So, it's been a while...

Without being boring, a variety of factors have kept me away from painting and blogging during May. This has prompted rumours of my departure from the blogosphere, however, you'll be delighted to know, that it was simply a temporary hiatus and normal service is about to be restored.

Despite the lack of other activity, I have managed to squeeze a few games in over the past month and this post is all about a quick catch up of my gaming activities.

Way back at the end of April, having got my hands on the Saga Expansion, Northern Fury, I took part in a four-player game of the new scenario, Wooden Oaths. I was using my Vikings as Jomsvikings for a bit of a change and my ally, at least initially, was Pete with his Vikings. Across the table were Matt and his Normans, and Mal and his Saxons.  here's the initial deployment:

Pete advanced some of his force towards Mal's line, whilst the rest move towards me. I was wary of this as Wooden Oaths gives players the chance to switch sides at a moment's notice, and so a bit of backstabbing was possibly on the cards.

Meanwhile, keeping a wary eye on Pete, I charged headlong towards the cowardly, crossbow wielding Normans.  Matt very kindly kept stopping my abilities and so ran my Wrath up nice and early.

 

Pleasantly, Pete didn't betray me, but he did clobber a unit of Matt's cavalry leaving both sides exposed and vulnerable. Never one to avoid an opportunity to be a bastard, in the following turn I charged both Matt and Pete. It was on this turn that we all discovered that Jomsvikings at full Wrath are utter filth. The following turn, to avoid payback, I changed sides again and we all had a friendly chat atop a hill strewn with bodies until the end of turn four when it became every man for himself.

Meanwhile, faced with only half Pete's force, Mal finally attacked and sent the Vikings scurrying back to Norway.

With Pete neutralised, Matt and engaged in a brutal slugging match to see who could die last.

However, with Pete out of the game and Matt and I exhausted, there was nothing to stop Mal's relatively untouched force from claiming victory.

Overall this game was a load of fun and I heartily recommend Wooden Oaths for multi-player games. I'm also glad that I've got an alternative to my Vikings for Saga. The Jomsvikings play differently enough to give variation to my games of Saga until my Bretons get done and there's a brutal pleasure to be taken from watching your opponent struggle with the decision of whether they want to stop the face-stomping now and run up your Wrath, knowing that they are simply enabling a worse face-stomping later.

Early May saw me playing my first game in the club WFB campaign (blog here) which is based on the new campaign book, Blood in the Badlands. Having chosen my starting realm (I'm green) to be close to the Summer Isles, the objective for the first season, I was suddenly threatened on several sides by High Elves, Empire, Orcs and Tomb Kings. Players only fight one battle per turn, so I was matched against Matt's Empire army that had invaded my kingdom.

My Prophetess, Lady Visenya marshalled the peasant levy to muster around the edge of a small hamlet, and despatched a large contingent of Knights to the flank to sweep around the enemy force, which was themed around Matt's War Altar and so thankfully lacked war machines.

The frenzied Sigmarites, led by their 'Arch-Lector', advanced at a pace, but took hea.vy casualties from the Bretonnian arrows and artillery (19 in one shot from the Trebuchet). The Knights Errant swept away the enemy skirmishers whilst the Knights of the Realm and Pegasus Knights thundered into the Inner Circle Knights and ran them down (whist taking a total of zero casualties from the dangerous terrain).

The remains of the Empire host continued towards Visenya in the village, aided by a successful of Final Transmutation that threatened to destroy the Men at Arms, and for a brief moment it seemed that my general might fall beneath the warhammer of the Arch-Lector, until the Paladin stepped up to meet the challenge. With the enemy charge held, the Knights' encircling manoeuvre was complete and they fell like an avalanche on to the rear of the enemy host, routing them and running them down.

In short, I won. But it was one of 'those' games where if it could go wrong for Matt, it did. I destroyed his whole army; he killed about twenty of my models. Here's a picture of the end of the game.  Matt's army is that unit of 15 militia in the middle:

My final game of the month was against...Matt again! This time we played another battle in our ongoing VBCW campagin. Once again the Wortley Militia and their B.U.F. allies would be taking on the Handsworth Volunteers.  We didn't particularly have a story for this game, it was one of many skirmishes during the civil war.

