SAGA at Pandacon

This weekend I got to play some games of SAGA at a great new little convention in Melbourne.

The Pandacon is the product of Kayjays games store and café, and this was the inaugural event. There were a couple of teething problems as happens with any new event. Namely some issues finding my name on the list of attendees, and the venue operators didn’t arrive until just after 9 when the rounds where scheduled to start at 9. By the time you factor in all the ‘where are we playing?’ ‘where can I get a coffee?’ ‘does anyone have a spare battle board?’ and the other essential pre-tournament negotiations and pleasantries this meant we were probably an hour or so behind right from the start, which would have ramifications for the rest of the day.

The tournament was 4 points, to be played over three rounds between 9am and 1pm. I had taken Vikings as the idea of running a Vikings warband was what attracted me to SAGA in the first place and I have still, to this point, only played them in about six games. My list consisted of my Warlord (free) two points of Hearthguard, one point of Berserkers and one point of Warriors. Berserkers in SAGA are Hearthguard, who trade two points of defence (lowering them to 3+) for two extra attacks per model. Their low armour makes them extremely susceptible to return attacks and incoming missile fire, so they’re not always the best choice tactically speaking, but they’re very cool and I like them so I took them.

My first game was the Sacred Ground scenario vs Richard’s (nearly) all mounted Milites Christi. This was the first game Richard had played with his Milites Christi, and I haven’t much SAGA experience full stop, so this was a learning game for both of us.

Sacred Ground is a scenario where there are only three terrain pieces. A central hill, and a piece to the left of it and a piece to the right. I chose a forest to be placed to the right of the hill, and Richard chose a piece of scrubland to be placed to the right. The name of the game is to get as many of your models into those terrain pieces as possible, and to keep them there as long as possible. I rushed my right flank, stacking models into the forest while Richard rushed my left, stacking his troops into the scrubland.  I also moved my unit of Warriors onto the central hill.

Richard’s warband featured a unit of eight crossbow armed warriors, who now started to fire their bolts into my warriors who hunkered down behind their shields to weather the storm. At this point I realised that I couldn’t afford to simply hold the central hill, since Richard’s crossbowmen would tip the balance in his favour. So I rushed my Hearthguard unit out from the forest where they were sheltering on my right flank, and caught a unit of Richard’s mounted warriors unawares. They then used several activations to get back into position on the central hill. The crossbowmen continued to be a problem, but through judicious use of the Odin ability (turning a shoot into a move) and manipulation of fatigue I was able to keep casualties to a minimum. I still lost all my warriors, and eventually had to charge my berserkers into the crossbowmen to end their threat once and for all.

The state of the board in the mid game. You can see my Hearthguard on the right, having destroyed some of Richard's mounted warriors, and you can see my lone Warrior and my Berserkers on the hill, being threatened by the Milites Christi crossbowmen to their left. Unfortunately during the heat of the moment I neglected to take any more in-game photos on the day!

I had initially wanted to send my Berserkers into the eight man mounted Hearthguard unit that Richard was keeping in reserve on my left. But after taking a couple of casualties from the crossbows they were too depleted for that task, and the crossbows were presenting a thorn in my side and needed to be dealt with. So with a cry of ODIN! My berserkers went charging across the table and after a furry of axes and a spray of blood, not a single figure was left standing.

By now I was slightly ahead in points since my warriors had died while standing on the hill earning points, while Richard’s had died standing in open ground. Yes, he’d forced my hand, but not until I’d earned a handful more points than him.With the last turn looming Richard sent his eight man Hearthguard cavalry unit crashing into my eight man Hearthguard unit occupying the central hill. It was to be a pretty even battle, but since I was ahead on points I only needed to not die, while Richard needed to defeat or at least heavily deplete my forces. I traded in as many of my attack dice for defence as I could, and kept the melee to a draw forcing Richard to withdraw. Final tally of points was 55.5 to me and 52 to him, a VERY close game!

My second game was against Tyler with his all cavalry Saracens. Our scenario was the Challenge, and the objective was to slay the enemy warlord. In this scenario, both warlords deploy in the centre of the table, while the rest of your warband deploys normally.

Given that Tyler’s entire warband was mounted, AND he would have the first turn, I was worried that he would gain a strong advantage in the first turn. But luckily for me the dice were not with him and his forces inflicted only a handful of wounds.

In my turn, I managed to triple activate my Berserkers into his warlord, using Ullr to re-roll misses, and Frigg and Njord to shed fatigue. After the dust had settled, I had inflicted 11 wounds on Tyler’s warlord. Just 1 shy of killing him! Now that Tylers warlord was so close to death he had to be very careful with him, activating his units to shield him from harm and not being confident enough to send him into combat. This gave me an edge that allowed me to engage the rest of Tylers warband piece-meal in decisive engagements. Once again the Bersekers were wiped out, but they had more than done their job and went to Valhalla with a smile on their faces.

By the mid-game, Tyler’s entire warband was destroyed bar his Warlord, where I had six Hearthguard, my Warlord and eight warriors. In a last ditch attempt to take the last four hits off my warlord, Tyler engaged me in combat but it wasn’t to be, and his warlord was cast down and a pagan banner raised over the battlefield.

Now, there was to be a third round for the event, but given that we had gotten off to such a late start and we had another group wanting to utilise the space after 1pm, we decided to call the event there. As I had won both of my games, I was declared winner! I have to say I was pretty surprised and excited to have taken home the top prize at my first ever event, no matter how small it was! Both Richard and Tyler are members of the League of Ancients, a historical wargaming society that meets once a month in Melbourne. They are hosting another, larger event in September and I’ll definitely be attending that one as well. They were both great, laid back opponents and I learned a lot about the intricacies of the rules that I hadn’t previously understood and I hope to be able to make it to some of their monthly meets!

The overall feel of Pandacon was great, very laid back and relaxed with an in-house café and bar, easy to get to with plenty of parking space. I really hope this thing gets some more promotion next year and can draw a bigger crowd!