Snorri The Jomsviking

Those of you who have persevered with these bletherings of mine will recall the feeble efforts of my Viking Warlord, Snorri Borrison, to win his first game of Saga (if you are new here you can find the sorry tales here and here ).

In fairness to Snorri, it turns out that we had been playing the "Resilience" rule wrong and that what should have happened is that Snorri could have transferred all of the remaining hits to his bodyguard, so he wouldn't have been taken out in that first game so quickly. However, his martial prowess in the second game was pretty abysmal, so much so that he was on a final warning to get his axe out of his backside and win a battle or it was permanent exile back to the display shelf.

A worried Viking facing the shame of returning to the back of the shelf.

Just an aside for a moment. It has been spuriously suggested by both Alan and Raurok that Snorri is in fact a female. This scurrilous claim is made by them purely on the basis that Snorri has pigtails and has a rather large chest under his pelts. Let me state quite categorically that Snorri is male and that in his original guise he was "Sven" and was a model produced by GW for the Kremlo the Slann scenario. So although Snorri may have fought like a girl that is simply as a result of a lack of practise.

Anyway, back to the main event. Both Alan and I received our copies of "Northern Fury" the first Saga supplement from Gripping Beast a couple of weeks back.

The supplement introduces 4 new factions to the game, the Bretons, the Anglo-Saxons, the Scots and the Jomsvikings. Now according to the blurb in the book, the Jomsvikings are a semi-mythical band of Vikings who feature in some of the Icelandic Sagas and one in particular - "The Jomsvikings Saga". They appear to have been a bunch of mercenary Norsemen, who through a strict code of brotherhood fought for the highest paymaster and were quite happy to change sides if offered more gold. Not much historical data on them apparently but enough there to give the rules writers the excuse to include them in the supplement.

As Alan had been busily painting up his Scots Warband we decided last Thursday to use 2 of the new factions in our Saga game with Alan using his shiny new Scots and yours truly taking his Vikings (and Snorri) but they were to be JOMSVIKINGS.

We set up the table to play the "Sacred Ground" scenario from the main rulebook.

Fairly open battlefield, the scenario called for a hill to be placed in the middle of the table and then each player selected one other piece of terrain each, so I picked the other hill and Alan the forest. The object of the scenario was to gain victory points by having your troops occupy the terrain features at the end of your opponent's turn. Game length was 7 turns and player with the most victory points would be declared "Supreme Saga Player in Arbroath" (no time restriction).

Deployment was staggered, so that the player winning the initiative roll (that was me) would deploy one unit and then Alan deployed one and so on. The Player who finished deploying all of their units first (that was me again) would start the game.

 

A unit of Jomsviking Bondi, the undulating terrain caused by Alan's badly creased table cover

Oh Oh! The Scots have men on Nags.

The Scots also have men with long pointy sticks - the Soer-chele (warriors)

Now Alan had also got the free Scots Warlord model from Gripping Beast with the supplement but he hadn't painted him up! So he used this guy instead

No, this historical game has not suddenly become a fantasy game with wizards and spells. It was just the picture was taken at a coincidental angle to make the paint splats that dozy Alan had made on his table cover look like bolts of fire coming from his Warlord's finger. Still, looks pretty cool!

This unwashed lot are the Scots Levy or "Doer-chele". They have shorter, pointy sticks. No such unwashed hordes on the Jomsvikings side, they just had brave, fearsome, professional soldiers, in other words the rules don't let the Jomsvikings have Levy troops.

The supplement didn't introduce any new rules to the game system but each new faction had new abilities specific to their particular race. The Scots, dour in defence and absorbing the enemy attacks before launching their own devastating (hopefully) counter attacks, have abilities on their battle board to try and recreate these tactics.

The Jomsvikings, for their part, have the "Wrath". This ability, is built up by choices made by the opposing player, so for example, by playing the "Pagan Fury" ability, the opponent has to choose whether to let the Jomsviking player activate 2 of his units or increase the Jomsviking Wrath score by 1. The higher the Wrath score gets (to a maximum of 6) the more nasty the Jomsviking abilities on the third column of the battle board gets. We soon found out, how nasty those abilities could get!

