We played a 6 point game, I was using..
Achilles (the best of the Greeks)
8x Myrmidon Elites
12x Myrmidon Hoplites
12x Myrmidon Hoplites
Jamie's Ithacans looked like...
Odysseus (the cunning)
4x Ithacan Nobles
12x Warriors
12x Warriors
8x Warriors
The Myrmidon battle line.
We were playing the "Kill the Warlord" scenario- seemed only right to describe the meeting between these two, after Odysseus' claims of Achilles being "emo"! The terrain was pretty simple, the Ithacans are good in the rocky ground, so naturally when we rolled, there was a massive bit of rocky ground in the middle of the battlefield! Cunningly, I put all other scenery on the outside, where it would have no impact on the battlefield at all.
The Achaean battleboard (here) is relativly straight forward. Achilles is an absolute combat monster, so what you want to do is get him into combat. Alot. If you keep him alive in combat, he will probably kill everything in combination with the Heracles ability, so you need nice little ablative hoplite armour kicking around with them. My plan was simple then, get Achilles in combat, get the Myrmidon Elites in combat, fluff around with the warriors.
The battle started pretty slowly, Odysseus reduces my amount of SAGA dice to 2 for turn 1, 3 for turn 2 then back up to full from there. So basically turns one and two were pretty low key, getting my troops forward to get into position to attack the Ithacans in close combat.
Myrmidons have captured the rocky ground!
The start of turn 3 saw me roll 2 6's- perfect for the Heracles ability! So there was nothing to do but to charge Achilles blindly into the intervening Ithacans in the rocks.
"Achilles SMASH!"
And smash he did. Killing a fair swag of Ithacans- 10 dice hitting on a 4+ is ruthless! Combined with his "no fatigue" makes him an absolute monster. Soon, the battle of the rocky ground was so bad that Odysseus himself was forced into the fray to save his warriors! Unfortunatly, Achilles and his Myrmidon elites had far too much fun slaughtering them, until there was only Odysseus left.
"Hey, Achilles, could we have a time out?"
All the while this was going on, I had sent one of my Warrior units on a massive flanking mission, sweeping away the Ithacan Nobles and then laying into the smaller unit of Ithacans.
Get them! Kill the unpainted ones!
But by this stage, I had lost a few of the Myrmidon Elite, giving their lives willingly (ish) to save Achilles. They were at least allowed the honour of killing the last of the Ithacan infantry!
Weren't there more of us? Fatigue sucks, why can't we be like Achilles?
The merry slaughter of Ithacans continued, until only Odysseus remained.
In spite of killing one of the Myrmidon Elite, Odysseus fell, was put into a headlock by Achilles until he said "uncle". Now the two could go off and sack Troy together, honour intact!
So, Achilles killed no less than 11 enemy models, including Odysseus.
My thoughts on SAGA? It is brutally simple in a lot of ways. Rolling to hit is simple, no great modifiers, changes or anything like that. But, through the battle board, you find some real complexity, I think I will use my battle board much more effectively next time (I think), the Achaeans don't have too much finesse to go along with them, certainly if I can keep the Heracles dice ready to use at any time for my Warlord, I will kill a lot of stuff, but I think the cunning Odysseus might have some new plans and machinations of his own.
SAGA is fun. Hoplites look awesome, the Pro-painter is doing a great job on the Ithacans, expect more games of this in the future!
There was a Day of Days update on here earlier today, make sure you check that out too.
CP
Bugger I wish I'd known you guys were playing this at the club I would have come to have a look. Too caught up in my own game I spose : (
ReplyDeleteYou playing it again at the club next week?
Thanks for the great game - it was a lot of fun and great to finally translate my theory into reality. Achilles is an absolute terror. I'm not too sure I like the hero I used but there is a very similar, in terms of being a cunning commander, Viking one (Ragnar Hairy Pants, in fact) that I might give a go.
ReplyDeleteThe Pro-Painter likes compliments.
I am itching for a rematch!
Cheers
Yeah it was cool to watch for a bit too!
ReplyDeleteBoth of your armies look great!
Sorry Nib, we hid away in a corner, think we will have to organise another game, it was that much fun!
ReplyDeleteYour commander was a bit average- for 1 point his abilities were underwhelming, the best thing he did was give you 3 dice i think.
The pro painter has done good work, i would think about giving those shields a matt varnish to dull them a little, but they are looking good.
And you know you want Greeks Adam, or persians? Or trojans? Or....
I'll just have to use him better in future. I need some sort of special character so that we are playing with similar points of troops and keep that parity but none of the really tough ones seem to suit Odysseus.
ReplyDeleteIf only we had twice the figs (or half as much again?) we could just set up a multiplayer game, on a table with corners this time, and fight it out in a big random melee. I've got two warbands worth for Dark Ages but just the one half-painted lot of Greeks.
Adam has a cool Dark Ages warband in the works.
And i have mine starting, so an epic Dark Ages one should be doable?
ReplyDeleteTrue about the warlord, makes sense to balance it that way.
At anyrate, we need to play more SAGA!
Looks awesome, and the Pro Painter is doing a great job as as usual!
ReplyDeleteOdysseus can rest easy that Hector taught Achilles to say Uncle twice. :)
To be fair the gods were cruel to the Achaens, and blessed the Trojans. Im sure the Slayer of Men will be back.
Cheers
Jason
Ain't much you can do when the Trojans refuse to not roll less than a 5...
ReplyDeleteWill get a report up for it this morning.
CP
Hubris was always Achilles' flaw; and what do the gods punish above all else?
ReplyDeleteAdam played me at SAGA last night, and said he's been describing the Iliad thing as about the nerdiest and coolest project going. His Varangians are going to be cool and worked well using the Hadrada hero. If he hadn't taken levy he might well have pulled off his blitzkrieg attack!
Yes... Hubris has always been a problem for any Greek Hero!
ReplyDeleteAdam's assessment is probably fair, I think that sums it up quite well!
Hadrada is a little scary, but now with no levy he could be alot scary!