Lord of the Western Keep: SAGA AoM Pre-Christmas game 2019

SAGA Age of Magic AAR December 1, 2019:

Vikings versus Santa

I decided to test out the Christmas themed warband I am thinking of using at the Ottawa Miniatures Games club Christmas dinner and game towards the end of December. It was a rush job to get my SAGA Christmas themed warband ready for this Sunday as a result not all the miniature's are finished, some still have plain black bases. There will also likely be some changes once more figures are painted including 3 Polar Bears. It is a very eclectic mixture of figures in Santa's warband but all have a winter theme. For the warriors I used some GW Dark Elf spear armed warriors I bought at a good price on eBay, they were painted in a rather uncharacteristic red and green livery which I was planning to repaint but luckily I never got around to it and they fit in with the Christmas theme.

Dark Elves in Christmas livery become
Good Elf warriors in Santa's Warband.

This was the first game that I used a number of new figures.

Debut of my recently painted RCMP figures by Pulp Figures.

Not exactly the friendly giant but:

Debut of the Frost Giant by
Wizkids / Pathfinder

The roster for the two sides was as follows

Christmas Warband 1/12/2019

The Great Kingdom Santa`s Army

1 Warlord Santa 0 points

1 Sorceress: Santa’s Lovely Assistant - Elsie 1 point

1 Paladin / Lieutenant – Sergeant Renfrew on horse - 2 hearthguard

1 Monster Titan ₌ Frost Giant with sword 1 point

1 Creature unit 2 bipeds - Wndigo and Yeti 1 point

+1 Creature biped - Snow Beast added to above unit - 4 Warriors

2 Hearthguard Units, (8-2 = 6) Clockwork Soldiers 2 points

2 Warrior units = 16-4 = 12 Dark Elf Spears red-green 2 points

1 Levy unit = 12 rifles: Mary Clause, 5 Elves + 6 RCMP 1 point

Total 8 points

Sacred ground = monument

Viking Warband 1/12/2019Sergeants
The Great Kingdoms Viking

1 Warlord 0 points

1 Sorcerer - Loki 1 point

1 Levy with bows (12) 1 point 12 figures

1 Warrior units (8) 1 points 8 figures

3 Hearthguard (12-2 = 10) 3 points 10 figures

2 Biped Creatures – Trolls (2) 1 point 2 figures

1 extra Troll for the above unit -2 Hearthguard

1 Monster – Fire Giant 1 point

Total 8 points
Sacred ground = monument

As you can see from the above both armies were based on the Great Kingdom boards so had similar abilities and spells to chose from. Originally Ted, the Viking player, was going to recruit a unit of 4 creatures / trolls (5 attack dice each = 20) but when he discovered that 16 dice is the maximum he could roll per attack he dropped one of the creatures in exchange for 4 warriors.

Some of the key Characters:

Loki by Wizkids re-based

Fire Giant by Reaper Bones.

Frost Giant with a sword by Wizkids / Pathfinder

Santa's Levy: Elves, RCMP and Mary Claus
by Wargames Supply Dump and Pulp Figures

Yeti by wizkids/ Pathfinder

Wendigo by Wizkids re-based

Sergeant Renfrew and his dog Yukon by Pulp Figures

Santa's Lovely Assistant Elsie and
Father Christmas / Santa by Copplestone

For the occasion I got out my Cigar Store Frostgrave mat, which has partial snow cover. As per the scenario instructions we took turns picking terrain, 3 pieces each.

The scenario was the basic scenario involving the clash of warlords where you have 6 turns to destroy the other sides army. But this time there was a variation in that instead of starting from the long ends of the board it was divided diagonally (green thread) with the Viking player picking the triangular area with the most terrain to deploy. Each side had to be L (10") from the dividing line.

Turn 1:

Santa's army opted to send its rifle armed levy to the hill top, the giant, Santa, Sorceress and Hearthgaurd moving into the centre toward the monument with the spear armed warriors on their left flank and biped snow creatures and mounted lieutenant (Sergeant Renfrew) on the left flank.

Overview at the start of the game.

The Vikings left the hill flank undefended and had a giant, Levy, sorceress and warlord backed up by warriors in the centre and Hearthguard, and trolls on the left flank.

Both sides advance on the left flank near the rough ground. Santa's army also advances in the Centre and on to the hill on the right flank but the Vikings are more cautions and elect to remain in cover.

Rifle armed Levy of Santa's army: Elves and RCMP.

Santa's war band advances, Elves with spears in the centre.

Scores, Clock work soldiers and warriors
advancing toward Vikings

Viking Warriors, Hearthguard
and warlord by monument

Santa's biped creatures:
Wendigo, Snow beast and a Yeti.

Viking Trolls: biped creatures.

Santa's Levy and their Frost Giant.

Loki the Viking sorceress on the right
peaks out of the woods to cast a spell.

Viking Levy and Giant in the woods

Turn 2:

The first clash takes place on Santa's left flank between the two warbands biped creatures. The snow creatures (bipeds) attach the trolls, it is 3 creatures per side and they roll about the same number of dice. However the dice gods favour the Vikings and the Snow creatures are pushed back taking lots of fatigue hits.

