“The great Gaels of Ireland are the men that God made mad, For all their wars are merry, and all their songs are sad.”

Last Thursday saw another knife edged battle between Macca's Irish and my Normans, lead by the Bastard.

Macca win initiative and has me set up first. I decide to use the open ground up my left flank to sweep round the Irish while my Warlord and infantry hold the centre with their crossbows.

Macca being a sod decides to set up in the opposite corner!

Knowing Macca is more of a counter puncher, I decide to be super aggressive. My Knights double move and sweep round to threaten the Irish right. I also decide to risk the magic potato throwing leprechauns and move my infantry through the centre.

One reason is to bottle the Irish in the corner, another is to see if I can tempt Macca to alpha strike them if I leave them exposed enough.

Macca's turn. No surprises he unleashes the magic potatos and 2 normans fall to the King Edwards. I get my own back by dropping two Irish warriors with cross bow bolts. The rest of his forces shuffle away from my hard riding knights.

With more losses to the crossbows due to potatos Macca pitches in with his Dags to finish them off. I am lucky with my rolls and drop two dogs before my surviving infantry are forced to fall back.

I decide the infantry have done their job of stopping Macca escaping through the centre as well as drawing out an Irish unit, so I decide to pull them further back to preserve the SAGA die and stop the bloody magic potato attacks!

My Knights charge in and set upon the dags.

The dogs are massacred by the counter charge. Macca is a conservative player at the best of times and I hope this destruction will make him even more cautious and pass me the initiative.

Despite constantly muttering to himself "I must be more aggressive" Macca continues to play reactively. 

My second unit of Knights mob one of his units of Hearthguard. My losses are much heavier then expected.

My other unit of Knights pitch in on the surviving unit of Heartguard. I mob the two most exposed as I just want to beat them off. My 16 attack Vs Macca's 4 allow this to happen.

My Knights then activate again and attempt to ride down the Irish Warlord!

The luck of the Irish means Macca make enough saving throws to survive the combat!

Macca actives his Warriors to bring them off the hill and then uses 'side by side' to pitch his warlord and warriors into my Knights. I decide to concentrate my attacks against the warriors. Again the luck of the Irish means only one warrior falls while my Knights are massacred!

This has probably cost me the game as I only have 3 knights left and my remaining forces are too far away to be effective.

Macca moves his Warlord forward but when he attempts to follow up with his warriors I play his fatigue to shorten their movement.

This gives me one last throw of the die and I pitch in with my Knights. Macca makes all his saving throws and then hacks my forces to pieces!

With only my Warlord and 3 infantry left I decide to declare the game rather then attempt to chase Macca round the board while exposing myself to magic potatos!

A well deserved victory to Macca.

With Macca talking about adding some missle troops to his forces and me looking to use 'the Bastard' as a Hero of the viking age and needing an excuse to paint up my proper crossbows, it looks like our next meet will be six points of carnage.