Saga, Friday night game Harald Hardrada vs. Welsh

Regular Friday night game for Spencer and I. He had not been able to play since our last game in August so he was rip-roaring ready to go. I don't blame him. I need to game at least once per 2 weeks and I have more outlets than him. When I don't game for a week I really feel it, like something is missing. Yeah, it might be a problem but it's better than being a meth-head or thief!

Slightly off subject, just ordered Lion Rampant hardcover and Spencer ordered a fantasy minis skirmish game of some kind he might be able to get his kids into and I can play with my huge collection of painted fantasy minis and even huger collection of Dungeons and Dragons miniatures (DDM). I have 5 shoe box sized tubs of those things.

The Battle of Wallfield

Meeting on a humid and warm morning are the Welsh and Harald Hardrada with some of his Infamous Varangians and some local Bondi looking to impress Harald and get some of that fame and fortune of Harald. Some local Welsh were seen raising areas of the land and Harald met them at a field that was once the villa of some old Roman lord.

6 points, Clash of Warlords, Vikings vs Welsh. Both using a Hero of the Viking Age - Harald and High King Llewyln.
Vikings
Harald Hardrada
Varangians (12 hearthguard with Dane axes and armor 5)
Bondi x8
Bondi x8

Welsh
High King Guffyrd ap Llewylen
Some famous archers of his
2 bands of mounted warriors
2 bands of foot warriors

We played the terrain game to set up and ended up with 4 pieces. 2 of them got cancelled as we both were rolling "6s" and there was that wall piece I laid down first there.

The Welsh High King went first and hit with some mounted warriors and their javelins dropping a few of the doughty warriors up front. The Welsh then went to the Viking left flank as Vikings moved forward, Harald screened by Bondi up front and Varangianss behind. The second Bondi took cover in the old Roman wall in the center of the field.

The Welsh circled around on the left and the High King and his archers moved back just out of charge-range of Harald and his Varangians. More Bondi took casualties from the Welsh archers.

Harald and his Varangians turned around in the bottom of round 2 to attack and hopefully wipe out the Welsh mounted warriors that circled on the left flank. The gamble failed though as the Welsh were able to slow Harald and his Varangians down. This cost the Vikings a round of actions which would affect the end of the game.

Another poor choice in a tricky grand maneuver by yours truly!! Vikings just don't do these things.

Round 3 saw Spencer's Welsh make a big mistake. His grand plan was to play Taunt and draw my walled warriors over the wall and into range of The High King's foot and archers. This did not work though and his Mounted Warriors that made the grand sweep on the left flank were closer and drew the Vikings to them instead. The Vikings, left with little choice, engaged them on their turn.

This resulted in one Welshman escaping with his life and 2 Vikings falling. Not the complete wipe-out I was hoping for but good enough for some points.

Then, my earlier mistake reared it's head.

My Varangians are built to get into the face of enemy foot and rip them up. 12 figures are armor 5 with Dane axes (hitting the warrior class on 4-6 not including any fatigue and abilities) so that's 24 dice hitting, at least, 50%. They need to be in the middle of any mix. I failed at getting them there and chased mounted units instead. This would work out to be my undoing.

My Varangians did, finally get into the grill of Welsh spears and fared well.

Wiped out the super archers of The High King and loomed over The High King Himself and his retinue of spearmen. Back and fourth, back and fourth went the attacking but the Welsh prevailed after 6 rounds. One to two more rounds and maybe that would be different.

The Warlords never did clash, the game was settled by points. Welsh 16, Vikings 15. One of my last Orders phases resulted in too many rare dice! I was able to get all 8 dice going on the board and still too many rares! haha!

I must concede that my opponent, Spencer, did engage me in round 6 when all he had to do, well ahead in points (12 - 8 at the top of round 6) was retreat to the woods and stay out of my range which would have been easily done. He was a gentleman and attacked instead opening himself up to points being scored on both sides, thus the result of 16-15... and if you do that math that was a winning exchange for me. Big props and a toast to Spencer for being a good gamer.

Edit to add some educational points:
1) Reiterate - NO GRAND MOVES FOR VIKINGS! Hit hard and soon. Don't waste rounds trying something "neat". Viking strength lies in being faithful to getting in the opponent's grill and hitting them.
2) Order of activations. I tend to forget (as I have seen others do the same) that to get "Side by Side" one must activate the Warlord with Determination. A Saga board activation via Saga die will not allow one to "Side by Side". Many times I have messed this up by activating my Warlord with Determination as opposed to a Saga die at the wrong time.
3) Again, the use of Viking Saga ability Ulr proved to be the better ability over any dice addition ability. It's always better to roll (with a re-roll) 10 hits out of 14 dice than 5 hits out of 24 dice. This did happen to me BTW. 24 dice resulted in 5 hits. An Ulr on the board would've been nice.

We do play as strict to the rules as we can. Spencer and I feel it's important to do so. If you are strict on the rules of the game you learn it better and can give your self some tolerance later.