I took the first turn

Odin's Beard!! The mythical "S" rune is seen!

I hadn't seen many of these in our previous games using the Vikings. Was this a sign of things to come??

The two sides rolled forward, but at the end of the first turn no one was occupying any of the terrain pieces. The nasty Scots on Nags, however, had thrown their pointy sticks at the Jomsviking Berserkers and had caused a casualty to them.

 

Not wishing to simply stand there and get shot to bits by pointy things, the Berserkers did what comes naturally to them

CHARGE!!!!!!!!!!!!

The ensuing combat did not bring about the mutually assured destruction that I had been expecting but instead left each side with just one warrior each

The Berserker and the Nagman eye each other suspiciously across the battlefield

Typically Alan, in his turn, did the cowardly thing and ran the Nagman into the forest (looking to claim some victory points) and then threw his pointy stick at the Berserker

Oh Bugger!

Meanwhile, in the centre the opposing Warbands had reached the hill

Snorri, suitably surrounded by half his army just in case he needs to rely on the "Resilience" Rule

Whilst on the Jomsviking left flank, the Bondi there claimed the Hill.

"For Snorri! Now where's the Beer?"

It has been a feature of our Saga games is that my dice rolling has been crap. I could use stronger words but Ladies sometimes read this blog. But in an unexpected reversal of fortunes, it was Alan who was really rolling the dross rolls, as a result some of his Warband hadn't really moved at all after 3 turns.

The Scots are a long way away

However, Alan eventually managed to get his peasants to move and being the forefathers of the late, great Jocky Wilson, they threw their pointy sticks at the Jomsviking Hearthguard.

"180!"

Well not quite, but 3 Hearthguard left the field to have the pointy sticks surgically removed.

Back in the centre, the 2 sides square up

Snorri's make or break moment approaches!

Having seen the peasants whittle down the Jomsviking Hearthguard, the Scots equivalent - Thanes, decided now was the time to try and do something useful and so with a 3 man advantage they ran forward to meet their foes

"We've got more men than you!" jeered the Scots

However, being the forefathers of Kingsleypark, they rolled their dice -

And rolled 2 hits out of 16 dice

These were promptly saved by the Jomsvikings who in their hacks back dispatched 3 of the useless Scotties

The Scots cower behind their shields.

This blow clearly affected Alan's confidence in his troops - not! Instead of taking stock and thinking out a new stratagem, on the centre hill his Soer-Chele charged forward

The eagle eyed amongst you will have spotted the sudden appearance of a Celtic Cross on the hill. Alan thought this would give his Scots some sort of morale boost - totally mucks up the continuity of my pictures but hey ho the cross stayed (it is in fact a souvenir fridge magnet).

Another abysmal Scottish roll of the dice and some very unKingsleypark rolling by the Jomsvikings and the Scots were hurled back

Jomsvikings 6, Scots 2

Both Warlords were now within a "S" move (4 inches) of each other. This meant the "Warlord's Pride" rule kicked in and thus if the Warlord moved at all he had to try and move into contact with the opposing Warlord.

Now was the time for Snorri's master stroke. The Jomsviking Hearthguard on his left charged into the Soer-chele in front of them, with the intention of destroying as many of them as possible, thus reducing the number of volunteers for the Scots Warlord to use for the "Resilience" Rule. 6 Scots lay dead at the end of that combat for the loss of only 1 Hearthguard. Step 1 complete.

Step 2, Snorri charges forward taking the Warriors on his right with him using the "We Obey" rule. Snorri charges into his opposite number , Horace Broon, while the warriors charge into the 2 Scots warriors on Horace's left.

Now in my excitement, I made a foolish mistake. Yes, I know that's hard to believe but I'm human and sometimes it happens. Instead of fighting the warrior combat first, I elected to resolve the Warlord combat first. I should have fought the warriors first, I had a 4 man advantage after all and if I killed the Scots warriors then that would have been even less volunteers that the Scots Warlord could use for the "Resilience" rule.

