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Friday, 23 September 2016

Convoy!

This week saw more Saga at the Gong Garage Gamer. The scenario wasn't called Convoy, but it involved one side getting some bases of stuff (which mostly looked like plastic cows) from one edge of the table to the other. The other side had to stop them.

We randomised all kinds of stuff, and ended up with Gary (vikings) and myself (Welsh) facing John (Normans) and Caesar (anglo-Danes) and their six bases of plastic cows.

Here are the Normans, ready for the off.


The Welsh were spread out to try and cover the routes across the table, with bow-armed levy lurking in the bad going to make the crossing harder for everyone.


On the other side of the table, Gary's Vikings faced off against Caesar's Anglo-Danes.


John got right on with things, sweeping his Norman cavalry across the table t attack my big band of warriors in the flank.


They had to run the gauntlet of my archers on the way in, though, so not all of them made it.


My warrior warband suffered badly, and the Norman warlord went in to try and finish them off.


Meanwhile the remaining Norman horse were seen off by another band of warriors and some more archery. One horseman retired to the Norman baseline to watch the remainder of the fight.


This left the Norman warlord isolated. The Welsh formed up, menacingly.


The Norman lord charged, and was cut down


Caesar provided a strong escort for his bases of cattle.


Viking berserkers charged in, but Caesar formed a strong line and held them off, whilst the cattle crept across the tale behind it.



I tried to use my archers to shoot the cows, but they used intimidation to stop me.


The Berserkers got the Anglo-Dane warlord, and Anglo-Danes had a go at the Viking lord.


Gary's least finest moment - his warlord and a berserker attacked one of the baggage elements, and were driven off by a farmer and a particularly vicious cow.


Sadly at this point my phone did its increasingly common trick of running out of power. A shame, as it meant we failed to capture Gary's finest moment. Recoiled by the vicious cow, Gary's warlord was isolated from the rest of his force. Five Anglo-Dane hearthguard attacked him. They didn't score a single hit. The warlord scored five hits, each of which was converted to a kill. With one swing of his axe, the Viking slew five elite enemy warriors!

He then attacked the baggage element again, and the cow ate him.

John and Caesar then just used every dice they had to move their baggage as fast as possible across the table, through a big gap in our line. There was little we could do to stop it, and no way we could win, as the strange victory conditions essentially required us to prevent any exits at all; once one piece got off, the best we could get was a draw. Our tactics boiled down to trying to destroy enemy units, in order to eliminate the oppositions Saga dice and therefore their ability to move things.

In the end we conceded.

Here's a final shot of my bow-armed levy.


The game was fun, but we found the victory conditions of the scenario a little odd, in that it seemed relatively easy for the side moving the baggage to force at least a draw. In addition they had no time limit in which to get their stuff to the other side, so there was no urgency in moving it. None of these issues are things which can't be fixed in future games, however.

Thanks to Gary and Caesar for providing figures.

Ralph and Theo played Bolt Action.


This tank is not on fire!



3 comments:

  1. Thanks for this lovely and eclectic game report. I find that this sorts of mash-up contests are often the most fun on an evening at the club, history be hanged. The business with the cows was especially fun - it reminded me of the scene in Oh Brother, Where Art Thou - Oh, George, not the livestock!

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  2. How did you do Saga multi-player. Round robin? Both players roll when it is their side's turn?

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    1. Both players roll when it is their turn, yes. We still do activations one at a time, though, so the two factions on a side do coordinate their efforts.

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