For Want of a Nail - Saga Tournament AAR

This past weekend I attended a Saga tournament at the invite of a friend. I haven't touched Saga in years, so I dusted off my Normans to see how they would do.

The theme was Vikings and Invasions, and saw warbands from the Anglo-Danes, Welsh, Normans, Saxons, Franks, and Picts clashing over three rounds.

I brought a mounted Warlord, 12 Hearthguard, 16 Warriors, and 12 Levy.

Round 1's scenario was Clash of Warlords against a Frankish warband consisting of only Warriors armed with hand weapons, divvied out into units of varying sizes.

The game was overall bloody, with both sides beating each other down over six turns. While my Normans had the advantage in ranged-weapons and mounts, the Frankish battleboard could give even smaller units some massive combat advantages.

I did manage to win the game, 12-8.

My second game was against a Welsh warband in the Capture scenario, where both warbands attempt to control three points in the center of the battlefield.

The Welsh warband consisted of some mounted Hearthguard, generic Warriors, and some ranged-weapons Levy.

This game came down to a couple early gambits between the Welsh and Norman Warlords. Unfortunately the dice were against me and I found a good part of my warband wiped out by the end of turn 2. I realized that this would quickly lead to an exponential victory point gain for my opponent and decided to concede, losing the game 1-19.

The last round was the Conquest scenario against a Pictish warband. This scenario is a combination of the Clash of Warlords and Capture scenarios, where both sides aim to cause as much damage as possible while gaining extra points by staying close to the center objective.

The Picts had a chariot-mounted Warlord, a small mounted units of Hearthguard, some Warriors, and a few units of Levy armed with a variety of ranged weapons; most worryingly, a unit of 12 Levy with crossbows, which could be incredibly deadly to all of my units. 

Sadly, this was another game that I did not do well in. Like the Welsh, the Picts are a slippery warband that likes to move around and avoid direct conflict, which the Norman warband doesn't have many answers for. After losing half my warband in the early rounds, I decided to charge into the mass of the Picts rather then spend the rest of the scenario running away. This resulted in another lopsided loss of 3-17.

So a rather poor showing overall! Some of it I chalk up to unfamiliarity with the rules (the last time I played Saga was back in 2021 and apparently there's been a version 2.5 reprint) as well as some bad matchups with warbands.