As we were using our bastardised version of 40k for the game, we also used a 40k mission: take and hold.  With two objectives, one in the town and the other in a small cottage along the road near the edge of the table, we would have to split our forces. Matt massed his infatry, supported by his improvised transports in the centre.

To his left, his artillery stolen from the local regiment, was placed to support his strike force attacking the cottage.

 

The Wortley Dragon, my improvised tank, steamed up the road and began to pour fire (to not much effect actually) on the Handsworth centre.

Whilst the Wortley Militia made their way across the cornfields towards the cottage.  However, they were pinned down at the fence line and came under heavy artillery fire.

Meanwhile, the B.U.F. push into the town, firstly met heavy fire and were then hit with a charge by the Handsworth Sword Dancers. Taking refuge behind the wreckage of their vehicles, the B.U.F. drove of the cavalry and pressed on towards their objective.

However, the destruction of the Wortley Militia and the failure of the Dragon to seize the initiative saw the cottage fall into the hands of the Handsworth men.

Realising that time was running out, the B.U.F. mounted a desperate final push saw to take the town. Despite infliciting terrible casualties on the enemy, a single vehicle contested the objective and the day belonged to Handsworth.

Once again the light-hearted setting of VBCW made for a fun game and saw sentences uttered that had never before graced the English language: "the Lewis guns on the bus with open fire on the Rington's Tea Van." What's more, I feel that our games continue to show that the rules for Warhammer 40k are actually fast, fun and balanced when you actually stop trying to balance things with special rules and points.

This week will see me playing Flames of War against Pete in our long-delayed 'tank-off'. My next post will also demonstrate that I've actually been doing some painting too.

The Boys with the Black Stuff

It's been about six months since I last played Saga, largely because the run up to the 'Winter is Coming' tournament saw me play a lot of games in a very short period and gain a few fatigue points, but also because I've been running and failing to win the club's Blood Bowl tournament. However, with a club campaign just about to kick off and the 'Spring Tide' event a couple of weeks away, I thought that it might be a good idea to remind myself of the rules.

This 6 point game featured my Vikings against my Dad's Irish...I know there isn't an Irish faction (yet, hint hint Mr Tomahawk and Mr Beast) but when he considered what Dark Age force he wanted to build, my Dad was adamant about doing Irish/Hiberno Norse. Depending on force composition he can use the rules for either the Welsh or the Vikings. For this game he was being a bit Welsh.

The Vikings - 1 Warlord, 4 Berserkers, 2 units of 6 Hirdmen, 2 units of 8 Bondi

The 'Irish' - 1 Warlord, 3 units of 4 Teulu, 3 units of 8 Priodaur (all on foot)

We rolled up the 'Escort' scenario and I chose to be the attacker, trying to get the baggage (in this case a load of barrels, probably full of Guinness) off the opposite table edge, and the Irish would be trying to stop me. As you can see from above, I put the majority of my force on my right flank with two of the baggage markers, and I put the other one far over on the left (behind the house) guarded by a single unit of Bondi.

My goal was to draw enemy forces over to the left by sacrificing one of the baggage pieces and so make it easier for my main force to burst through with the rest of my force. The downside of this plan is that I had to get both of the other baggage pieces off the table to win, I couldn't afford to lose one, so I'd have to be careful.

To my delight, my dad placed a unit of Priodaur and a unit of Teulu over on my left, pretty much guaranteeing that I'd lose the Bondi and the baggage, but also assigning two points of his warband to deal with just one point of mine. I would not even try to activate the unit on the left with the aim of making them last longer and so tie up the enemy units for more of the game.

My 5 points of Viking filth were massed and ready to run. The strategy on this flank was to pile forwards, use the Bondi to screen the Warlord, baggage and Hirdmen from the enemy javelins and then launch the Berserkers to punch a hole in the enemy line for my elites hearthguard to surge through.

Opposing my main force were eight Priodaur and four Teulu. This was certainly beatable. However, the worrying part for me was the mass of Priodaur and Teulu, led by the Warlord, behind the woods in the centre. If I took too long trying to clear the screen in front, they'd be on me. Also, I was concerned with the Welsh abilities that slow you down, draw units out of position and allow Welsh units to back off; in short all the abilities that would slow down my surge and allow the Welsh Warlord to close.

