Most of the pictures will feature my side of the table, where I had the Welsh and faced the Normans. The Normans had a mob of levy archers, who did fearful execution on the doughty Welsh warriors. But eventually Welsh bards taunted their Norman foes into charging across the bridge, where they were met with a hail of arrows froom the Welsh levy bow.
The Normans were forced into rough going in order to attack; a withdrawal would have invited more arrows, so it was the lesser of two evils on their part. The levy held them, and left one survivor. The survivor fled back across the bridge, narrowly avoiding an arrow in the back.
Meanwhile on the other side of the field, two Anglo-Dane warbands faced off. In the foreground is Caesar's, allied with the Welsh. Gary's crosses the bridge in the background. Caesar came off worse in this fight, seemingly unable to move a lot of his troops when needed and stuck with trying to prevent Gary's incursion from gaining a foothold.
Top right you can see Gary's plan in action; a strong force of hearthguard crossed the river, then tucked themselves into a corner away from the main fight, whilst the rest of the warband kept Caesar occupied. The hearthguard were exhausted, but it didn't matter; they were bodies on the victory side of the river, and Caesar couldn't exploit their weakened state.
Meanwhile the Normans, under John P, got their act together and charged across the river, bypassing the levy bow and sweeping into some Welsh warriors. In a brisk fight they caused fearful casualties, although at some loss to themselves.
That lot of horsemen were finally defeated by the Welsh warlord. But he fell to the next wave.
Finally the Norman warlord charged the Welsh levy. They stood no chance against such a mighty warrior, especially with their own warlord dead.
It was pretty much over at that point. Caesar's Anglo-Danes were either dead or immobile ...
... and the Welsh were all dead aside from one small group of hearthguard who sneaked across the ford in the middle to claim a moral, if not actual, victory. Sadly the AngloDane/Norman Alliance could claim a very solid immoral victory. Or amoral. Take your pick.
Caesar forgot his Special Saga Dice, so was very proud of how he used normal six-sided dice instead. One of the issues I have with Saga is the Special Dice, so this was excellent to see. He wanted me to take this photo.
Once again thanks to everyone who provided figures and organisation.
I really enjoy Saga but have yet to master the battle board, this looked a lot of fun!
ReplyDeleteFor a number f the factions I can't see hoe what's happening on the board bears any physical relation to what's happening on the battlefield. I can make an enemy unit disappear, or gain fatigue, for example. But why? How?
DeleteThe Welsh battleboard does mostly seem to consist of things that make sense. That's partially why I choose them.
Another great report with lots of nice photos, Kaptain. My apologies for letting down our side of the field. It is highly appropriate that both our warlords died in action and could hardly have shown their faces again after such a performance. In hindsight, I think we would have been better to swap flanks, and I could have loaded fatigue on the Normans. As it was, Gary used my own weapon against me, bah! All good fun though, even when I am losing. And yes, I'm quite proud of the fact that I could translate normal dice onto the board without difficulty!
Delete