Monday 27 August 2018

Battle Report - Saga age of Vikings

Hello All,

Got together with Duncan to play another game of Saga. He had some newly painted Norsd Gaels so we did  Viking Age game. I decided to try out the new Pagan Rus for the first time.

Still just playing the basic scenario, the new book of battles is desperately needed but still not out yet. Anyway we got pizza deployment and cursed ground.


Here is the set up. I put one unit of warriors inside the river and immediately realized that was a bad idea but left them anyway.


My first turn just moving the warriors back hah.


The Norse advance everyone to close range and makexangry noises.


My turn again, I called up a frigid wind yo pit some fatigues on the Norse then charged in with some hearth guards. I was hoping to trade with the big ace guys but lost all mine and only killed 2!


The Norse tried to send in their warlord but I had an ability to stop his second activation so he was stuck.


My turn I called in more wonder and then sent the next unit to the axe men! Went better this time and I killed both with not to many losses.


The Norse hit back but it went not great, o think I formed  Shield Wall and had an ability for an armor bonus.


My turn again. At this point I discovered how great the Ris ability Wrath of the East is it can give a ton of attack and defense dice! So I was able to charge twice and kill a unit of hearthguard with no losses.


Of course the Norse were up to make some Rus die. They were able to kill all my gun but lost a lot of warriors.


Last turn for me and we have a draw at the moment so more action is needed. I used wrath of the east again and charged some warriors by the river. Killed about half for no loss.


The Norse struck back and killed half of mine thou also with no lost!

When we added up the points i had 17 and the Norse Gaels had 14, pretty close but just enough for me to claim victory!

Thanks;
Mike












Friday 24 August 2018

Battle Report - Saga Crusades

Hello Folks,

Wednesday Wargaming is back from summer vacation! This week we are playing some more Saga. Serge has some freshly painted Crusaders so I took some Eastren Princes to fight them.

We played the normal scenario and got the special effect Slaughter so destroying units was worth ab extra 2 points! Cleaning up the little units, is extra important.


Here we are in Russian. I tried explaining that we are orthodox Christian but the crusaders weren't interested. So battle starts. The Crusaders moved up a bit and had some defensive stuff.


My turn I started off with archery, figure you need to work you way up to the main event. First shot was mostly saved by I killed a couple of warriors. The knights had an ability making them super tough so let them be.


Next turn the Crusaders edged a bit more forward. And they tried out the crossbows guys. They had a good time killing half my unit!


I was not real keen on that event so o sent some horse men to murder them! Only one survived but I was left exhausted.


Now was the Crusaders time to shine and they did a lot of charging. Some foot knights wiped my archers, spearmen my mounted unit but they also mostly died, and finally the mounted warriors attack what was left of my foot unit. Not good!


Time to fight back. I need to really catch up on the killing. So I sent my mounted unit to kill the mounted crusaders, which went pretty well but 1 guy survived argh! I charged the foot knights with each of my foot units. The first was not great, but the second was ok. Again 1 guy was left alive!


At this point we are both getting low on dice. But the Crusaders had another good turn. The warlord killed most of 1 warrior unit, and some other warriors killed a lot of my other unit.


I needed to clean up the bit and was getting desperate. But I sent my mounted troops to ger the last mounted crusader. My warlord did a charge to the enemy warlord but bounced. I had used an ability to set up a dice on activation pool during the crusader turn but forgot to use it! But this worked up next turn.


The Crusaders had a plan to kill my king as well but the last foot knight went first to kill my last warrior there. By a stroke of luck they killed each other! This put a fatigue on each of our guys, but the crusader was left exhausted! Not only could he not attack he is now vulnerable.

I had the last turn and my mounted troops got that last crossbow. My warlord then charged the crusader warlord. He had left over saga abilities so had twice as many dice but was exhausted and needed a 6 to hit. With good luck I was able to live and he died!

With that I got just enough points to force a draw! The crusaders only were up by 2 points and needed 3 for a victory. So hah!

Thanks;
Mikr






Monday 20 August 2018

Painting Update - Infinity & Terrain

Hello Folks,

Time for another painting update. Got a bit behind on these but oh well summer lazyness, it happens. In the last little while I have been working through an infinity army that I have had on my list for awhile the Caledonian Highlander Army.