The opening of the game went to plan. My main force advanced and the left stayed still. The Irish line threw Javelins and took down a Bondi, but didn't have the abilities ready to stop the Berserkers making contact (I should point out that I use models with Dane Axes as my Berserkers) and making a mess of the Priodaur. I was also surprised that one of the Berserkers survived the encounter.

With only four Teulu in front of me I advanced again and moved the Bondi and one unit of Hirdmen to intercept any rush by the Welsh Warlord, who'd been sneaking through the undergrowth using Children of the Land.

Meanwhile, over on the left, the bait was well and truly taken as the Irish advanced on my Bondi and threw Javelins at them.

The Irish seemed reluctant to close, the Bondi backed off to reduce the damage they were taking from the Javelins. They were eventually caught and killed but the baggage was still at liberty when the game ended.

Back over on the right, the Irish Warlord gave a cry of "With me! For the craic!" and charged with his Priodaur into my understrength Bondi. The fight was short and brutal, largely because the Irish were using Strength in Numbers to beef up their attack, and the Bondi were all killed for the loss of only a single Priodaur.

With four Teulu still blocking the road to freedom, a unit of Hirdmen went barrelling into them, using Valhalla to cut them down to a man. However, the Irish gave good account of themselves and when the dust cleared, nobody was left standing.

The route home was clear, but the Irish Warlord was bearing down on the remnants of my warband (where had they all gone) who were all fatigued. However, a fortunate set of Saga dice saw my Warlord use Njord to clear the fatigue and then simple activations to move the the baggage off the table. Not very glorious or heroic, but hey, who's got the beer?

This was a good game which ended up closer than it should have, but I'm troubled by the Escort scenario. It seems a bit predictable and 'gamey'. After all, in the situation above, the Irish still had over half their warband and I had only my Warlord and six Hirdmen. Unless my camp is immediately off table (in which case, it's an odd place for the Irish to attack) it seems that the Irish would simply harry the remaining Vikings to their death. Also, having three baggage pieces seems to scream for the dummy play and the game ends up feeling like Blood Bowl. Personally I wonder whether having a single, larger piece of baggage would make for a more 'historical' game.

I can see clearly now...

I've just been sent some pictures of my Saga warband during last November's 'Winter Is Coming' and they look rather spiffing. It's clearly to do with the quality of my photography and it raises the question of whether I've been judging my painting through the lens of my dodgy photographs...discuss...

Anyway, here they are:

Normal Service Is Resumed

It's been a while since I last posted. There's been no particular reason for the lack of updates other than I've not got around to it. Only a couple of games have taken place in the interim; yet another game of Saga and for a complete change a game of 40k...you didn't know I played that did you?

Two weeks ago I introduced my Dad to Saga. I fielded my usual Vikings and he fielded a Welsh warband masquerading as a Hiberno-Norse/Irish warband (not sure if this was the best match but it made for a fun game). It was a Clash of Warlords and the long and the short of it was that our Warlords did not clash!

The game was characterised with me pelting across the table intent on ripping the Welsh/Irish to shreds and my Dad learning all about how he could use Holy Ground and Hit and Run to prevent me from achieving this. To add injury to insult, he would then pepper my units with javelins before reteating. Then to add more insult to injury and insult when I finally made contact my elite hard-hitting-hirdmen bounced...in three separate combats!

It wasn't pretty. The Welsh are really nasty when the dice fall kindly. My Dad likes the game though.

Then last week I dusted off my Blood Angels for their first game in at least six months to play 40k against Kelly's Necrons. He'd even bought the new book for the occasion and so my battle plan of shooting the dross to push for a phase out was screwed from the off.

We were playing annihilation and so it was kill-kill-kill all the way. My Death Company leapt in to hack at the Necron Lord's unit of Immortals and went down swinging taking several 'Crons with them. I then splatted a unit of Scarabs with my Terminators and poured withering firepower into the remains of the Immortals, shooting them to pieces. I even managed to sneak up on a Monolith with my multi-melta wielding Attack Bikes. Things were looking good.

Then things changed.

