Saga - Vikings Vs. Welsh - Battle of Mead Hall Ford

Got a game in last Friday with Spencer and his Welsh. Battle of the Fords Scenario, 6 points each.

Me and my Vanilla Vikings:
Warlord - Jarl Ulf Whitehair and a Bard
x12 Hearthguard unit (and a Bannerman)
x10 Warriors
x6 Warriors
x6 Levy
x6 Levy

Spencer and his Welsh... the venerable, many wins having, Welsh:
Warlord and a Bard
x12 Mounted Hearthguard
x10 Warrior
x10 Warrior
x4 Warrior

The picture is a view from my side. Left bridge are my Warlord and Bard, 6 Levy, 10 warriors, and 6 warriors. On the right are 6 Levy and 12 Hearthguard

Spencer had his Welsh set up in 2 Warrior units per bridge and the bulk of his forces behind the long house.

The Fluff:
Our Vikings went out to confront the Welsh sheep thieves BUT IT WAS A TRICK! They took the Mead Hall and would not give it back while the Vikings were gone.  Now they are back and would like to have mead in their hall!

We rolled to see who would go first and it was I.

My very first move was to push my Hearthguard and their Levy screen across the bridge on the right and get into a big fight. Immediately the Welsh spent any fatigue I earned to slow my unit's movements of M to S. This would be the story for the first 4 rounds.

On the left I had my Warlord and Bard use the heck out of the 2 Determination rule (as provided by the Bard). My big strategy was for them to hold the left bridge.

As a matter of fact my whole strategy was a hammer and anvil. The anvil would be Ulf Whitebeard and his Warriors and Bard. The Hearthguard x12 would be the hammer. I could concentrate Saga Dice activations on the charge on the right (with Banner to help mitigate fatigue on top of Viking Fatigue Drinking abilities) and Warlord/Bard combo would net all the activations I needed on the left.

As usual it didn't work out perfectly like that. The Welsh came up my left bridge really hard and fast and concentrated. On top of that I was getting slowed by both opponent spending of my fatigue to slow as as mentioned above and slippery Welsh abilities. I could not, in turn, slow the Welsh as they played Children of the Land every turn not allowing anything to slow them.

Setting up defense on the left bridge.

Moving across on the right and getting slowed as the Welsh retreated with haste.

Blood started getting let by round 3. Welsh were committed to blasting me on my left and were doing a great job of it. My Hammer on the right frozen as I was now on the ropes and using Saga Dice to support my defense on the left.

For a very long time, where my Hammer and screen of Old Men with Bows camped. Scoring, yes, but fighting, no.

All the action of the Vikings on the left. This was my last stand before the Welsh cavalry came across and left me with very little left.

By the bottom of round 4 Spencer could have finished it but his Saga Dice were not supporting the killing of my remaining Ulf Whitebeard, his Bard, and a loan Warrior - generating 4 of the 5 Saga Dice I was rolling per round.

Top of round 5 I got a good roll of Saga dice. 5 dice and 4 came up rare. During my orders phase I traded a rare for 2 more dice and ended up with a full board.  This was my only chance and I dedicated enough dice for activations of my Hammer. They closed and hit the first Welsh Warrior group behind the Mead Hall killing them and dropping fatigue on the close-by Warlord and 10 Warrior unit.

I expected the Welsh to run but they turned and attacked with javelins and arrayed themselves into a defensive position giving  the Vikings another chance to take back our Mead Hall on the river.

Round 6 saw an average roll of Saga dice but it was enough! The Vikings got into the Welsh shield wall and pushed hard. Killed the 10 Welsh and then turned to face the Warlord and kill him! There was still some skirmishing and spear crossing but in the end the Vikings won the day.

Those pesky Welsh and our brutal winning ceremony!

The Welsh are pretty legendary in this game. Really hard to beat and a favored faction in Saga. There's not much denying that. But, if you can get up into their faces, you can pull a win off them.

Banners? I have figures to use and the rule set. I've never used it though. With the nerfing of Banner rules last year they seem kind of useless really. Might as well go back to a figure in the unit that can generate some attack dice.

Terrain Note: These pictures are taken at Spencer's table in his basement. He's really worked hard to get an area dedicated to war gaming set up and I think my pictures really show how his work has paid off.