A festive treat of wargaming as Michael hosted a gathering
of reprobates and scuff laws, with me, Luke, Red, Chris and Aidan descending
upon his house, and only some of that number came just for the food. Red split off to take on Ben in a bit of Star
Wars dog fighting, and the rest of us settled down around Michaels dinning
table to play the Wooden Oaths scenario for Saga. It was designed for 4 players, but suited 5
nicely, with Aidan’s Strathclyde-Welsh and Michael’s Normans pulling black and
facing off against my Welsh, Lukes Danes, and Chris’ Vikings.
The Battle:
General fear broke out immediately amongst the red players
about the effectiveness of being stabbed in the back by Aidans roving
(off-table) horse, and we all began moving into the centre of the table. This brought my Welsh into contact with
Michaels Normans, and an exchange of javelins and crossbow fire saw me come off
worse, but not by much, with a fair few horsemen down. The Strathclyde-Welsh ‘harassed’ the Vikings
and Danes bringing fatigue but little else.
The first turn card draw came and went with everyone trying to second
guess the others and ending up on the same side as before. This gave Michael the opportunity to use his
crossbow firing squad on the advanced guard of the Anglo-Danes, cutting down
several, while my Welsh did little to help their allies. The Vikings clustered more towards the Danes
hoping they would lead them to a fight, and the Strathclyde-Welsh, with most of
their troops off table ‘harassing’ the Danes and Vikings did nowt.
It then became unpredictable and interesting, with the cards
seeing me and Chris join Michael, and Aidan switch to Luke’s side. This left the Danes in a very nasty sandwich
between the Welsh and the Viking attack column, with the Normans coming up on
the rails. With the Strathclyde-Welsh in
no position to assist, Luke was glad to get first turn, and took advantage of
the Viking Warlords impetuous nature to bushwhack him, gaining revenge for the
insults hurled beforehand by the Viking
chief! The Welsh and Normans bloodied
the Danes on one side with javelins, crosswbows and horsemen, and the Viking
warriors waded in and joined the Welsh warlord in wiping the floor with the
rest of the Danes, leaving Luke with just his warlord. Chris’ Vikings, having butched most of Lukes
troops then allied with him by switching straight back to the Red’s, joining Luke’s
warlord and Aidans Strathclyde-Welsh, and stuck with that for the rest of the
battle, while I went with Black and an alliance with Michael’s Normans. I caused a rumpus when I attempted to stab
the Normans in the back while supposedly on their side, and having ruled as a
group against such nefarious tactics the Red’s then had cause to regret it when
they looked at Luke’s warlord, whose death would have greatly increased their
points total by reducing the division of their victory points!
The last few turns were quieter. Luke’s warlord launched a single-handed
attack on my Welsh and was killed off by a couple of lucky hearthguard. Chris’ Viking warriors did the same against
my warriors and bounced off somewhat embarrassingly, while Aidans troops turned
up, but then charged in against the Norman horse only to be wiped out. Finally my warlord made an unnecessary (but
entertaining and dramatic) 18” charge on foot across the battlefield to try and
take out Aidans warlord, only to fall himself.
Battle over and the Blacks (me and Michael) had won comfortably, and
with Michael having plenty more surviving troops than me he took the plaudits
and the overall victory.
Afterthoughts:
From a technical point of view we used 4 points a player to
speed up play, and a kitchen table much smaller than the recommended size, but
we fudged it and it worked well! We also
spent much time bickering, insulting, and a fair amount of time sitting
chatting and eating – as an evening it was extremely well spent!
As for the Star Wars result – in Red’s own
words:
In the kitchen I faced a tooled up Millennium Falcon, Wedge Antillies
(with R2D2), a Red Sqn. pilot and Rookie pilot in X-Wings, a Green Sqn. pilot
in an A-Wing and a Gold Sqn. pilot in a Y-Wing. For this first game I had 6 Tie
Fighters, 3 Tie Interceptors and 2 Tie Bombers.
I think Ben was a little overwhelmed by the options which left him
lacking firepower to take down enough of my ties.
He learnt the lesson well though and turned it back on me in the second
game where I took a pair of Y-Wings against 3 Tie Fighters and a Tie
Interceptor.
Looking forward to the next game.
Sounds like a great night with some fun games.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Andy