Happy Warlords

Matt from The Hall of Heroes kindly sent me a photo of the happy prize winners from the weekend Saga competition. Here we are:

Oh, alright, not really. This is the harsh reality:

Note the great prizes from War and Peace Games. I'm the one with the most reflective head.

A Happy, Happy Dux

Carlsberg don't run wargames shops, but if they did, they would look like The Hall of Heroes (HOH). On Saturday I trekked out to HOH at Campbelltown (on the fringe of the urban sprawl that is Sydney) for a Saga tournament. It was my first time at the shop, and later in the week I want to write a separate post about why I think it is such a brilliant place. Today I'll confine myself to a quick rundown on the competition. We played 3 games, using 4 point warbands that couldn't be altered. We were originally supposed to play 4 games each, but didn't quite have enough time. The scenarios were Clash of Warlords, Sacred Ground and the Escort. I actually hadn't played the last two before, and doing so just made me love Saga more. I used my Welsh, fielding two units of Warriors, one unit of Hearthguard on foot, and one unit of mounted hearthguard. There seemed to be a lot of Welsh there on the day, actually. Could hardly move for goldy-looking chains. Surprisingly, nobody brought any Normans along.

I played Kim in the first game of Clash of Warlords. Kim also fielded Welsh, but with a unit of Levies and all on foot. Very interesting match up fighting Welsh with Welsh. I was lucky to pull off a win, killing Kim's warlord in the final turn of the game. I think his decision to bring Levies along had a fair bit to do with the result. I was pretty much able to ignore them and bring everything in on his warlord, although I suffered cruelly from a unit of his warriors over on the right flank that hammered me with javelins.

Homing in on Kim's warlord

In game two, I fought Dickie in the Sacred Ground Scenario. Again - Welsh vs Welsh, although Dickie's warband was very interesting - everything mounted except for a unit of Flemish mercenaries. I was able to use Taunting on the Welsh battleboard effectively to get his cavalry into range of my javelins several times, and although his Flemish would have been incredibly hard to budge from any piece of Sacred Ground they occupied, they moved so slowly (especially when I slowed them down - heheh), that I had effectively broken the rest of Dickie's warband, including his warlord, before they could get into action. Another win to me, and an unlucky match up for Dickie, where his mobility actually turned into a liability against taunting Welsh with javelins.

A depressingly common sight for Dickie as my warriors taunt his cavalry into range of their javelins.

The third game was the Escort scenario, fighting Barks' Anglo Danes. God I hate the Anglo Danes. I also must have offended the Dice Gods by this point in the day, because in 6 turns, rolling 6 Saga dice each turn, I rolled a grand total of one dragon. This really stuffed up my plan to use Taunting and Hit and Run a lot to get his troops out of the way of my baggage. If you aren't familiar with the scenario, my goal was to get at least two of my three baggage units off the opposite board edge in order to win. Barks' Levies were definitely the Men of the Match, steadily slaughtering my warriors while I waited fruitlessly for some good dice rolls. Eventually I tried a dramatic, Schlieffen Plan-esque outflanking move with the baggage, preparing to sacrifice all my surviving troops to get them off the board. We had to call this game a draw, with two of my baggage possibly going to make it off the board, but certainly my entire warband doomed. I loved this scenario though, and would play it totally differently next time. The baggage elements in particular are actually very tough, and it is a mark of how badly Barks had mauled my men that I was thinking of using the baggage offensively by the end.

Trying to take advantage of my men getting hammered in the centre, the baggage head try to put a wood between them and the Anglo-Danes So, two wins and a draw, which meant that Barks and I drew overall in the tournament. We resolved this epically with a final confrontation between our warlords, with one retainer each. The Dice Gods smiled at last, and I won this comprehensively. Result - I won a tournament! Hall of Heroes presented the first three places with a very spiffy trophy, and from the very generous prize pool I scored a Breton starter warband! I think everyone involved in the day had a brilliant time. The atmosphere was incredibly friendly and generous-spirited. I thoroughly enjoyed playing against my three opponents, none of whom I had met previously. All in all, a golden day, and the feasting of the Welsh homunculi went on all night. A huge thank you is due to the guys at Hall of Heroes for hosting the event and running it so well, and also to Ian at War and Peace Games who together with HOH provided the fantastic prizes. Thanks and congratulations to the other Warlords, and special thanks to Barks for giving me a lift home!

