The Tide is High

For what promises to be our last game of SAGA v1 we played a fan made scenario called The Deadly Tide. This involves the two sides fighting on a battlefield with high ground in the middle whilst the tide moves from one side of the table to the other. The rising of the tide is controlled by a die roll so you cannot be certain how far if it all it will move, and we used our normal river boundary to mark out the leading edge of the water. Any model that was caught by the tide would be removed as a casualty and the victor decided on by slaughter points. 

The table

On the first turn the water only advanced 6" and as my Milites Christi had setup in a central position they could move forward without much worry.

Both sides advanced towards the hill but did not break formation.

On the second turn the tide did not advance so the Milites Christi crossbowmen seized the hill and had a couple of shots at the Crusader axemen without causing any casualties.

The Crusaders then charged the hill and wiped the crossbowmen out for the loss of one man.

After another 6" tide advance the Milites Christi knights charged the hill and after two combats managed to wipe out the Crusaders with 50% losses to themselves.

The second unit of Crusader foot hearthguard then charged the remnants and managed to wipe them out but due to some poor armour save rolls also got wiped out in return.

At this point the tide took a big leap forward and the Milites Christi seized the high ground once more and charged into the remaining Crusader hearthguard.

One Crusader was lost to the waters

Despite doing good casualties the Milites Christi lost the remaining hearthguard on the next Crusader turn as the Crusaders opted to stand and fight rather than move away from the advancing tide.

At this point fortune smiled on the Crusaders as the tide did not advance in turn 5 so rather than losing several men they could move away unhindered as the Milites Christi opted to stay on the high ground.

It then came down to the last throw of the dice for the advancing water with the Crusaders being 6" from the water anything other than a roll of 6 would see them survive. I had the roll and didn't get the 6 I needed so the Crusaders came away with the win. The slaughter points where 14 1/2 v 16 to the Crusaders.

All in all a very interesting battle which I thought I had won when the tide was set to wipe out the Crusaders only for a 1 to be rolled and the tide to stay put. I like to think that the inclusion of my Byzantine Warlord standing in as a mounted Priest made the difference.