Saga AAR: Sacred Ground

Played a quick game of Saga at the club yesterday to refresh my memory of the rules and also to try the Norse Gaels out for the first time. We have a Saga tournament/game day coming up on Sunday, and as I don't have a beard I need to try find some other edge in the game.

My forces were:
Warlord - Dane Axe
8 Hearthguard - Dane Axes
2x6 Warriors - Dane Axes
4 Warriors - Dane Axes
8 Gall Gaedhill.

My opponent played Vikings with roughly the following composition
Warlord
4 Berserkers
12 Hearthguard
4x4 Warriors.

We decided to play Sacred Ground as it's one of the scenarios in use on Sunday and it's nice and simple. As I had fever units I was finished with deployment first and got to start the game.

The situation after deployment. Vikings deployed in a line while the Norse Gaels are more spread out to grab the objectives (hill, rocks and large forest). Gall Gaedhill are taking advantage of their free move after deployment.

 The smallest group of Warriors seize the forest for Norse Gaels while Gall Gaedhill take the hill. Vikings counter-attack with the 12 man hearthguard unit, which loses 6 men against the Gall Gaedhill, while they lose 5 winning the clash.

Norse Gael Hearthguard move in to finish the warriors finishing them off. In turn they are counter-attacked by Viking Berserkers with both groups perishing in the ensuing melee.

The small group of warriors still bravely hanging back in the forest.

 Viking Warriors kill the last of Gall Gaedhill and things start to look a bit sketchy for the Norse-Gaels

The two 6-man Warrior groups move in to help their Warlord with the closest one attacking two of the 4-man Viking groups, wiping one out and killing 3 out of 4 of the other. In turn they lose 4 men and are left in a difficult position.

 With their Warlord left alone the Warrior group rushes in, but they are too late as the Warlord succumbs to attacks. He does manage to take out all the remaining Viking Warriors in one final attempt at glory.

The Warriors arrive just in time to see their Warlord fall and quickly avenge him by killing the lone Viking Warlord.

Meanwhile the brave warriors in the woods have moved up to the edge to cheer at their comrades.

The game ended quite fast with all the Vikings and all but 8 Norse Gael Warriors wiped out at the beginning of turn 5. Points wise the game ended 35 - 14 for the Norse Gaels so a clear win. Wielding the hearthguard in a unit of 8 did give me an extremely strong unit, but did leave me sorely needing more Saga dice immediately when they went down. Might give them a try as two 4 man units or then ditch the Gall Gaedhill and get more warriors or hearthguard instead. That way I would have a bit more of a buffer of units before losing them starts to hurt.