4pt SAGA Welsh vs Anglo-Danes - Scenario 2: Battle at the ford

This was going to be a lot tougher than the previous battle. In the battle at the ford scenario, the objective is 'most men on the enemy side of the river'. As my Welsh thrive on hit and run tactics, it would be challenging, to say the least.

A choice of Five terrain pieces each meant five in total. A hill, a wood, two buildings and the stone circle meant we set up like this:

Starting layout

A closer look at some of the Anglo Dane forces

Warriors, Warlord and Hearthguard on the Dane right flank

More Warriors and Dane-axe Hearthguard on the Dane left flank

Welsh left flank

Welsh centre and right flank

Some manoeuvring and the first turn is done. 

Turn two sees the Welsh Warlord and Levies advance to the centre of the river, whilst the Dane Warlord and Warriors advance over the bridge, backed up by Hearthguard.

Meanwhile the right flank sees a unit of Welsh Warriors advance to cover the ford.

It says somewhere in the rules that you shouldn't let your Warlord be caught in melee with Levies by his side. Yeah, I know. The mobility that he afforded my poor quality troops in the previous game was for naught in this one, as the Dane Warlord double moved to attack them. They were down to 10 men after some Anglo-Dane trickery with fatigue and Exhaustion, and although I gave them seven attack dice with 'Strength lies in number', they lost.

Didn't expect the double move, and had failed to roll for a 'Holy ground'

Minced slinger, anyone?

Oh dear. The Warlord was surrounded, the slingers in tatters and I could not roll activation for the Warrior backup. It was getting a little bit tricky.

Blurry view from the Dane side

Unfortunately, Charlie's photography skills do not match his Generalship

The Dane warriors mobbed my warlord, and then he was forced into a one on one with the Dane Axe wielding leader. It was curtains for the big Welsh guy. Down to three SAGA dice. I was losing, though if I could get enough men over the river I could still win. 

Finally an activation came for my warriors that the Danes couldn't intimidate away, and they went in, javelins blazing.

The Dane Hearthguard moved in to intercept, but Warlord backup was not available, mark one up to the Welsh Warriors as three quarters of his elite were wiped out. The Warlord was then surrounded and would have died but for a usefully placed remaining Hearthguard - not in base to base with my forces, but within VS to sacrifice himself.

Levies' fate

The Anglo Dane Warriors chased the remaining slingers and wiped them out. This did bring them into double-move-and-shoot range for the Welsh Hearthguard. One casualty meant there were now only five of his troops on my side of the river.

Six on one action saw my warriors lose five as they failed to kill the Anglo Dane warlord again. 

Six on one, good odds, surely?

The last turn (7) loomed and my only hope was to double move my warriors over the ford. Unfortunately he had kept an intimidate (cancel an opponent's activation), and my dash for glory wasn't to be. 

A very wonky final table

On the whole, it was a good game for learning more about the abilities and rules. If I'd had more actual painted men available, I would have fielded three Warriors and a Hearthguard rather than the Levies. I don't think I'll be putting the Warlord in harm's way with only Levies surrounding him in future though.

The move forward for them was not one of my best General moments, to be honest. Still, we live and learn.

Well played to my opponent, Charlie. 

4pt SAGA Welsh vs Anglo-Danes

Our first wargame of 2016, and my recently-completed Welsh were to face off against Charlie's Anglo-Danes.
I chose five and my opponent chose one, resulting in three terrain pieces. We chose a hill, a wood and a stone circle.

Some fairly poor placement led to me taking advantage of Charlie's hill choice, and him exploiting my stone circle, but I think the wood was key.

Table set up, and first warlord placement.

I set up behind the wood on the hill, placing my Bonnedig levy slingers around my warlord. The Warriors flanked him, whilst Hearthguard took a commanding position on the long ridge. The Anglo-Danes split their forces with each flank taking Hearthguard and Warriors - his left flank was the stronger as it contained both warlord and Dane axes.

Welsh left flank

Welsh right flank

The Dane forces began the attack, pushing forward on both flanks, which the welsh countered with 'children of the land' stealth slingers from their new position inside the wood. First blood to the Welsh! (You may have noticed that this is not an impartial report. :)) 

Battle is joined

On the right flank there was some hit and run javelin action, at which the Hearthguard and warriors retreated, one warrior short. In the centre, the warriors and warlord pushed into the wood, only to be foiled by a well-timed Holy Ground. The slingers quickly retreated up the hill, aided by children of the land. On the left flank, however, the Dane axes carved into my warriors, whose retort was a favourable two kills. Four vs two would normally be good odds, but I was fortunate to retreat the last man and let the slingers polish off the last Dane Axeman.

Dane Axes and suicidal Teulu

The heroic and foolish Teulu Hearthguard got some javelin fire into the enemy warlord's warrior unit, now two short, but their resulting counterattack wiped them out to a man.

My left flank was at somewhat of an impasse.

A slow advance, and my single man unit keeps me in dice.

Slingers ready for the warrior unit to poke their faces out of the woods.

Game over, man, game over.

And after a final charge, javelins and retreat from my fatigued Priodaur, which gave me two kills on his Hearthguard, the game was over. No Warlords even remotely killed. Points gave me the victory, but I think the hill contributed to that significantly.

On the whole, I enjoyed it. It's a lot more difficult than it looks to optimise your dice rolls. Although I'm sure we missed some things and got others wrong, it's always nice to play a wargame with fully painted forces on pretty terrain. Thanks to my gallant foe Charlie for a good game.

The terrain tiles are from TSS by the way