Caledonian Volunteers:


I started with the starter box, the first part of which is the Voulenteers, the basic guys for this army. 2 Rifles and a medic with the med-kit pistol.

Highlander Grey:


Next up the Highlander Grey who is more of a special guy with armor and special rules and what not.

Wulver Grenadier:


Then a Wulver, who is kind of a half wolf man.

Caledonian Moramer:


Then a Moramer who is the heavily armored guy.

Starter Box:


Group shot of the starter army.

S.A.S.:


To expand on things a bit I added on a couple of SAS guys. These are the sneaky camo infiltrator type guy of this army.

Caledonian Volunteers, Special Weapons:


Next big thing is some more volunteers. This is from the box with all the special weapons. Grenade and shot gun ladies, and a chain rifle and HMG guys. I guess this is a good point to point out that they all have the same tartan, it is a simplified version of the Newfoundland Tartan, which I thought was an obvious choice!

Caledonian Moramer, AP HMG:


Final addition is a Moramer this time with an AP machine gun. The pictures turned alot brighter at one point, that is because I got a new phone. Still trying to find the best option for taking pictures. These are with the default setting mostly. Possibly it is just better in general so maybe I don't need the lights anymore.

Army Shot:


Here is the gang so far, quite a fun army I think. Have been able to play 3 games with these guys so far and they are doing better than I would have hoped. Mostly due to luck but still counts!

I have some more to do, the Galwegians and William Wallace, basically crazy sword guys. But have ordered a few more as well. My goal is to have everything done for a local tournament at the end of September.

Mantic Terrain:


In addition to all the infinity stuff I started picking at some of the items from the Mantic Terrain kickstarter that just arrived. Needed a bit of a change of pace. I just grabbed a bag of random stuff that seemed cool honestly, not really any game planned to use this or anything. This is from the dungeon set, they have ones with various themes. Basically I have here a magic portal, wizard pad, demon being summoned from the abyssal realm, a crystal ball and some trapns. All good stuff.

So of their stuff is really nice and some is a bit shit. For example I really like the portal and the demon, but there is an Indiana Jones style giant boulder where the 2 halves are totally mismatched and it just looks bad. But overall very worth it to me, need more random terrain stuff.


Pledge Status, 2017:

Bought: 149
Painted: 225
Total: 76



Thanks;
Mike

Wednesday 8 August 2018

Battle Report - Saga - Anglo Saxons vs Norse Gaels

Hello Folks;

This past Sunday was our club day. We had a bit of a saga day with some napelonics thrown in for good measure.

I brought some Anglo-Saxons to try out a new board and ended up playing Kents Norse Gaels. Probably one of the most changed armies in new Saga.

We played the normal scenario and got hot dog deployment (12" on) with the armies spread out. The battlefield effect was I think judgement where each side gets an extra Saga dice.


Inital deployment, not much chouse when things have to star 6" apart. We both had big armies with multiple units of levy ND lots of warriors. I has my warriors merged into 2 units of 12 as the Saxon board wants big umits luckily taking levy feels allot better now.


First turn is just moving into closer range cautiously but some javelins were tossed.


Turn 2 I made a charge which went ok bit of a wash really. The Gaels can kick in allot of bonus dice!

 
Then the real battle got going. I guess we are taking turns charging really. But the Gaels are abe to get lots of use out of the combat pool so every attack is a risk. But the Saxon have some good balanced abilities that give attack and defense.


Eventually we both got pretty ground down. It was looking bleak for me but on the last turn I got perfect dice for what I wanted and a string of helmets to get extra dice. My warriors charged and killed a unit and my warlord moved into range. I had a levy attack to do and a warlord charge both needed the warlord alive to do. I elected to risk it hoping my guy would live as he might be out of range going second. He killed half a unit but died so my levy didn't get to go.

We ended up very close within 2 points so it was a draw. I was doing pretty bad at some points so lucky to get that. Still I made some bad charges so could have won if did better maybe.


Bonus shot of Napelonics (looks boring?).

Thanks;
Mike