Saga two Normans vs Anglo-Danish Games

Tonight I paid my first visit to the Wild Geese Wargames Club (formerly known as the White Hart Wargames Club) who are now meeting at Battlefront HQ. The club relocated in November, but with one thing an another I had never managed to get to the new venue until last night.

I had arranged to play Matt Moran at Saga so packed my Normans and my Anglo-Danish plus a bunch of terrain to the new venue. I met Matt at the White Hart, we both realised that we had forgotten our Saga rule books and battle-boards - what a pair of doofus! Anyway one quick phone call to James Morris - who was out on his office Christmas Meal- and Mrs Morris had furnished us with a set of rules and boards - what a pair of Stars!

We got to Battlefront HQ and I'm very impressed with the venue and the staff. We randomised the first mission and we would be playing Sacred Ground. A hill in the centre and a wood on either side, we would be playing 6pts. I used my Warlord, two units of 6 mounted Knights, one unit of 8 Sergents and one unit of 8 Sergents with Crossbows. Matt used his Anglo-Danish and fielded his Warlord, two units of 4 Huscarles and three units of 8 Ceorls.

Matt prepares to do battle

Being mounted I was soon on the hill and into the squish Saxons beyond. However, as well as his rules Matt had not bought any dice so I lent him a set of mine. The treacherous dogs deserted me, in one example six Knights charged 8 Ceorls, four Knights died and only one Ceorl. Plenty of similar misfortune ensued and at the end of eight turns, Matt had amassed 62 points and I had only 52 points. A win to the Anglo-Danish

The Normans to the left, the Anglo-Danish to the right

It was only half past eight so time for another game. We randomised again and this time we were playing Homeland. After five minutes of faffing around where we were both bidding exactly the same number to be the defender we eventually decided that Matt would defend with four points of Anglo-Danish and fielded his Warlord, one unit of 4 Huscarles and three units of 8 Ceorls. My Normans used  a Warlord, two units of 6 mounted Knights, one unit of 8 Sergents, one unit of 8 Sergents with crossbows and a unit of 12 Levies with bows.

The Sacred Ground

This one went a bit better, Matt put a unit of Ceorls in each building and then had his Warlord and Huscales as a 'fire brigade' I lined up all my missle troops against one of the building and attempted to shoot the Ceorls out and then used my Warlord and Knights as a mounted hammer. Over four turns the missle troops accounted for six of the eight Ceorls in the building so the Huscales had to reinforce there. My Knights destroyed the two units of Ceorls in the other building and the missle troops saw of the last of the Ceorls, it was time for a turn six finale to clear the last building of the Warlord and Huscales.

The Sacred Ground

The missle troops accounted for a Huscales and then the Knights charged in killing the other three, Just the Warlord left and only my Warlords activation. In he went and caused five hits on the Anglo-Danish Warlord and received none in return. The Annglo-Danish Warlord was doomed, I only needed a single unsaved wound and he would retreat from the combat and out of the building. Five dice and Matt rolled five 4+'s gutted! At the end of the game Matt had fulfilled the objective of having at least one model in a building - his sole remaining Warlord - BUGGER!

One of these days, I will discover how to make the Normans work, it better be soon, I have volunteered to play them in the club campaign.

The Sacred Ground

The Sacred Ground

Battle of Ramillies refight

Today I was extremely privileged to take part in another War of Spanish Succession re-fight with the Sunday Cake Club at Gripping Beast HQ in Evesham. This time it would be the Battle of Ramillies fought on 23rd May 1706 re-enacted using the Black Powder rules with some house modifications.

Chris, Paul, Bob and myself would be the Franco-Spanish-Bavarian alliance, with myself representing Maximilian II Emanuel the Elector of Bavaria. Eds, Mark, Martin and Joel would be playing the Grand Alliance of British and Dutch Republic. Steve was an excellent umpire and kept the game running very well.

The 24ft x 6ft table was practically groaning under the weight of figures, the Franco-Spanish-Bavarian alliance had 28 Brigades comprising 69 Squadrons of Horse and 50 Battalions of Foot. The Grand Alliance were fielding 86 Squadrons of Horse and 44 Battalions of Foot. My poor painting progress over the last few months means that I contributed a single battalion of French Foot to the hordes of figures.

