Two Saga battles

There continues to be plenty of Saga action in my gaming activity of late, indeed, it seems best to try to catch up somewhat and conflate two separate games into one post today.  The first game was to introduce Martin at the Sunday venue to the rules.  Hence we actually played a couple of scenarios from the book using my Vikings and Normans.  In both games I gave Martin command of the less complicated Vikings.  Having led them to victory in the first game, he set up for the second brimming with confidence.

Using only small four-point forces we played out the river crossing scenario.  Initial Norman Aggression in trying to cross the ford proved fruitless:

However, my Norman foot troops would save the day, units of Crossbows providing excellent punch, especially when combined with long range fire.  By the end of the game, the Vikings had been cleared from the ford and the bridge, and my Spearmen were able to advance into enemy territory with impunity.

A few days later and I had another game arranged with Paul, at the Thursday venue.  We played a larger 6 point game, to the simple Warlord scenario, this time my Normans were facing his Irish.

The Irish seemed most comfortable hiding in cover, and so moved rapidly to the trees and hedgerows...

My Normans looked to outflank the majority of his force. hoping to find a weak spot.

Paul's war dogs were dispatched easily enough, and my combined fire power was enough to keep the enemy contained.

Thus the Irish were limited mainly to throwing Javelins from cover, though this was an effective tactic, especially against my horsemen.

However I surprised him on a couple of occasions by charging into the woods and picking off Irish warriors.  Elsewhere my heavy troops considered the options of entering the fields to the flush the Irish out.

But in the end they erred on the side of caution.  Simply too many Irish for them to take on alone.  My Warlord was more concerned with survival and picking off the isolated troops left in the open.

In the end, as neither warlord was killed, it came down to other losses.  At the time I totted it up wrong and concluded I'd won by a couple of points; but actually I think I'd forgotten to count some of my warriors separately, and it was in fact - so far as I could tell - a draw.

So 1-1-1 over three games.  Which seems fair.