Battle for Pelisium Moor

Great Kingdoms v Horde Battle Report

using

Menoth (Privateer Press) and Warriors of Chaos (Games Workshop)

A cold wind swept over Pelisium Moor, dispersing the mists into cobweb like clouds across the fields.        The discordant sound of jangling armour broke the morning's silence, disturbing the water foal into the air and small animals to seek shelter.

As the sun's ray burnt away the last of the morning mist, the two warbands could clearly seen facing off across the wet and marshy moor.  Ready for battle.

The Great Kingdoms warband consisted of:

• Warlord on foot
• Captain on foot.  This is the Great Kingdom's lieutenant which has We Obey as its special rule
• Paladin on foot
• Sorcerer on foot 
• 2 points of heathguard on foot with heavy weapons (1 point turned into the captain and paladin)
• 1 point of biped creatures
• 2 points of warriors on foot
• 2 points of levy, 1 with firearms and 1 with bows.

The Horde warband consisted of:

• Mounted warlord
• Mounted lieutenant
• Mounted sorcerer
• War Chariot. Horde special hero unit
• 2 points of mounted heathguard (6 figures after 2 replaced for the lieutenant)
• 3 points of warriors (in 2 units of 12)
• 1 point of behemoth monster

Book of Battles - Battle of Heroes set in Marshy Country, with Refused Flank and Unknown Length.

We mucked up the setup and deployment reading the refused flank rules after setting up so the terrain was concentrated along the Southern long edge, leaving the North sparsely covered.  We also forgot that placing Sacred Ground is part of regular terrain deployment and left it for last.  So The horde entering from the East decided it needed to play the game in the Great Kingdom's deployment zone and hence the 2 sacred ground pieces were in the North West.

Turn 1

The Horde place half is warband North of the woods and then the rest South after the Great Kingdom deployed.  The aim was to sweep in around the southern flank.  With a 6 Saga dice to start, the horde was able to fill up the battle board including a rare on "For the Horde" and maneuvered up to just outside of L of all the Great Kingdom units aside from the level bow, which moved its warriors to within charge range.

The Great Kingdoms moved filled its board, moved the firearm levy forward and shot it and the bow at separate warrior units using "Enfilade" causing 1 casualty to each unit.  

Turn 2

Using Magic support "Stoke Fury" (on a rare), "Strengthen" and "Me First" Saga Ability; the Horde's warriors charged the levy bow in the swamp, killing 7 with 1 units; and then charged the levy firearms with the other killing 10. 

The Great Kingdoms then counter struck the northern warriors, first with its creatures who ended up exhausted without inflicting any damage.  Then their warriors charged winning combat and charging again, wiping out the Horde's warriors and distributing fatigue to the warlord, sorcerer and behemoth. 

Turn 3

The Horde repositioned its units for charging in its next turn.

The Great Kingdom sorcerer seeing how his enemy controlled the power of his magic (just) decided to risk the "Abuse of Power" to remove all the fatigue from his creatures unit only to roll double 1 and disappear in load smelly puff of smoke.  

Turn 4

The Horde trigger's "For the Horde" and with a combination of "Let the Blood Run", "Violence" and "Stoke Fury" charge the southern Great Kingdom units.  The levy bow were wiped out, but the warriors survived the war chariot's charge and only lost 4 (not enough to lose a Saga dice).

Seeing his enemy isolated and fatigued the Great Kingdom's paladin charged the behemoth kit and the warlord ordered his creatures into horde's warlord and destroying it too. 

Turn 5

With only 2 Saga dice left the Horde charged the war chariot back into the Kingdom's warriors only to die a horrible death and the lieutenant charged the captain only to end in an exhausted draw.

Ahead on points and will all its units within charge range exhausted, the Great Kingdom's warlord orders his units to rest awaiting the killing blow to land in turn 6.

Turn 6

The horde rolls a 3 on a D6 roll and the game ends.

Key Takeaways:

1. Read the scenarios first before setting up. This is not a mistake we normally make, but in the excitement of getting an 8 point game in, both of us forgot.  Knowing the the Refused Flank deployment in advance would have changed the game.  The Great Kingdom's wood would have been centre field, the hordes one in a corner and its Sacred Ground at the edge of the Great Kingdoms deployment zone.  Once the Great Kingdom's Sacred Ground was placed, the horde would have called time and there would have been less terrain. Maybe?
2. The horde is aggressive and there were times when it should have really pushed harder.  Its deployment was all wrong and should have just left the bows in the swamp and dealt with the rest of the army.  
3. Remember that War Chariots have Javelins and their +1 bonus in melee on the charge.
4. Fatigue management is critical. Even with resilience 2, you need to not only know when to spend your opponent's fatigue, you also need to weigh the risk of taking fatigue from that extra activation. Each point of fatigue is one closer to death and all it takes is a un/lucky roll or two and poof!
5. It was a great game which seesawed multiple times and 1 or 2 dice rolls made the difference.
6. Still have lots to learn about the synergy between units and the battleboards.  There is going to be a lot of fun learning the intricacies of Saga:Age of Magic.