The game was fantastic, but the Franco-Spanish-Bavarian alliance were soundly trounced, at the end of seven hours play, the Grand Alliance had lost six Brigades and we had lost eleven and were three off of our army breaking.

My troops, 12 Battalions of Foot and 15 Squadrons of Horse were deployed between the towns of Offus and Ramillies. I would be facing off against Marks Danish and Dutch and was roughly handled, we both were very poor in the firefight, but when it came to hand to hand I was terrible, typically I would throw five attack dice for my horse needing threes and regularly scored either no hits or just a single hit. I'd lose the combat and take my Break Test and rarely threw above a five! By the end of play I had lost five of my six Brigades - whoops. I guess it's all swings and round-abouts though and the luck will be back soon.

An absolutely fantastic day with some excellent chaps and some rather spiffing cakes.

Here is a whole selection of images from the game.

Four games of Saga tonight.

On Tuesday at Maunsfield Gaming we arranged another Saga bash. Unfortunately, we had a couple of late drop outs, so that just left Tom, John, Martin, Jervis and myself to play.

I arrived first and unloaded the terrain and set up a pair of tables for gaming on. Martin soon turned up, not long later followed by John. The first game got underway, Martin using Anglo-Danish played John with Normans at Clash of Warlords, both players fielded a six point Warband, the Normans were, mounted Warlord, three units of 4 mounted Knights, two units of 8 Sergeants and one unit of 8 Sergeants with crossbows. Martin fielded a Warlord with dane-axe, one unit of 4 Huscarles with dane-axe, one unit of 8 Huscarles and two units of 12 Ceorls. Martin had obviously been reading the bit about combining your units.

Jervis and Tom turned up a few minutes later, Jervis had not played before so he borrowed my Vikings and would play Toms' Anglo-Danish, this would be a 4 point game again using the Clash of Warlords scenario. Both players had one Warlord, two 4-man Hearth-guard and two 8-man Warrior units. I would try to assist Jervis.

Johns centre in the first game

The game between Martin and John was a pretty bloody affair - although the Anglo-Danish seemed to have the upper hand and eventually killed the Norman Warlord. The game between Jervis and Tom was a blood-bath that eventually ended with the overstretched Viking Warlord cut off from his remaining unit of Bondi and overwhelmed by the Anglo-Danish lord and his remaining warriors.

Right-o time for another game. This time I would play Martin at Clash of Warlords, Martin fielded a Warlord with dane-axe, one unit of 4 Huscarles with dane-axe, two units of 4 Huscarles and two units of 12 Ceorls.  I fielded Anglo-Danish with  a Warlord, three units of 4 Huscarles and two units of 12 Ceorls.

John would play Jervis at the Sacred Ground scenario. John used Normans with mounted Warlord, two units of 4 mounted Knights one unit of 8 Sergeants and one unit of 8 Sergeants with crossbows. Jervis used a Warlord, two units of 4 Hirdmen and two units of 8 Bondi.

Martin and I deployed facing each other in a tight packed shield wall formation, both awaiting the other to engage. Martin engaged first and I was able to pile up the fatigue on him until I caught his Warlord unsupported and carrying four fatigue = splat!

In the second bout, Jervis had really picked up the game and handed a convincing spanking to Johns Normans.

Game two, already racking up points on the hill, Jervis' Vikings prepare to see off the Normans

Sorry about the poor quality of the pictures, a camera cock-up (ok I left the memory card at home) meant that I had to use my iPhone, never good for photographing miniatures games.

Martins centre in the first game

John and Martin get started

Normans every-where

Even infesting the village

Jervis uses my Vikings to take the central hill

Norman Knights thin out the Ceorls

The Viking Lord and Hirdmen launch into the Anglo-Danish centre

The deciding action in the Martin and John game, the Normans came second

Bretwalda Campaign Day

This weekend Tom and I went to the Bretwalda 'Age of Arthur' campaign day organised by those nice chaps at Peterborough Wargames Club.