The Immortals got back up, and continued to do so for the rest of the game. The Attack Bikes fluffed their damage rolls and the Monolith was able to summon help. I had forgotten quite how nasty monstrous creatures can be to Terminators and allowed myself to be charged, and I also Deep Struck my Assault Squad deep behind enemy lines where they could be shot and hacked to pieces.

I started taking big casualties and irritated by the Immortals I foolishly threw a Tactical Squad into harm's way to get to them. The Immortals got back up again and with the aid of some Necron Warriors blew the Tactical Squad away.

The Attack Bikes finally found their range and blew up one of the Monoliths, but the C'Tan was busy slicing through my army, accounting for 5 Terminators and a Baal Predator. My Librarian succeeded only in hurting himself with his Blood Lance and when Kelly began removing his damaged units to the rear to deny me kill points, I knew the game was up.

I'd been well beaten.

On the up side, I always find 40k fun when I'm playing it against someone who, like me doesn't take it seriously. They times I've play against tournament-honed lists have been some of the most unfun experiences of my gaming career. 40k is a game which really rewards lack of knowledge as you try to do the best with what you've got - possibly why it sells so well to the kids. It seems to be a game in which knowledge and experience hold a direct correlation with how predictable a game is - this is probably why I play it so infreqently.

I don't know what I'm playing this week. I'm feeling a bit demotivated but will probably get a game in on Thursday...WAB? Maybe.

Winter Has Gone

Sunday saw me taking part in my first ever Saga tournament (possibly the first Saga tournament ever) and my first tournament for well over two years. It took place in our club in Attercliffe, Sheffield and was a thoroughly enjoyable affair. It was fairly well attended (12 players) although many of them were from our club - you've probably notice how much Sagaing has been going on in my reports recently - however we did have a few people who'd travelled, including Carl who'd come all the way from Peterborough.

My warband was configured the same way throughout the competition, even though your I've found a set up I'm happy with, and as I was playing Vikings I had: a Warlord, 1 unit of 4 Berserkers, 2 units of 6 Hirdmen and 2 units of 8 Bondi.

Once again, as there were multiple games involved, I'll keep the reports fairly brief with a few comments about what I'd learned from each one. Also, as the games were timed it didn't seem fair to stop the take loads of pictures so I'm somewhat limited in quality and scope.

GAME 1 - You Cnut be serious!

Opponent: Paul

Warband: Anglo-Danes (Cnut the Great, 4 Huscarls, 8 Huscarls with Dane-Axes, 8 Ceorls, 12 Fyrd)

Scenario: Clash of Warlords

Paul got to deploy first and immediately positioned his Fyrd in the big church (clearly a 12 model building) and massed the rest of his warband around the cornfield on his left. Seeing an opportunity I positioned a unit of Bondi opposite the church, which extended quite far forward, and screened my vulnerable Berserkers with the other unit of Bondi. Either side of this I deployed the two Hirdmen units.

Taking first turn, the Anglo-Danes advanced steadily and predictably the Fyrd poured arrows at me before I could get Odin or Asgard loaded for defence. In response (noting that Paul had neglected to set up Intimidation) I poured the Bondi opposite the church across the table with three activation and attacked the Fyrd with Frigg (to lessen the impact of fatigue) and Valahalla (which became my trademark skill for the day) to gain an extra 4 dice and Thor to fight again immediately. In a particularly poor show of defending themselves, the Fyrd were cut down to three and mopped up by the Bondi in my following turn.

Meanwhile, I tried to do something clever on the other side of the table. Making sure that I kept my better troops more than S away from the fight, I rushed Paul's Ceorls with mine and again used Frigg and Valhalla (this time killing two for 6 dice) to decimate the Anglo-Danish unit and reduce them to three men. There were only four Bondi left and they were in charge range of both units of Huscarls - but this was what I wanted...mwahahahaaaa!

The big unit of eight Huscarls with Dane-Axes took the bait and charged at the Bondi. Due to the positioning of the other Huscarl unit, Axe-Men were forced to string out their line. They still cut down the Bondi, but they lost a man and were now in range.

I launched my Berserkers at the Huscarls, I didn't need to use Frigg as the bait had drawn them close enough and I backed the Berserkers up with Heimdall and Valhalla. The trick here is to accept that due to their poor armour, the Berserkers are going to die and inflict as much carnage on the largest enemy unit that you can. I sent three Berserkers to Valhalla and hit the fatigued Huscarls with a whopping 28 attack dice! Needless to say, Paul hadn't encountered this tactic before and was somewhat taken aback as he removed the entire unit.

