This article is part of a series. You can find parts one and two via the links.
It’s nearly time; tomorrow will see the final bits of frantic basing and magnetising done, then it’s off to Leicester for the 2025 Saga Grand Melee. I’ve managed to get almost exactly half the gaming prep I wanted, but at least the hobby and planning side of everything is done. Let’s have a look at those final tests, bits of painting and discuss my master plan(s) for the weekend.
The Anglo Danes
The surprise force of Anglo Danes have not been extensively tested, but I feel weirdly confident about using them. I’ve thought through a list that spends turn one being extremely aggravating, before dialling down the irritation and turning up the violence on turns 2 and 3. Everything is painted, based and packed away into a very small carry case. The mighty Anglo Danes force I’ll be taking to Saturday’s games consists of:
Warlord (Heavy Weapon)
2.5 Points of Warriors
1.5 Points of Hearthguard (Heavy Weapons)
1 Point of Levies
1 Priest
Simple and – apparently – fairly effective, the Warriors are split into three units that can do some fighting and a lot of Saga dice generation, the Levies look to take off one or two models to even up challenging fights and the Hearthguard go big swinging to try to carry off Saga Dice and cascade fatigue from wiping out units. The Saga Dice generation is reliable and usually ends up with a lot of Rares, all used to feed the fatigue inflicting machine that is an Anglo-Dane army.
The list rolls six dice, with Noble Lineage allowing rerolls and/or using a rare to boost the Activation Pool. The priest takes fatigue to further change dice, or if the dice are kind already, remove fatigue from the large warrior unit or hearthguard. Turn one spends all those rares putting as much fatigue on the enemy as possible, while commons and uncommons go on defensive abilities and we move up via manoeuvre. Turn Two shifts dice into attack while still pumping out the fatigue – after that it’s all about crashing through a hopefully exhausted centre with big axes.
That’s the plan, anyway; it didn’t work in the practice game last week against semi-regular opponent and thoroughly fantastic human EJ, or the last practice possible with our own Hardyroach, but I could at least see the glimmerings of it working… maybe. The Anglo Danes should work well with the scenarios for the weekend, largely able to get to an objective and hold on to it while the enemy slowly succumbs to exhaustion.
The Saracens
Far trickier to play, and much harder to transport, my (nearly) all-mounted Saracens are set to crash and burn on Sunday. I still haven’t even come close to working out how this list is supposed to stick together, though individual battle board abilities and combos have come to me. I’ll also be playing against Age of Crusades and Chivalry boards, so there’s a whole range of opponents I haven’t even considered. Having said all that, the army looks bloody good and taking them is pretty much just a flex that I did, in fact, paint all those horses. We’re looking at:
Warlord
1 Point Hearthguard (Mounted)
2.5 points Mounted Warriors (20)
1.5 points Warriors (12)
1 point Levy (Bows)
The Warriors will most likely be split into two units on foot (an 8 and a 4), and two large units of Cavalry, one with Composite Bows. I can deploy as we go though, so that might change depending on the opponent. A smaller unit of composite bows will be cast off into the wild blue yonder to be annoying if I face opponents with multiple smaller units, using things like Multiple Shots and Armour-Piercing Shafts to winnow enemy units and hopefully poach a saga dice or two.
The absolute key thing for me to remember is how to use those bows. Composite bows are shorter ranged (M), but generate free, no-fatigue shooting actions an unlimited number of times per turn, as long as they are non-consecutive. This means that I have the following options available to me for Composite bow units:
Shoot – Move – Shoot (Two actions, unit gains one fatigue after the move)
Move – Shoot – Move – Shoot (Two Actions, Unit gains one fatigue after the second move)
Shoot-Charge-Shoot (Two actions, unit gets fatigue going in to melee)
If I can pull these off in game, particularly using the shooting abilities of the Saracen battle board in combination with big cavalry charges, I’ll be doing well – but that’s a very large “if”.
The Scenarios
There’s a really interesting set of scenarios at play for the weekend and, of course, I haven’t played a single one in any practice games. I’ve read through them, played them out on my kitchen table and it’s going to be a bit of luck if we play the right scenarios at the right time. The scenarios are heavily based around objective play and deployment zone shenanigans, and I’ve handily painted up a fair few goats to stand in as the all-important objective markers. The Anglo Danes can do well in:
Wolf Pass
Sacred Ground
To Break a Shieldwall
Using their defensive abilities to hold on to seized objectives while the fatigue piles on to enemy units daring to hold others. They’re not fast, though, with very limited options for additional movement, so I think they’ll struggle with a couple of other scenarios. Coming up with alternative game plans for these would have been a good play – but time makes fools of us all.
The Saracens are very quick, but with limited foot units they’ll struggle in scenarios where objectives need to be moved, not just held or destroyed. I think they’ll do well in:
Desacralization
Advance
Wolf Pass
I’m hoping I end up playing at least Desacrilisation with the Saracens – home objectives that must be protected while enemy objectives are destroyed. That is something the Saracens will be very good at, and throwing horse forward for first turn objective smashing is very possible. They might do well at Wolf Pass too, if I can keep enough of them alive until the end of the game.
As the scenarios are randomly rolled per round (en masse), there’s a nightmare scenario where the Anglo Danes get the scenarios that need speed and the Saracens get the tough ones. In that case, I will go to my perennial fall-back: charge.
Terrain
I need to bring my own terrain, and the sensible option would be to take a couple of pieces of 2D terrain that pack up nicely and save a lot of space – the Bandua pack would do well, or even taking the Viking Houses which pack down nicely.
However, I’ve spent some good time making my Egyptian Village, so I think I’ll take that instead. A small stackable really useful box should suffice – packing my favourite hill, some trees, walls and a house. I want to bring along as much rough terrain as possible, mainly to slow down cavalry against my Anglo-Danes, so this will be a forest, the scatter terrain and a combination of Bandua hills and walls.
Plans for Britcon
Despite a fairly packed schedule with the tournament, I’m determined to also have a good fun time at Britcon, especially at the bring and buy and in talking to the tons of historicals fans and industry people who come along. Please do stop in and say hi if you’re around! You’ll see me in either a very distinctive Goonhammer shirt (think led zep with gregbot and a hotdog) or bright red club t shirt (“quite often tipsy, always antifascist” and I’d love to have a chat.
I have quite an extensive to-buy list, particularly from some of the smaller vendors that I’d otherwise miss in the rush to fill my house with Victrix plastic. The aim is to come away with a new Saga era – either Romans or something out there from Chivalry – from as many different places as possible, in addition to even more goats, and chickens. While this year so far has largely been about failing to get good at Saga, Pillage has been ticking along in the background and chickens are a very big part of my plans!
Last Learnings
There are a couple of key points I want to end on to make sure that I remember them – might even end up with these written on my hand. You can probably gauge the level of game readiness I have from the very basic nature of these final, all-important reminders:
- Don’t leave your Warlord isolated on two fatigue.
- Look to kill enough to take away a Saga dice.
- Levy shooting is not reliable.
- The Priest has Determination.
- Actually use your composite bows.
- Don’t plan around getting four rare dice.
These are such elementary points that I am deeply concerned as to how the weekend will go. Hopefully, I’ll be tempered in the fire of competitive play on Saturday, just in time to master Saga to win with the Saracens. The overall aim is simply to not lose every game, but let’s be realistic – I’m going to get slaughtered out there, aren’t I?
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