But Snorri went first. Step 3, call upon the "Hammer of Thor". This ability in the third column of the Jomsviking Battle Board allows the Jomsvikings to discard the relevant Saga dice and score a number of automatic hits on the opposing unit equivalent to the current Wrath level. At this point the Wrath level was "5". 5 automatic hits on the Scots Warlord plus I still had to roll for Snorri's own attack rolls.

As it turned out it was just as well I had used the Hammer of Thor because Snorri managed a measly 1 hit from his 5 dice. Still that was 6 hits on Horace Broon, surely he would fall???

Alan rolled 5 defence dice needing 5's and 6's (the Warlord automatically ignores the first hit in combat). The jammy so and so rolled 3 saves and passes the other 2 wounds onto his warriors on his left. They fall to the ground leaving my warriors with no one to hit in their combat! In retaliation Alan rolled 2 hits on Snorri, ignoring the first one, Snorri failed the save and had to call on his warriors to take the pain and save Snorri from more ignominy.

Horace Broon stands alone but very much alive

At least by this stage of the game I was racking up the victory points. The Bondi on the left flank were racking up 4 points a turn and Snorri's boys on the centre hill were also scoring heavily. With all the losses Alan had suffered that turn on the centre hill, his victory point tally really slowed down. At least the solitary Nagman in the forest was earning him 1 victory point (and still contributed a Saga dice).

So, despite Snorri's best efforts to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, I was still feeling pretty confident. Then this happened

Did somebody knock the table and they all fell down??

No. With my new found confidence I had charged the Hearthguard. Axes swung, pointy sticks pointed but at the end of it it was the Scots who were left with 1 man standing. OK, not good but still, numbers on the hill were still in my favour.

Then Alan moves his peasants up to withing range of the hill and starts chucking his sticks. I had killed the remaining 2 warriors on the hill (again as a result of charging Alan's warlord and him having to use the "Resilience" rule to keep Horace alive but now those damned peasants took out another 2 of my Hearthguard with their throwing pointy sticks

 Horace stands even more alone but still bloody alive!

No more fannying about! Snorri with a little help from Hammer of Thor charges Horace bringing his warriors with him. Snorri's axes glinted in the sunlight, their speed dazzling the witless Horace who unable to resist the furious onslaught succumbed to Snorri's prowess

"Who's the Daddy?!!"

The sole remaining Hearthguard on each side and battered each other to Valhalla so by the start of the last turn Alan only had his peasants left and oh yes the Nagman hiding in the forest (he was a Hearthguard too) so it meant Alan could at least roll a Saga dice.

"I'm still here!"

Now the Scots equivalent of the "S" rune on the Saga dice is a Deer symbol

It looks like this

Unfortunately for Alan, he saw one of those in his very first roll of the game and didn't see another one until the very last roll.

The game ended with Snorri, standing Colossus-like on the hill, master of all he surveyed

And also sensibly out of range of the throwing pointy stick peasants.

The victory point tally was added up. Horace had a paltry 34 points while Snorri, that shrewd tactician and master warrior amassed over 70 points. All hail Snorri!!!

 

In fairness to Alan the game turned as much on his abysmal dice rolling and me actually rolling half decent dice for a change. As he couldn't roll a Deer on his Saga dice he was unable to use the "Activation Pool" ability on his battle board which would have given him extra dice to roll and as such he was never really able to make use of the special abilities on the Scots battle board.

In contrast, with Alan letting the Jomsviking Wrath level grow, I had been able to make much better use of the abilities on the Jomsviking Board. I think with more plays against the Jomsvikings a player will be better able to judge when to allow the Jomsviking to increase his Wrath level. Without his Wrath, the Jomsviking will struggle I think. Each time you use one of the abilities in the third column of the Battle Board it does reduce the Wrath level so the Jomsviking player has to think out when to use which ability to it's best effect.

 

But let's not take anything away from Snorri, for when it came to the crunch, it was his Axe that ended up in Horace's skull. So he has been saved from banishment and has found his true place, not as a Viking but as a

JOMSVIKING!!!!

One final observation. I thought there was a striking resemblance between this fine chap

And that fine young Irish actor, Jonathan Rhys Meyers

Well okay they both have a beard

(That one is for you Anne!)



