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 rather 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 Welsh pulled out ahead 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 (especially needing to avoid the ranged Levy horde hanging out in the field), 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. 

The Tale of Sir Chasm - Saga AAR

Josh and I continued our run of weekend games. This week we decided to pick Saga back up, but with the Age of Fantasy book. 

After a quick scramble to purchase dice (which we both forgot!) we cracked open the books. 

We decided to use the "Battle of Heroes" scenario from the Book of Battles to randomize the table and objectives. We were fighting in the Uplands, with two ruins, two pieces of rocky ground, and a woods in the middle. With the Confusion deployment, our warbands were diagonally opposed across the battlefield. The game length was Until Dusk (six turns), the special rule was A Dash of Nostalgia (Warlords generate two Saga dice), and the victory Condition was Subjugation (a straightforward counting of massacre points at the end of the game.

Josh had brought a Masters of the Underearth warband, using the Dwarves of the Silverheight legendary rules:

• Warlord
• Wizard
• 8 Warriors
• 8 Warriors
• 8 Warriors with Heavy Weapons
• 8 Warriors with Crossbows
• 8 Warriors with Firearms
• 2 Bipedal Creatures (Living Statues)
• Static War Machine (Cannon)

I brought a Horde Warband, which seemed best suited to my Orcs & Goblins:

• Warlord
• Wizard
• Lieutenant
• 4 Hearthguard
• 8 Warriors
• 8 Warriors
• 8 Mounted Warriors
• 3 Bipedal Creatures (Trolls) 
• War Chariot

The two warbands seemed well balanced against each other. The Horde battle board largely focuses on charging into combat, and increasing the number of attack dice thrown when charging. The Underearth battleboard has more table control, with abilities that can block or halt enemy units, improve ranged attacks, and use your numbers (either because there's more models in your warband, or you have better armor) against the enemy. 

With just three dice in the first turn (as per the Until Dusk scenario length), Josh managed to roll two rare dice results and used the Chasm ability to throw up an obstruction to my infantry, keeping them back for an entire turn. 

My cavalry moved out to the right, hoping to land some blows before the big infantry horde would arrive. 

In the second turn, Josh decided to throw his Warlord forward at the War Chariot instead of letting it get a charge off. Unfortunately, in order to do so the Warlord ended up going into the fight with three Fatigue. While the Chariot wasn't as good while defending, I just needed Josh to fail two defense die rolls to kill his Warlord early in the game. 

So with the Rage ability and some luck, the Warlord and Chariot ended up destroying each other. It was a trade I was willing to make (although my unlucky streak with Chariots continues!). 

Since the first turn Chasm had forced my Orcs into the rocky ground, I was trying to rush them as quickly forward as possible, while the Dwarves hit them with rifle, crossbow, and cannon fire. Luckily, the Horde has the Endurance ability, which is a reaction that gives a unit solid cover from shooting attacks. 

Annoyingly, my cavalry charge completely whiffed, with the Boar Riders bouncing off the well-armored Dawi warriors. The Dwarves followed up with a counter charge, leaving only two Boar Riders left. I had these remaining Mounted Warriors flee, rather then give them up as easy points for Josh. 

With my cavalry functionally gone, I bet everything on the remaining infantry units, who were still slogging forward towards Josh's defensive position in the ruins. By now both sides were starting to feel the loss of their Saga dice, especially since Josh had lost his 2-dice Warlord so early in the game. 

My Wizard managed to get a fantastic round of combat thanks to his Transformation spell, which turned him into a Beast-mounted Warlord. The transformed Wizard wiped out a unit of Dwarf warriors whose crossbows had riddled the Orc Hearthguard before they ever got a chance to get into combat. The Orc Lieutenant followed up and wiped out most of the other unit of ranged Warriors equipped with firearms. 

With that last turn, the game ended, and the two warbands retreated to lick their wounds and count the dead. Josh's Dwarves racked up an impressive tally, scoring 29 massacre points. The Orcs didn't do too badly either, scoring 25.5, which rounded up to 26. As the Dwarves didn't manage to pull ahead on points, the game ended up as a tie. 

