Vikings V Anglo Danes

Probably a bit over confident but Mick and I decided to play a 6 pt game for our first foray into the new version of Saga.

Anglo Danes

Warlord

12 Huscarls in 2 units

8 Fyrd x 2

12 Great Fyrd with bows

Vikings

Warlord

4 units of 8 Bondi

Berserkers

12 Thralls with bows

This was just a basic game to get the changes into our heads and I have to say that I really hadn't had much of a chance to read the rules. When has that ever stopped me!

I got to go first and straight off the way it played changed. If a unit is L or more away from any enemy troops, which at the start of the game is very likely, the unit can make a free move, requiring no order dice. As long as you stop your move before you come within L of any enemy you move for free.

As a result my whole army got to move and I used 1 dice to move my Levi up an extra move, thus they received a Fatigue token, over on the right.

Very fittingly Mick's Anglo-Danes moved forward very carefully, perhaps a little unnerved by the ferocious, screaming horde before them. 

The Battleboards have changed, both in look and content, some of the more extreme abilities have been changed, like Loki and Intimidation for the ADanes.

The Vikings got into a bit of a bottle neck between the river and the impassible outcrop on their right.

Finally the ADanes surge forward and shoot the Viking Warriors on the far left felling one.

Another unit of younger Bondi charged impetuously at the ADane warriors at the edge of the wood driving them back for the loss of 3 of their number, for 1 of their friends. 

But this left them exposed and they were dispatched by the ADane Hearthguard who charged them in the flank.

This led to another counter from the Viking Berserkers and with the Heimdall ability, giving 5 extra attacks at the loss of a point of armour, both units were wiped out. I was glad to be rid of Mick's Huscarls as they are quite nasty, but at some cost.

On the left my Bondi charged, yes you declare charges now, into the ADane Great Fyrd but only managed 2 wounds, still enough to drive them off.

Look at my Levi, Riot is always telling me to ditch them and although they get more shooting attacks than they did and now create Saga dice, they did nothing but sit there on that flank and didn't get to shoot even once!

With the path clear the ADane Huscarls charged my Bondi and routed them.

Then in the next turn my spear carrying Bondi got beside themselves and first attacked one unit of Fyrd to the right of the wood, losing 4 of their number....

.....then reactivated and charged into another unit of Fyrd on the edge of the wood, killing 1 for the loss of one and again having to withdraw. Mad devils!

At this point my battery on my phone started to wane, hence the different quality of picture, my apologies.

Over 2 combats the Bondi in the centre were whittled away by Mick's second unit of Huscarls.

But that gave me the chance to charge another group of Bondi into the Huscarls and using Heimdall and Thor abilities I managed a massive number of dice and poor Mick narrowly missed saving any of his troops.

At this point I felt I had really achieved all I wanted, the Huscarl units were gone.

My Bondi in the centre refused to die, shrugging off attack after attack.

They charged the Fyrd in the wood and killed them.

But were then routed after being shot then charged by the last Fyrd unit.

At this point, it was late and we both decided this had been a bloody enough evening and so the game was declared a draw, very fair I thought as Mick  had the upper hand. 

We both thoroughly enjoyed our first game of the new version of Saga, it was different but not that different that we had no idea, so went well.

Cheers Mick for a splendid game :-)