Clash of the Warlords: Anglo-Saxons vs Vikings

We're heading back to the Viking Age of SAGA! Having decided to make a proper go of it, we'll be sketching out a narrative as we play our way through the scenarios.

(this may be a different challenge to narrating fantasy, as you can't just make things up for historical fiction)

Erik the Viking, for example, was practically a documentary

To the longships and start the outboard motors!

Bardagi ok nótt!
It's All-Skype Fight Night!

Prologue - from the Saga of Ketill Thorsteinsson

Thorstein Neckbeard came out of the East during the time when Harald Finehair was growing in power in Norway. He settled in a farmstead on the West side of Orkney. He married Thora Brittlesdottr, and their children were Thora, Thorgil, Thorleik, Thorgird and Kettil. 

Kettil Thorsteinsson was a tall and wide man who looked rather dark and unlucky, like a troll. It was often said of him that he was a coal-biter. He also had a miserable face that turned down at the mouth even when he was cheerful, so people called him Frowner. Yet he was also gifted when it came to shaping verses and in battle, as he was strong and good with weapons. He also revered Thor and the old customs very highly, and was skilled at curses and magic. 

When Neckbeard died, he gave his older sons his farm. Kettil wanted to stay and loaf about, as was his custom, but his older brother Thorgil wouldn't allow it. 

"After all," he said, "a man should go and win his own sustenance, not sit and take it from his family unearned."

"I'll do that, then," said Kettil. "And it'll be no thanks to you if I come back luckier and richer than you expect."

Kettil went back East on a boat that was heading that way. The boat landed in Hrafnsfel, which was at that time owned by one of Harald's Jarls, Dag the Black. Kettil went straight up to his hall and made himself known. 

"Who is this big, unlucky-looking fellow?" Dag's men asked each other. 

"Thor sent me," Kettil told them. "He heard you needed someone to teach you how to fight, as you've not had much luck of late. I'm the man you've been looking for."

Dag's men were angry at this, although Kettil had the right of it. Some of them wanted to fight Kettil, but Dag himself heard the din and came to find out what was going on. Hearing what the argument was about, he told his men to behave themselves and gave Kettil a seat at the table not far from his own. 

"For blunt and ugly as this man and his words are, there is truth in them as well," he said. "As to whether he is a man we're looking for, time will tell, but there is no harm in looking to see if he's as strong as he says or just another braggart."

Kettil aquitted himself well at the table that night, and for several weeks after. He spoke often about Thor to anyone who would listen, and often said that Thor wanted Dag to send a ship of raiders over the sea to England, where there was plenty of poorly-guarded treasure. Dag's men started to get restless and annoyed, as they thought Kettil talked too much, but they knew Dag liked him.

So Dag decided that it was a good idea to both test Kettil and get him out of the way before he provoked someone into a fight. He kitted out a large ship and gave it to Kettil, along with seventy men, and sent them out to raid wherever they wanted to go. 

Armies

Anglo-Saxons

I, Stylus, will be going to war in plain text. No illuminated manuscripts here. Not since they sacked Lindisfarne, the buggers.

In a slight tweak of allegiance, I've ditched the Anglo-Danes and will be taking Anglo-Saxons, a force from the 'Northern Fury' expansion and traditionally the ones who get the fuzzy end of the Viking lollipop.

Some of those Ceorls are a bit goblin-looking. It's just rickets, a sad side-effect of a medieval diet. 

• Æthelwulf of Stoche (warlord)
• 8 x Thegns (warriors)
• 4 x Thegns (warriors)
• 4 x Thegns (warriors)
• 12 x Ceorls (levies) with spear-and-shield, no bows
• 12 x Ceorls (levies) with spear-and-shield, no bows

Looking at the Battle Board, the Anglo-Saxon army is all about numbers: if you have units of 10+ models, it opens up all kinds of possibilities. This means Levy troops - who are actually better than usual, if you're prepared to ditch the missile options and give them shields.

But they still cannot generate SAGA dice, so I'm relying on smaller groups of Warriors to do this for me (even then, I only start with 5 dice) who are horribly vulnerable to the 'Loki' ability that deletes units of 3 or less models. And it leaves no room for Hearthguard, so I'm almost certainly going to be out-matched in pure quality.