We would be picking a 1500pt list from Age of Arthur along with a 250pt bonus force that you may get to use in some of the scenarios. As usual, I went for Early Saxon Kingdoms:

My basic 1500pts was:

		M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
1	Cyning	5	5	4	5	4	3	5	2	9	175	175
	Sword, Javelins
	Saxon Buckler
	Army General
		M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
1	Atheling	5	5	4	4	4	2	4	2	8	85	85
	Sword, Javelins
	Saxon Buckler
		M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
1	Thane	5	4	4	4	4	2	4	2	7	60	75
	Sword, Javelins
	Saxon Buckler
	Army Standard										15
		M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
1	Scop	5	4	4	4	3	2	4	2	7	65	65
	Sword, Javelins
	Saxon Buckler
		M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
1	Thane	5	4	4	4	4	2	4	2	7	60	60
	Sword, Javelins
	Saxon Buckler
		M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
21	Gedriht	5	4	4	4	3	1	3	1	6	15	330
	Sword, Throwing Spear, Javelins
	Saxon Buckler
	Leader, Musician, Standard.										15
		M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
23	Duguth	5	3	3	3	3	1	4	1	6	8	199
	Sword, Throwing Spear, Javelins
	Saxon Buckler
	Leader, Musician, Standard.										15
		M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
23	Geoguth	5	3	3	3	3	1	3	1	5	6	176
	Sword, Throwing Spear, Javelins										1
	Saxon Buckler
	Leader, Musician, Standard.										15
		M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
24	Geoguth	5	3	3	3	3	1	3	1	5	6	183
	Sword, Throwing Spear, Javelins										1
	Saxon Buckler
	Leader, Musician, Standard.										15
		M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
9	Duguth	5	3	3	3	3	1	4	1	6	8	72
	Sword, Javelins
		M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
10	Skirmishers	5	2	3	3	3	1	3	1	5	4	40
	Sword, Slings
		M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
10	Skirmishers	5	2	3	3	3	1	3	1	5	4	40
	Sword, Shortbow
										Characters	460	31%
										Common Warriors	888	59%
										Uncommon Warriors	152	10%
										Total	1500

I made up the bonus 250pts with:

		M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
1	Thane	5	4	4	4	4	2	4	2	7	60	60
	Sword, Javelins
	Saxon Buckler
		M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
20	Geoguth	5	3	3	3	3	1	3	1	5	6	155
	Sword, Throwing Spear, Javelins										1
	Saxon Buckler
	Leader, Musician, Standard.										15
		M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
8	Skirmishers	5	2	3	3	3	1	3	1	5	4	32
	Sword, Javelins

I picked Tom up at some un-earthly hour on Sunday morning and we drove down to Peterborough, eventually finding the venue at the first attempt.

The players were split into two groups representing the factions of Vortigern and Hengest. As there were a lot of Saxon armies, the Hengest faction was made entirely of Saxon armies, while that of Hengest contained two Romano-British, one Welsh, two Franks and two Saxons. I was one of those two Saxons in the Vortigern contingent while Tom was in the Hengest faction.

The start of the campaign

Each faction gathered to chose their leader, every player in each faction rolled a dice and the highest would be the leader. I threw a six and would be Vortigern!

Bow down, for I look special!

I would be playing the Hengest, the leader of the Saxon faction in the guise of Phil Morgan with his Later Saxon Kingdoms force. It would be a pitched battle and both of us would use our bonus forces.

The other players in the faction would be be playing pairs games of Pitched Battle.

King Hengest Phil of the Saxons

Phils' army consisted of Cyning and Atheling ASB in a unit of 16 Gedricht, Thegn in a unit of 23 Duguth, a unit of 23 Duguth, a Thegn in a unit of 18 Ceorls, a unit of 18 Ceorls, a Thegn in a unit of 9 mounted Duguth, 10 Skirmishers with sling and 10 Skirmishers with shortbow.

My Saxon battle-line

I really did not fancy bouncing off all those Thrusting spear armed units so I deployed two units of Geoguth on my left flank facing the Duguth and Gedricht. There was a wood in the center so I pointed my Gedricht at that and put my remaining Geoguth and Duguth on the right.

