Captured

This weeks SAGA game saw another matchup between my Milites Christi and Mick's Normans acting as Crusaders. We did play last week as well with the Crusaders coming out on top, unfortunately I forgot to get any pictures of the battle. It would seem that rather than the victor writing the history, it is the person who recalls to take the pictures.

The boys ready for action

This weeks scenario revolved around attempting to escort the captured Warlord of the opposing warband across the table. Failure to make it across in the time limit or if the Warlord was freed would result in a win for the rescuers. After a roll off Mick opted to attempt the rescue and we set up our forces with my troops being deployed first.

Starting Positions

I went with my standard warband but had to detail two of my Hearthguard to escort the captured Crusader Warlord. Mick opted to have his Warlord on foot in order to reduce at which he could be moved and also drafted in a Warrior Priest. As his Warlord would not be generating any SAGA dice until he was freed he had to accept being short of dice at the start.

I took the first turn and pushed my foot Warriors forward and triple activated the crossbows in an attempt to cause some damage to the foot Hearthguard, this failed to cause any damage.
The Hearthguard then charged my crossbowmen and wiped them out without loss. As Mick was short of dice he opted to push his other troops forward a bit.
On the second turn my remaining Warriors charged the Hearthguard and managed to kill three for no loss to themselves, the rest of the Milites Christi shuffled forward.

The remaining two Crusader Hearthguard then charged my six man mounted Hearthguard causing one casualty for the loss of both men. At this point I realised that I didn't actually need to go straight down the table so started to move over to my right flank.

The Crusader mounted Hearthguard then launched an attack on my larger Hearthguard unit and despite stacking abilities only managed a three to two victory.

My Warlord gathered the remains of that unit and lead them in a countercharge which killed another three of the Crusader Hearthguard. Whilst this was happening my Warriors charged and got rebuffed by the Crusader crossbows and the prisoner and escort made some progress towards the opposite side of the table.

Crusader Warrior Priest and Hearthguard as yet not commited

 The lack of extra SAGA dice had meant that the Crusaders had effectively had to omit moving an extra unit each turn so now with my route plain to see the uncommitted Hearthguard and Priest started to relocate. At the same time my Warlord lead the smaller four man Hearthguard unit into the Crusader crossbowmen and despite the loss of two men managed to clear them out of the way.

This left position on the last turn of the escort having a clear path to the edge of the table and with the dice rolled only the unit of a single mounted Hearthguard being able to reach them. During the combat one of the escorts died but the other lived so the Milites Christi scrapped a victory by the narrowest margin.
This was another bloody battle with lots of casualties on each side, the Crusaders did suffer from the missing Warlord but perhaps not as much as either of us had initially imagined. Having to move an extra unit that did not generate dice also put pressure on the Milites Christi and it was difficult to balance moving my forces with sacrificing deice to increase my Piety to make my abilities more powerful. Overall it was a close game and another well balanced scenario.