The Battle of Misgewidere Hill, a SAGA report

Getwin Wefanson saw the messenger long before he could hear him, plunging down toward the village from the nearby ridge. As the young man drew nearer his words began to carry on the breeze "They are coming...they are coming!"
Wefanson strode toward the rushing boy meeting him at the village boundary. Bulging eyed the red-faced youth burst out "Knights my lord...many knights...making for Misgewidere Hill..."
"Charetier!" the Saxon warlord cursed "Will he never learn?"
"No, my Lord" the young man panted "These are other knights, led by the Comte de Forgeron-Scribe"
"Well, they still need to be taught the same lesson" Wefanson roared "Bring me my axe, I've Normans to kill!"


Thus Scrivs and I met up once more at Maelstrom for a little more SAGA action. Having not made much progress with either Vikings or Scots I once more dusted off the trusty Saxon warband, whilst Scrivs would be using his El Cid Spanish force in the guise of Norman knights.
My list was the same as usual:

Getwin Wefanson – Anglo-Danish Warlord
2 Units of four Thegns
1 Unit of four Thegns with Dane Axes
3 units of 8 Ceorls


Scrivs had somethig like:
Le Comte de Forgeron-Scribe - Mtd Norman Warlord
2x 6 Knighs
1x8 Mtd Serjeants
1x8 Spearmen
8x Crossbows

We rolled and discovered we'd be playing the Sacred ground scenario, where each side accumulates points for having models on either the hill or the two areas of terrain placed on or about the centre line.

Niceties over we lined up and went at it.

 The battlefield from the west

 And again from the South-East

 Stout Saxon yeomanry

 Beastly Spani Norman Invaders

Le Comte de Forgeron-Scribe seized the initiative and raced men onto Misgewidere Hill.

Whilst the Saxons took a more steady advance

 Come Down and Fight!

 Oh!

A unit of Norman horse launched themselves from the hill and slaughtered a unit of Huscarls before returning to the hill-top to catch their breath.

At this point I deceide a re-think was in order. A wall of well armoured horse-flesh was occupying the top of the hill and Forgeron-Scribe was racking up the points...

 Where are youooo..?

Sending a unit of Ceorls into the woods Getwin pulled the Dane axe armed men back and led them toward the broken ground in the east

 Charger!

Impetuous Sejeants threw themselves down the hill toward a unit of isolated Ceorls, but their brothers in the wood had seen off the Norman spearmen.

Have some of THAT!

Rashly, Getwin led his Dane-axe men in a charge across open ground onto the hill, where they slaughtered four knights, though they were left a little exposed...

Seizing his chance the Norman warlord launched himself at the Saxon and duly cut him down, though Wefanson took at least two Serjeants with him.

The same picture from a different angle, though Scrivs flash seems to have gone off at the same moment, playing havoc with the lighting!

The beastly crossbowmen poured shot into the broken ground but were unable to thin the numbers. At this point the Saxon total began to seriously climb...

We've got your 'ill you stinkee Saxons!

This Rock is our Rock, and it's not your Rock

A final turn charge by Serjeants into the wood was repulsed by the Shieldwall bearing Ceorls and with that we discovered that the Saxons had just sneaked a win by 152 pts to 144.

A terrific game, one which i thought was utterly beyond me by turn two when Scrivs seemed to be racking up 30+ points a turn and I could see no way of shifting them from the hill. Fortunately the durability of the Saxons proved to be the difference and I snatched a win in the final turns. The charge with my Warlord was probably the moment that swung the game, taking four knights out of the scoring equation, even though it proved fatal to Getwin in the long term.

I do love a good game of SAGA. I'm sometime frustrated when actually playing that I'm spending more time looking at the board than at the pretty toy soldiers but it gives a great, fast, free flowing game and the result is usually in doubt until the last few turns.

Another jolly good game with Scrivs. He took pictures too, so doubtless the Norman propaganda will appear on his site in due course...

