A Prologue to the Saga

It is pretty good to be back living in Germany. Regular thursday night gaming is a big improvement over almost no gaming in Finland. Saga has really picked up in popularity here since I left. There were four games underway at the store when I was there. I think the relatively recent publication of the rules in German has helped with that. We played the Challenge scenario from the first rulebook. I dont really like the scenario as once again my Warlord ended up far closer to the enemies starting position that Steve's did to mine. add in the fact that his troops are mainly mounted and that leaves me with a lot of distance to cover quickly. I believe I once saw an amendment where both models are set up on the centreline six inches apart. I would definitely prefer that arrangement. I believe I was down six wonds by the end of the second turn and my troops were not in a position to do anything about that until the third.

I used my Anglo-Danes for this battle. the action got fairly intense as by the third turn and the halfway point of the game I hadn't managed to inflict a single wound on the enemy Warlord and he had inflicted half of mine. Troops were now engaged between the two warlords and it was going to be very tough for me to do anything to win. I tend to not spend my opponents fatigue especially on large relatively intact units and in this battle it was definitely a winning tactic. Initially I was losing large numbers of troops but I was emerging from combat with a single fatigue while the Normans were having theirs slowly mount.

In the last two turns I was able to spend this fatigue to actually wipe out units thereby inflicting more fatigue unto surrounding allies and even the Warlord. This rapidly depleted his bodyguard and allowed me to apply my axe to his head liberally in the final turn. I luckily managed to inflict seven wounds gaining me a narrow victory.

We only got a single game in but the pub was calling to us so I won't complain. The nuances of the battleboard are completely lost on me but we had fun. It actually inspired me to quickly get some more Warriors done for my Anglo-Saxons. Iwant to be able to diversify the construction of my warband and as such I definitely need more models painted.