Games This Week

I was lucky to have two really fun learning games this past week.

First off, Elliot and I had a Warmachine game over at the Edmonton Wargame Group club last Tuesday night. Neither of us had played for about two months, so it was great to shake the cobwebs out, and I got to try some of my new Menoth units.

Map setup.

Part of my starting lineup...I sent these cavalry around for a left hook, while my Daughters of the Flame did the right hook.

I was able to quickly envelop Elliot's Khador brick.

But as it turned out, I just fed units into Elliot's death grinder all evening long.

A terrible loss, but I learned a lot about playing the new Exemplar Errants unit I've recently finished up.

Then, on Saturday afternoon, Dave Coltman came over for a game of SAGA. This is the new Dark Ages skirmish rule set out from Gripping Beast in the UK.

Holy crap, is it good. The rules look nice too.

We played a scenario from the book. I took Viking attackers (6-point army), while Dave played the Anglo-Dane defenders (5-point army). This was the initial terrain set up...with my longship just beaching at the base of the village.

The Vikings debark!

On my left flank, I'm threatening one of the victory buildings with some Thrall bow fire.

My Bondi spearmen break through the market to get at Dave's Huscarls.

I cleared out the first two victory buildings pretty fast, then closed in and encircled the last one. By the end of the game, I tabled Dave's army, except for his Warlord. And honestly...that was a lot of fun.

SAGA just came out this week, and it is an innovative and very fun system that relies on the players planning out their turns based on the rolls of special "saga" dice which are then applied to army-centric battle boards. Essentially, the planning and application of these dice dictate what you can do in a given turn. You can also save dice on your battle board to counter your opponent's actions in his upcoming turn...so foresight is rewarded.

I haven't been this jazzed about a new game since Disposable Heroes came out from Iron Ivan Games six or so years ago. Can't wait to play again...I think this system will see a lot of play out at the Tuesday night club.

'Til next time.