As Mythic Americas adds to Warlords of Erehwon to provide flavor to a somewhat vanilla system, Age of Magic adds just enough to Saga to give it a very different on-the-table feel compared to its more historical counterparts without slowing it down. The six factions or archetypes have enough variety in their units and from their battleboard to feel distinct, and you could even have two warbands of the same archetype use radically different approaches. The larger warbands didn't feel slower, since single-model or 2-3 model units are common. And magic was pretty easy to use, especially since the Wizards themselves are fairly static (you don't have to worry about magic levels or equipment, and each wizards get to pick three spells from two different schools of magic, depending on their faction). 

A fun game that feels different enough from Warlords of Erehwon to deserve time on the table. 

Horseflesh for Dinner - Saga AAR

I recently met up with Josh for a game of Saga. Neither of us have had much experience with the new version, so we decided that a simple Clash of Warlords would do well to shake out the cobwebs and get a handle on the rules.

I brought out the Normans, with a Warlord, two units of six mounted Hearthguard, a unit of eight mounted Warriors, a unit of eight Warriors with crossbows, and a unit of eight Flemish Mercenaries. 

Josh brought his Jomsvikings, with the legendary Warlord Sigvaldi Strut-Haraldsson and five units of Hearthguard, two of which had great weapons. 

Sigvaldi ended up being fairly tough opponent. He had Resilience (2), which meant that he could take a point of fatigue to stop two uncancelled wounds. He gave his entire warband Armor 6 against shooting attacks. He could cancel advance melee Saga abilities with a dice roll against his Wrath tokens (which Josh largely forgot to use), and could remove the opponent choice of either allowing Saga abilities to happen or letting the Jomsvikings gain Wrath tokens. Yeesh.

The goal of Clash of Warlords is simple - play until one side cannot generate Saga dice anymore, then tally the dead. Whoever scored the most points was the winner. 

The game started with my mounted Hearthguard riding down a smaller unit of Jomsviking Hearthguard, who still managed to mangle my unit with their Great weapons. 

Josh pushed up hard through the village, forcing my mounted Warriors to flee after being savaged. Since I couldn't stop his Wrath generation thanks to Sigvaldi's Sly ability, the Jomsvikings Battle Board abilities hit harder. 

Unfortunately, my slow moving Flemish Mercenaries never got a chance to get into combat, and since they were mercenaries, didn't generate a Saga die for me to use. And while his warband has less models in it, each of those models were Hearthguard powered up by Wrath tokens. Josh used these to deadly effect, especially the ability that gave the Jomsvikings javelin shooting attacks, which my mounted and unshielded troops were especially weak to. 

It also didn't help that Sigvaldi's Resilience (2) meant that my Warlord couldn't seem to do enough damage to his Legendary opponent to deal the final blow. 

It was Sigvaldi that struck the final blow that brought down my Norman Warlord and ended the game. My unit of crossbow Warriors was too small to generate a Saga die, and the Flemish Mercenaries (which Josh had kited the whole game) couldn't contribute. 

With that, we crossed the fields of battle and counted the dead. Josh scored 26.5 massacre points, while I scored 23. It was a close battle, but the Jomsvikings could count it as a victory!

As I say in most other after action reports, I hope we play more. Josh is definitely interested, and picked up a box of Wargames Atlantic's Dark Age Irish to expand his warband options. 

A Yuletide Clash - SAGA AAR

With the holiday season in full gear, I'm still looking to get more games played before the end of 2019.

It's been a couple years since I've played Saga, and since that time there's been a release of a whole new edition, along with new expansions like the Book of Battles and the Age of Magic supplement. Meanwhile, my poor Vikings, Anglo-Danes, Welsh and Normans have been languishing away in their foam, untouched and collecting dust.

