Raiding Season Week #1

Saturday afternoon saw the start of our new Raiding Season SAGA campaign. Mick had won the roll-off and decided to take the raider roll to start off with. I will be using my Pagan Rus and Mick is fielding his Normans. In the first turn he raided west and I choose to defend West-3 whilst he raided West-1 so he got a battle free raid in. On the second turn he again raided west and I again chose West-3 and he chose West-2 so he gained the Prestige Points for that square as well but we fought a battle.

The Starting Map

The Scenario was Escort & Protect from the More SAGA Battles list and as the defender I took the role of the escorter. My mission was to move at least two of the three 'baggage' trains across the table and make my escape. For the scenario I was reduced to 4 points of troops and went with 1 point of Hearthguard and 3 points of Warriors. Mick went with a Breton style force of 3 points mounted Hearthguard with Javelins, 2 points mounted Warriors with javelins and 1 point of mercenary Gall-Gaedhill. The Gall-Gaedhill are a unit I've not faced before, they are a fierce melee unit that benefits from extra attack dice when they charge but aren't so scary on the defence.

Both sides opted to put out plenty of terrain with the Normans trying to channel the baggage trains which could not enter rough terrain and the Rus hoping to reduce the Normans superior ability to maneuver.

A general advance was performed by both sides in the opening moves with the Norman Warrior cavalry pushing furthest forward between the fields and pond.

The Rus pushed further forward on the left and tried to slow the Norman advance on their right.

The Rus then charged and destroyed the Norman mounted Warriors in a furious assault which saw the Normans wiped out for no loss. This set a bit of a theme with the Rus generally rolling well on their defence dice.

The Normans then set loose the Gall-Gaedhill who pushed the Rus Warriors back but did not follow up the success.

The Rus counter charged and pushed the Gall-Gaedhill back but with significant casualties on both sides. Whilst this was happening the Normans had been stalled on the right flank and the baggage had slowly been grinding up-field.

After a couple more combats the Gall-Gaedhill were wiped out and the Normans started to force through on the right.

At this point the battle hung in the balance with the Normans still having two fresh units of Hearthguard and the Rus force dwindling fast.

The Rus still had one more good combat in them and the last Warrior unit managed to charge and almost wipe-out the blocking Hearthguards to clear a path whilst the Rus rear-guard further slowed the Normans.

One final Warrior charge by the Rus wiped out the last blocking Norman and the baggage train was free to flee the battlefield. Whilst this was happening the Normans mopped up the rear guard and took the secondry objective.

The battle ended with the Rus both winning the scenario and also leading on Slaughter Points whilst the Normans claimed the secondary objective so the Rus get two rolls on the bonus ability table and the Normans one.
The scenario was an interesting one and as we hadn't played it before both sides went into somewhat blind. I think the Norman plan of putting extra terrain down may have backfired as it limited the amount of troops they could focus against my forces and did not allow them to take full advantage of their superior mobility.

Situation after 2 Moves