BLOODY MONGOLS II--ANOTHER SAGA BATREP

Seizing the moment, my friend and fellow bloggist AJ and I found ourselves free on an evening a few days ago and decided to do a rematch of his Eastern Princes Russians vs my Mongols in a SAGA, Age of Crusades game. The first match went to AJ and his Eastern Princes, as reported earlier. We were both interested in applying lessons learned from that game as well as giving new force combinations a try.  I wasn't taking photos during the game: All photos here come courtesy of AJ, who graciously shared his with me (and you may read his excellent batrep on this game on his blog). As usual, in this report, you may clix pix for BIG PIX. 

Once again, we did the Clash of Warlords scenario.  This time around I wound up being player one.  During the terrain placement, I once again plopped the large open hill prominently on the battlefield to facilitate my mounted force. AJ was more mindful of the relative mobility of the Mongols vs his mainly infantry force this time, placing the large wood and rocky field to create a bastion in one corner of the table. 

This was a 6 point game. AJ's Eastern Crusader Russians consisted of 2 points of warriors (in 2, 8 fig units), one point of hearthguard (in 1, 4 fig unit), 1 point of levy crossbow (12 figs), a mercenary horse unit, the black hoods (8 figures), and a legendary leader, Alexander Nevsky. Among Nevsky's special abilities is that units keep generating Saga dice, regardless of losses. A cagey move on the part of AJ that would negate one of my guiding aims, which is to hit hard and cause one or more opposing units to drop below the figure threshold for generating a Saga Dice: there would be no cheapo gains via that tactic this time. I'd have to work for it!  Setting up, he bulwarked his position by starting his crossbows and a warrior in the woods, with his other warrior poised to take up position in the rocky ground. Nevsky and the hearthguard were in depth.

Wanting to try more warriors than last time time, I took 2 points of hearthguard, but I concentrated them in one big 8 figure "hammer"  unit. I took 3 points of warriors, deploying them in 2, 8 figure units and splitting the 3rd into 2, 4-figure units, which I deployed on the flanks.  The rest of  the units I put in a group.  I again took the War Drummer (costing 1 point) and the standard Warlord. This combination generates 7 Saga dice, and the War Drummer's ability to activate all horse mounted units within L is the equivalent of having another  4 or 5 Saga dice, depending on how you're deployed. In this configuration, the Saga Dice differential is almost certainly in the Mongols favor. The key for the Mongols is that you don't have to divert many Saga dice to movement but can load up on battleboard dirty tricks. I also took a warbanner and deployed it with one of my warriors.  This lets them recover 1 fatigue at the start of each turn for free (wheras normally you would need to burn an activation to rest).  In this particular game, the banner really didn't come into play. I think it would be of more use in a situation mixing movement and combat as opposed to the close-in slugfest this game wound up being.

I went first. In Saga, the first player is limited to 3 Saga Dice, but by my War Drummer allowed me to move my entire force. So, I advanced and poised the hearthguard and warriors in a line opposite the wood, ready to go into action in the next turn.

AJ's countermove was to pull his units in the woods back from the edge so that I couldn't hit them in melee on 1 activation (cagey fellow!). He brought his black hoods up to fill the gap between the wood and the rocky terrain, and slipped his Warriors into the latter. He shifted his hearthguard and Alexander Nevsky to a supporting position. 

On my next turn, I again used my drummer to send a solid wall of units into action. Once again, I used the "Predator" ability to give my big hearthguard unit composite bows, so they would be generating 8 fire dice (before adding specials). I then pulled out the "Scorched Earth" ability, which blasted the woods, causing it to no longer provide light cover (for the rest of the game) as well as putting a fatigue on AJ's warrior and levy crossbow who occupied it. Although the woods would still be a movement obstacle, it had suddenly lost its value as a bulwark vs mounted and missiles.  I then unleashed composite bow volleys from my hearthguard and warriors into the levy crossbow...

...I had learned in the last game how dangerous these lowly fellows can be and so negating them early was job one. This combined attack managed to take them down enough so that they would not be a factor in the game  (and not worth spending the Saga dice to activate). 

Unfortunately, bv focusing on the crossbows, this left their neighbors hale and hearty.  Recovering quickly from the nasty shock of the Scorched Earth, AJ's warriors assaulted my hearthguard with excellent results (well, not so excellent from the Mongol perspective!).  My warriors paid the price as well, taking some effective fire from the Black Hoods....

...the Dead pile at the end of the turn attested to the effectiveness of AJ's counterpunch.  For the loss of 3 warriors, he had reduced my big hearthguard unit by half, taking out 4 of 8 figures (ouch!).  At this rate, it would be a short game!

The next few turns saw more mixing it up. I continued pushing my hearthguard to finish off the crossbows.  The black hoods evaded a charge by my warriors, who then wound up behind the woods: there was more back and forth there, with both sides getting reduced. Meanwhile, AJ's hearthguard made their way around the woods and tangled with my right wing warriors, both suffering.  Alexander Nevsky swung into the Mongol rear--in Saga, the warlord is a formidable melee unit in itself, so this was becoming serious.  Now those losses to my hearthguard were coming home to roost. I was running out of options for countering this threat!

The growing dead pile attests to the fighting in this "middle game" phase of the battle.

Running out of options, I send my warlord in to fight Alexander Nevsky before he can recover exhaustion and run amok...

...despite the favorable exhaustion situation, Nevsky proves to be no pushover, rolling 5 hits on my warlord: this could spell mutual annihilation! For those not familiar with Saga, figures get to try and save melee hits (need a 5, 6) and on top of this, Warlords can convert hits to exhaustions, but can only do that for 3. Thus,  Alexander had no more exhaustions to give and would need to save all hits.  My warlord, on the other hand, wound up being saved (literally) by an equally sterling save roll: I saved 3 of the 5 hits, and put 2 exhaustions on my warlord, thus just surviving the onslaught. AJ wasn't so fortunate with Nevsky's saves, though, and he wound up in the dead pile: high drama, for the warlords to clash like this!

...at that point, we were at something like turn 5 (out of 6), and all I had left were my warlord, drummer, and two small units of warriors, opposed by 1 of AJ's warriors and a few figures (out of the picture) of Black Hoods. Discretion being the better part of valor, I beat it out of range of the warriors and let night arrive to end the battle.  This time, the points favored the Mongols, so the match between the Mongols and Eastern Princes is now tied at 1 win each.  A very well played game by AJ and a learning experience (once again) for me. I'm already looking forward to the next practice round!

Uukhai!