My First Metal Miniature

Anne of the Anne's Attic Blog posted some pics of her very first painted miniature last month. She was pretty hard on herself about how the mini turned out (Honest Anne it's really quite good for a first effort!)  but it got me a thinking of the time when I got my first metal miniature.

I've mentioned this chap before - "Jimmy" - in my very first blog post last year and the observant amongst you will also have noted that he also appears as my profile pic.

                                         

It was the September 1979 edition of the Military Modelling Magazine that really started me on the slippery slope that I have been sliding down for the last 33 years.

The much thumbed and read Military Modelling Magazine

And on page 759 appeared the following advert

No there wasn't 759 pages in this magazine, the numbering ran consecutively with each issue starting with the January issue!







In the days before the internet, you sent off a Stamped Addressed envelope to the advertiser, sometimes with a Postal Order, sometime with stamps (Citadel asked for 25p worth of stamps) and in return you would get the latest lists/ catalogue and sometimes a free sample figure and that's how Jimmy arrived. To be honest, if I'd had my choice of sample, I wouldn't have picked FA6 Bard figure from the Fantasy Adventurers range (which is Jimmy) but would have picked a more exotic sounding model such as FA9 - the "Barbarian with Two Handed Sword" or FA14 "Elven Hero with Sword" but Jimmy is what I got and I've kept him ever since.

Compared with today's figures the detail, as you would expect, is pretty limited and my pretty basic paint job doesn't help but I'm too scared to try stripping the paint and re-painting him just in case I end up ruining the model given the age of the metal.

And given the trend for 25mm models to become 28mm and now heroic 32mm in size, Jimmy, unfortunately is just to small to be used with any of the models in production nowadays.

Even with the help of a plastic base, Jimmy is a Dwarf compared to Hector McHoosie

So although Jimmy won't be coming out to play with my other models he will stay on my display shelf as a nostalgic reminder of how it all began.

So Dear Reader, what was your first model? How did you come by it and do you still have it?



Mystery Norseman & Friends

Who is this masked man?

Do you know this man?

Has this man been seen in a model collection you are familiar with?

He is quite old (although he has all his hair - which he doesn't dye, honest)

The startled look of a man who doesn't remember where he came from

Please help them find their identities!

I have had these warriors in my collection for a long, long time, probably at least 25 years but possibly closer 30.

I bought them painted, at the Claymore show in Edinburgh in Nineteen Oatcake.

They have made a few Saga appearances, and my mate Alan, being even older in the tooth than I am, was asking who made them but I have no idea which manufacturer produced them. 

So my friends can you help?

A Feast For Crows

So far I have been playing Saga, by Gripping Beast, as a 2 player game with my mate Alan. However, the rulebook does provide a scenario for a 3 or 4 player encounter - "A Feast For Crows". So as Alan's son, Josef (he of Blood Bowl fame - see my post "As long as I don't roll a 1" ) was keen to have a go (he had played a few practise games with his dad) and as Ruarok said he was up for a game, we decided, a week past Friday, that we would give the scenario a go.

Already, those of you who know gaming progress, will have figured out that the fact it has taken me this long to post the After Action Report, that the following does not make happy reading.........

Most people would probably have had a read through the scenario requirements before setting up the table. I don't fall into the category "Most people" as I had set up my 8ft x4ft board and started to plonk terrain down before Alan pointed out that the scenario was supposed to be played on a 4ft x 4ft board. We decided we would just go with the big board, more room for tactical manoeuvring and, as I was playing with the Welsh warband again, I was the only one who had cavalry - the bigger board was just what I needed - Aye right.

So  the objective of the scenario was to kill as many of the opposing warbands' troops as you could, scoring victory points for each casualty you inflict so, for example, a Warlord would be worth 3 points, whereas 3 levy figures would be only worth 1 point. The warband with the most victory points at the end of 7 turns would be declared "Supreme Warlord of the Toughest Saga Warband in Arbroath" and would have bragging rights for 10 minutes at the end of the game.

As we were playing on a much longer table than the scenario envisaged we decided to place an objective in the centre of the table which would be worth 5 victory points for whichever warband held it at the end of the game.