The Snow Beasts have taken a lot of fatigue hits

Clash of Biped creatures

The red/green Elf spear armed warriors attack the Viking Hearthguard and Sgt. Renfrew attacks the enemy warriors.

Renfrew and the Spear armed Elves attack

Renfrew advances

The Viking warriors brace for the attack

Both of these attacks are repelled with light casualties.

Renfrew and the Elves are pushed back

In the Centre the clockwork soldiers advance towards the enemy Levy.

Clockwork soldiers advance

The Viking Levy however concentrate their fire on the Frost Giant hitting him 3 times. Elsie casts a spell to protect him from further damage by creating a shield of light in front of the giant and fires a lighting bolt at the enemy archers but it does little damage. Meanwhile Santa's Levy gets into position to fire at the Viking Levy.

Frost Giant being showered with arrows
now has a light shield wall

The Snow creatures opt to rest rather than attack their Viking counterparts as they would start to lose figures if they took anymore fatigue hits.

Snow creatures opt not to counter-attack.

Santa's Elves and the RCMP open fire on the Viking Levy causing two casualties to the enemy with their firearms, it could have been worse if not for the cover provided by the woods.

Overview end of turn 2

Turn 3

The Clockwork soldiers had moved forward the previous turn in preparation to attack the Levy who were very vulnerable in melee but the Vikings have the initiative and spring a surprise.

Clockwork Soldiers preparing to attack the Archers

The Viking Fire Giant moves through the his Levy and delivers a crushing blow to the Clockworks soldiers, killing 4 of them and reducing theme to 2 figures. While it is permitted in the rules for friendly units to move through each other provided they have enough movement to get past the friendly formation I have trouble imagining a clumsy giant passing through a formation of archers without either causing casualties or disordering the archers.

Fire Giant devastates the Clock Work Soldiers (Hearthguard)

On the left flank the Trolls attack the snow creatures again, killing two of them.

Only the Yeti remains

The Yeti soon succumbs also and the Snow creature unit is wiped out.

In the centre the Vikings hold fast awaiting enemy attacks.

Elf Warriors with Santa prepare to attack

Near the hill the Santa's levy troops fire on the Fire Giant to soften him up. Next the frost Giant attacks the Fire Giant in an epic battle that ends with both giants dead. This is the second time this has happened in a game.

Two dead Giants and a diminished Clockwork Soldier
unit. The rifle Levy continue to fire at the archers.

As it looks like this will be the last turn and Santa's army is trailing in victory points 13.5 to 8. They make a desperate push in two key battles to try and gain some victory points to counter the losses they have taken on their left flank at the hands of the Trolls

First Sergeant Renfrew attacks the Viking warriors again, the Vikings lose 1 warrior and Renfrew suffers a fatigue and is pushed pulled back.

Renfrew makes his charge

Renfrew and his loyal husky attack
the enemy warriors again.

Renfrew is pushed back.

The second attack is lead by Santa himself who leads the elf warriors in a desperate charge into the Viking Hearthguard who statistically are more powerful as1 Hearthguard is as powerful as 2 warriors.

"Follow Me" yells Santa

Elves attack Hearthguard

This time the dice gods favour the Elves who kill 5 enemy Hearthguards, it would have been 6 if not for the a Viking Saga ability used by their Warlord to increase their defence dice by 2. The Elves also suffer heavy casualties and lose 6 warriors.

Heavy casualties on both sides

The Vikings just win this battle even though they have only 2 Hearthguard still remaining.

Elves are pushed back

This was the end of turn 3.

Conclusion

At this point we had to end the game. The desperate attack by Santa's army did help them but not enough, The final victory points (based on killing enemy figures/ units) were as follows:

Viking Victory points: Monsters 4, Hearthguard 4, Levy 0, Creatures 4, warriors 4.5 = 16.5

Santa Victory points: Monster 4, Hearthguard 7, Levy 1, creatures 0 warriors 1.5 = 13.5

A three point margin is needed to achieve a victory as a result the Vikings win, but a marginal victory. Had the game continued it seems likely the Vikings wold have won as their were many heavily damaged units in Santa's army such as the Clockwork soldiers, and Renfrew was exhausted. Although the Vikings would have had trouble getting their most powerful surviving unit of creatures / trolls to the centre of the battle as they were 6 moves away, and double moving would cost fatigues. Surprisingly the levy (often seen as the poorest units) were the ones on both sides who were practically undamaged.

Victorious Viking Warlord

Once again it was an enjoyable game, we had hoped to get in at least two more turns but some interruptions and an accidental cola spillage cost us valuable time. We look forward to the next game later this month, stay tuned!

I was left pondering how the Santa Warband might be changed, is the Paladin / Lieutenant (Sergeant Renfrew) worth the cost? Also what would have happened if the Vikings had kept a 4 figure Creature unit, or if you increased it to 6 figures? While you can only roll 16 dice the unit would have a lot of staying power.