Saga Practice at Ed M's II - Revenge of the Horde

Friday night Ed M. of Ed M's Wargames Meanderings Blog and I were both were bachelors for the evening so we decided to give another go at Saga. Both of us brought the same armies, with different builds. Ed's Mongols brought one HUGE unit of hearth guards and an extra unit of mounted warriors. My Eastern Princedoms force ditched the fortified wagon for a unit of hearth guard, and instead of the lifeguards upgraded to the Legendary hero Alexander Nevsky. I also upgraded my Eastern horsemen to the Black Hoods....and then never used any of their Black Hoods special traits...but I digress. On to the game!

I ended up being 2nd player so was able to put an extra piece of terrain on the table. Ed started off with an open hill in the center of the table. I chose some woods and two hard terrain pieces. Ed's final choice was a field he moved to his baseline.

I deployed my crossbows and a unit of warriors in the woods opposite the field. The rest of my forces were set behind. My thoughts were I could react to the Mongol's first move with my reserves. My logic for this choice ended up being quite flawed and Ed's horde was upon me well before I could react and the terrain only hindered my ability to react.

Ed's deployment was in a solid block based around his war drummer and warlord. He had two small warrior units flanking. 

Ed's initial approach was to set up mostly opposite my battle line in the woods.

Ed's initial move was to use one of his warrior units to torch the woods using a special Mongol Saga ability that negated the woods terrain value and disordered my troops within. Note to self...woods vs. Mongols are not a good idea.

Ed followed this up with a revenge bow shot from his hearth guard unit on to my crossbows. Something personal about them knocking them out the previous game. The shot sent seven (7) of the crossbowmen to their graves. Not bad getting 7 casualties from an 8-die attack! Levy don't make very durable targets it appears.

I followed up with a counter charge by my warriors who threw all of their might (and Saga dice abilities) into a glorious charge into Ed's giant hearth guard unit. The warriors scored 4 hearth guard kills at the cost of three of their numbers. Pyrrhos would be proud.

My Black Hoods also picked off a couple of Ed's torch-bearing warriors with some accurate bow fire.

From here it was mostly mop-up duty for the Mongols. I made some desperate counter charges by my hearth guard and warlord, but they were futile. The numbers were so in favor of the Mongols, that even a huge roll from my warlord against Ed's warlord couldn't save the day as both Ed's warlord and war drummer got just enough saving rolls to escape the ordeal with just fatigue, no casualties.

My exhausted warlord and hearth guards were easy pickings. Ed sealed the deal with a tactical withdrawal at the end using his superior mobility to keep my remaining relevant forces at arms length.

I learned a lot, and Ed out played me handily in this game. Hopefully next time I will make better decisions and give my troops a fighting chance.