Category: Dark Ages

Stephen reports on a one day SAGA Campaign

In the year AD1058 there was a Norse invasion of England. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle doesn’t have much to say about it, just ‘In this year came a pirate host from Norway; it is tedious to tell how it all happened.’

And that’s it.

So Eric and myself decided to refight this tedious invasion using Saga.

I created a matrix of games from The Book of Battles, the game moves on to the next fight depending on who wins each encounter. If you also fancy giving this a go then below is a copy of the matrix. You can work out what to do – who is attacking and defending should be apparent from the previous game and what works best to create a story.

Eric had Vikings led by Sigvald Ironhand, and I had Anglo-Danes (the English) led by Edward Oswaldsson. We used Warlord Experience from The Book of Battles to have games with a bit of depth and also to help create a narrative flow.

First game was Feasting & Pillaging. Three objectives were laid out (loot from the nearby church) with the Vikings trying to steal as much as they could and the English trying to take it away from them. We went with 6 points each. The English had three points of hearthguard, two points of warriors, and one of levy. The Vikings had two points of hearthguard, two of warriors, and two of levy.

The English hearthguard massed on their right flank, with the levy and the warriors on the left intending to use some woods as cover. This was because the Vikings had put their bow-armed levy in the middle meaning that a lot of missile fire would meet anyone there. I think Sigvald was being a bit cautious to start with since his raiders didn’t make the most of their moves – coming forward only slowly. Meanwhile, Edward knew that speed was of the essence and so started double-timing his troops, huffing and puffing as they went, to try and secure the church valuables.

The Vikings advanced through an area of standing stones (clearly this site had been of religious significance for centuries), which also slowed their advance. This allowed the English hearthguard to capture one of the objectives. However, in the centre the English warriors realised that if they were to stop the Vikings then they would have to expose themselves to some bowfire if they were to secure one of the objectives. So they made a dash for it! The bowfire came but no casualties were taken. The Vikings hadn’t been idle though. Their warriors came forward and they managed to capture the last of the objectives.

The English levy, hiding in the woods, were within striking distance of the Viking thieves. But they had a dilemma – they could stay where they were and loose their slings or they could rush out of the woods and charge the Vikings. If they were going to stop the Vikings then a flurry of sling bullets was unlikely to take them all out – clearly they were going to have to get stuck in!

They made a valiant attempt. The Vikings took casualties but they also gave them out. The English levy lost this exchange and were pushed back. This gave the Vikings the chance to make off with the treasure. On the left Sigvald had moved his Vikings through the stones and saw Edward ordering his hearthguard to make off with the loot. Another unit of English hearthguard had moved to shield the laden hearthguard and took a round of bowfire on the chin. Ouch! Down went three hearthguard.

And that was it – game over. The English had managed to get two of the objectives off the table, whilst the Vikings were in control of just one. Victory points came out at 36 to the English and 32 to the Vikings. Edward gained 3 experience points and took the level 1 Exploration ability. Sigvald gained 2 experience points which wasn’t enough to gain any abilities.

So checking the game matrix we see that, with an Anglo-Dane win, we move on to the Ambush scenario. The Vikings, having only partial success with their raid on the church of St Hildaburga, are now trying to flee the scene. The English are going to see if they can cut them off, finish the job, and take back what’s been stolen (which includes some slaves!)

We had 4 points each in this game. The English took two points of hearthguard, one of warriors, and one of levy. The Vikings had one point of hearthguard, two points of warriors, and one point of levy. In this scenario all units start off-table and you have to choose when and where to bring them on. There are three units of baggage moving across the table and the aim is to capture the baggage.

The English went first and brought on about half their units. They came on roughly in the middle, the thought being that by the time they got to the road so would the baggage. Sigvald’s Vikings did similar. I then made my first mistake – I brought the rest of my units (mainly hearthguard) on at the far edge of the table. My thoughts were they could block the baggage if anything made its way through. Turned out this wouldn’t happen – both the Vikings and English would intercept the baggage in the middle, this meant I had put one of my units out of the game because they were too far away.

Eric had learnt something from the previous game – sometimes it pays to double move a unit and take the fatigue. Especially in the games we’d played so far, where speed and movement were important. So that’s what he did and soon took control of one of the baggage items. In the middle my levies stepped on to the road to block another of the baggage items. This is where I made another mistake. Because I decided to pull them back (still don’t know why) rather than leave them where they were so they could start peppering the Vikings with their slings. Thus taking another of my units out of the game!