It was clear now that Paul was in trouble. However, realising that there were points up for grabs he launched the battered remnants of his line at my fresh Hirdmen. There was a moment where I hung my Warlord out to dry a bit, but defensive play and the proximity of the Hird saved the day. At the end Cnut the Great died in a heroic solo charge against my Hirdmen.

So, what did I learn?

1. Don't be afraid to attack levies in buildings, the extra pip on their save rolls don't really make a difference to the fight as long as you stack the attack dice in your favour.
2. Vikings excel when you are aggressive.
3. The Frigg, Heimdall, Valhalla combo on Berserkers to launch a long range attack is utter filth if your opponent isn't expecting it.

GAME 2 - Saxon Drugs and Rock n' Roll

Opponent: Mal

Warband: Anglo-Danes (Warlord, 4 Huscarls with Dane-Axes, 2 units of 6 Huscarls, 2 units of 8 Ceorls)

Scenario: The Challenge

I've played Mal before and know how difficult it is to beak his Anglo-Danes down, and in the Challenge a lot would depend on who chose deployment side and who went first. As it happened, I lost both rolls and so Mal took the table edge which allowed him to mass his warband behind his warlord and forced me to separate my force to find routes through a village and a cornfield.

To cut a long story short Mal was able to get his warband up to his Warlord quickly enough to dissuade me from suicidal charges to cause wounds (at one point I would have need to inflict about 8 wounding hits to even scratch the Anglo-Danish leader. Combined with this I wasted my Berserkers in a charge on a Ceorl screen and the game looked increasingly like I couldn't win it as I was sending single units against the entire warband.

With a human shield move with one of my Hirdmen units I was able to negate Warlord's pride and withdraw. Outnumbered, I hunkered down between the cornfield and a building and dared Mal to come at me. We both knew that with the amount of turns remaining we couldn't get to each other's Warlord, but we both made valiant attempts on the last turn.

As we'd both failed to inflict any wounds on each other's Warlord, the game was a draw, although Mal took the moral victory as I was running away from him...I made the surviving Vikings swear an oath to never mention that battle again...

So, what did I learn?

1. I'm not a fan of the Challenge scenario as too much depends on the dice rolls at the beginning. Going first is a BIG bonus as it puts your opponent on the back foot immediately.
2. When playing Anglo-Danes, don't assume that they have Intimidation loaded just because they usually do. I wasted several Saga dice by not glancing over at Mal's board.
3. Don't waste Berserkers on Ceorls! Listen to your own advice!

GAME 3 - Crossing Norman's Land

Opponent: Tom

Warband: Normans (Warlord, 2 units of 6 Knights, 8 Mounted Serjeants, 8 Crossbowmen, 12 Peasants)

Scenario: Escort

I made a fatal miscalculation at the beginning of this game and elected to attack the baggage rather than escort it. This gave Tom choice of table sides and so he castled up with his Peasants occupying the big building to my left and his Crossbows taking up a position in the woods on my right. With his Knights lined up in the centre in front of of his baggage and staring at me across a great big empty kill-zone. At least I got to respond to his deployment, putting myself just far enough away to cause problems for his missile troops so he'd have to use dice to be able to shoot me - I wasn't giving away free shots.

Turn one and as I guessed, the Knights and Serjeants stood still whilst the light troops rained missiles on me. Tom was forced to use Massed Volley and move his Crossbows closer, but I lost three Bondi and one Hirdman to the opening salvo. It was clear that he wasn't coming to me unless he had to.

Remembering game one, and fortunate to have several sixes to roll for extra dice, I launched a unit of Bondi at the Peasants and a unit of Hirdmen at the Crossbows. I took a couple of casualties but both units were significantly reduced and across the next to turns I used Loki to wipe them both out - much to Tom's consternation. This left both units open to counter attack from the mounted troops and sure enough the Hirdmen were charged by some Knights and the Bondi were hit by some Mounted Serjeants.