The mystical totem which, it is claimed, would bestow on whoever claimed it much honour and glory on the battlefield.

Well as I was the only one with cavalry that was bound to be me, wasn't it?

We also decided that we would extend the game length to 9 turns just to give those on foot a remote chance of reaching the objective.

As I've said, I was playing the brave Taffs, the Welsh, Alan once more brought his pastry eating Anglo-Danish cross breeds and Ruarok and Josef each had Vikings. We were playing with 4 point warbands so in addition to the Warlord I had 2 units of mounted Teulu, 1 unit of Priodaur (warriors) and 1 unit of Bonnedig (levy).

So we each took a corner of the board and set up our warbands. There was no die rolling to see who took what corner, it was more a case that we just set up in the corner we just happened to be standing nearest. Such an unscientific method of determining set up clearly put me at a disadvantage.

The brave Boyos, with their agile mounted troops, faced by a wood, an area of rough ground and a steep hill and an area of flat ground about 4 inches wide through which to pass to the objective beyond.

Looking down the board from the opposite corner, the unwashed and ungodly heathens of Josef's Viking warband. The Taffs can be seen away in the distance - oh look, there is another wood at the bottom of the aforementioned steep hill.

A closer look at the steep hill and the second wood. Ploughed field and hedges just adding to the misery.

I quickly realised that I had got myself quite literally boxed in a corner. At my end of the table in the other corner were Alan's pastry munchers and Ruarok's Vikings were in the corner opposite from Josef. Hopefully, the Viking warbands would engage in a bit of Viking Civil War thus leaving me to deal a blow for freedom and valour against Harold Two-Bellies (yes he was back) and his pastries.

At the start of each turn, we would each roll a die for initiative and the highest roller would get the first move for that turn and then play would move round the table to the left. Unfortunately, Alan won the first initiative roll and started rumbling his troops forward to the same gap that I would need to pass through.

In Saga, terrain is classed as either open (no effect on movement), uneven ground ( all movement is reduced to slow "S", that is 4 inches) and impassable. We had no impassable terrain but all the uneven ground would make my mounted Teulu no better than foot sloggers. The Welsh do have a special ability on their Battle Board called "Children of the Land" which means that they can ignore the penalties for travelling through uneven ground, but it only applies to foot troops, so the mounted Teulu get no benefit from the ability. Still it helped my foot guys, so on my turn, I sent the Prioduar off towards the steep hill and ploughed field, the Bonnedig to the wood and rough ground on my right and the Teulu started to make their way towards "The Gap".

Actually, I only sent one unit of Teulu

Alan had double marched one of his Hearthguard units into "The Gap" so using the resulting fatigue marker to my advantage the Teulu charged home and killed 2 of the pastries for the loss of only 1 brave Taff.

The Bonnedig, with the help of their Warlord's "We Obey" ability approach the wood and rough ground area.

"Look Out Lads! Here comes Two-Bellies!!"

Already my dice rolling was starting to hamper me. In the first two turns I rolled 1 "Dragon" on my Saga dice. Two-Bellies then led his warriors into combat with my levy and as my warlord, Daffy Dil, was with the levy, Two-Bellies, sought him out and through some underhand trickery and the fact that I could not use a Levy to take a wound through the Warlord's "Resilience" ability (only Hearthguard and Warriors can be called on for that purpose to take one for the team), slew the hapless Daffy.

Two-Bellies gloating was short lived, however, as the Bonnedig, overcome with grief at the loss of brave Daffy, turned their grief to anger and returned to the melee and avenged their fallen leader by slaying his nemesis

The earth shook as Two-Bellies fell to the ground.

Of course, the fact that I omitted to take a picture of the fallen Welsh Warlord while the demise of Two-Bellies is published here for all to witness was purely an oversight on my part.





On the other side of the table, the Viking warbands of Josef and Ruarok stumbled forward.

Josef's unwashed horde passing gingerly between the two hills

Ruarok's Vikings, cast into shadow by the flock of carrion crows flying overhead, that follow their every movement

Back at the real battle, I withdrew my depleted Teulu unit and brought up the fresh one, ready to sweep all before them

I have to say this for Alan. He's never slow at coming forward. Despite facing the prospect of having his Hearthguard ridden down by the rampaging Teulu, he threw his warriors into the Bonnedig and the Hearthguard came to get the Teulu.

