Start the year as you mean to go on....... Caving in the skulls of Anglo Danes!

It's the new year and my SAGA continues.

5 points of absolute carnage against Al and his Anglo Danes.

We both decide to take a unit of levy missle troops to check out the rules and I think Al is hoping to decimate my Berserkers (with their low armour) with missile fire before they get stuck into his Warlord again.

I decide to be a bit more clever with my battle plan and decide to charge my Berserkers through the cover on my left flank with a unit of Warriors as a meat shield.

As this is happening I hope to mesmerise Al with my Warlord charging up the middle and hope he will attract the majority of the incoming missile fire.

I get the initiative and charge everything forward making the most of any available cover. As is the plan I put Olaf as far forward as possible to save the berserkers from unwanted attention.

True to form, Al plays a pretty static game in the opening turns. I fell for this playing against him at Warmachine. I figure he will sit back and leave me to get too aggressive and over stretch my forces leaving a unit exposed and open to the counter attack.

Al camps his slingers on the hill. I feel this gives him too good a view of the Battle field and decide to dislodge them with Olaf and his body guard.

Olaf rips any Levy he can get to grips with to pieces, but enough of the peasants manage to stay out of harms way and bolt down the hill, to continue to be a threat.

This does leave me open to the counter attack from Al's Hirdguard but I survive the encounter and fall back to regroup.

Al seems to be much more wary of my missle troops then I am of his and continues to camp troops in the wood for extra protection.

I am happy to let this happen as it means I can overwhelm his right flank while they hide in the woods and even make a run on his Warlord.

The picture below gives you an idea of how commanding my archers field of fire is!

As my forces are corralling the Anglo Danes into the corner of the Battle field Al either decides that its time to strike or he is losing any tactical initiative and his warriors make an attempt to break out of the woods. Straight into a volley of arrows from my Levy.

Al has been playing "intimidation" on my second unit of Warriors all game but I finally get to unleash them and they bound across the field desperate to lay into the Danes and show off their new paint job.

I go all out on the battle abilities to fully top up on attack die. This results in absolute carnage but one bloody Dane escapes! This means Al continues to get the SAGA die and I fail to exhaust the Levy with the fatigue the massacre would have produced.

Al continues to play on his back foot and I decide now's the time to unleash the Berserkers. They cut down 6 of Al's boby guard but are massacred in the retaliation.

With his warband rapidly disappearing Al decides to play his killing blow and charges in with his Warlord and remaining retainer.

My exhausted Hirdguard are sacrificed to preserve Olaf and Al is forced to retreat towards his last remaining warrior.

Its time to go all in with my remaining warriors and go all out with battle board boosts.

Will it be enough?

Als Warlord makes an heroic last stand worthy of a song and cuts down the attacking warriors....... but my boys manage to cause enough wounds before their demise to kill the Dane Warlord!

HOW BLOODY CLOSE WAS THAT!!!!!!!!!

LESSONS LEARNT

1) Its funny but the game felt a lot more one sided during the playing then it did looking back over the photos. I really felt I was in complete control throughout the battle. It is only analysing the photos now I realise how few warriors I had left at the end! That overconfidence could have proved costly if my last roll of the die had gone badly.

2) I need to reconsider playing Valhalla as often as I did. I am pretty sure I killed off more warriors using this ability then I lost in combet with Als forces. This made the game a LOT closer then it needed to be!

3) Levy have their role but do they suit my style of play?