Death in a Tight place

So I am way behind on Blogging (Dad Life) since John already has an AAR up of this action I'm writing it first before my games with Mark that happened on the 22nd.   Death in a Tight Place was a scenario I wrote myself (see Scenarios for Saga) and this was its first Play test. My army consisted of two Curaida, three points of Irish Hearth Guards on foot (in two units of six), on point of mounted Hearthguards and one point of Vagrant warriors.  John had 5 points of Saxon(Germanic peoples) warriors and a unit of scouts (8 mercenary Levys)

John moved up quick with his first move and even scored first blood with bow shots form his scouts.

The Saxon's were quickly threatening the flank.  The flanking warriors and scouts were quickly up on my left side Hearthgard and drove them back killing 4 of 6.

Vagrant Warriors and Saxon Clashed in the center and arrows killed more of the Vagrant warriors.

I opted to fall back at this point concentrate my infantry in the center and let the cavalry guard the right flank.

At this point I realized that my strategy should have been to hurl my hard to kill Curaida at the Saxons from the start.  I began to do this to Johns frustration.

The Saxon storms break in the center killing the last of the vagrant warriors and exhausting my Warlord.

But champions and Hearthguard finish that unit. On the right my cavalry can only manage to slow down the warriors on that side.

 John is bring in up his endless waves units (replacements) as I try to reorganize my forces

John's Warriors on the right kill five of six Hearthguard and I am entering my last stand.

First one Curaidh and then the other are slain.

Another unit of Saxon warriors goes down.

My Warlord now fighting all but alone makes a final charge.  He finishes off one more Saxon unit.   John edged me in points Killing but 3 hearthguards and my Warlord.

Saga V2 first Game Clash of Warlords Scotti vs Saxons

 Now that we both have the book John and I decided to play.  We did the A&A time frame so my Irish (Scotti were slightly modified (no Curaidh or dogs). John ran early Saxon's with Hengist and Horsa. We got deployment C so every thing was really spread out.  We also rolled a 6 on the special rules so it was 2 extra points per unit eliminated not one.  John took advantage of his status as first player (and the Saxon ability to advance) to quickly hit my lead warriors.  That unit was quickly diminished form 8 to 4 and spent the rest of the game hiding.

My Irish Hearth Guard made a mightily charge (my first of V2) to protect their warrior bothers...

And did quite well.  John buffed up the survivors and sent them back in...

They did well only losing one warrior while killing to Hearth Guards.  John and sent up Hengist to help them.  Hengist took a fatigue in the process.  This gave my warlord and opportunity running up and sending a powerful Javelin attack (boosted with Fir Blog)

Hengist dodged but took two extra fatigues.

John's levies are now king of the hill having defeated my warriors in hand to hand combat.

My Warlord makes a second move John picks up the fatigues to make me fall short since my charge is now a move I take a shot with my Javelin... Hengist  is no more.

John's attack on the left has been coming on well.  Despite spirits of the Land my men are over run killing just one Saxon in return.

About turn four Hengist is dead but Horsa is still on the board.  John has a unit of Levies in good shape and two basically whole units of Warriors (but these troops are separated) I have two strong units of Hearth Guard and a battered unit of Warriors in addition to my War Lord.

I decide to play a waiting game peppering the Levies to a strength of 3 with Javelins...

Horsa tries to take down my Warlord but cannot and falls to my Hearth guard's Javelins on my side of the 5th turn.

John's Warriors make one final charge but fall short when I pick upa fatigue... We destroy the Levies on the hill in a final charge. I could have killed one or to more warriors with my remaining troops but we call it.  This is a Scotti Victory 24 to 17 (possibly 28 to 17 if the Hero's get the 2 extra for being destroyed under the special rule, we judged they would not but that we should get clarification).  Version 2 of Saga is a lot cleaner than Version 1 in its wording we were a little slow and the back and forth of calling out saga abilities and fatigue was much clearer and cleaner.  We both enjoyed the game a lot and look forward to more.  You can see John's thoughts here SAGA2: Clash of Warlords