As the sounds of retreating horsemen echoed around the nearby hills the remaining Saxons surveyed the field. The hill was once more theirs, but at what cost? Their mighty leader lay face down in the mud, trampled by the hooves of the Norman warlord. Sadly they gathered round his body to pay their respects...
"What are you doing you aerselings. Don't just stand there, pick me up and get me back to the village!" roared the wounded warlord. "And does anyone know how to get hoof-prints out of a cloak?"

Hot Lead 2012 all the rest

I have realised that I don't have time to post all the individual games in the style of the first one.
So rather than wait weeks to get them all posted, here's some brief write ups and pictures.

Game Two
I was drawn to play Francis and his Vikings. I've met Francis at numerous WAB events in the past and he assures me we've played each other on several occasions. My memory is not what it was, so he's probably quite correct.
This battle was the River Crossing scenario and I was the 1500 point attacker. I "ordered" a general advance, and rather than any complicated reforming malarkey simply splashed across the river at 1/2 rate.

 Splish, splash, splosh

 The summer sound of spear on shield

 Run away!

Let the taunting commence!

Although I seemed to spend a lot of time running away I managed to get both units of Gedrith across the water. Stupidly I charge with the mounted fellas on the last turn and what could have been a mighty victory turned into me being narrowly ahead on points.
A splendid game, with Francis receiving able assistance from his son Keiran, and Mrs Francis even making me a cup of tea. A fine way to play soldiers

Game Three
I was playing my regular nemesis Scrivs in the Attack on the Camp scenario with my fierce warband army attempting to hold onto a small palisade. It did not go well.

 Right, all we have to do is stand still...

 Yikes!

 There in't 'alf a lot of 'em

 Come back, come b...oh

 Reckon we can handle this lot

 The Spanish seize the camp

View from the other side

Scrivs, as is his wont, played very well. My Gedrith disgraced themselves and the end result was a Lots to Nil thrashing. I think Scrivs felt bad, but we had a fun game as usual. There's a report (and handsome* picture) on Scrivs Blog

Game Four
This was against Neil and I was back on the table I started on, playing against some El Cid Arabs - Almoravids in this case. We were playing the Miraculous Shrine scenario the one I'd played in my warm up game with Scrivs though due to an accounting error I was using my 1500 point army for the third time which was mildly irritating as I'd already packed the extras away (I suspect I played the wrong side in game one - so the error was probably mine).
Neil and I played Age of Arthur armies at the weekender at Maelstrom a year or so back. He won at a canter on that occasion, so wasn't expecting this to be easy. I was right.

 May Allah guide our arrows!

 Watch that flank!

 Andalusian cavalry doing what they do best

 Where are you all going?

 Nearly there

Ouch!

I almost sneaked getting more men nearest Neil's Needle (stop tittering at the back) but some well aimed javelins saw the lads off and it was a big win for Neil.
Another great fun game that saw plenty of swings back and forth and some unexpected fleeing that turned the game a couple of times. Great WAB stuff with a splendid opponent.

In the final tallying of points I wasn't quite last. John claimed moral superiority on an alphabetical basis. Martin has listed the results here.

On the way home Brother Scrivs** and I switched from setting wargaming to rights to addressing the problems of the world in general while John adopted a foetal position and let out brief mewling sounds.

Looking forward to Cold Steel already.

And a reminder if this has whetted your appetite for some one day WABbing Scrivs and I are running an event in October at Maelstrom. Details here

*opinions vary
** Scrivens-Smith and Webster-Deakin. The kind of double barrelled names you'd expect to be first against the wall come the Revolution.

Crusader Dark Age Scottish Thegns (3)

Some more (slow) progress.
Mainly re-highlighting with the original colours

The common colours are as follows:

Flesh: Tallarn Flesh

Shoes: Scorched Brown/Bleached bone mix

Hilts, clasps etc: Burnished gold

Tunic: Calthan Brown
Hair: Desert Yellow

Tunic: Mechrite Red

Tunic: Necron Abyss
Hair: Bestial Brown

Tunic: Orkhide Shade
Hair: Vomit Brown

This kind of stage by stage painting is tedious and unrewarding and therefore very slow. Normally I wouldn't be nearly so methodical and could have finished these four in a few days.
Anyway, I can see the finish line now, so will hopefully finish them over the weekend.