Josh (my Warlords of Erehwon opponent) just happened to have a Viking army that hasn't gotten any use, along with the new Saga rulebook, the Age of Vikings expansion, and the Viking dice. So we met up at Nerdvana for a straightforward Clash of Warlords to give Josh the opportunity to learn the new rules and for me to forget the old ones.

Josh's warband was led by Ragnar Lothbrok, with two units of four Hearthguard, a unit of Berserkers, a unit of eight Warriors with spears, a unit of six Levy with bows, and a unit of six Levy with spears (not sure if this was legal, but it was how Josh had built the models).

My Norman warband consisted of a Warlord, two units of six mounted Hearthguard, a unit of eight crossbow Warriors, a unit of twelve Levy with bows, and a unit of eight Flemish Mercenaries.

The objective of Clash of Warlords is simple - kill the most enemy models by the end of six turns. You get bonus points for wiping out entire units, and for targeting Legendary Lords (like Ragnar) or mercenaries (like my Flemish warriors).

The setting was a lushy countryside, probably somewhere by the coast in Normandy. The fields and groves were rough ground but provided light cover, while the stone walls provided heavy cover for units behind them.

Most of the fighting went down by the fields and wooded groves. The Vikings advanced across the table, their shields weighted down by the constant rain of arrows and crossbow bolts. The Levy were especially dangerous in this game, their volleys slashing down into the ranks of the northmen.

In the village, one of the Norman Hearthguard units chased down Josh's bow Levy, then danced a little with the Viking Hearthguard nearby. Eventually the two units clashed, and Josh's use of the Viking's Battle Board wiped out my Hearthguard, but not before his own men were cut down.

When the Vikings finally reached the Norman's position, it was with all the fury of a storm as Josh activated his Ragnarok ability. This decreased the armor value of every model on the table, as well at allowed the Vikings to charge without needing to spend a Saga die to activate.

My crossbowmen were slaughtered, but they managed to wipe out most of their attackers in return. And after that, my second unit of Hearthguard charged into the fray, killing the Viking Warriors.

With the mounted knights bearing down on Ragnar, the remaining Viking Hearthguard and Berserker jumped in the way. While they were trampled, they managed to each take down a Norman retainer with them. Then Ragnar lived through sheer bloody-mindedness, taking Fatigue in exchange for all the wounds the Norman knights caused, while cutting down man and horse with ease.

At the end of the fight, Ragnar had defeated his enemies, but most of his raiders had been killed or routed, leaving the Normans with a solid victory.

Both Josh and I enjoyed the game. Saga is a great set of rules for a thematic skirmish game, and I didn't run into anything in V2 that seemed to break immersion, and some of the changes are very welcome (for example, the Manoeuvre rule, which lets units outside of 12" of enemies activate without needing a Saga dice, but can't move within 12" of enemy units).

Hopefully I can bring Saga to the table more in 2020, and Josh is interested in trying the Fantasy version as a comparison to Warlords of Erehwon.

SAGA: Book of Battles - Rules Review

When the second edition of SAGA was released, I was generally happy with the product.  It seemed like a much needed update to a game that had gotten a little bloated with rules and factions. I also liked the new structure, with a generic core rulebook and additional books for each age. As a Dark Ages player, this worked for me, and I'm still definitely interested in the rumored Fantasy and Samurai supplements.

However, one problem I had with the new edition was the lack of scenarios. The core rulebook only has a single scenarios - "Clash of Warlords" - which is an updated version of a scenario from the core book of the first version. While it was fairly easy to use scenarios from the previous edition, I was still disappointed.

That changed with the recent release of the new Book of Battles supplement.

The Book of Battles offers a set of different styles of scenarios for each of the various SAGA ages. It has not one, nor two, but five chapters, each devoted to a different game types: Skirmishes, Battles, Legends, Mass Battles, and (of course) Sagas. 

The Skirmishes chapter only has a single scenario - "Battle of Heroes" - but it can be modified in a variety of ways. There's a chart in the chapter with 6 categories. Players roll a d6 to determine Scenery, Deployment, Game Length, Special Rules, and Victory Conditions. 