Although both units were destroyed, I used Frigg, Heimdall and Valhalla defensively to negate Tom's inevitable use of Terrified and maul his units as they attacked. The Knights were reduced by two and left fatigued although the Mounted Serjeants faired better, but were left severely fatigued (they'd charged something like 30 inches and fought a combat). I had a unit of Berserkers, a unit of Hirdmen and half a unit of Bindi left, things were looking iffy.

However, by attacking the flanks so hard, I'd not only wiped his missile troops out, but I'd also drawn two units out wide meaning that if I attacked the centre in force, I'd briefly have superiority of numbers. The Berserkers now launched my trademark kamikaze attack at the undamaged Knights and wiped them out. Tom countered by attacking the Hirdmen with the fatigued Knights and lost the unit, although only two of the Hirdmen remained.

I could see my chance, although I only had 5 Bondi, 2 Hirdmen and my Warlord left, I could use fatigue to keep the Serjeants out of the fight for a turn and focus on his Warlord. Realising what I was doing, Tom rested the Serjeants but didn't have enough dice to attack. Warlord's Pride forced the Baron to charge my Jarl and again, by fighting defensively I withstood his attack and lost a Bondi. I countered by leading the Bondi in an attack on the Norman Warlord and smote the arrogant Knight in two. There was a ragged cheer as the last 5 Vikings closed in on their prize.

Sadly, in a twist of irony, the last time I played this scenario has resulted in clarification of whether the Baggage generate Saga dice on the Saga forum. They do. The Mounted Serjeants, despite my best efforts to slow them, thundered down on my exhausted Warlord and killed both him and the Bondi as my Hirdmen led a desperate charge on the Baggage.

They mananged to kill one piece and with the game coming to a close I thought I'd missed my chance. However, it was not to be, inexplicably Tom charged my Hirdmen with another piece of Baggage and gave me the opportunity to win the game when all he had to do was move them away. Sadly, with only one Saga dice and no fatigue on the Baggage, my Hirdmen failed to kill the baggage and were killed in return.

A very close game.

So what did I learn?

1. Some typically aggressive Viking abilities work well in defence against Normans. You know that they can pick their fights, so it's a good idea to be able to give them a kicking when they arrive.
2. Kill the bloody archers! Quickly! Otherwise you be leaking Saga dice defending against them.
3. As I did with the Welsh, try to draw them apart from each other. Their long movement means that Normans can quickly find themselves unsupported.

GAME 4 - GET STUCK IN!

Opponents: (Clockwise from me) Carl, Mal and Andrew

Warband: Normans (Warlord, 2 units of 6 Knights, 8 Mounted Serjeants, 8 Crossbowmen, 12 Peasants); Anglo-Danes (Warlord, 4 Huscarls with Dane-Axes, 2 units of 6 Huscarls, 2 units of 8 Ceorls); Vikings (Harald Hardrada, 8 Varangian Guard, 4 Berserkers, 2 units of 8 Bondi)

Scenario: Feast for Crows

The last game was a big free-for-all and a desperate rush for points. When we deployed, Mal and I suggested that we sit opposite each other as we'd already played and utterly frustrated each other earlier in the day. The others agreed and I turned my thoughts to tactics.

Bearing in mind what I've been learning about this game, and feast for Crows in particular, I decided to focus my assault on only one enemy; Carl's Normans. My reasoning was that: if I didn't I'd get shot to death; I could move away from Andrew's Vikings but not avoid the Norman's bearing down on me and sandwiching me between two opponents; he was to my left and there's a little bot of an advantage in that; and having just played the exact same warband, I reckoned I knew how to take them, whereas Harald Hardrada and the Varangian Guard were an unknown quantity.

In short, once I started moving hell for leather towards the Normans, Carl obliged by coming back at me and Andrew realised that trekking across to get me would leave him very little time to amass points (he was tying for the lead at that point) and so he went after Mal.

Mal's Anglo-Danes took continuous fire from the Massed Volleys of Carl's Peasants and was initially bowled over by the ferocity of Andrew's elite troops. However, Harald found himself and his best troops cut off from the support of the Bondi and so over time, continued use of Trapped and coordinated attacks saw Mal kill off Harald, the Varangian Guard and the Berserkers for heavy losses and then edge ahead of Andrew at the end of the game by assaulting the leaderless Bondi.

