Milites Christi Tactica v2

Having played a couple of games with the new v2 Milites Christi I thought it would be worth putting down some thoughts on the new board. Both games I have played with them have been against the Saracens who seem to have a nicely balanced board that rewards a mixture of shooting and melee units. The v1 MC board was built around small units of knights being able to make long range charges via multiple activations without the enemy being able to spend fatigue to stop it, this has changed in v2.

The new board, support the game and buy the book !

Whist the v1 board used a Piety system to power up abilities the v2 board has the Orison ability which allows you to spend SAGA dice to cancel hits. The dice need to spent during the abilities phase of the shooting or melee so you need to guess how many hits the enemy are likely to make. The predicting part of the ability means that if your opponents dice run hot or cold you can end up either not reacting strongly enough or wasting dice that could have been used in another fight/shooting. At present I don't think I've got the decision on how many dice to spend properly worked out, pr maybe I'm just not a great guesser.

Saracens v MC in Holy Ground

With no shooting abilities the MC rely on melee to most of the damage and along with Orison they have another combo to reduce melee casualties. Playing Spilt Blood and then Lambs of Peace allows you to increase your armour whilst stopping the enemy doing the same ( the cannot part for the enemy cancels out the must part for them ). These three abilities together give the MC a more solid feel than the previous version.

Saracens seize the early advantage

The most common ability you will be using with the defence ones is Beuceant which will be the most common source of bonus attack dice. The Lord's Harvest seems to be overpriced at two uncommon to be used very often though as it is the only other ability to grant attack dice ( apart from the Combat Bonus ) it may be used if you have a make or break charge and lots of dice to spare.

A bloody tussle occurs

The board also has a few abilities to help generate dice onto Orison with On Bended Knee looking like a good first turn ability as long as you aren't planning to charge straight away. Resolve is a useful ability and you can generate the Orison dice during the melee so it would be a good one to leave on during your opponent's turn and ideally Martyrs would be used during the last combat of your turn to leave dice on Orison for your opponent's turn.

The Saracens kill many MC

Several of the abilities ask you to look at the number of units you have or the number of figures compared to the enemy in melee. Resolve can only be used whilst you have less units than the enemy and Beuceant & Lamb's of Peace give a bigger return if you have less models than the opponent. Resolve and The Lord's Harvest would seem to encourage not wiping out entire enemy units so some thought must be given to if you are going for the extra slaughter points for destroying an entire unit or not.

The MC strike back

My force composition so far has been :

1 * Warlord
2 * 8 Brothers (Hearthguard)
1 * 8 Serjeants (Warrior)
1 * 8 Serjeants with Crossbow (Warrior)

This means I only generate five SAGA dice each turn but it does almost guarantee having less units for the first few turns. The larger units of Brothers does mean that you don't initially get the full benfit from Beuceant & Lamb's of Peace but as the battle goes on the units naturally get smaller so you gain later in the game. The crossbow unit is a good counter to mounted shooting Warriors as they hit on 2's against them and can out range the opposition as well.

The Saracens hang onto the hill

The battle board is rounded out by a couple of abilities that generate auto-hits with Deus Vult! being good for riding down pesky peasants. I can't see Divine Aid getting played very often but if you want to get some bonus hits against a hard target like a Warlord then it could be useful. The last ability on the board is Lions at War which is a good deterrent to make the enemy think about when charging you but I think I would have preferred a way to generate extra defence dice instead.

Victory goes to the Saracens despite them almost being wiped out

Overall I'm not sure if I am yet a fan of the new MC board, the fast striking hammers of god have been replaced by a more durable but less offensively powerful board. You won't be generating large amounts of attack dice and with no way to generate defence dice (Combat Bonus apart) then you have to rely on Orison and predicting the number of hits you need to cancel. I'll be looking for several more games with the MC before I start to tinker with them as I feel the basic composition is correct it is just the learning of the abilities that needs more work.

The Big Push

Having a week off work always means I can get some concentrated hobbying in. So this week saw several projects started and some completed.
The first work completed are some new hills, I wanted to have some hills that could be used as steep hills whilst using the older hills as normal ones. In order to distinguish them I used 30mm thick blue foam rather than 20mm and carved the sides into steep cliffs. Having been through the process before I was able to make these pretty quickly.

I also completed an extra 4 Hearthguard for the Milites Christi, having looked at the battleboard it was obvious that I would need some more to make the most of the battleboard. Again having painted up lots of Hearthguard before these went together quickly and where ready for the game later in the week.

