Opening Moves - SAGA AAR

I chose SAGA as one of the games for this years 6x6 challenge, as I have enough miniatures for a few warbands but never get the chance to get them on the table. Thankfully, Kevyn agreed to run an Age of the Wolf campaign with me, which conveniently takes six "seasons" to complete. 

Kevyn choose the Vikings as his faction, while I went with the Normans. Kevyn's Viking warlord is Floki the Carver, with the King's Domain motivation, the Far Traveller and Resolute traits, and The Penny as his special rule. My Norman warlord is Louis Restout, with the Skald's Song motivation, the Quarrelsome and War-toothed traits, and the Hero of the Viking Age special rule. 

We decided to set up a scenic table of a little hamlet on the edge of a forest. Please ignore the gothic wild west town just to the right. It's a bad neighborhood and we don't like to talk about it.

Instead of rolling for a scenario, Kevyn and I settled on Clash of the Warlords to start the campaign for simplicity's sake. Our warbands were similar, with two units of Hearthguard and two units of Warriors. Kevyn decided against taking Berserkers, while three of my units were mounted, and the remaining Warriors unit was equipped with Crossbows.

Both sides moved up in the first turn, with the Normans somewhat slowed by the Viking Warlord's special ability to reduce SAGA dice to 1/3 the amount in the first turn, and 1/2 in the second.

Turn two saw more movement on both sides, with a wall of cavalry slowed by the terrain. The crossbowmen tried to get a shot off at the advancing Viking hearthguard unit, but the Vikings' battleboard ability turned that into a movement, stopping the attack.

Kevyn brought up a unit of Warriors to screen his Hearthguard from the Norman knights. Meanwhile, his Hearthguard in the hamlet ducked behind a building to avoid another round of crossbow shooting.

To finally get some blood on the ground, I had one of my Hearthguard units charge into Kevyn's Warriors. While one of my Knights was killed, I managed to wipe half the Warriors from the board. I then spent another Saga die to pull the Hearthguard back. They were fatigued, but not in danger of being attacked.

Kevyn decided to counter attack, with his Warriors and Hearthguard facing off against their Norman counterparts. The Warriors fared poorly and were wiped out by the mounted unit, but I needed to use a battleboard ability that placed another point of fatigue on the unit to do so. The Hearthguards bounced off each other with a single casualty each.

My turn was fairly boring, with each of the fatigued units resting, and the crossbowmen moving up.

Kevyn's Hearthguard moved in again against my own Hearthguard. While another of my knight was taken down, two more of the Viking hirdmen fell. I felt confident enough to charge my mounted Warriors into the lone Viking, and they removed the unit from the table while only losing a single Warrior in return.

However, that allowed Kevyn to double move his Warriors into the Norman unit, using a Viking ability to get rid of the fatigue from the second movement. Kevyn's dice rolled hot, removing four of the warriors while taking no casualties in return. The horsemen retreated. I had my Crossbowmen attack in return, removing a single Warrior.

Since neither of the Warlords had been killed, the game was decided by victory points, which gave the Normans the win, which increased the Norman Warlord's Reputation by 1.

For the campaign season, both sides replenished their Hearthguard casualties. Kevyn's Warlord went exploring, and managed to increase his Land, Wealth, and Reputation by one each! My Warlord rolled and managed to received 6 Hearthguard as reinforcements, which should be helpful in the next battle.