Then something bad happened that was out of my control – I rolled my Saga dice and the result meant I would be unable to activate my warriors (sorry, can’t remember what symbol I needed). I had one of the helmets so went for the Activation Pool, rolled them, and…they all came up the same as well! This meant that I could not move the warriors who I intended to charge the Vikings carrying the baggage. I did move up the hearthguard and Edward though.

And on Eric’s turn he did what any man of honour would do – sent in Sigvald so we had a warlord versus warlord scrap!

This did not go well. Sigvald had 12 combat dice and Edward was on 10. That’s even enough and with the warlord’s ability to turn hits into fatigue I expected us both to come out of this alive but with a few cuts.

But no.

Edward got two hits on Sigvald. But Sigvald got ten hits on Edward, of which eight went through!

That’s a dead warlord.

At the end of the game it was 21 Victory Points to the English and 34 to the Vikings. A convincing win. Edward gained 2 experience points and Sigvald gained 3 and took the level 1 Tenacity ability.

So we move on to our last game – Guard The Loot.

The Vikings, having escaped the English ambush, are now nearly home and dry. All they need to do is get their plunder aboard the boats and off they go.

The rules of this scenario mean that each player places 3 objective markers. At the end of the game you get Victory Points based on how many you control – those placed by your opponent are worth more than ones placed by yourself.

We had 5 points each. The English (now led by Edward’s son, Gyrth Edwardson) had three points of hearthguard, one of warriors, and one of levy. The Vikings had two points of hearthguard, two of warriors, and one of levy.

I made a slight mistake in my deployment. There were six objectives on the table but I only had five units. This meant it would be impossible for me to control all six objectives, but if I’m honest, I reckon that would be hard to achieve anyway. So not that bad.

We’d set up with a river running across the table with a bridge in the middle. This was slightly on my side. Normally you roll for how passable the river is at the beginning of the game but we decided we’d roll for it when a unit reaches the river. We decided we’d roll separately for the river either side of the bridge.

Both the Vikings and English soon gained control of two objectives each. The Viking warriors found some crates in the woods and Sigvald and his hearthguard found some more near a hill. The English levies took control of some cargo beside the river but rather than cross to another piece of loot just the other side of the river they chose to stay where they were so they could shoot at any Vikings that tried to claim it. Edward and his hearthguard soon took control of some barrels. The fight was going to be for the remaining loot. I had placed one of the loot tokens on the bridge which, being on my side of the table, meant I should be able to grab it. However, due to the scores I knew I had to push it and gain as much loot as possible and, ideally, the ones Eric had placed (worth more Victory Points) if I was to win the day.

I pushed a unit of hearthguard and warriors toward the bridge. The intention was that the hearthguard would cross over where they could make a grab for one of the other pieces of loot and the warriors would come up to control the loot on the bridge. With Edward controlling one piece of loot I decided the other unit of hearthguard would cross the river to ultimately attack the Vikings with the loot in the woods. I let Eric roll for the river. Impassable! Yup, a steep, slippery, bank and deep, fast-flowing, rapids made it impassable. So I made the decision to double-time them to the bridge where I could launch an attack on the Viking side of the river. Meanwhile Eric moved a unit of hearthguard to control the loot by the river. The English levies opened up with their slings but…nothing!

Now things hotted up! The first unit of English hearthguard crossed the bridge and made for the Vikings in the woods. Eric did the brave thing and backed up. And the Viking levies opened up with their bows. I used the Shieldwall ability to raise armour to 6 and thought that would be enough to stop the arrows. But no – three casualties caused! I then moved the warriors on the bridge along the banks of the river (and behind a hill to protect them from any arrows) so I could contest control of the loot there. This meant Eric only had control of two loot tokens whilst I had control of three, and the possibility of taking control of a fourth. Would that be enough to win the day?

On the last turn Eric decided to go for it. Realising the difficult position he was in it was clearly an all or nothing situation. He counter-attacked on the bridge, meaning the English lost control of the loot token there, and then he brought up a unit of hearthguard to charge the warriors who were threatening control of the loot by the river. In this fight it went the Viking way – no Viking losses but two dead English warriors. This meant the warriors had to withdraw and therefore the Vikings would regain control of that loot token.

And that was the end of the game. The Vikings had just managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat – they had three loot tokens worth 9 Victory Points and the English had control of just two loot tokens worth 6 Victory Points. A close one.

But final Victory points for the day came to 63 for the English and 75 for the Vikings. A narrow Viking win. They had got away with some loot but not as much as they could have.

Thus came to an end the tedious invasion of 1058.