There's a lot of little differences to each of the aspects of the scenario, which means a lot of replayability. 

The Battles chapter has ten scenarios with fixed set-ups, deployments, special rules, and victory conditions, but introduce new rules into the game like objective markers, entering/leaving the table, and baggage. Some of these scenarios are pretty flavorful. For example, in the "A Tale of Challenges" scenario, players will choose between 2-4 Challenges from a list. If the challenge is completed by the end of the game, the player scores a number of points. But if the challenge is failed, they lose those points. You may have lost most of your warband, but with enough completed challenges, the tale of your victory will live on!

Legends only has four scenarios, but they're larger, narrative driven affairs that are both somewhat unbalanced and far more complex than the previous two sections. They also introduced more special rules, such as buildings (and the various interactions units can have with them), obstacles, livestock, event tokens, and civilians. There are some good standards scenarios here; in "Catch Them All!" players will need to wrangle livestock while fighting off their opponents, and in "Urban Uprising" the warbands will need to navigate dense city streets while also dealing with random event tokens.

Mass Battles covers, obviously, larger battles on a 6'x4' table (as opposed to the normal 4'x3' SAGA uses) with multiple players. The three scenarios cover the necessities - one for team battles, another for a winner-takes-all hack-n'-slash mess, and the final scenario uses a deck of standard playing cards that players can use to secretly choose their alliance. 

Finally, the Sagas chapter has no scenarios, but instead allows players to modify their Warlord with various "domains" that give different skills and abilities that can affect either the Warlord or the units in the Warband during the game. These are bought using experience points that are earned during battles. So while it's not quite the intricate system that Age of the Wolf had in the first version, it does allow players to string their various scenarios together into a cohesive campaign. 

After looking through the Book of Battles, I can see why this book was separated from the main rulebook. It kept the main rules lean and easy to navigate, allowed this book to be expansive and detailed in its content, and let both books be affordable for players. I definitely recommend SAGA players of any era to pick up the Book of Battles at the earliest possibility. 

As an aside, I'd like to note some interesting details in the book - namely, the pictures of the miniatures. While there's no Samurai era pictures, there are a number that indicate some interesting hints about the others Ages we may expect to see. There are, of course, the already available Dark Ages, Arthurian, and Crusades eras on display. And it's pretty easy to spot the Fantasy images, with dwarfs, barbarians, and monsters. There's also a very obvious not-Jaime and not-Tyrion Lannister. What was new - at least to me - were images of late medieval miniatures (with all the fleur-de-lis, I'm guessing it's the 100 Year War) and hoplites with an elephant in the background, perhaps indicating an Age of Greece supplement. 

Whatever the case may be, I'm interested to see what SAGA has to offer in the future.

Half Day Raid - SAGA AAR

Last year, Saga was one of my 6x6 challenge choices. As Kevyn and I battled through our warlords Floki and Louis, Tomahawks Studio revealed that a new version of the game was going to be released in 2018.

I'm planning to run a four player game next month with the South Jersey Wargamers Association, and as a refresh, I offered to run a demo game with Bill, who owns and operates Half Day Studio.

Bill decided to command the Vikings, and I decided to go with the Welsh. I built two identical four point warbands - a warlord with two points of hearthguard and warriors, in four units.

The scenario was Clash of Warlords, but Bill and I ended up deploying our warlords on opposite sides of the table. Our warrior and hearthguard units lined up, with Bill's warlord and dane-axe hearthguard lurking in the woods.

The table was a pretty simple setup - a village, its fields, and the forest beyond. The fields were uneven ground, and the woods were uneven ground and blocked line of sight.

Both sides advanced in the firs turn, the warlords leading their men forward.

Bill's men advanced again in the second turn. I used the Welsh's Taunt ability to draw a unit of warriors forward into the village, and then had my hearthguard advance, throwing their javelins. The attack struck true, and four of the enemy warriors fell.