Damian's Jomsvikings get stuck into Dickie's Welsh

West Wind Arthurian Cavalry Completed

I've just finished these boyos - two points worth of mounted hearthguard for my Welsh Saga warband. I just love these figures from West Wind - great detail, loads of character and the separate head system allows lots of variety. Looking forward to trying them out in a game and seeing if their mobility and ability to annoy the enemy with javelins compensates for their extreme vulnerability to missile weapons.

Work in Progress - Westwind Cavalry

I couldn't resist these Welsh cavalry from Westwind Productions. It's a bit of a shame there isn't more variety with the horses, and I guess they really belong to the 6-7th century rather than the 9-10th, but they look brilliant and I'm looking forward to whacking some paint on them. They don't come with weapons, but I've added plastic axes, swords and javelins from Gripping Beast and Wargames Factory.

More Welsh Teulu

It hasn't all been Nazi Dinosaurs this week. Tonight I finished three more teulu (hearthguard) for my Welsh Saga warband, meaning I now have a complete 6 point warband. Huzzah! The figures are from Gripping Beast, with a couple of heads added from their box of plastic Saxon Thegns.

Welsh Warriors for Saga

Here are eight more warriors completed for my expanded Welsh Saga warband. This unit is worth one point in Saga terms. Sorry the photos aren't great.

Most of the figures are Westwind Productions, except for the first, second and fifth figures from the left in the top picture, which are made by Gripping Beast. The javelins are plastic weapons from Wargames Factory. As you can see, the Westwind figures are a good match with Gripping Beast, and the separate heads they come with allow a lot of variety. Busy times at work at the moment, so I'm feeling a bit smug about getting these finished.

Saga Battle Report - Or, How Owain the Prudent Lived to Fight Another Day

Playing Paul the Galloglaigh on Tuesday night with my Welsh for the first time really made me appreciate the subtlety of tactics possible in Saga. Gosh it's a good game! We each fielded a 4-point warband, with paul using Vikings against my Welsh. Critically, he didn't have any missile troops, so really needed to use the Vikings' ability to counteract fatigue to get into action with my troops as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, but I have reconstructed the final move of the game below, mainly for gloating purposes. Although the following reconstruction is based on real events, the parts are all played by professional actors, and no miniature was harmed in the reconstruction of these events.

We were playing the Clash of Warlords scenario, with victory going to the first player to kill the opposing warlord.

Things didn't start well for the Vikings, who lost their berserkers early on to a shower of javelins. Paul was desperate to finish things, and I gave him the perfect opportunity in the penultimate turn, leaving my warlord and two surviving teulu retainers deliberately within charge range of his warlord and accompanying five warriors.

View from behind the Welsh lines. That's my warlord over on the right flank with his sword held back.

Paul took the bait, loading up his battleboard with dice to maximise his success in melee, then using the Side by Side rule to charge his warlord and warriors into my warlord.

Or at least that's what he planned to do. However, in my turn I left a die on the Hit and Run box, which meant that I could activate and move one of my units at the point Paul activated one of his within Medium distance. I made a bit of an error with the rules, originally planning to activate my exposed warlord and his two hearthguard, but of course I couldn't. So, telling his men that he would have songs composed in their honour, Owain legged it back behind the levies while his two faithful retainers tried to fight the Vikings and their million or so attack dice, with predictable results. The Viking warlord and his warriors were victorious, but they ended their turn horribly exposed.