Meanwhile, Carl and I got up close and personal. To protect himself early on, Mal had used Trapped on Carl and I took the opportunity to launch the Berserker nuke at a fatigued unit of Knights; everyone died. I then moved a unit of Bondi to 13 inches away from the next unit of Knights and loaded Valhalla. The Knights charged, gained fatigue and then the Bondi sold their lives dearly killing this unit as well.

This left Carl's Baron just out of support range from his Mounted Serjeants and so a unit of Hirdmen jumped on him and killed him. They in turn got smashed into by the Serjeants, who were then assaulted by my remaining Hirdmen. We were trading blow for blow and I was coming off slightly better. Realising I needed more points the Bondi who'd been screening the Crossbows all game launched repeated charges on the Normans, reducing them to two.

In the final turn, I triple activated my four remaining Hirdmen to cross the cornfield the Crossbows were hiding behind and kill the blighters. Finally, much to Andrew's annoyance I used Loki (his username!) to kill three Bondi from across the table, and win the game...by 1 and a half points!

So what did I learn?

1. My thoughts about Normans from game 3 were correct. They can be stretched and fatigued by forcing them to charge 13 inches.
2. Viking need to get stuck in!
3. Saga is an absolute blast as a tournament game and all future Saga tournaments should finish with a Feast for Crows.

Overall, it was a great day. The tables were attractive, the participants were all really nice (even the Norman ones!) and the food was suitably atmospheric (half a roast chicken each with no cutlery!). At the end of the day with two wins and a draw, I came fourth from 12 (very respectable), but was unable to overhaul the three leaders who all had three wins by the end of the third game.

The tournament was won by JP on victory points (who won a unit of GB Saxons), and Matt was pleasantly surprised to find that he'd been awarded best painted (and gained 12 GB Norman Milites). Tom won the charity dice roll off and walked away with a drinking horn as his prize - it's worth noting that Tom lost his warlord in all four games so also wins the award of Captain Reckless!

All in all a great day and I look forward the next event with relish.

A Feast For Craig

Thursday saw my second attempt at the Feast For Crows scenario from the Saga rulebook. This was also the first time my newly painted Viking warband would see action (I'd finally got them all done bar a few shields, eyes and the basing of the entire warband). My force consisted of my Warlord, 1 unit of 12 Hirdmen, 1 unit of 4 Berserkers, and 2 units of 8 Bondi. Small, elite and packing some punch.

Given that last time I'd got stuck in early, taken a beating and then been mopped up by some late arriving Vikings, I had promised myself that I wouldn't be too eager to get stuck in, but would let the others knock chunks out of each other and then go for a late rush to win...we'll see how well that went...

As for the 'others', they were, in clockwise order from me:

Kelly's Normans. Warlord, 2 units of 4 Knights, 2 units of 8 Mounted Sergeants, 1 unit of 8 Crossbows and 1 unit of 8 Foot Sergeants. These models were borrowed from Tom, but Kelly is building a Warband of this composition in time for the tournament and this was his first outing with them. I thoroughly expected these to come thundering down the flank towards me as I was the nearest target and a large building 'blocked' the route to Andrew's force. Which leads me to...

Andrew's Vikings. Andrew was trying something different to his usual set up and fielded an elite heavy force of a Warlord, 2 units of 8 Hirdmen, and 2 units of 8 Bondi. As I mentioned, his flank was protected from Kelly's cavalry by the big feast hall, and so I (and probably the others) expected him to focus on...

Craig's Vikings. With Vikings on either side of him Craig knew that he would have to present a defence on both flanks and hope that we didn't both come for him as the same time. However, he had subconsciously taken steps to even the odds and fielded a warband of: a Warlord, 1 unit of 10 Hirdmen, 1 unit of 6 Hirdmen, 1 unit of 4 Berserkers, 1 unit of 10 Bondi and 1 unit of 6 Bondi. Yes, you are reading that correctly, it's 7 points! To be fair even Craig didn't notice this until the end of the game, however, I'd be lying if I claimed it had no effect on the outcome...

