Age of the Wolf Campaign : Battle Two

Our second battle in the SAGA Age of Wolf campaign saw the Anglo-Saxons raiding against the Vikings, this seemed like an unlikely situation but we had randomised the campaign actions for each faction. The Vikings had chosen to stay at home and recruit more troops. Luckily the campaign system allows unequal forces to recruit more mercenaries to make up the numbers. So the Saxon Lord Cuthred was able to hire a unit of mercenary Carologinian warriors lured by the promise of Viking loot.

We rolled up a random scenario and the Saxons are looking to ambush a Viking baggage train carrying  illgotten gains back to their home village. With fairly limited terrain, quite small warbands and a narrow 3 foot battlefield this led to quite a tactical battle with neither side wanting to jump to the attack too soon.

The Vikings led by Ivar Sveinson have detected the Saxon ambush and formed up desparate to protect their booty, which is being carried on the two ponies and the wagon, these act as separate units and gave the Vikings a good advantage of extra SAGA dice and mobility.

The Saxon ambush is sprung, Cuthred sends the Carolinian mercenaries out to the left to try and flank the norsemen, but they are blocked by Ivar Hearthguard. The baggage train immediately sets off to the left.

Cuthred initially holds back his forces choosing to shoot with his bowmen...but they are fairly ineffective to start with

The Carologinian mercenaries rush down the left

I seem to have missed a few photos here n all the excitement, the hearthguard and the mercenaries all but wiped each other out so the battle focussed around the central gap between the woods. Cuthred urges on his Bodyguard...but both leaders are reluctant to commit all their Warband as the baggage remains tantalisingly close.

Cuthred calls up more warriors to attempt to break through but as the baggage slips away in the distance he quickly reorganises his band and rushes over to the left, this leaves the gap open and one pony is led away to safety.

Cuthred and Ivar face off at the gap the baggage can be seen slipping away in the distance.

Again a gap in the photos.....eventually with almost all the troops wiped out some of the Saxon warriors manage to get to the wagon...only to be spiked by the horns, turns out the baggage is way tougher than it looks.....careful play and extra dice from Ivar allow him to invoke the Norse god Loki and any Saxon units under a couple of men get wiped out !

Finally Cuthred himself faces off against two of the few remaining norsemen intent on cutting them down to get to the wagon, but he is now all alone and even a great warrior like him is vulnerable at the end of a hard battle, he is knocked to ground ...seriously wounded as the Vikings make their escape.

A clear victory for the Norsemen and the Saxons trudged home deafeated and demoralised, carrying Cuthred limp body. Luckily he was able to recover but with a serious long term wound. The Saxons will have to defend next campaign turn.

A good battle and the campaign has thrown up some interesting battles. The challenge with any of these systems is keeping it balanced as the Vikings rolled up some definitely advantages in the after battle round whilst the Saxons continuing their bad luck were struck by famine. We have then worked through the next campaign season and with the Saxons and the Normans both defending we only have one battle to play. The Danes will be raiding the Saxons......let's hope Cuthred can recover. More coments on Paul's Hobby Horse Blog.