Saga AAR: Pictus Invictus

My Picts got their second Saga outing last week at Silver King Games & Hobby in Tacoma, WA. This time, they didn't get beaten. 

We wound up playing in the swank(ish) upstairs space that Silver King recently acquired. It's the old office space overlooking the floor of the former adjoining bank, which is now a wrestling club (lots of changes along South Tacoma Way).

It's club space and requires membership. The premium membership allows a member and three guests to use the space. When we showed up yesterday, we realized that the space we normally use wouldn't accommodate us all—our tribe increases. Kevin Smyth and I both have premium membership and others purchased memberships with the result that we could all move up to the nice air-conditioned club space.

An excellent surprise to the day was Bob Mackler showing up. Bob is my most reliable blog reader (hello, Bob) and knew from previous posts that we were playing at Silver King on Wednesday. He's got a Sassanid warband in the works, but for today, he visited and watched. (That's him standing with his arms crossed talking to the seated, fat, balding grayhair, i.e., me.)

I played Dean Motoyama, who used his excellent new Late Roman army (all Gripping Beast plastics). Both our warbands were from Age of Invasions. We played the Feasting and Pillaging scenario from the Book of Battles. The victory conditions involved seizing three objective markers and counting survival points.

I made sure there was plenty of uneven terrain on the table, so that my Picts could skulk about and get the nifty bonuses from their advanced Saga abilities that require them to be near uneven/dangerous terrain. Picts love terrain. 

One disadvantage in terrain placement was that the objective markers must be placed in a line at the center of the table. No terrain can be placed within Short (S) distance of any marker. Where I hoped to have a central patch of terrain, I got wide open space. Nevertheless, it proved to be advantageous ground for me.

I even got my new ruins in the game, although Dean moved the piece I placed back from the center, so it was a non-factor in the game, but looked gloriously ruinous on the table.

I also added my Pictish stones as scatter terrain (one on each flank). It's nice to let the enemy know whose land they're on.

Dean's array looked formidable and I was pretty certain that I'd get crushed. He had three hearthguard units, some mounted archers, a unit of warriors, and a unit of warrior archers. There were a lot of metal-clad Romans facing me.

Facing him, I had my probably worthless crossbows on the left, the fearsome Attacotti in the center, the two mounted hearthguard units towards my right, and my one unit of plain ol' warriors tucked up behind the ruins.

Dean was first player and used manoeuver to get his units right up to the objective markers. He seized the two on the flanks on the second turn, but didn't have a die to do a second activation with his middle unit.

We were a bit vague in our understanding about capturing and carrying away the objectives (having, ya know, not actually read the rule until after the first capture). Dean rushed in with his mounted units only to discover that mounted troops are pretty much crap for snagging objective markers. Their movement is reduced to Short (S) and they suffer a fatigue for each move they make with the objective marker. Foot units also move S, but don't suffer fatigue from schlepping.

Being occupied with seizing objective markers, Dean committed a third of his force—and his best units—to carrying them off. I wasn't sure I'd be able to snatch any back and thought the game might end quickly and ignominiously for me. However, fate took a hand.

Manicotti madness

I sent the fearsome Attacotti through the woods and smashed them into Dean's mounted hearthguard who was poised to take the middle objective marker the first chance they got. Picts have some amazing Saga abilities that allow them to move quickly across a lot of distance and terrain and then strike hard.

The Frenzy advanced Saga ability for the Picts is tailor-made for the Attacotti. It gives you the ability to re-roll ALL your failed attack dice. Along with the Ambush Saga ability that gave me four more attack dice, I threw 20 dice against Dean's eight. My initial roll was lackluster, no lustre at all (I can't believe how few hits I can get on 20 dice), but re-rolling the failed dice upped my hits to over a dozen. Dean only had to fail four saves and his unit was gone.

I came out unscathed—even though at first I thought I'd lost one, I hadn't accounted for a Saga ability that gave me +1 to my defence dice. 

However, Dean had a unit of hearthguard on foot that smashed into the Attacotti on his next turn. This is where it gets dangerous for the Attacotti. On the attack, they get THREE dice per figure, which is more than they can actually include in their initial dice pool if they're six figures or more. One the defense, they're just regular warriors with one die per figure; however, they still get the magical save-three-on-a-six defense roll. Dean's attack bounced without either of us inflicting damage on the other.

