Historicon Day 1

The first day of Historicon consisted mainly of the Saga tournament.  This was my first tournament experience and it was a blast - I had a respectable 1-1-1 showing and I really enjoyed it.

This was a six point, no heroes tournament and I fielded a Norman force made up of 3 Mounted Hearthguard, 1 Foot Warrior, 1 Warrior with Crossbows and 1 Levy Bowman.  There were a lot of Normans and Welsh war bands at the tournament.

As usual I didn't take many pictures except the a handful of my first game, which I lost to Tom 14-13.  Tom fielded Welsh who have a deceptively weak look about them but have lots a javelins.  Javelins equals dead Normans!

Tom was a great guy to play against and made a great recovery after I got lucky and wiped out his mounted unit.  Those Javelins are mighty painful when used properly.  Give the win to Tom at 14-13, close but no Cigar.

My second game was against a gentlemen named Walt who fielded Vikings.  I adjusted my force to field the 12 mounted Hearthguard into 1, 8 man and 1, 4 man unit.  I found that the combined might of the 8 figure Hearthguard more than compensated for lost SAGA dice.  Given my mobility advantage, Walt took a defensive strategy.  I did foolishly charge some Warriors in Heavy cover and that didn't work out so well but in the end managed to eek out a 9-7 win.  It was a great game and Walt lives near my in Maryland, so hopefully future games await us.

The last game was "The Escort" scenario and I played against Bill and his wonderfully painted Normans.  Out game was a Norman civil war.  I decided to play the game very aggresively and charged his crossbowmen on the first turn and managed to wiped them out.  Bill responded with equal vigor and charged his warlord and a 6 man hearth guard unit into my center and quickly killed two of the three baggage units I had, which meant I could only play for a tie.  On the next turn my warlord and the 8 man hearth guard unit charged into the center and took out Bill's warlord and 6 mounted knights.   Loosing a Warlord is a killer because you loose both his special abilities and two Saga Dice.  Over the next few turns, I used my numerical superiority in both troops and SAGA dice to greatly reduce the rest of Bill's forces and eek out a tie by exiting the baggage cart.  I was extremely lucky to get the tie but this was a very fun game.

All three of the guys I played were class acts and very helpful for a new SAGA and new tournament player.  I'll be running some demo SAGA games Saturday night at the con so hopefully I'll get a bit more experience.