Saga: The Wrath of the Jomsvikings

Had my second game of Saga this afternoon against Rich at BIG with Matt on hand to help with some of the rules. Rich had played Jomsvikings with some success with the first edition and from what I'd read I knew they could be a tough warband to counter.

I went with the same Viking army I used in my first game but as we went up to 5 points I add a unit of Beserkers for some fun (and a Viking force should have some Beserks IMHO). We also used the terrain rules this time and I think we got a little carried away here!

Rich advanced his warband forward across the board in a narrow fronted block, I spread my force (probably a little too wide) and focused my efforts on taking out one unit of his warriors with a my Levy peppering them as they advanced before hitting them with a full unit of warriors. This worked well despite Rich inflicting punishment on me a couple of times. This ability removed my activation, the alternative being I could let him build up Wrath and I whilst I wasn't 100% sure what that would do but I knew that allowing the Jomsviking to do that early in the game would be a disaster!

My Beserks wiped out his other unit of Warriors, and themsleves in the process. I had positioned them badly so just wanted to see how effective they were. Combined with some specific abilities they look like they could be a powerful one shot weapon - I just need to point it at the right target!

Having aided in the destruction of one unit of Warriors, the Levy pretty much took out a large unit of Heartguard with some impressive archery rolls and with my Hearthguard took out Rich's other unit of Hearthguard, though many a warrior ended the day in Valhalla!

This just left his Warlord and despite some good Saga die rolls I was canny enough not to take any Punishment or allow Rich remove fatigure, letting him now build up his Wrath. He did managed to get this to work to his advantage once but the Levy kept firing arrows at his Warlord and eventually brought him down.

A pretty resounding victory but I was lucky with some dice rolls. I can't imagine the Levy bow are going to be this lucky week in, week in, but I am coming to grips with the Viking battleboard and some of the abilities that allow you to gain a few advantages at key time.

Good fun!