Not to be outdone, Bill launched a unit of warriors into my hearthguard on the left. The fighting was bloody - I lost three hearthguard, and Bill lost four warriors - but the real pain came from the Vikings' Lords of Battle ability, which exhausted the remaining hearthgurd.

While the men in the village held their ground, the fields and forest were drench in the blood of fighting men. Bill managed to reduce one of my warrior units down to a single model, but I wiped out one of his hearthguard unit and damaged one of his warrior units in return. My warlord and a warrior unit used their javelins to fell three hearthguards as well. 

With the beginning the fifth turn, the battle seemed to be winding down, as the numbers on both sides had been drastically reduced. Bill struck down the last member of the warrior unit on the left, and a sudden advance from his men in the village caught my hearthguard by surprise - two were killed, and the men were sudden overcome with fatigue with Bill's use of the Lords of Battle ability again.

The last turn didn't seem much combat, with the Welsh warlord and his warriors running to catch the last of the Viking hearthguard with their javelins.

Bill and I counted our dead and found that the Welsh had won, 14-9. Bill appreciated the game and found it fun - it was just a shame that it was going to be superseded so soon.

I'm planning on picking up the new version of the game, and I'm looking forward to seeing the changes that Tomahawk Studios has talked about implemented in the game.

2017 6x6 Challenge - Retrospective

Earlier this year I announced that I would be taking part in the 6x6 Challenge proposed by Alan over on The Stronghold Rebuilt.

I was a fan of the idea, and submitted a list of six games that I hoped to play at least six times over the course of the year.

Those games were:

1. Arena Rex - 1
2. Blood Bowl - Completed
3. Blucher - 0
4. Fistful of Lead - Completed
5. Saga - Completed
6. Strange Aeons - 5

So, how did I do?

Well, not too bad, but not great, either. I completed three of the six games, and came very close to completing a fourth entry on the list. Some of that was due to a move in early November for a new job, displacing me from my regular gaming group.

Let's take a look at each of the games.

Arena Rex

I had expected to see more Arena Rex this year, but my games played fell flat. I'm still looking forward to getting this out on the table in 2018, especially since I have the entirety of the Ludus Magnus faction painted and ready. 

Blood Bowl

The first of my completed games for the 6x6 challenge! I owe some thanks to Games Workshop, as their re-release of Blood Bowl generated enough interest for me to participate in not one, but two leagues. The Baltimork Reavers came close to taking the championship in the first league, and the Zharr-Angkor Immortals are performing fairly well at the moment.

Blucher

Ah, Blucher. Another game I had such high hopes for. Unfortunately, the rapid pace of changing games with my old group meant that I could never find the time to get this game on the table, especially since I would need to be the one explaining the rules and providing the terrain and units. 

I may attempt to play this in 2018, especially with the New Jersey Wargamers Association. 

Fistful of Lead

Another success! I owe it to Carl and his collection of Wild West terrain and miniatures, along with Gary, Russ, Kevyn, and everyone else who decided to play games of cowboys and banditos. Fistful of Lead is a fantastic ruleset, and I'd like to play more games of it during 2018.

Saga

The last successful entry in my 2017 6x6 Challenge was the entirety of the Age of the Wolf campaign played between Kevyn's Vikings and my Norse. Although the Vikings had a rough start, Kevyn rallied brilliantly and ultimately crushed the Norman warlord by the end of the campaign.

Strange Aeons

Ah, so close! Strange Aeons was another game that was being fueled by a campaign between Kevyn and me. Unfortunately, due to scheduling problems, we never managed to get our last game in, leaving this entry incomplete. 

So, that's 2017's challenge! It seems that Alan's not planning to run the challenge in 2018. That's a shame, but I appreciate the effort Alan put in to tally and link the games from various sources.

The Final Campaign - SAGA AAR

Unable to stop the Vikings at the river crossing, Louis was forced to take up a defensive position at a nearby town. The ramshackle wall provided some defense, and its gate was reinforced by the defenders. A single unit of knights was tasked with outflanking the Vikings, hoping to strike at some point during the northmen's assault. 