The Hearthguard with their rather unsporting two-handed axes earned themselves a complaint to the Welsh Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals by chopping off the legs of 2 of the Teulu mounts, although the complaint could not be proceeded with as the Hearthguard were then trodden into the soil by the hooves of the remaining beasts. The Warriors, however, dispatched the Bonnedig and then using another activation then charged into the 2 Teulu nearest the rough ground. One thing that I keep forgetting to do is to use fatigue to slow down an opponent. We tend to use fatigue only during combat but a fatigue token can be spent to reduce an enemy unit's movement down by one category. If I had remembered this then the warriors would have fallen short of the Teulu. As it was another brave Taff went down.

"Jonesy? Evans? Williams, J.P? Where did you go boyos? Oh heck!"

In the meantime, my warriors had at least got through the ploughed field and were nearing the Sacred Stone. On their flank, though was a bunch of sneaky Anglo-Danish Levy carrying some very, unsporting bows - I mean, what self respecting warrior would carry a weapon that can slay an opponent from twice the range as a noble javelin armed Welshman?

The bows twanged and again an abysmal set of armour saves (actually that's a breach of the Property Misdiscriptions Act as the damned Welsh armour didn't save anybody that night) saw 3 warriors fall. Faced with the choice of staying put and getting shot to bits, or going toe-toe with the pastries, the Taffs roared their famous battle cry "By the Power of Max Boyce's Sacred Jockstrap!" and charged and duly bounced off the Levy

Yes I know the Pastries are carrying Javelins but Alan didn't have enough bow armed figures for everybody so we agreed for the purposes of this game that his javelin armed peasants were actually carrying bows - No "WYSIWYG" in this game!

In a scene straight out of the climatic finale of "300", the Levy instead of charging back into the warriors cowardly stood back and fired their weapons. Their arrows blotted out the sun and the Taffs died under the hailstorm.

No more Taffs



On the other side of the table, the 2 Viking warbands were at long last getting to battle with each other. The respective warbands' Berserkers managed the impressive feat of mutually assured destruction by slaying each other to a man. Ruarok's Warlord then closed in on Josef's Warlord and his dog.

Ruarok was triumphant in that clash of Warlords, but in an uncannily similar fashion to what happened to Two-Bellies, Ruarok's Warlord then fell foul of Josef's Viking levy

I was now down to a total of 2 units, 4 figures in total and only 2 Saga dice to roll each turn.

I had forgotten what the Dragon symbol on the Welsh Saga dice looked like it was so long since I rolled one.

Alan's warriors came out of their skulking place in the forest and charged my lone Teulu.

With a predictable result.

Alan's Hearthguard then charged my remaining Teulu unit. Both scored 2 casualties. Unfortunately, that left me with  just 1 figure.

The lone Welshman charged



He (meaning me) rolled his combat dice

Honestly, I'm not making this up, that's what he rolled.

Alan's Hearthguard swung back in anger

Dead Taff

By now, Josef's warband had managed to reach the Sacred Stone

A furious melee with Alan's Levy then ensued

The Levy were then recoiled

Alan, then performed his "I'll shoot you and you can't hit back tactic". With 3 dice available to him he scored - 3 hits

The Levy then charged in finished off Josef's last warrior (no fatherly love being shown in this game!)

Ruarok, had 1 warrior unit in range of the Sacred Stone but Alan played his "Intimidation" ability and cancelled that unit's activation meaning Ruarok could not reach the stone to contest it before the end of the game.

The Welsh Warband now forming part of Alan's victory point pile.

So the game ended. Alan was a runaway winner, with Josef in second place, followed by Ruarok and me in a distant fourth place. "Fourth" sounds so much better than "last" don't you think?

Ruarok enjoyed his first game of Saga and is keen to play again. Josef showed that he had learnt plenty from his practise games to show that he knew how to handle a warband and Alan enjoyed his 10 minutes of bragging rights.

Me? I'm playing Malifaux on Monday. Now that's a game that doesn't use DICE!!