BLOODY MONGOLS!--OR--A SAGA BATREP

In this post, dear readers, I am happy to relate the story of my newly fitted out SAGA Age of Crusades Mongols in their first game. I had previously played them in another configuration on two or three occasions with winning results.  This would be the first time, however, where I would be fielding bonafide Mongol Heavy Cavalry figures as Hearthguards and proper speciality figures for the Camel Drummer and Warlord . Surely, the results would be more glorious than ever!  Coming over to play the game was club-mate, friend, and fellow bloggist AJ (who has an excellent report on his blog as well).  In this post, as always, you may clix pix for BIG PIX.

AJ brought along his Eastern Princes Crusader army, and we played the bog standard Clash of Warlords scenario from the back of the Age of Crusades book. Above, the terrain consisted of two fields, a woods, and a large open hill.  I plunked the open hill down in the midst of the table, which forced the other pieces to be pushed to the sides and left a "gate" through which my mounted force could flow. Above, AJ, as player one, has done his partial deployment and my Mongols (at the bottom of the picture), have been fully deployed.

Down to business!  AJ has completes his deployment: a compact array centering on the crossbows in the bad terrain supported by the warwagon.  This latter was a specialty unit that would oblige me to attack it vs anything else in range--a distraction but one that did cause me to spend an extra turn shooting vs closing, and diverted some of my momentum away from my primary thrust, which I do think contributed to the result (but more on that in a nonce....)

Seeing AJ's deployment, and based on previous successes with my Mongols, I hatched an ingenious plan!  I would advance aggressively on my right and hit hard with everything early on.  As in the past, my Mongols enjoyed a SAGA dice advantage to begin with, magnified by the War Drummer's special ability to give an activation to every mounted unit within L.  This  allows the Mongols to bring up multiple units to do a coordinated attack that can take out an enemy unit in turn one or two, which in turn reduces the opposing side's SAGA dice further...growing the SAGA dice differential ever more in the Mongols favor. This, then, was my BRILLIANT plan: it had worked before...

With the "Predator" special ability, I equip one of my Hearthguards with Composite Bows. This is particularly nasty given that Hearthguard, if missile armed, shoot with an aggression of 1 (meaning one for every figure), whereas warriors and others have a shooting aggression of 1/2 (one for every two).  Adding a few other specials to this kind of shot can push the number of dice fired up to 10 or 12.  I push my Predator Hearthguard forward to within composite bow range...

...and I bring up the rest of the Mongols using the Drummer's activation ability. I then target the left most Eastern Prince warrior unit...

 ...and then bring up my main, 8-man Mongol Warrior unit (composite bow armed) to take another shot at it. Although I succeed in reducing the warrior to below the 4 figure threshold for generating a SAGA dice, I do not succeed in eliminating it outright, so partial success....

....AJ then shifts his wagon over and the survivors of his Warrior unit back (in SAGA, you gain points for eliminating individual figures--and extra points for eliminating a unit, so AJ has safeguarded those points by keeping these last two figs on the table).   AJ brings up his Warlord with accompanying lifeguard figures to thump my (now) vulnerable Warriors...

 ...He also swings his Eastern Horse wide around the flank to get a shot in at my Camel Drummer (these guys would be flitting about the table harassing me all afternoon).  I hadn't known about the mobility of the Eastern Horse, so hadn't thought my Drummer was at risk.  This could prove to be a costly turn of events, both for my Warriors and the Mongol side if  the Drummer gets picked off this early...

 ...however, in these early stages of the battle AJ's dice were "cold" to say the least...

....thus, not only were his potentially damaging early counterattacks blunted,  but his Warlord suddenly found himself in a most vulnerable position facing my Hearthguard and Warrior. Meanwhile (not pictured), I had taken out the Wagon with my second Hearthguard unit using a "Hell for Leather" charge, which allowed it to hit the wagon and then retire a full "Long"move back, away from the crossbows...

...Following up, I managed to send the Eastern Prince Warlord off to the Dead Pile (albeit at the cost of a few Hearthguard due to a combination of melee and some crossbow pot shots). Meanwhile, AJ's Eastern Horse Mercenaries, having evaded a charge, return from the wing and shore up his center (damn nuisance, those fellows!)....

....An overview of the battle at that point. Things are looking good for the Mongols, thinks the Warlord.  Except, for one nagging thing....

...he finds himself alone and in range of AJ's crossbows: who enjoy a bit of target practice at his expense!

With both Warlords in the Dead Pile, things are still looking good for the Mongols, who still have the Camel Drummer, a four and a one figure Hearthguard, and three Warrior units left that are all still viable enough to generate SAGA Dice. Time to pull back out of missile range and regroup, thinks I...there are only a few more turns left; perhaps it's time to use my mobility advantage to evade and delay against a decidedly less mobile force (Eastern Horse aside: nuisance that they are!)...

 ...AJ, seeing these developments, contemplates plans for my demise...

...and he advances! This was too much! With my Camel Drummer in support, I push forward my viable Hearthguard unit in the an attempt to crush those puny crossbows in the open, hoping to scoop up points for figure kills and a bonus for eliminating the unit--and a bit of payback for killing my Warlord--unfortunately, AJ pulls the Band of Brothers special ability for the crossbows, which adds bunches of defense dice to these benighted fellows...

...who survive the onslaught (albeit still reduced).  At this point, I notice that my reduced Hearthguard and Camel Drummer seem a bit vulnerable...

 ...and the payback is swift in coming!

...End of game: result to the Eastern Princes! Well played, that man, AJ!

 

So much for another of your humble correspondent's Ingenious Battle Plans! 

Still, it was  a grand afternoon playing with toy soldiers in good company. Watch these pages for a rematch in the near future!