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.

SAGA Scenario - Capture the Relic

Having now played a fair few SAGA games I've been thinking about putting together a quick narrative campaign to give the games some structure. I was struggling to get a theme to help the games hang together until I struck upon the idea of having the side’s battle over a Holy Relic. As we are playing Frankish armies then having the relic being carried by Eastern Orthodox troops (Byzantines) fits the theme nicely.

Scenario 

A Holy Relic is being transported along the frontier of the lands controlled by the opposing Warlords. Both Warlords are eager to add a holy aura to the chapels they have recently commissioned in order to safeguard their souls in the next life. As this relic is being transported by Eastern Orthodox troops the Roman Church should not look upon its liberation to unkindly. Your Warlords aim is to liberate the relic and ensure it is enshrined in his own chapel.

Setup

The game will be played on a 48" * 48" table with a road running across the center of the table. The normal Cross & Crescent terrain setup rules apply with no terrain being allowed within M of the road. Once the terrain is setup the Byzantines traveling party is setup on one end of the road at the table’s edge.

Next each side roles a D6 with the players alternating placing units within M of their table edge, highest roller placing first. The player who placed first takes the first move.

The Byzantines 

The traveling party starts at one table edge and will travel straight across the table until it is either killed or escapes. The group consists of 1 non-combatant who carries the relic and three guards. At the start of every activation phase before the players can make any activations (so twice a turn) the group moves forward 4", if they move into contact with the troops of either player then they fight a combat. They may end their move within VS of other units even if they cannot make contact. The Byzantines do not generate fatigue at the end of combat and are not affected by fatigue generating abilities, basically they keep moving until killed or they contact an enemy unit or the opposite table edge.

The guards generate 1 attack dice per model and have armor 4/6 (Me/Ra), if one model is in combat then all count as in combat. 

Once all the guards are dead the relic carrier will remain still as he is too scared to continue, he cannot be killed but must be taken into protective 'care'. If the last guard(s) died in melee combat then he can be attached to a unit at no cost. if the last guard(s) died to shooting then a unit can move up and take control of him but it costs a movement activation to do so, so one activation to move up and then a second to seize control of him. Once captured the relic carrier moves at standard infantry rate and is considered to be part of the unit he has joined, he does not generate attack dice, cannot be killed and his presence can take the unit above the normal limit of twelve models.

Game Length

The game should last a maximum of seven turns or until a player can move the relic carrier off his own initial board edge or the relic moves off the table with its guards.

Victory Conditions

If the relic leaves the table still under the ownership of the Byzantines then both players lose.

If a player is in possession of the relic after seven turns or moves it off their own board edge then they are the victors.

Notes 

The movement rate is to ensure that if left un-hindered the Byzantines will cross the table in 6 turns, on a smaller table then they will need to have their movement reduced.

The high armor value against shooting is to encourage a players to get stuck in, as are the rules regarding taking control of the relic carrier.

The relic could easily be a pay chest or some other high value target and of course the guards could be represented by any available troops. 

The strength of the guards may need to be adjusted as they should not be a massive threat but should need to be treated with respect so perhaps they may need to generate two attack dice each.

Norse Invasion

With no game this week due to my regular opponent having festive duties I have managed to crack on with some of my new Norse force.

Warriors to the fore with Hearthguard behind

I have decided to use a limited but colourful paint palette as I don't want a drab army marching into battle. So I've been using red, green, blue, & white on all the figures but a different shade for the Warriors and Hearthguard. I also decided that the Warriors would lack the golden/bronze decoration of the Hearthguard, this was to help them feel less prestigious.

So far I have completed the painting on 4 points of Hearthguard and 1 point of Warriors, with 3 more points of Warriors and 2 points of Levy to go.

Hearthguard to the front

This should give me plenty of options when fielding a 6 point force but also allow me to field two 4 point armies when I introduce my brother to SAGA.

Once all the troops are painted I can then get working on the bases with the plan still to produce a snow covered base with some dead grass and perhaps the very occasional winter flower.

On a Wing and a Prayer

Despite resolving to only work on the basic troops from the Mythic battles box I just had to get stuck into one of the larger models so I have mostly completed the Bellerophon on Pegasus model.

I still haven't decided on the basing scheme so the base will need to be completed once I have that worked out. The model looks really good and the painting went together well.

As I want the mortals to have a darker feel than the immortals Bellerophon was undercoated black whilst Pegasus had a grey undercoat. My feeling was that building up to a white finish from a black start would only make for extra work.

Mick also came around this week for a SAGA game and once again the Normans faced off against the Milites Christi. The scenario started with both warlords in the centre and the rest of the warband along opposing edges.

The Knights of Lazarus

The Normans

The Warlords each started with twelve wounds rather than the normal one and the winner was the first to kill the opposing Warlord or the one with the most wounds left after seven turns.
The Normans once again fielded a shooting heavy list so I decided to get some support troops upto my Warlord as quickly as possible so they could be sacrificed if needed.