The plan is a simple one: use the two big blocks of Ceorls to wear down the Viking forces, and hope that whatever makes it through can be dealt with by my Warriors.

Vikings

Kraken here, taking the bold approach as ever. I'm not shifting my allegiance - I'm fighting as Vikings again, although as I'm hosting tonight, the actual models are going to be representing the foe. I'll use models from an even older allegiance to represent my raiders.

Kettil certainly does look like a Troll, doesn't he?

• Kettil Frowner, War Priest 
• 4 x Hirdmen (hearthguard)
• 4 x Berserkers (hearthguard+)
• 10 x Bondi (warriors)
• 6 x Bondi (warriors)

War Priests are a variant Warlord that I thought it would be fun to try out. Slightly less cop in a fight than the standard one, and bringing fewer Saga Dice to the table, but with a nifty and versatile ability that lets them burn a dice in the order phase to boost themselves or nearby troops in melee.

Kettil and his men have also landed in a slightly unexpected part of England. Fearing the Anglo-Danes I've played against before, I brought the volatile berserkers in the hope that Stylus would target them with his fatigue-generating abilities and spare the rest of the army. No such luck; we've gotten lost on the way in, and now there's a huge mass of cheap and surprisingly capable infantry to be dealt with instead.

Ah well - Vikings seem to take high casualties when I use them (probably just my slapdash approach to keeping them alive), but they can certainly grind through meat with the best of them. Tyr!

Deployment

When the ship landed, Ketill saw that they had beached near an old fort on the edge of a cliff. It was ruined and abandoned, and had an ill-fated appearance that made the men nervous. Several of them wanted to put to sea again and try for another landing place. 

"We'll sleep up there," Ketill told them. "Men can go where they want. If the gods say it's unlucky, they'll soon let us know." There was a lot of grumbling, but the men did as they were told.

As they reached the top of the cliff, it was nearly dark. Even so, they could see lights on the other side of the ruins, and hear men talking. 

"There," Kettil said. "There's our luck! We'll attack at once. Then we can use their camp and their food instead of our own." And he took out his axe, which he had named Raven-Feeder, and started singing a song to Thor. 

The Old Fort. Now in 3D!

We'd be fighting in the ruins of an ancient stronghold. I'm no master of ancient architecture, but those crumbling columns look pretty Anglo-Roman to me. It's all the skulls, it's a dead giveaway. 

Following the age-old battle plan of 'use the oiks as human shields', I put my two units of Ceorls at the fore, with the largest unit of Thegns ready to support them. The two smaller units of Thegns hugged the backline, sandwiching my Warlord, ready to plug gaps or absorb wounds as needed.

Ever one to play to form, I went for a denied flank, setting some Bondi out in the middle as bait, then going heavily round the ruined keep on my left side. Run forwards, sweep the peasants out of the way and hack the enemy Warlord apart. That was my plan, and I'd be sticking to it!

Kraken won the roll-off (by virtue of having the most-impressive, albeit recently denuded, facial hair) and made me take the first turn. A common tactic, as it allows me to make the first mistake.

And for once, this suited me: no hanging back and flinging out fatigue like the Anglo-Danes. I wanted to move up and get stuck in quick while my numbers held.

Anglo-Saxons - Turn 1 

Throughout, when you see a Skull on the map, it's a Fatigue token rather than a casualty marker. 

"The Northmen are outside the Old Fort! Seize it! On! On!" Æthelwulf 's warriors were already puffing from their hike up to Faern-Laega, but the Ealdorman pressed them forward.

The raid had caught him by surprise, and he had been forced to leave his best troops to protect the Great Hall. He would have to make do with whatever shield-carriers he had scraped up from the hamlets on his way here.

"Forward to the tower!" he bellowed at the Ceorls. "I'll just stay here and ... shake this pebble out of my boot."

SAGA dice (1): Stout Hearts (increasing all units +2 models for battle board rolls) + The Fyrd (allowing all units of 10+ to roll an extra SAGA dice = 3 more)

SAGA dice (2): 2 x The Muster (any unit 10+ can be activated) + Clash of Shields (extra Attack dice for one-third of the models) + Shoulder to Shoulder (+1 Armour, +2 Defence dice for 10+ models)

Well, my machinations with the SAGA dice only netted me one extra, but it's better than nothing. I move the eastern unit of Ceorls into one building, while using my Warlord to push the central Ceorls forward, and spending another activation die to get them into another building, right in the path of the Vikings.

