Saga Bridges

We played another four handed game of Saga last night with Anglo-Danes and Normans on one side and Anglo-Danes and Welsh on the other. We played the bridge scenario which involves trying to have more points of your troops on the enemy side of a river than they have on yours. Because of the larger size of this game (two 4pt warbands on each team) we had two bridges, and a tricky ford in the middle.

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.