3 Point Sacred Ground (Normans vs Vikings)

By the time Jon and I played this game we had already been gaming for several hours so there are some definite gaps in the pictures- I apologize for that!  But, for our second game of Saga I think we both felt much more comfortable with the mechanics and started opening up with our Battle boards a bit more.  Again this will be mostly pictures, but in the future you can expect a format more similar to our FoW battle reports on WWPD.net In this mission (Sacred Ground) 3 terrain pieces are placed on the board.  At the end of each of your opponent's turns, you score points for having troops in/on that terrain.  If I remember correctly it's 3 for your Warlord, 2 for Hearthguard, and 1 for warriors.  Who cares about those Levy peasants, I forget what they earn.

Steveaux The Handsome's Normans Warlord on Horse 4x Norman Knights (hearthguard) 4x Norman Knights (hearthguard) 4x Norman Knights (hearthguard)

Jonvi the Dirty's Vikings Warlord 4x Hirdmen (hearthguard) 4x Hirdmen (hearthguard) 8x Bondi (warriors)

The scoring terrain pieces are clearly the field, and the hills (which, looking at it now, are hilariously placed over the road?  What can I say, it was a long day)

Normans have the first turn and Gallop onto the hill.  16" move for the win!

The Normans also make it to the center hill.

Jon pushes the Vikings hard to catch up.

And even charges!

The result is not pretty.  I used Jon's fatigue to raise my armor to 6, and then used Charge for 3 extra attack dice.  So I swung 11 dice at 4 and he 13 at 6.

I follow up with even more success.  My warlord and 1 unit of Hearthguard ride out and completely wipe out a unit of Viking Hearthguard.

These guys basically just sat here racking up the victory points.

Normans pull off the central hill, out of easy attack range of Jon's Warlord.

But Jon pushes them!  

Jon takes a handful of losses

But wipes out the Norman unit!

The Norman warlord and Hearthguard unit now swing back around

Jon pulls a fresh unit of Hearthguard and his warlord into a melee (where we erroneously included my warlord as a defender)

The fight is brutal

Seeing Jon the Filthy taking the hill as Steveaux the Somewhat Agitated retreats.

But then rests and charges back into the fray!

But Jon the Filthy defeats Steveaux the Somewhat Agitated.  But this mission is all about capture points!

With only 4 Knights left against Jon's 3 figures, Steveaux's forces win the day by victory points, but a heavy toll is paid on this sacred ground.