The Normans had the same thought and the outcome of the initial central tussle was that the Normans lost a unit of mounted warriors and their Warlord suffering several wounds.

The Knights of Lazarus then saw off a second unit of mounted warriors for the loss of a unit of foot warriors and managed to get more wounds on the Norman leader.
Disaster struck however as the Norman finally got a good round of shooting in and killed 5 knights, this left the larger unit with only one man left.
With a comfortable lead in wounds inflicted the Knights of Lazarus decided that a tactical withdrawal was required and they took shelter behind a wood.

With the clock running down the Normans sent in the last of their cavalry and this was bravely met by three of the remaining knights who inflicted heavy casualties.

And so the game ended with the Norman leader down to four wounds and the Milites Christi leader not having taken a single wound. Some poor rolling on the shooting front and a couple of charmed saved rolls had allowed my warlord ( I really must think of a name for him ) to come through unscathed.

To round off another busy week I have also made some good progress on my Pagan Rus. As well as getting the whole warband stuck together I have also completed some of the hearthguard, a model I will be using as a priest and part of the warlords base.

Pagan Priest to the fore

The warlord will be having a slain enemy being used as a flag pole holder added to the back of his base. Once I have enough models completed to make it worthwhile I will be adding some Pollyfila and paint mix to the bases. These will then be flocked and have snow effect added as a last stage.

The shields have been done using the Little Big Men transfers and these have worked really well and they also provided the banners.

With SAGA 2 arriving at some point in February and only starting out with the Dark Ages era armies I'm looking to get the Rus all done before then. They should also be able to double as any of the other Viking style armies if required.

Artefacts of Kyron Campaign Battle #4

Battle #4 of the campaign saw the opposing armies fighting out the Control scenario as they sought to gather supplies for the march south with the Artefacts of Kyron.

Starting Positions

The scenario works by dividing the table into 2 foot squares, 2 Victory Points are awarded if you control the square in the centre of your opponent's half, 1VP for all other squares.

Having greater numbers the Men's battle line was once again longer than the Kin's with the Kin aiming to secure victory by holding the centre and their right flank. The Men had opted to leave the fearsome Oliphant at home ( along with all their multi-bases ) and include some more hardy Foot Guards and troops of Sergeant Cavalry. The Kin had swapped out a troop of Blade Dancers for two mounted Avengers to act as chaff in an attempt to slow down the Men's mounted troops.

The Men's right flank

The Men's left flank

The Elven Army

The Kin moved first and pushed forwards to occupy the centre woods and also to get in position to move forwards on their right flank to block the Men's mounted troops.

 A miscalculation with the Gargoyles on the right left them in range of the Men's mounted archers and they plunged forward creating a great deal of surprise in the Elven ranks.

The charge created a logjam in the middle of the Kin's right flank and prevented them from being able to execute the planned advance with screening chaff units.

 Disaster also stuck on the Elven left flank when the Lord on flying mount was wiped out in one turn of combat, his high armour and good nerve not being able to save him.

 The Men continued to advance across the breadth of the board but their numbers meant that some of the fighting troops got stuck behind the shooting chaff that the Elves had left alone.

On the Kin's left flank they launched an attack with two regiments of Reaper Guard and one of these managed to rout their opponent.

However on the Kin's right flank things had gone badly wrong with the third unit of Reaper Guard being swept away in one round of combat without replying leaving the Crossbow Horde isolated in the woods.

 The Dark Knights despite once again proving their worth by removing an opposing unit of knights also then got removed by a combined airborne assault by the flying carpets and air elemental. The Lycans who had move around to support the Crossbow Horde did manage to survive the initial charge by the Men's remaining knights but they sustained heavy damage.

This left the Twilight Kin with no way back to capture enough area to win or even draw so once again the Men emerged victorious.
As with the last game this was a quick a brutal affair with melee combat being joined on Turn 1 and the battle being decided by Turn 4.

The next game will be the Push scenario and will feature a river running across the table which should mix things up again.

Pantheon Interlude

A very quick update as I have managed to paint a few of the troops that came with Mythic Battle : Pantheon. I have sketched out an KoW army list for these figures and wanted to get an idea of how they would paint up. Starting with the groups of troops rather than the main character models gives some freedom to muck up if needed.

Skeleton Warriors

I also wanted something that would be quick to do whilst I waited for the Pagan Rus / Viking models to arrive.

The models are well put together so didn't really require any cleaning up but the second group benefited from a quick wash as the paint didn't quick stick to the larger surfaces on the Skeletons.

Spartan  & Myrmidon Warriors

I haven't decided on a basing theme yet for the army so at present they are just getting a plain black base.

I also started the Bellerophon on Pegasus model as it looks rather good so hopefully that may be completed by the weekend.