The game began with opening move as everyone jockeyed for position. Aware of the mobile hitting power of the Norman Cavalry, all the Viking players leaped towards the buildings. I managed to get my Bondi into a thatched hut to my left and position my Berserkers behind it. This way, if Kelly sent cavalry at me he'd either have to attack my Bondi in the building and get jumped on by the Berserkers or charge the Berserkers, get mauled and then clobbered by a sally from the Bondi. The prospect of this, and a dice roll that exposed some of the same deployment issues I had faced the previous week, served to hold the Normans back.

In fact the Normans were so caught up with repositioning themselves that a unit of Mounted Sergeants were caught completely unaware by some of Andrew's Hirdmen leaping out of the Feast Hall to give them a good kicking. I'd seen this coming and, as part of my 'plan', I had played Ragnarok which lowered everybody else's armour by one. I sat back and prepared to watch them kick seven shades of sheep out of each other.

The Vikings won but we immediately set upon and mauled by a combination of Crossbows and Cavalry (wasn't that an MB Game back in the day?). "This is good," I thought (have you spotted my tactical error yet?), in fact I thought it so good that when I rolled another double six the next turn I decided the Ragnarok again! Just in time for Craig to decide to get in on the action and exploit Andrew splitting his forces by charging his Berserkers into 8 Hirdmen. Somewhat suicidal use of Frigg and Valhalla saw a lone Berserker model delivering 26 attacks and wiping out two points of Hirdmen for the loss of one point of Berserkers. Meanwhile Andrew's other Hirdmen were finally killed by the Normans after mauling another unit of Mounted Sergeants.

You've spotted it haven't you? To be honest, it was dawning on me at about this time. I'd been so defensively minded, expecting an assault by either Craig or Kelly that I was now stranded out of the game. Feast for Crows is decided by body count and I had yet to score a single kill whilst not only were the others upping their tallies, I'd used bloody Ragnarok to help them to do it!

TWICE!

Something had to be done, and fortunately, Craig decided to do my thinking for me and assaulted my Bondi with his. He had a numbers advantage and Saga dice loaded and won the fight for little loss, however he did leave himself exposed to a counter attack by my Hird-Horde (I'm copyrighting that name - I was considering 'Hordemen' too). I won but in an exchange that was somewhat reminiscent of chess, he then launched his 6 man Hird unit at me. I eventually won that exchange too but the body count was pretty even. However, the destruction of Craig's left flank units left me with nothing nearby to assault.

Meanwhile, in another part of town, Andrew decided to repeat the trick he'd pulled earlier and launched his Warlord and a unit of Bondi out of the Feast Hall and into the Normans. After much charging, galloping, intimidating and shooting, the Normans were further mauled but the Viking Warlord stood alone...for a bit...and then was dead.

Seeing that Andrew only had a single unit of Bondi left, Craig decided to send his big (cheating) unit of 10 Hirdmen over to console them. Group hugs and calming cups of tea were followed by sharp axes and the Bondi were cut to pieces, although they did take a few Hirdmen with them. Andrew's Warband was dead; however, on the up side, he did get to go home early and win brownie points at home. It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good.

The game was entering the end phase and I was behind on kills and somewhat distant from the action. Kelly launched long range cavalry assaults on Craig's Warlord who, never one to look a gift horse in mouth elected to hack the gift horse's head off and add to his ever growing points tally. I was forced to go for broke and had the dice to launch either my Berserkers or my Hirdmen at Craig's remaining Bondi. I mistakenly chose the Berserkers and despite killing all six Bondi were all killed in exchange. I'd once again given Craig more VP's than I'd gained.

My final act was to attack Kelly's Crossbowmen with the Bondi who'd been hiding...er...garrisoning the house all game. I killed the Crossbowmen, but this wasn't enough to raise me out of last place, despite having the most models left. Craig had most VP's at the end having hacked his way through everybody, but as he cheated I think the laurels should go to Kelly in his first game with the Normans. He withstood an absolute battering from Andrew's Vikings and then countered effectively.

So, what have I learned?

1. In Feast for Crows, you need to get stuck in.
2. Don't use Ragnarok to benefit others.
3. Don't send Berserkers at units worth less than they are.
4. Don't play like a pansy, you're a Viking goddammit!

My next game of Saga is next Sunday at the Winter is Coming tournament. With any luck I can handle myself better. This week features a lot of rushing to complete the warband and constructing three baggage markers.

I've also got a game of WAB against Trev. Busy, busy, busy...