Somewhere in Vinland…
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| The Skraelings line up for battle |
This was the first
time I have fought using my Skraelings and so I honestly had very little idea
what to expect. I played a six-point game against my friend Andrew who fielded
Vikings.
I chose to field two
points of Levy and four of Warriors, while Andrew went for six points of
Hearthguard, including Berserkers. We played the Champions
of God scenario from the Crescent and the Cross rule book.
Terrain comprised a
large area of rocky ground, one large and one normal building, and a gentle
hill.
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| The armies at deployment, viewed from the Viking side of the table |
The Skraelings
deployed two units of 12 Levy, one in the rocky ground and the other in the
large building, with two units of 12 Warriors and the Warlord between. A
smaller unit of 8 Warriors sat on the right flank, the intent being for this to
advance and occupy the smaller building.
The Vikings deployed
two units of 8 Hearthguard approaching the small building, and a unit of 4
Hearthguard, the 4 Berserkers and the Warlord
in the centre, out of sight of any ranged weapons, behind the hill.
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| The Vikings make a strong bid to take the small building |
The Vikings had the
first turn, so the Skraelings riolled three dice to place on their board. Not a
great roll and so all three were placed in their Activation Pool ready for
their first turn. The Vikings rolled their 6 Saga dice, placing three on Hearthguard
activations, and dice on Frigg, Thor and Asgard. The Vikings began with an
attack by one of the 8-strong Hearthguard units. With one activation they had
occupied the small building, and with a second they had left it again and
contacted the small Skraeling Warrior unit. Making use of Frigg and Thor, they
were a little unlucky to only kill 7 of the 8 Warriors, but lost only one of
their own. With a final activation, to protect themselves from any shooting
they retreated into the cover and relative safety of the small building, job
done. Using We Obey, the Warlord advanced onto the hill with the four
Hearthguard, keeping out of range of one of the Skraeling Levy units.
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| End of Viking turn 1, and a lonely Skraeling Warrior on the right flank is watched by Vikings occupying the small building |
Adding all the dice
from their activation pool, the Skraelings were able to have a lot of useful
Saga dice during their first turn. Three different dice were placed on
Pathfinders and left for the next Viking turn, and one die was placed back in
the Activation Pool. The rest were used to activate the Levy in the building to
shoot on the 8 Hearthguard in the open, who were just in range. The Vikings
used Asgard to raise their armour, and the shooting was ineffective. Then, one
of the 12-strong Warrior units advanced, throwing Javelins into the 4-man
Hearthguard unit to much better effect. With two Vikings dead, they used their
final activation to pull back to their previous position.
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| Skraeling Warriors attack in the centre with javelins |
The Vikings rolled
their Saga dice, using Loki in their Orders phase to remove the 1-man Skraeling
Warrior unit, only to see the Skraelings use Pathfinders as an Orders/Reaction
and bring six more Warriors on in much
the same place. The Vikings decided to launch an all-out attack in the centre
with the Berserkers. Advancing with We Obey, followed by two Activations, they
charged into one of the larger Warrior units. With Frigg and Thor, they killed
9, but all died in the process.
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| Berserkers lead the Viking attack in the centre |
With a poor roll of
Saga dice, there was little the Skraelings could do. Levy shot twice to no
effect this turn, and Fatigue was removed from the depleted Warrior unit, while
one die was retained within the Activation Pool for future use.
Reduced to 5 Saga
dice, the Viking momentum continued in Turn 3 with an attack on the other large
Skraeling Warrior unit with their 8-man Hearthguard unit in the open. It was
quick and bloody, another 8 Warriors dying, but this time for the loss of three
Hearthguard. A bloody, but surprisingly even fight thus far. Fatugue was lifted
from the Vikings in the building and the Warlord advanced with his small
Hearthguard unit in the centre.
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| A lot of death dealing leaves a lot more space in the centre of the battlefield |
The Skraeling Saga
dice were a lot kinder. Three different dice allowed all units to be activated,
with a few other dice handy to add to the carnage. Both units of Levy shot to
good effect this time, killing two of the Hearthguard in the small unit in the
centre. Then the smaller Warrior unit
charged into what was now a fatigued, two-man Hearthguard Viking unit . Giving
the Vikings a taste of their own medicine, using Valhalla against them and
using their fatigue to reduce their armour, both Hearthguard were killed in
their sacrifice, and the Vikings found their Warlord with only two companions
in the centre of the fray (though admittedly with only four enemy Warriors
facing them).
The seven Viking
Hearthguard lurking in the small building then made their move, charging the
six Pathfinders that had appeared out of nowhere in front of them. Effective
and bloody, all the Warriors died, but for the loss of two Hearthguard, which
seemed quite a high price. They followed this up with an attack on the Levy in
the large building, using Frigg and Thor, killing 9 of them, but losing three
more men in the process. But they were now in possession of the large building,
at least. The Viking Warlord and the
two-strong Hearthguard unit in the open advanced again in the centre, using
Odin to remove some of the fatigue from their weary units.
Saga dice were now a
bit of a problem for the Skraelings. With only three dice available, and an
unremarkable cast of the dice, once die was put into the Activation Pool while
two were used to shoot at the two Hearthguard in the open, but to no effect.
The situation had
become desperate, but the Vikings had a plan to force the win. First, the
Warlord would attack the Skraeling warriors in the centre to leave the enemy
Warlord alone and vulnerable. A convincing plan, but rolling four F runes
didn't help. Three dice were placed on activations, one on Frigg . The Vikings
advanced together, then charged into the Skraeling Warriors using We Obey and
Side by Side, the Warlord fighting without Fatigue and with an extra attack die
from Frigg.The Skraelings focused all their dice on the enemy Hearthguard. All
the Skraelings died, but one of the Hearthguard perished too. The Viking
Warlord continued his attack alone into the enemy Warlord. The Skraeling, aware
of his vulnerability, put all the dice he could into defence. Mutual speding of Fatigue means that armour
was not reduced, and he received three hits while dealing an ineffective one.
The extra defence dice ensured that two of the hits were saved, and Resilience
meant he survived. The Viking Warlord had no choice but to break off.
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| Excellent dice rolling, just when you need it |
With only two dice
in the Saga pool, and no Warriors left, on turn 5 in a last ditch attempt the
Skraelings moved their large Levy unit into range of the Viking Warlord with We
Obey, and they opened fire on the isolated Viking Warlord. Six dice, needing sixes
- the gods looked on kindly - resulted in four hits. Only two saved - one removed because of Resilience - and the Viking Warlord fell to the ground
dead.
But for that
shooting, it would have been a draw, and by all expectations should have been.
In the end, a very lucky victory to the Skraelings, and a very bloody fight.
Skraelings are
certainly a challenging faction to use, I suspect particularly against Vikings
who have nothing on their Battle Board they can use to increase the
effectiveness of shooting. In this game they suffered from a shortage of Saga
dice, and in particular a shortage of rolling three different symbols, but any
such shortcomings were more than compensated for by the luck of the combat
dice. Next time round I will consider fielding four smaller Warrior units and
perhaps a Warlord Priest to increase the pool of Saga dice available.
I'm also not fully
clear whether I have been using the Skraeling Activation Pool ability quite as
intended and will raise this as a query on the Saga forum to check.
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| "Victory is ours! (You may now collect scalps)" |
***Apologies to
Andrew for any inaccuracies in the detail - this battle report was compiled
after the actual events and the photos are my attempt at a faithful
reconstruction. Any inaccuracies are mine, and are unintentional (and anyway,
history belongs to the victor!)***