Next turn, the fearsome Attacotti—using Frenzy, Ambush, and Feint again—hit the foot hearthguard and vaporised them, again without loss to me. At this point, the center of the field was clear of Romans and my Attacotti were invincible as well as fearsome.

Elsewhere

I still didn't have possession of any objective markers and Dean was busy carrying away two. I was loth to screw up my Attacotti's mobility or my mounted hearthguard for that matter. I ignored the center objective marker and focused on Dean's left.

Over there, my warriors had come out from behind the ruins and had gone after Dean's bowmen, who proved tough to kill. I charged them with my warriors, but got as good as I gave (3/3) and bounced. They shot down one of my hearthguard. The remaining three hearthguard charged them and inflicted damage but after the carnage there were still two bowmen left standing and I'd lost two more hearthguard. 

Dean was still in possession of two objective markers and I had none, although the middle marker was still up for grabs and I was in the best position to take it. What I needed to do was snatch a marker away from Dean.

I used the Scouts ability to move the fearsome Attacotti into the woods that Dean's cataphracts were passing on their way off the board. I had to be sure not to place them too close and invite Dean to smack them first with his cataphracts. I already had Frenzy activated and was waiting till next turn to trigger it.

Just shoot me

Meanwhile, on my other flank, the Pictish crossbowmen were underwhelming all who beheld their performance, mostly me. I suspect, however, that Dean was delighted.

I managed to inflict just two casualties on Dean's horse archers (the ones carrying off the objective marker) over three turns of shooting, but little else. I'm starting to think that levy missile troops are a waste of a point. They're tempting because they inflict their damage from afar (well, 30cm), but they require a rare or uncommon Saga die to activate and the target saves on a 4+. Also, the shooter gets no benefit from target's fatigue, but the target can up its armor using the shooter's fatigue. 

Dean has a natural magical save ability, which was aided and enhanced by the Scuta Saga ability that gave him re-rolls for failed saves (not that he ever needed to re-roll much). Lots of crossbow bolts bounced harmlessly off the shields of Dean's troops. If the Attacotti hadn't been rolling 20+ dice in their attacks, I would never have even dented the armor on Dean's hearthguard.

Not only are levy missile troops a waste of a point, they may also be a waste of Saga dice, too. The rare or uncommon die used to activate them may be better used for other Saga abilities. Scott Appleby told me he's stopped using levy missile troops precisely for the reasons I'm reconsidering it. That would mean no slingers, however. I love slingers.

The bloody end

Having moved my fearsome Attacotti into position to strike Dean's cataphracts, I triggered Masters of the Field for the wood that they were in (it negates movement penalties for all my foot troops for the turn), then Frenzy to charge, then Ambush for the melee.  

It was another slaughter. It's hard to survive someone throwing 20 attack dice at you. However, the Attacotti lost half their number in the exchange. So far they'd had a charmed life, not losing a single figure in the preceding three melees. That six-saves-three characteristic is very nice to have.

By vaporizing the cataphracts, the now diminished yet still fearsome Attacotti got control of their objective marker. Dean's warlord took a fatigue and I decided to throw caution to the wind and charge Dean's warlord with my intact mounted hearthguard unit. I lost three figures, but Dean's warlord was no more. He was left with two bowmen on his left; on his right were 8 warriors on foot and six horse archers.

I'd moved my crossbowmen into the wood the previous turn, having decided that they were doing no good shooting, and was in position this turn to jump out and seize the middle objective marker.

After six turns, we counted our spoils and survivors. I wound up with 18 points to Dean's 7. The ferocious Attacotti had devoured all three of his hearthguard units and my hearthguard had taken out his warlord. It was a grim day for Rome in the far north of their crumbling empire.

The fearsome Attacotti were the heroes of the day. I still think they're a glass hammer; I just got lucky in surviving three melees intact. From the start, I expected the results would be more like the fight against the cataphracts with attrition from every melee. 

