Saga - From the Dice Rolls of the Northmen, O Lord Deliver Us

After a hectic week of hurriedly painting my Anglo-Saxon army and secretly also putting together a West-German battlegroup for Idries for our big upcoming Cold War gone hot scenario (don't tell the communists), I finally managed to play my first game of Saga. Not bad going having only picked up the models for it about 5 years ago! Paul from the South London Warlords was kind enough to walk me through an introductory scenario with a simple objective - kill all his vikings before they could kill all my Saxons.

The two sides eye each other up from a distance.

We deployed maybe a little too far apart and so spent the first two turns quickly advancing forwards. I took the opportunity get to know my battleboard abilities a bit better and to move some of my hearthguard to the left flank where Paul had positioned his berserkers. I didn't know whether they were actually any good or not yet but their psychological impact was immense. I was terrified of them.

And it turned out that I was right to be. Charging them directly into my hearthguard with a few well-chosen saga abilities to buff them up even further, Paul rolled a horrifying bucket o' dice and immediately killed all four of my men while taking only two casualties in return. Foolishly hoping that this would then leave them weakened I carried out a counterattack with my second unit of hearthguard but, in maybe the quickest ever example of history repeating itself, the result was the same.

Earl Sihtric prepares himself for glory.

It was time for drastic measures. I lined up my Bretwalda and Closed Ranks abilities and charged in my warlord. As my fyrdmen presumably cheered him on with glee, he tore through Paul's hearthguard leaving only one survivor. This lucky Dane would prove to be my warlord's nemesis.

The Danish chieftain inspires his warriors shortly before running away.

In the turns that followed my warlord chased Paul's around the board as I tried in vain to initiate an epic and decisive duel while our warriors fought a slow attritional battle in which I seemed to have a marginal advantage.

Then Paul played his final move. With his hearthguard ready to visit Valhalla and buffed with all the battleboard abilities that Paul could muster he piled into my warlord. With so many attack dice on both sides it was mutual annihilation.

It was at this point that I learned that losing your warlord caused you to lose the game and finally understood why Paul had been so unwilling to let his anywhere near any of my smelly Saxons with their sharp, pointy spears.

You live and you learn I suppose.

So, in my first game of Saga and my first game at SLW what went well?

• The Anglo-Saxon warlord turned out to be a bit of a powerhouse when buffed up by battleboard abilities.
• My warriors also proved to be pretty resilient. In the 4 point game we were playing they didn't really get the chance to shine as they were in units of only 8 men and many Anglo-Saxon abilities can only be used, or are more effective, when your units have at least 10 men. In 6 point games I'll be bumping them up to 12 men each.

And what lessons did we learn?

• Firstly, build and paint some slingers to use against those damned berserkers and wipe the smiles from their mushroom stained mouths.
• While my warlord may be a powerhouse, he should definitely only be a last resort or he'll be needing some bodyguards.
• In smaller games I think I'll try to use the Anglo-Dane battleboard which seems less reliant on having big units.

All in all a really fun game with a lot of depth I'm yet to discover in the battleboard system.