Not Owain's finest hour, but now it was the Welsh turn and I could spring the trap. I put dice on Children of the Land, Taunting and Strength Lies in Numbers, as well as having one to activate my Priodaur who were on the far side of the swamp. First up I used the Taunting ability, and my Levies promptly made all kinds of gestures and ribald comments to the warriors surrounding the Viking warlord. THe Vikings weren't having this, so activated and charged my levies.

I really wanted to lose that combat, but ended up winning it, so that one surviving Viking fled back to within Very Short distance of the warlord. The bodyguard is heavily depleted - so far so good.

Next I activated the unit of warriors to the left of the swamp. Because of the Children of the Land ability they were able to ignore the movement penalty of the swamp and charge into the Viking Warlord. They all ended up within VS of him, so were going to roll 8 attack dice. However, I also had the Strength in Numbers ability, so I gained an extra die for every figure by which I outnumbered my opponent, giving me a grand total of 15 dice to the warlord's 5.

After rolling for hits and saves, I scored three un-cancelled hits. One of these was taken by the warrior within VS distance of the warlord, one was absorbed by the Warlord's Resilience, but the third hit finished him.

I love it when a plan comes together.

West Wind Productions Welsh Spearmen

I ordered some Welsh spearmen from the West Wind Productions Arthurian range to flesh out my Welsh for Saga. Unfortunately they don't have images of the figures on their website, so this is just a quick preview of the figures for others who are interested in them.

The figures come as a set of 20 for 19.99GBP, so they are good value. There are four different body types in the pack, shown above with a Gripping Beast plastic Saxon on the left and a Gripping Beast metal Viking on the far right for comparison. The pack also contains shields (of two different types) and five identical sprues, each of four separate heads.

Things to Like
The figures are very cleanly cast with minimal flash, and they will mix in well with Gripping Beast figures. The detail is very good. Proportions and poses are good.

Quibbles
No weapons are supplied. There are only four different bods, and it is a shame that none wear any form of armour. There is no real texture on the reverse of the shields. Like most Welsh figures (eg GB) these chaps have been given breeches, presumably to make them look different to Saxons etc. I don't know that there is any real evidence for them, but they look fine. Like the GB Welsh the West Wind bod on the left of the line has been given a short cloak, although I didn't find it as convincing. The sculptor has rendered it as a short surcoat-like arrangement, secured with a belt, although with no apparent brooch fastening. It is a bit of a shame that only four different heads come in the pack. It would be great if there was more variety, with some helmeted heads. West Wind do make some very nice ones ad part of their Separate Heads System, but you'll need to buy these separately.

Verdict?
These are nice figures that will give some variety to a warband, although will look a bit uniform if used by themselves.

I also ordered some of the West Wind Arthurian personality packs along with these, and they are lovely figures. Perfect for Saga apart from the helmets, which really are more 6-7th century, but you could either replace the heads, or overlook the anachronism and get a head start on your warband when Saga goes Arthurian.

If anybody fancies a swap of 8-12 of these for say, some GB Scots or mounted Welsh or Scots, let me know.

4 Point Warband for Saga Completed

I finished the last unit of eight warriors for my Welsh, so I have completed a four point warband for Saga.

Here are the final warriors....


....and the warband all together. I have some extra Welsh on the way from Westwind Productions, and plan to add a couple more units of hearthguard.

It's good to get them done, and well worth celebrating with some traditional Welsh dancing.

Welsh Saga Warband - the Big Boyos

Here are my first completed figures for 2012 - a unit of four hearthguard and the warlord for my Welsh warband. The warlord is himself with the cross on the white shield. I quite like how these turned out, although the fearsome boar on one shield looks a bit cute.

Welsh Levies for Saga

Here's the next unit completed for my Welsh Saga warband. 12 bow-armed levies from Gripping Beast. Enjoy!

Saga Welsh Warband

Here is the first unit of 8 warriors for my Welsh Saga warband. All figures are from Gripping Beast.



The Danish perspective...