I fared much better than in the Picts previous game against Dave Demick's Picts. Even without Attacotti of his own, he used Frenzy + Ambush to smack me around. Being in position to attack the Attacotti gave him the advantage, despite the Attacotti's miracle save (I just stopped rolling 6s at one point).

I think the moral of the story is that only a Pict can beat a Pict.

Dice fetish update

After realizing two weeks ago that I could be rolling more than 16 dice in melee for the fearsome Attacotti, I knew I needed a bigger bucket o' dice. Besides, playing Saga again made me want to break out the venerable Viking dice I've collected over the years. They're so adorably grotesque and misshapen that I can't forgo their use. However, I wasn't sure where I'd put them...

Organizational standards at the Sullivan Institute for Applied Numbskullery (SIFAN) are a bit lax. I had to cogitate for a while on when I'd last used them, which, it turns out, was the Row Well and Live game that Dave Schueler, David Demick, Kevin Smyth, and I played on Dave's lawn in August of 2020. It was our last 3DK (3 Daves and Kevin) event.

So, I just needed to find the box I put everything in after the game...

On Tuesday evening, I sorted through the shelves in my Garage of Despair, found the right box, and—after a bit of sifting—found the dice within it in their nifty spalted tamarind dice vault that matches my spalted tamarind dice tray. I'd been concerned by the mismatch of the bocote dice vault containing my other (more refined, i.e., almost nearly but not quite cuboid) bone dice and the spalted tamarind tray.

Bill Stewart hates these dice. I think they charming—and they harmonize well with the ancient/Dark Age theme of Saga.

Insta-Irish

Fresh from completing a near-instant Saga warband from my long-unused Old Glory Picts, I took stock of my painted Old Glory Dark Age Irish only to discover that I'm just shy of a Saga warband with them also. To that end, I've rebased all the painted figures I had. That amounted to 32 figures (so far) that I had to pry off their old bases.

Some people base their figures in such a way that simply soaking them in a shallow pan of water will soften the adhesive and basing material sufficient to make removing them from their old bases easy. Some people have no sense of adventure.

My Irish (like the Picts before them) were super-glued to 0.10 thick plastic bases then further cemented in with heavy spackle built up around the figure base—the kind of spackle used in place of concrete for the fortifications of the Maginot Line.

I have an old wood-carving tool that I've used for centuries to pop figures off their bases. It's never been easy. I have to strong/insane a commitment to creating un-debaseable bases. I don't recall how I ever got the Picts off their bases (it was years ago when I started that), but I'm sure it left the cats in a state of trauma from all the cursing. Working away at the Irish, it didn't take long to realize that my tool was inadequate. That's never a good realization.

Accordingly, I went shopping for a full-on, industrial-strength, take-no-prisoners wood chisel. Why outflank the Maginot Line when you can just bash your head against it until one or the other breaks? But the chisel did the trick. 

Despite warnings that I was endangering my fingers and/or toes, I triumphed over the un-debaseable Irish and got them all on new Litko 25mm x 30mm bases. (I like big base and I cannot lie.)

I also completed two three-figure warlord stands with Himself plus two others: a guy to hold something inspiring aloft and a guy blowing a horn—figures that are otherwise wasted for Saga. 

I did two warlord stands because the Irish are pretty morphable. The initial effort will be to create a warband of Scotti, which are in the Old Friends, New Enemies... section of the Age of Invasions book. They use the Irish battle board from Age of Vikings, but have unit types that are pretty much all javelin armed.

By adding some axe-armed hearthguard (I have the minis, but need to paint them) and some axe-armed warriors (I have several painted, but they need to be debased/rebased—pray for the safety of my fingers), I can make them regular ol' Irish from Age of Vikings. Also, without any further figure changes, I can use them as Norse-Gaels from Age of Vikings.

So, the Insta-Irish are a serendipitous three-fer. Expect them to appear soon on a table near you.

The three-fer Irish got me thinking about morphing the Picts into Scots, a two-fer. I already have enough Old Glory mounted Scots warriors to create a hearthguard. I just needed to order some more spear types. I can re-use the Pictish archers I have. I also ordered the Scots high command pack, so I can make a Macbeth warlord stand.