We set up the battle field, some bits from both of our terrain collections.
Spencer moved first sending his spear and shield warriors to the center of the small stead. I reacted by sending my bow-armed thralls to the small longhouse on the right for cover, the plan being they could snipe at the Saxons.
The Saxons then occupied some of the smaller buildings and the Warlord and a retinue of warriors stood strong in the center. Another Saxon warrior unit besieged the Viking thralls in the longhouse, casualties were dealt to both sides but the thralls stood strong defensively. They were not able to take any offensive measures as planned.
The Vikings then sent in a group of hardened warriors to meet with Saxon Huscarls and a shield wall. It was kind of a blood bath... on the side of the Vikings.
Both sides regrouped and the Saxon Warlord and his retinue moved forward more. The Vikings reacted by sending in the famed Val'Serkers who (rolling really well) bit well into the Saxon shield wall and lost only 1 Val'Serker. They then pushed forward on the lone Saxon Warlord, as the Saxon Warriors had to retreat, and with another excellent roll of dice they killed off the Saxon warlord as he killed all the Val'Serkers.
It was a good fight and I think I did things right when it came to running a Viking faction in the Saga rule set. Hit hard and hit quick and don't sweat the fatigue counters. No room for grand strategies here. Keep your eye on the victory conditions.
The drink of the night was:
Edit**
Thinking about the game more the one thing I did totally different was how I used my levies - the 12 "old men with bows" as I like to call them. As per Saga rules every faction gets "levies" or a cheap unit that usually has ranged abilities. They don't get many dice for attacks - 1 die per 3 minis - and are crap for armor and melee. Many battle board abilities are also only good for warriors on up nor do they generate a Saga Dice. On paper they just don't seem worth the 1 point they cost.
Historically these guys would be "old men with bows" ... or just peasants you handed a spear to and said, "Fight well man...". Not front line guys; Levies, thralls, militia, a sacrifice. These guys would have the family helmet maybe or a shield of their own, a knife and hand ax. That spear they were given or one they had on their own would be the best weapon they got. Slings were common too. I've read in some sagas about the legendary old retired farmer/warrior with his old crooked bow and how dangerous that man could be.
Spencer and I were talking about levies in the game. He's really effective at using Anglo-Dane levies. They can actually get a bonus die here and there when fighting ranged. Vikings levies? Not so much. I've never used my levies much nor effectively. Spencer brought up the idea of levies being great at occupation of certain terrain features like bridges or buildings and I agreed with that as I had not even thought of that until he mentioned it.
Levies, though thought of as your "ranged" option can still engage in melee whether it's offensive or defensive. Setting them in a terrain feature will give them some defensive bonuses making them not so poor as an open field levy getting hit by a unit of warriors or hearthguard. In the bridge battle we played a few months back they would've been great to set on one bridge to hold it, maybe backed by a hearthguard, while the bulk of your forces could be concentrated on the other bridge (there are 2 bridges).
This last game I tried it out and it seemed to work OK. Sure they were exhausted and could not fire bows offensively the whole game but they kept up in that a-frame and did their job by both denying the building and creating an obstacle on the battlefield that could not be avoided.
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