Limes Game 3

 

Myself and Robbie had our third game in the Saga Limes campaign a couple of weeks ago and unlike history the Saxons were driven back by the Britons.

Some Photos

The Saxon Line

I will not bother with a report as I think the game was over pretty quickly and my Morale fell to zero giving the Britons a victory in the campaign.

I am trying not to be negative, especially where I lost, but this is a campaign that I cannot recommend. Even on the Saga Discord where there are thousands of members, hardly any one had played it. I remember when it first came out it got bad reviews. It is structurally a mess, although the individual ideas are quite cool. I doubt if it was ever play tested. You play the same scenario every game which is sort of boring and although it is suggested that the attackers have an advantage as the campaign progresses it is the reverse. The defending player can essentially restore almost every killed figure as the campaign progresses. Thus, the attacker gets no benefit from killing figures and his only chance of victory in a game is if he can get units off the table. 

Limes Game 2

Myself and Robbie had our second game in our Limes campaign a couple of weeks ago, it was quite a different game as you will see as the Romans have built up their defences.

The Saxon force was lead by a Warlord with 2 Missile Levy units, 2 Warriors units and 2 Heartguard Units.

The Romans as below with a Warlord and 2 Companions 

Reports

Limes Summing Up Raid 2

Saxons

4 Victory points

Resolve drops to 6

Romans

13 Victory Points

Morale stays at 8

4 Hearthguard and 2 Warriors lost.

This was tough game for the Saxons and they will have to be a little more cunning in our next game!

Game Photos

Initial Set up

The Romans have a new Armoury

The Roman cavalry are a challenge but we were able kill quite a few of them.

Quite a few melees in the game

I misinterpreted one of the advanced BB abilities thinking I could get off the board in a single move, in the raid scenario the Saxons score points by getting off the opposite edge.

I only was able to save my Warlord and a Hearthguard by hiding in the woods.

Ending up being a very solid Roman Victory. I have to remember that the Saxons do not get any points for killing Romans! 

Limes

A little more than a week ago Robbie and myself got together for the start of a Dark Ages Saga campaign. I had played one previous Dark Ages campaign under the persona of Iohannes using the Dux Britanniarum campaign system, it was pretty complex but a lot of fun so when I saw that Robbie was looking for partner, I happily agreed.

Briefly, the campaign is a 6 turn event where the Romans try to withstand a number of raids by the barbarians. We set our series of games in Southeast Briton 40 years after the Romans have abandoned the island for good. Robbie wanted to play the Romanised Britons while I took on the Saxons. We started our campaign just as Vortigern's son Vortimer has betrayed the Saxons under the brothers Hengist and Horsa. 

We have gone with the process as laid out in Limes as well as using the Saga Age of Invasions sourcebook and Battle Boards. We were not sure if you could use Heroes or not but to add to the fun and the narrative we decided to add the ability recruit Heroes as laid out in AoI. Each turn in the campaign takes place in the spring of the year with both sides able to recruit troops over the next winter. The Saxons have a new warband each game while the Romans recruit their warband in the first turn, this initial warband remains in place and can suffer attrition but also can recruit new troops over the winter as well as build up their defences. The recruitment process is calculated by using Time Units (TU), the Saxons start by constructing their warband where every unit costs so many TU according to their composition. The more the TU's spent allows the Romans to increase their recruitment efforts. It is a novel process that I found quite attractive. To add in Heroes, we settled on a cost of 4 TU. Once recruited (and this can happen in any turn) that Hero stays as the warlord with all his associated attributes. Once the Romans have paid they have no further costs but the Saxons have pay for a Warlord (1 TU) each turn. We are hoping this does not unbalance the campaign but we will have to see. The Saxon player introduces a Stratagem  before each game.Additionally the Saxon warlord makes a Boast just before the game begins. Victory is declared when the Saxon's Resolve drops to zero

As you can see I used 6 TU in the first turn

The Saxon force was lead by a Warlord with 2 Missile Levy units as well as 4 Warriors units.

The Roman force was mostly mounted with 2 units of Mounted Hearthguard, 2 units of Foot Hearthguard, 2 units of Warriors and a Warlord with 2 Companions.

Reports

Limes Summing Up Raid 1

Saxons

20 Victory Points

Resolve stays at 10

Romans

15 Victory Points

2 Warriors Killed

Morale -2, now 8

I had a lot of fun and a few photos

Bardic Poem by Keredig