Saving Brother Herbert - A Saga AAR

Poor Brother Herbert!

The final action of the day last Saturday featured a good old knock down game of Saga, one of our favorites. As is usual, Jon played his Vikings, while I took the Saxons. But for the first time, we went with six points instead of four, and that really did open some things up for the Saxons as they set out to send as many Vikings to Valhalla as possible!

The Saxon lord and the fyrd are on the way!

In Saga, Saxons benefit from larger units. Size matters, if you will. Bigger is better, etc. So I went with two 12-man warrior units, a single 8-man hearthguard unit (which was a tank), and 12 levy. I hoped to use Saxon abilities to treat the levy like warriors, but I made the mistake of moving them too far forward early, and didn't roll the needed dice in any case. So they were mostly ineffectual, but the other units did well indeed!

The Danes do not look afraid.

We usually forego the scenarios in the book and just make something up on the fly, and so we did that again. In today's installment, a Viking raiding party had just plundered a monastery, but while the gold and other treasure was in low supply, they did capture a monk who may or may not know where the gold is hidden. Poor Brother Herbert! The local Saxon lord, upon hearing of the holy man's plight, immediately assembled the fyrd and set out to rescue him.

I like this shot.

The Vikings, being the braver sort, responded to the challenge and advanced as well. While cutting down the Saxon levy on the right (my left), the middle bogged down in a melee of warriors. Eventually my warlord, joined by the hearthguard, got around the right, to the Viking warlord, and dispatched him post haste.

Definitely another great game! After a slow start, I rolled quite well, while Jon did not. He wasn't able to pull any of those dastardly Viking tricks on me that he usually does. All those "Loki says everyone over here dies" and crap. Plus my larger units were tougher nuts to crack. 

We're already thinking about an eight point game!And, of course, painting all those languishing Normans, putting the finishing touches on the Irish/Scots/Norse Gael force. Oh, and starting Kievan Rus Era of the Princes...

God's blessings will surely be upon the Saxon lord.