Eastern Ceorls all up in your base.

The rest of the dice I keep on my battle board as optional reaction in the Viking turn. I'm hoping that Kraken will take the bait and try to swat away my weak unit of levies - whereupon I'll buff them with everything I have.

Lead from the back, right?

 Vikings - Turn 1

Straight away, the enemy gathered themselves up in good order, and before Ketill's men had done much, a group of them ran into a nearby tower and started chanting "Ut! Ut! Ut!" at the invaders. 

"Thor doesn't like that," Ketill said. "Get in there and kill the lot of them, then we'll deal with their chief."

What's that you say? "Get off our land?"

SAGA dice: 2 x Hirdmen + 2 x Bondi + Frigg (remove 1 fatigue from melee and gain attack die)

Not a great roll for me - all five dice were Fehus, which limited my options a lot. 

My instinct was to ignore the swearing mass of levies in the tower right in my path. Stylus had gleefully explained the full powers of his defensive abilities to me, and I'd heard that Anglo-Saxon levies were pretty tough. 

But how tough could they really be? I mean, they were just farmers with shields, really. And I had the cream of a Viking warband to hand. If I crushed them and pushed them out, the blow to Stylus's morale would be well worth it. Plus it was part of the plan - run forwards, sweep the peasants out the way, crush the enemy Warlord. Time to get sweeping. 

Get in there, boys.

Predictably, it was a disaster. The Warpriest and his Hirdmen bounced off, losing two men to nil. Then the Berserkers managed to kill one lousy Ceorl at the cost of all their number. Still, the defensive buffs were gone now, and I had my Frigg ability (tee hee) that could turn my own fatigue to a combat advantage. Sending the Hearthguard against the tower again lost me another man for no dead farmers, though. What were they feeding them? 

Probably the bodies of my Viking dead. Gross.

Elsewhere, some of the Bondi were at least advancing on the Anglo-Saxon command post. Sensible buggers. 

Anglo-Saxons - Turn 2

"Attack!" cried the Ealdorman, hopping up and down to get a view of the action. "No peace! No truce! No settlement. No price in gold or land!"

Within the tower, Almund looked at his fellow ceorls. "Rattle the shields, lads." he said. "Old Vinegar-Breath wants us to nab that big hairy bloke."

SAGA dice: 1 x The Muster +  Defenders of the Realm (+4 attack dice if unit is 10+) + Overlap Shields (extra Defence dice for one-third of models) + Saxon Kingdom (all Levies 10+ are considered Warriors)

Well, that went a hell of a lot better than expected! Seven hearthguard killed for the loss of only one levy - and a fatigued War Priest right in front of me.

I hem and haw about whether I want to end the game on Turn 2, but it's silly not to go for it - the likeliest outcome is that the warlord will spill wounds onto nearby units, so it's all good.

Scrag the Warpriest!
As in 'attack him', not as in 'The Warpriest is an Aquatic Troll from DnD.' Although now you mention it... 

I spend every dice I have to buff up that one unit of Ceorls - extra Attacks, extra Defence and fight like Warriors. Sadly, this is where all my previous good dice rolling levels out, and I fail to land a single wound.

As a consolation, my defence holds out, so I don't lose anyone. And I can retreat back into the tower, which I'm enjoying the benefits of immensely.

Vikings - Turn 2

Ketill saw that most of his warriors had been killed in their attack on the tower. And now the men in the tower shouted and charged out all together, holding up their shields. Ketill didn't give them any ground, though, and they soon ran back away from him, unnerved by his great size and sour looks. 

Ketill let them go, and went to find more warriors to carry on his attack with. "Let the cowards come out if they dare," he said loudly. "There's other things we can do while we wait for them." 

It's a stupid tower anyway.

SAGA dice: 2 x Hirdmen + 2 x Bondi + Attack Pool (one extra Attack or Defence die)

A bit of defensive reshuffling this turn, with the Warpriest bringing up the other Bondi unit and then hiding behind them, bringing his lone Hirdman along as a bodyguard (he went the wrong way on the map. Probably in the game, too, see later).

