Saga 18mm Fantasy AAR - A song of swords and pointed ears...

At our latest bi-weekly meeting in the club HQ we tried something special: Saga with 18mm miniatures.

Main cause was that one of our club fellows owns an excellent terrain board for medieval or fantasy games with 15mm to 18mm miniatures. It's a complete set of terrain tiles with a river, some woods and a scratchbuilt early medieval village. After he as well as our mates Holger and Michael fell under the spell of Mark Copplestone's current 15mm fantasy range (especially the barbarians) they wanted to field their boys as Saga warbands. So we created a small game with two 4 pt. warbands and had barbarians (Holger / Georg) meet some Elves (Robert / Kalle).

We played the rather basic Clash of Warlords scenario from the basic rules. Since it was the first game of Saga for some of the players we wanted to keep things simple. Here's the board:

The complete board. Well... The angle is a bit strange, but you see Elves from the north and barbarians in the village.

The barbarians started on the side with the - their - village which was attacked by a force of Elves from the nearby Woodland Realm. While the barbarians used the Vikings' battleboard the Elves had one of the unofficial fantasy battleboards.

For now it seems quiet in the sleepy village...

The game started with the barbarians choosing their village to be their zone of entry. They fielded the warlord accompanied by one unit of hearthguard (Yetis), three units of warriors and a unit of levies. Most of them were placed in or besides the village and they seemed ready to face the Elvish charge.

Some of the guarding barbarians...

Not wanting to remain inflexible the barbarians marched forward during their first turns but trying to respect the speed of the Elvish cavalry.

Levies lurking in the woods. Soon they'll be suppressed by an Elvish rain of arrows.

One the other side the Elves unfolded their array. The advanced with their cavalry (two six men units of hearthguard) on their right flank where the terrain seemed rather open and directed two units of warriors (one with bows, one with shields and spears) to the left to counter the barbarian bowmen.

Two units of Elvish bowmen near the river banks.

And they achieved success!
After the first barbarians died by deadly arrow fire the warlord of the norse became fickle. He just didn't find a key to unlock the Elvish barrage and remained motionless for a turn or two.

Middle of the game: The right wing gets stuck while the game focusses on the right wing.

So the first melee actions took place on the barbarians' left flank:

Elvish cavalry approaching...

... and clashing into the barbarian hearthguard.

After a bloody exchange of blows the Elvish hearthguard cavalry prevailed and the barbarians decided to abbreviate the front. So they evaded into the river to negate the Elvish advantage of speed and tried to regroup near the village.

Some tough barbarians trying to secure the ford while the bowmen remain near the woods... Still.

But it was too late. The barbarians had lost their heartguard in the Elvish cavalry charge and lost a unit of warriors that tryed to defend the ford. So the number of Saga dice decreased dangerously. At the end their warlord wasn't able to direct his troops as he wanted or grap the initiative again.

The final melee

So the Elvish warlord crossed the river at the ford and cut off the barbarians' line of retreat. They charged the norse near the river banks and decided the game finally.

Overall it was a very interesting game for me as visitor. Both sides played rather well and the norse died hard. The key to the Elvish success were their deadly archers who temporarly pinned two barbarian units and their fast cavalry which was able to outflank the norse.

But after the meeting some strange fellows met on a hill near the battlefield. Malicious gossip has it that maybe more than just bad luck unfluenced the barbarian dice...

It's a kind of magic... Gathering of Elvish nobles near the battlefield.