On Friday with my brother visiting from Cirencester we had a game of SAGA with Stuart taking on the Saracen side against my Milites Christi. I won't go over the battle as that has already been done but it was interesting to get the MC out again.

The battleboard has changed considerably from v1 to v2 with the emphasis now being more on surviving than allowing the long range cavalry charges that v1 encouraged.

We also played a couple of games of Mythic Battles using the starter scenario. As the game played quickly we managed to get two games in with the overall result being 1 win each.

Whilst making the big hills I also made some to fit onto the playing board, the rest of the terrain I already had. The starter scenario is very straightforward and the interplay of the forces on each side added good depth. I can only assume that with so many different units on offer the combinations are almost limitless.

The final job which I did today was sticking together all the Victrix Greek cavalry for the Basilean army I am putting together. I had enough models for 2 troops of Panther Lancers ( no shields ) and 2 regiments of Knights. I also made up 2 models for mounted Wizards and 3 extra mounted spares.

Now I just need to get them all painted up and I will have a good started force for the Basileans.

Next week is Attack so the prime aim will be to try and not add too much to my painting pile, a struggle which is generally pointless.

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.

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.

Capture the Relic - Playtest

This week I got to playtest the Capture scenario I had planned out with my Milites Christi joining battle with Mick's Crusaders. This was the first time either of us had played Crusaders so as well as testing out the scenario it would be a learning experience for the Crusader board.

The Byzantines escorting the Relic

I also had the chance to use the stone bridge I had been bought for Christmas as a jumping off point for the escorting party. The bridge is hard plastic and went together very easily with some plastic glue, I then gave it a coat of grey paint and a good helping of Army Painter dip to bring out the stone effect. As this left the model as a large block of grey I then decided to break that up with some mud effect and grass to make it more interesting.

Initial Setup

The Milites Christi

I went with 3 points of Hearthguard, 2 points of Warriors and the Religious Advisor for a 6 point warband. I split the Hearthguard into a 4 man unit and a 8 man unit and fielded the Warriors as one 8 man crossbow unit and one 8 man melee unit.

The Crusaders

The Crusaders went for an all infantry force with 3 points of Hearthguard, 1 point of Warriors, 1 point of Levy and the Enlightened Priest. The Hearthguard where split into 6 man units with heavy weapons, the warriors in one 8 man unit with crossbows and the Levy in on 12 man unit with throwing weapons.

The Milites Christi move forward

As do the Crusaders and the Byzantines

The battle started with both sides making a steady advance in the first turn before the Milites Christi charged in to the Byzantines to claim the Relic. At this point we decided that the Relic carrier should only move once per turn so as he had already moved at the beginning of my activation he could not be moved again, it also stops people from using multiple activations to end the game in one turn.

Relic Seized

As the Crusaders had speed disadvantage they could not stop my forces making a move to the rear.

Retreat !

But they did manage to get a charge into the Milites Christi after having taken some shooting damage during my activation. At this point the power of the Crusaders board in melee became apparent as they easily wiped out my Hearthguard.

The Crusaders claim the Relic

On the other flank the Crusaders took several shots at the Milites Christi foot but a combination of bad rolling to hit and good rolling to save resulted in no casualties being inflicted.

Shields up lads !

During the next turn the larger unit of Milites Christi retook the Relic as they finished off the Crusader foot which had already been weakened by some accurate crossbow fire.

Relic captured for the second time

This left the Crusaders without any combat units close by to attempt a recapture and this was compounded when the Crusaders remaining Hearthguard unit was wiped out whilst killing all the Milites Christi melee Warriors. Again the Crusaders rolled an impressive amount of attack dice as they had been powered up with some excellent abilities and managed to inflict 18 kills on an 8 man unit. In return the Warriors inflicted 7 hits none of which the Crusaders saved, this lead to both units being destroyed.

Retreat once more

Back by the bridge the Crusaders pushed forwards with their remaining units but more accurate fire from the Milites Christi crossbowmen whittled down the Levy Pilgrims and the Crusader crossbowmen once again proved ineffective.

Pilgrims into Action

Crusader Crossbows cause 1 casualty

The Crusaders could not cause enough damage to stop the Milites Christi exiting the table with the Relic and claiming the win.

Milites Christi just before they exit the table

The scenario worked pretty well and even though the Crusader army was overall slower than the Milites Christi the rule addition for only allowing the Relic unit to activate once per turn to move helped to keep the game in contention. We will try the scenario again and may allow the Byzantines to generate 2 attack dice each so that the initial capture of the Relic is a slightly more dangerous affair. This may encourage players to let the other player take the risk of making the first capture and allow the Relic to travel further across the board.