The larger Bondi unit carries on their advance, straight into a wood. No combat this turn, I've decided that the tower isn't really that nice after all.

Anglo-Saxon - Turn 3 

"The trouble is," said Magen, peering out of the tower, "I don't think that hairy bloke wants us to capture him."

"He doesn't get a say!" snapped Almund. "Come on - I can see Toland's boys coming in from the other side. If they catch him first, we'll never hear the end of it.

SAGA dice: 2 x The Muster + Overlap Shields + Saxon Kingdom

I'm still relying on the Ceorls to do the business, so I use my activation dice to bring the eastern unit out of their tower, and send the other Ceorls (suitably buffed) into the smaller unit of Bondi.

Once again, my dice stink: I have 11 (counts-as) warriors against 6 warriors, with extra defence dice, and not only do I fail to kill any, I lose a man and lose the combat. I retreat back into the tower in shame.

Maybe he really is a Troll. That would explain a lot.

At the northern end of the field, the large unit of Bondi are getting a bit close for my comfort, so I shuffle my Warlord eastwards, bringing a small unit of Thegns with me.

Viking - Turn 3

"Now is the time," Ketill said. "Night is coming on, and I want to sleep in that tower tonight. Thor!"

And saying so, he charged into the tower again, backed by the other warriors. 

SAGA dice:  1 x Hirdmen + 1 x Bondi + Njord (discard fatigue from Warlord and units within M) + Thor (immediately fight another round of combat)

Finally, some better dice results! A Berkanan and a Sowilo that allow me to pull some better tricks. As the large Bondi continue to trek slowly towards the puny units guarding the Anglo-Saxon Warlord's yellow rear, my Warpriest once more slams into the tower. This time, I use Thor to fight the combat twice in a row before deciding a victor, as well as using Njord to ditch some of my fatigue first. 

Useless - I bounce off again, and lose most of the Bondi in the process. At least the Ceorls are finally taking some casualties, although there's still a ton of them left. Plus a fresh unit heading for my rear...

#pincer movement

Anglo-Saxon - Turn 4 

Magen pulled an axe from a window frame and lobbed it at the retreating Northmen. "They've really got a thing about towers, haven't they?"

"Well, they're not getting this one!" replied Almund. "And look - Lord Æthelwulf is sending his Thegns into the attack - now we'll really see some blood!"

SAGA dice: 2 x The Muster + Stout Hearts + Saxon Kingdom

That's a bit more like it! I'm given a second bite at the cherry, with a fatigued Warlord in front of me. First I need the boost from Stout Hearts to bring my Ceorl's numbers 'technically' above 10, then I can turn them into warriors and activate them against the War Priest.

And once again, I strike out. Not a blow lands on the War Priest (and I'm so close to knocking off the Hirdmen and Bondi - anything to drop the number of SAGA dice!).

Meanwhile, in the Saxon rear...

My untouched unit of Ceorls closes the pincer from the east, while my diminishing unit goes back to the tower to think about why they only perform well in the other guy's turn.

Meanwhile, my Warlord pushes my largest unit of Thegns in front of the oncoming Bondi, and takes a back seat to the action.

Viking - Turn 4

Some of the other men had ignored Ketill's orders and had sneaked round the tower to attack the enemy chief and his camp. 

Seeing this, Ketill made a poem about it. 

"Hungrier than me, the ravenous sword trees!
I prefer axe-meat and sword-drink
To a hearth of shields where corpse-birds blink."

SAGA dice: 2 x Bondi + Frigg + Thor

Finally, the Bondi get in fighting range of the Anglo-Saxon warriors, and properly embarrass them in front of their junior league farmer levies. Using Thor for a double combat, my vikings crush the enemy and send them packing, taking only light casualties in the process.

That fence won't save you, Warlord.

And I manage the same result from the Warpriest, more or less - taking his last Hirdman with him, he charged the oncoming goblins Ceorls. The Hirdman died in the process, but the Ceorls got beaten back with a fair dose of deaths for good measure.

Flee! Flee the Troll!

At last, the enemy warlord was in striking range! Now my lonely leader just had to survive the inevitable countercharges long enough for the warriors to do their job. Gosh, there were still a lot of Ceorls still left, weren't there?