Phils mounted Duguth

The mounted Duguth bounced off my Geoguth and fled from the table but my Gedricht and Geoguth made slow progress against the Ceorls. As expeceted I did not fare too well on my left but did manage to keep the Gedricht and Duguth amused. At the end of the game we had both made great progress on one flank. Totting up the points I had earned 1018VPs and Phil had amassed 998VPs

Ceorls supported by skirmishing archers

We were within 100pts so it was a Bloody Stand Off, a fair result.

The defenders of Britannia had a good morning of it we had my draw, a minor loss in one of the pairs games, a minor win in another and a major win in the final game, we were taking territory from the Saxon invaders.

As I had not lost I would still be Vortigern and Phil would still be Hengest

It was now lunchtime, Tom, Phil, Tony (I think) and  myself went to Wetherspoons for a pint and a burger, very nice it was too. Phil and myself wore our crowns to give the event a sense of occasion.

Back from lunch and the tables were laid out for seven different one on one scenarios. As king I was allowed to allocate my team to the scenarios. Having read them it seemed that a lot of the chance depended on who was attacker or defender so I handed out the scenarios more on the basis of who fancied playing which mission. I was left with Cat Coit Celedon.

Hngest had decided that Mike Whittaker would be playing Cat Coit Celedon for the invaders. We would both be using our bonus forces in this mission too.

Mike was also using Early Saxon Kingdoms like me, his army was: Cyning and Thane ASB in 19 Gedricht, Christian Priest with 23 Duguth, Thegn and 20 Duguth, Thane and 23 Geoguth, Thegn and 9 mounted Duguth, 10 Skirmishers with shortbow, 14 Skirmishers with javelins.

Mike deploys to break through my lines.

Mike won the roll off and elected to attack. I deployed in depth hoping to be able to react to the advance before my Geoguth got carried away. Mike rolled for his sickness and his mounted Duguth and skirmishing bowmen would be reduced to toughness 2.

Mike prepares to advance

Mike began a general advance along the line, I responded with one unit of Geoguth wandering off on their own. In my first shooting phase I had my slingers 'double-shot' the mounted Duguth and did for 7 of them - fantastic shooting. The Duguth passed their test but would be ineffective in the game.

Mike removes the mounted Duguth

Mike continued the advance, I tried to flank his right with my javelinmen and my small unit of skirmishing Duguth saw off his javelinmen. Being march blocked severely restricted Mike and caused a bit of a traffic jam with his Gedricht trapped behind his front line. I was ready to react,  my Gedricht and Duguth charged in the centre bursting through the Duguth and pursuing into the Gedricht, breaking them the next turn running down the Cyning.

Mike managed to escape one unit of Duguth, but as he had lost his Cyning it would be a Mighty Victory for me.

The Duguth get away, but will be very lonely

The defenders of Brittania did rather well this time taking more territory from the invaders.

More territory falls to the defenders

Going into the final round I would still be Vortigern, King of the defenders, Phil had also scored a mighty victory and remained Hengest.

In the final round I would be playing against Andy McTaggart at a scouting mission in which we would both be using our basic 1500pt force. There was a hill and a feasting hall on the table, if you held both you won a Mighty Victory, if you held one it would be a Close Run Victory and if they were both contested it would be a Bloody Stand Off.

The only photo I took of this game.

Andy was also using Early Saxon Kingdoms and his list comprised Cyning, Thane Army Standard in 22 Gedricht, Wiglera in 23 Duguth, Thane in 23 Duguth, 10 mounted Duguth, two units of 10 Skirmishers with javelins.

My skirmishing Duguth managed to seize the feasting hall early, while the mounted Duguth were despatched by a unit of Geoguth. Things were looking secure on my left flank. I attacked in the center with the Gedricht and burst through, I was quite depleted though, but turned around and charged Andys Gedricht eventually coming out on top in a protracted combat. It was the end of the game and I now held both the building and the hill. Another Mighty Victory.

The invaders had made some gains in the last round but the defenders were resolute and came out on top.

Britannia at the end of the day

Here are some additional images from the day. Sorry about my poor photography.

My Saxons prepare to defend in Cat Coit Celedion

Mike against me in Cat Coit Celidon

Phils' mounted Duguth prepare to bounce off my Geoguth

My Geoguth against Phils thrusting spear armed Duguth, this can only go one way