Heathend Hill

Heathend Hill is the name given for this 'sacred ground' scenario we played for the SAGA dark ages skirmish tabletop miniature game.  We used full six-point war bands, myself using Anglo-Danes with no ranged weapons (5 warrior units at 8 figures per units plus one hearthguard unit at 4 figures - 44 figures!) and Gabe fielded his new Norman war band which was our first experience with mounted troops.

 

 

The scenario involves three terrain pieces across the middle of the board (here, woods, a hill, and some rough terrain) which both sides must place as many figures as possible on. At the end of each turn points are tallied and then whomever has the most points at the end of 8 turns is the winner.

 

 

In turns one and two the Normans shot out ahead early and occupied the woods and 'Heathend Hill' in the middle.  The Anglo-Danes did formation dances and dressed their lines.

 

Then the Normans impetuously charged the Danes with 8 knights - the elite of their army. And were thoroughly trounced! The Danes took not a single casualty1

 



Meanwhile the Danes got toeholds in the woods and on Heathend hill and started accumulating points finally.  They were also able to play the 'trapped' ability two turns in a row and dropped a ton on fatigue on various Norman units, neutralizing them.

 

Numerous assaults in the woods failed to dislodge the Normans but the Danes massed and seized Heathend Hill in force.  By this time we were around turn 5 or 6 (of 8) so the rest of the game devolved into making sure all available models were on a terrain item to gather points.

 

 

In the end the 22 or so Anglo-Danes on Heathend Hill generated enough points to win the game.  Aside from winning, what I enjoyed about this game was that it was another scenario where the conditions had the effect of a very different game being played as opposed to the standard standby 'clash of the warlords.'  This was a long game (8 turns rather than 6) and took just under four hours to set-up and play although the last two turns went pretty fast.  I also enjoyed that I could experiment with army composition (no ranged attack units, only one elite unit) and have my war band (which I have played many times now) feel 'new' again.  Post-game this time involved a lot of browsing of the rules for the larger 8, 10 and 12 point games!

 

Effilstan's Pig Farm

'Effilstan's Pig Farm' is what Gabe titled this Vikings vs. Anglo-Danes SAGA game played almost a month ago.  We used the basic clash-of-the-warlords scenario with small four-point war bands.

 

 

 

I experimented a bit and did not include any ranged weapons in my Anglo-Dane war band - three warriors (8 figures each) and a hearthguard (4 figures).  I had recently constructed a bunch of cardboard village houses and Gabe had built a pig pen. We had a lot of terrain on the board which ended up being lumped together in the middle.  Since there was a cluster of buildings with a sort of village square space I chose to be aggressive and try and move into the constricted space of the buildings and use those defensively.

 

Viking archers occupied the long house first and refused to be evicted despite several assaults. Then viking berserkers decimated a band of Dane warriors (really good dice) and then proceeded to attack and slay the now exposed warlord (who in retrospect was way too close to the front lines).

 

 

Loss of your warlord is an automatic defeat in the clash of the warlords scenario so it was the sudden end to relatively short game.