Anglo-Saxon - Turn 5

"Kill him!" Æthelwulf  called over his shoulder to his servant Bǣda. "Get over there and tell those lazy Ceorls to kill him, kill him! Stem that horror with a sweep of their swords!"

As his Ealdorman scrambled for safety among his warriors Bǣda waved forward the Fyrd of Chiwe, ordering the peasants to attack the giant Northman with their scythes and billhooks.

SAGA dice: 1 x The Muster + Stout Hearts + Defenders of the Realm + Clash of Shields

Well, that took a chunk of out my back line (for a warriors vs warriors clash, my Anglo-Saxons really got trounced by Vikings - maybe the movies are onto something). My Warlord dashes towards the untouched units of Thegns, while the sole survivor of the big unit runs for cover (at this point, I just want to preserve his contribution to the SAGA pool).

But over at the other side of the field, I have a third chance for redemption: nine Ceorls are left facing the War Priest, who is out of range of any warriors to take wounds for him. All I need do is land two wounding blows and victory is mine.

I first apply Stout Hearts, to make them a functional 10+, give them 4 extra attack dice, and make them effective Thegns. It pays off and I land six hits for Kraken to save on 5+ with just seven dice.

He saves five of them.

By the cleft of Kirk Douglas' chin! Whatever member of the Norse pantheon this War Priest worships, he's really putting in overtime.

Viking - Turn 5

"These peasants are barely worth killing," Ketill said. "I seek a better foe," and he walked off towards the enemy camp. 

SAGA dice: 2 x Bondi + Njord

I was running short of dice now, and had a fair bit of fatigue piling up. So I sent the Warpriest into the centre of the field, then used Njord to remove his fatigue along with that of the two remaining Bondi units. 

It's not running away. It's tactics.

Then I sent the larger warrior group steaming into the enemy Warlord, at long last! It took a double push to get them in, but it was worth it for the long shot. 

No, it turns out it wasn't. The saxon boss hides behind his shield as well as using my fatigue to up his own armour to the maximum possible, then comes out of hiding long enough to stick a sword in one of my guys. This display of combat verve is enough to send my unit packing again. 

And who's this, traipsing along behind the Warpriest? Why, it's another gargantuan pack of Ceorls. Gah.

Anglo-Saxon - Turn 6

"It's no good," Toland jogged to a halt and bent double, resting his hands against his knees as the other Ceorls slowed around him. "We can't go any further. I need a hot cup of something that hasn't been invented yet."

SAGA dice: 2 x The Muster + Stout Hearts + Saxon Kingdom

My last chance to catch and kill the War Priest who (despite the map showing otherwise) is out of range of the Bondi, and so still vulnerable to a killing strike.

Unfortunately, I'll need to activate my Ceorls twice to get them into range, and as they are both carrying one fatigue, they only need a second fatigue to become exhausted and far less combat-effective (Levies, being rubbish, have a fatigue limit of 2).

But I have a plan: Stout Hearts to bring the unit of 9 into an effective 10+, then Saxon Kingdom to make them into warriors (who have a higher fatigue limit, and can therefore charge in with impunity).

Sadly, this fourth attempt at warlord assassination comes to naught when Kraken employs a little-remembered, but perfectly valid, tactic of using my own fatigue to slow my charge. I'm just too far away to catch the warlord, so my Ceorls are left puffing among the ruins.

Viking - Turn 6

Ketill saw that not many of his own warriors were still standing, but he wasn't dismayed. Shaking Raven-Feeder, he called on all the old gods and charged the enemy lines. 

SAGA dice (1): Activation Pool (roll two extra SAGA dice)

SAGA dice (2): 1 x Bondi + Frigg + Heimdal (3 extra Attack dice but lowers your armour) + Valhalla (eliminate up to 3 Warriors or Hearthguard to gain 3 Attack dice per model)

I have a last plan! Using easily my best Saga Dice roll of the night, I can boost the last Bondi to a suicide death squad, sacrificing their own number to Valhalla and Heimdal as they charge the Warlord.

