Saga, Welsh vs. Normans, playing some new factions

Played some new factions Friday night. Spencer played his Welsh for the first time though unfinished paint jobs while I played my Normans for a second time. We played 2 games, 4 points, Clash of the Warlords, and gave ourselves plenty of time to figure out stuff with our new factions.

Terrain was standard from the book - both games resulted in the Welsh picking 6 and Normans picking 1 for a grand total of 3 pieces.

This will be less of an AAR with winners and losers (Normans were losers) and more about points we learned about the factions.

The first game started strong for the Normans and some bold opening moves. They played Warlord and 2 points mounted knights, 1 point of crossbow warriors, 1 point of mounted warrirors.

Welsh played 2 points of mounted warriors, mounted Warlord and Hearthguard, and a point of foot warriors.

Crossbows can be awesome as long as they are protected. In this pic you can see how the Normans moved up to the cabbage patch and fired into the Welsh mounted warriors, killing 4 of them. Crossbows get a +1 to attack while mounted figures get a -1 to armor from ranged attacks. This being Welsh mounted with javelins that is one less armor to boot. Warrior armor is 4. The equation: 4- (-1 mounted/ranged)-(-1 javelins)-(+1 for attackers) = pretty much Normans having to roll 1 or higher and that is an easy thing to do.

That said, crossbow warriors get a -1 to armor rating too and not as easy of a day against anything but mounted troops.

Ha! Look how many we knocked down!!

I try not to blame the dice but you know what makes it so awesome Norman crossbowmen can't be awesome? No activations. Pretty much the rest of the game resulted in no "common" dice being rolled (1-3) thus no activations for my Cabbage Patch Shooters of death. Any rares that came up were used to supplement Saga board abilities needed to increase effectiveness of Norman Knights. Usually, we have the opposite problem (too many commons).

Since we did so well let's just camp here in this cabbage patch and drink wine.

The first game went on pretty heavy on the Welsh losses but a final mistake made by me left my Warlord open and he got killed.

It became a fight about angles and inches and the Welsh were able to exploit the Norman mistake and pull a win.

Points:

• Norman Crossbow Warriors are pretty awesome. They just need the activations.
• Norman mounted warriors? Meh. What they have is mobility. What they lack is activations and punch. I'd only use them for specific scenerios where area and speed are needed - like Sacred Ground (to get to that far terrain piece) or even River Battle where you can get them across a bridge with haste.
• Welsh sure can avoid melee. You need ranged attacks to do anything to them. If I was running my Vikings? It would've been embarrassing.
• If you are playing Welsh and your opponent is playing something with ranged capabilities? Rethink mounted Welsh warriors. That said, Spencer just wanted to surprise me with whoopin' out 16 mounted warriors as he did not tell me he was working on those. Sneaky.

Game 2 was the same as above except the Welsh were all foot, including the Warlord. The Normans went with only 4 Knights and used the extra point to hire some Flemish Mercenaries!

In game 2 Spencer used the Hell out of Child of the Land Welsh Saga ability. He was moving unimpeded through terrain that also gave him cover. My mounted Warriors on my right were almost taken right out of the game by round 2 as his Welsh Warriors javelin-ed then closed on them killing 6 and leaving 2.

Flemish Swords For Hire are good at one thing, defensive turtle-up. They are Warriors that have an increased armor value of 5. When not initiating an attack they also have hard/heavy cover. It's an increase in armor value and increase save numbers. BTW, Saga core rules goes back and fourth on the term "hard cover" and "heavy cover". Both have the same value. What you get when you interpret the rules from French to English?

The problem with Flemish Swords For Hire is that they do not get to use any ability that your faction gets to use. They get one free activation per turn. Movement is down to S. There is no real way to increase their attack capability. I attacked with them a few times but they didn't really do much to nudge Welsh from the rocky outcrop they were dug into.

What I should have done here was attack. I did not.

Spencer and I deduced that a good way to use them would be to hold a bridge or some terrain feature that has soft cover. Or, as an incredibly powerful screen of some kind (that is slow though). Next time we play the bridge scenario I'm totally using the Flemish.

The other thing I learned by this last game is that it does not pay to have an aggressive faction (like Normans) and not go for it. You really got to look at combos and using your units as a team. I was failing at that. By round six the Welsh were dug in well and ahead by 3 victory points and my options were few. I rolled my Saga dice and saw I did have the opportunity to send my Warlord in, take a lot of the Welsh warriors protecting the Warlord, and hit the Welsh Warlord with a Dex Aie. That's right... the Norman Nuke that uses 2 rare dice to activate.

It almost worked too but there were just enough warriors left over from my first attack that my 9 hits were soaked/saved by the Welsh and one of the Welsh Warlord's hits got through and took my Norman Warlord down. It was a tight game. One Warrior or Hearthguard with me may have saved my Warlord and, as I killed a bunch of Welsh Warriors, I may have won on VPs as I got 4 of them taking out his last band of Warriors.

The Welsh are wiley. Seemed to be on the ropes the whole time in both games but Spencer's skill and abilities always pulled through for his Welsh.

The main thing I need to do now is to seize the initiative and recognize those moments I have the aforementioned initiative.

Edit: It was pointed out that I had the activation dice wrong for my crossbow warriors. They are "Warriors" and activate on common or rare Saga dice. It was the common die, 1-3, that were not coming up for me. The correction has been made above.