As the crossbowmen waited in cover, the Vikings approached the wall, eager to get the battle over with and return home before the winter became too unbearable.

The Viking hearthguard advanced. The crossbowmen fired volley after volley, hoping to take down some of the enemy before they could reach the gate. Floki, seeing some of the Norman knights had gone missing, held his warriors back.

The Vikings continued to advance on the gate.

One unit of Viking hearthguard fell, as the other began hacking and beating at the gate.

Louis held his men back, hoping his reinforcements would arrive before the gate fell.

The sound of thundering hooves announced the arrival of the knights, who ran down the surprised and unguarded Floki.

But even as the Viking Warlord was run down, the gate fell. The Vikings' roars of victory quickly turned to cries of surprise as the other Norman knights charged, forcing the northmen back. A unit of Viking warriors was also felled by the Norman reinforcements.

Incensed by the attack, the Viking Hearthguard leaped back into the fray, trading blows before being routed. With only a single unit of Viking warriors remaining, the northerners decided to retreat. Floki was found and dragged away from the burh.

Despite this final win, the Vikings won the campaign with a massive score of 12 victory points to the Norman's 4. Floki would return home to fame and fortune, while Louis was forced to slink back to his lands to deal with the ongoing revolt.

Pining for the Fords - SAGA AAR

With their Warlord injured and winter settling over the lands, the Normans were forced to retreat from the Viking's onslaught. But Floki wasn't about to let his opponent slip away.

The two forces met at an abandoned village, with its fields untended and covered by snow. A river, flowing fast enough to keep from freezing but still deadly cold, meant that both warbands would need to cross by the flat bridges.

Thank's to Floki's Penny ability, the Normans were forced to sit back and watch as the Viking shield wall advanced.

The Vikings set foot on the bridges, axes and swords thumping against their shields.

Mutual destruction followed a clash between Norman and Viking hearthguards on the right.

The Vikings continued to move across the bridges. As Louis led a hearthguard unit forward, another unit of knights charged into a group of Viking warriors. Both sides were bloodied by the combat.

Bodies of men and horses continued to pile up around the bridges. Both sides had lost most of their hearthguard, with only the Warlord and a few warriors remaining.

Louis was left alone on the right side of the village while Floki faced down a unit of crossbowmen with a lone remaining warrior.

As the Viking Warrior ducked behind a house and Floki savaged the crossbowmen, the game ended with the Vikings winning, 4 victory points to 3.

With another loss, the peasants in the area revolted. The resulting loss in men and reputation, along with casualties suffered, dealt a major blow to Louis' power in the region. Floki, on the other hand, continued to bask in his repeated victories.

One on One - SAGA AAR

After a break, Kevyn and I met up to continue our Age of the Wolf campaign. 

We decided to play the Challenge scenario, where a confrontation between Floki and Louis turned violent. We used the terrain rules in the book, which gave us a forest, rough ground, and a gentle slope.

For the first turn, both warbands advanced in support of their warlords. Floki charged the mounted Norman warlord, dealing a couple wounds and forcing Louis back. The Norman crossbowmen took aim at Floki, but the Viking leader nimbly dodged the bolts.

With Floki's ability to reduce the Norman's SAGA dice for the beginning turns of the game, the Normans were slow in getting to grip with the Vikings. Louis charged in against Floki with a unit of mounted Hearthguard, but were forced back.

Grinning and laughing maniacally, Floki again charged Louis, but had a unit of Viking hearthguard with him. The Vikings landed another series of savage blows on Louis, bringing him down to only five wounds remaining.

The Normans countered, their horses trampling the Viking warlord and dealing eight wounds in one turn!

But the Vikings were in a blood frenzy, and Floki had a fresh unit of hearthguard at his back. He was able to deal enough damage to finally take Louis down, winning the game for the Vikings.

Louis ended up with a serious injury, losing an Attack for the rest of the campaign. Both warlord had managed to amass enough power to become Athelings, setting them up for the next two games in the campaign.