Alas, they are in the same boat as the enemy Ceorls - too tired to connect. All my abilities are wasted! I don't have any fatigue on Ketill, and he can't sacrifice himself to gain combat powers, sadly. So I content myself with flinging him into the nearby foes, thinking I'll make it a nice clean game with no counting out of victory points to decide a winner.

What did you expect? Trolls vs Goblins - always a clear result.

Unexpectedly, I win this combat handily, and beat the Ceorls away again.

Result: Neither Warlord died, so decided by Victory Points - 12:6 to the Anglo-Saxons!

Epilogue

"My Lord Æthelwulf - the pagans have fled!" Bǣda kicked over the heaps of pigtails that had been discarded in the rout. "The Old Fort is ours!"

The Ealdorman of Stoche fetched his servant a clip about the ear. "The Old Fort was already mine, you turd of a goat! Did I risk my life out here in this mud just to preserve what I already owned?"

"No, my Lord," replied Bǣda. And it was true: the Ealdorman had not risked his life. He had not moved so much as one barleycorn, while the poor ceorls were sent forward to face the northmen.

Most of that peasant levy had survived their ordeal, due to their quick thinking and the northmen's arrogance. They were now emerging from the shelter of the fort's central buildings, torn between thanking God for their deliverance and picking over the dead. A few pragmatic ceorls were already praising the Lord for sending them such rich corpses, thus saving time on both counts.

"I wanted their war-chief captured!" the Ealdorman was working into a fighting temper that had been curiously absent an hour ago. "By the holy cross, I demand the head of that heathen!"

"Their ships must have come up the River Sæfern," Bǣda guessed. "They will doubtless seek reinforcement or escape that way, and must first cross the fords of the Ffraw."

"Then we shall pursue them!" roared Æthelwulf. "And prepare to summon the fyrd. I like a nice wall of ceorls between me and any viking axe."

"Very good, my Lord."

Aftermath

Cracking battle, and not at all how I imagined it unfolding. Especially after Turn 1, when I was convinced I had this in the bag. A combination of crummy dice rolls, and the ability for SAGA units to go really defensive at need, denied me the killing blow. But it was a pretty decisive victory for all that.

Hah! Well, as ever, I let my natural aggression get the better of me. There was a moment when I thought I should march straight past the tower towards the enemy, and leave them in there with all their defensive abilities. Then I thought nah, stuff it, let's have a scrap. 

Trying to winkle defensive troops out of a defensive position when they're souped up with defensive abilities? That's not a scrap. It's a quick way to feed the wolves with your own troops, that's what it is. The Old Fort quickly became a Viking Somme, and because I can't learn new tactics on the fly, I kept doing it until I'd run out of bodies. 

Thankfully they didn't actually have machine guns. Or bows. It's not WYSIWYG.

That I didn't lose the Warpriest (who would have been better off as a normal Warlord, really - more Saga Dice and more combat power, but I'll stick with him for now) was a miracle. Like my last narrative warlord, though, it might mean he's bound for a greater final destiny. Nobody killed Phlothos either. 

Consider me sold on the Anglo-Saxons. I was happy to make the switch, since the Anglo-Danes' staple tactic of loading fatigue on the enemy was getting a bit ... tiring (for both sides, I'm sure). I had no idea the levy troops could be so potent, but they'll be first on my list (even if that does mean more painting for me - damn you, horde armies!)

It's great fun making full use of the battle board, although you have to balance it with enough SAGA dice-generating units to do so. Once these units do drop below 10 models, I think the army would be suddenly vulnerable, so it may be something of a glass cannon, but who doesn't like seeing those things explode?

Nobody, that's who.

I'm not so sure they're a glass cannon, exactly - their damage output wasn't exactly overwhelming, and they weren't that easy to smash! I think you're right, though, once they're gone, there's not much left in terms of abilities. I can't think of an apt analogy, though. Not Tanks, they lack endurance. Maybe a Zerg Rush? Drown the enemy in fast assaulting bodies and hope that's enough?

True, although their damage output is probably a lot better than I demonstrated. They're more like rock cannons that don't really fire cannonballs. Rocks, then. They're like rocks.

Kekekekeke

So tonight the Anglo-Saxons will be dancing around their mead hall, playing bongos on discarded horned helmets like an Ewok percussion section. Godemite!

I don't know where you're getting those horned helmets from. There's none in the archeological record.