Devizes Attack! Saga

I played in the Saga Ironman tournament at Devizes Attack! It was fun, but hard on the old brain cells. I spent the week checking out all the warbands I've never fielded in Age of Vikings not realising that all three historical Saga books were involved. As it happened, I ended up playing 2 from Age of Crusades, and 1 from Aetius and Arthur.

The first game was against young Kostia. He had Mongols, with a War Drum, and I had Ordensstaat with Brothers of the Sword, two armies I've not played before. I couldn't really figure out what to do on my board, and apart from running the Brothers across the field until they were dead, I didn't really get much of a plan together. I mostly seemed to get use out of Tyrants and Sword Brothers, but I didn't use any of the sacrifice options. In the end I got a narrow victory.

The second game, I played Moors with Yusuf ibn Tashfin and some camels against Graeme's Spanish with El Cid. I've played a game of Moors against Spanish before, I think, but didn't really remember much about it. I got a lot of mileage out of Discord, Torrent of Iron and Inspiration, and kept rolling bunches of rares to power it. My hearthguard ripped through the enemy, and this one ended in a bit of a massacre. I think I will make up my own warband and play Moors some more.

I've been looking for a copy of Aetius and Arthur for a while now and haven't managed to find one. This final game was from that book, and I played Romans against Martin's Goths, two more armies I've never played, or even seen, before. Romans use the Impetus mechanic which I felt I used well enough, ending the game with 0, which felt like I'd timed things ok. On this board I used Ardor and Scuta the most; the mindless melee buffs are the easiest ones to get your head round. And I got another narrow victory.

So that was fun. It was actually quite hard work analysing so many new boards while your opponent is waiting for you to play your dice. Loads of excellent warbands, all the paperwork you need, and all the fiddly bits supplied, all for 12 quid. I'd recommend it.