Lasalle "Pachanga" Tournament Alicante 2013

On Saturday the 13th April, we arranged a Pachanga Tournament of Lasalle , on the day there was ten players, five played on the French side and five on the Coalition side. We played two games with each army playing with two supports. There was no prizes for coming first etc, as this was more of a team event (although everybody was playing separately). After everbody met at the club, we went for a quick coffee to wake us up because of the early start. We diced off to see who played who and on which preset terrain table we used the Sum 20 scoring system to work out the points.

First Round

Miguel's French Infantry Division with Veteran Infantry and Light Cavalry Brigades defend against Salva's Russian Grenadiers with Grenadier Infantry and Light Cavalry Brigades.



                     Miguel's French await the Russian onslaught.





                                       Miguel's French counter attack



 Salva's Russians break on turn eleven, Salva throws 5 dice needing 12 or more and surprisingly fails, meaning game over and the first victory to the French. Things don't start well for the Coalition with 16 points to the French and 4 points to the Coalition.

Javier's Spanish Army of Infantry Division plus Veteran Infantry  and Cavalry Brigades support. Was defending against Toni's Conquest Infantry Division plus Veteran Infantry and Light Cavalry Brigades support. 





                The formidible defence of streams and trenches await the French attackers.







                                        The French begin to test the Spanish defences, whilst on the Spanish right flank,
                                                         the Spanish cavalry begin a flanking move.



     The French breached the Spanish lines but the Spanish managed to hold on for a draw. The French gain 7 points and the Spanish 13 points. This means now that the French are on 23 points and the coalition are on 17 points


     My British Light Division with Brunswick and Light Cavalry Brigade defend against Jose's French Guard Infantry division with Neapolitan Cavalry and Imperial Guard Cavalry Brigade.

The Old Guard begin to advance whilst the
British wait behind the hill 

My troops beat back the first attack on the ridge and
then retreat behind to recuperate.

My Scottish Elite Unit are first to go when they are attacked
simultaneosly by cavalry and infantry.

One of my British regiments who had charged over the ridge, are cut off
and have to form square due to been surrounded
 by French cavalry.

Some notable things that happened during the game, my Brunswick artillery were charged by the Neapolitan cavalry on my right flank but managed to survive. The cavalry tried for a second time and my Brunswickers stood their ground once again, not only surviving the close combat but also destroying the cavalry. Jose's Guard Cavalry's Commander had minus one on his vigor, this was lucky for me because three times Jose rolled the normal amount required  to bring on his reserves  but because of the Generals negative modifier they didn't come on until towards the end of the game and only started to get involved when the game had nearly finished.
This was a tough game against Jose's French Guard, My army was broken so with Jose not wanting to have any more of his units destroyed began to pull back. Obviously I had nothing to lose and started to be more aggressive (Zombie Army Syndrome) I was able to hold on for a couple of morale rolls and the game ended on turn eighteen when we both rolled a three.
  The game ended in a draw, but because the French were Guard they needed a Decisive Victory otherwise any other result is classed as a loss. Therefore both sides are level on 30 points each.



    Francois' French Peninsular Infantry Division with Light Cavalry and Dragoon Brigades defending against Dani's Prussian Liberation Infantry Division with Cavalry Abteilung and Infantry Abteilung brigades.

The French again wait this time its the Prussian
hordes that are advancing.

The forces meet each other in the middle of the table,
the French are overpowered and are broken

The game finished with the Prussians winning and the Coalition go into the lead with 44 points and the French on 36 points

Kevin's Austrian Grenadier Division with Cavalry and Cuirassier Brigade defending against Kiefer's French Infantry Division with Elite and Light Cavalry Brigade 

The French trying a new tactic by advancing in
 line to attack the Austrian lines

The French Lines finally reach the
 Austrian front line

On the Austrian left flank their Cavalry Brigade
 halts the advancing French Infantry

The game ended in a draw with 8 points to the French and 12 points to the Austrians.

After the first round the Coalition are in the lead with 56 points and the French are on 44 points.

After a good meal at a local Tapas bar served by Juanra from the Spanish program "Sabe, no lo Sabe" we went back to the club for the second round.

                                  I was paired up with Kiefer for my second game.

I chose to be the defender and my Scots secured
the right flank near my objective. 

Kiefer's Cavalry were positioned on his right and this time
 his infantry were formed into attack columns

The British and their Brunswick and Portugese Allies rise over
the ridge to shoot into the mass ranks of the French.

The Allied line retreats back behind the ridge to get a
second chance of a volley into the French ranks.

This became a seesaw battle with first the allied line charging, then the French retreating only to counter charge for the Allied line to retreat and once again counter charge. It was only when I managed to break the French army morale, that Kiefer began to play more aggressive trying to destroy enough of my units for me to reach army breakpoint. This was unlikely but time was ticking away and the game looked like it may end in a draw, luckily with about 10 minutes to spare, Kiefer failed his Army Break Roll and with having more Light Cavalry on the table I won a decisive victory.
 I gained 18 points and Kiefer only 2 points. The Coalition were now on 74 point and the French on 46 points

                                           Miguel's French played against Dani's Prussians   

Once again Miguel is the defender, Dani quickly
advances his troops in march column.

With Miguels artillery covering his artillery both of his flanks
counterattacked and broke the Prussian Army

Miguel had won his second battle, beating the large Prussian army which is no mean feat in itself. He also gained enough points to have won the tournament as a individual player. What also makes this notable is this is the first time he has played with a borrowed French army as his normal army is Austrian. The French managed to close the gap with the Coalition on 78 points and the French on 62 points

                                                 Kevin's Austrians played against Toni's French

The French advanced towards the
defending Austrians.

Before  the French attack the Austrian front line, the Austrian Cuirassiers
 break through the French lines threatening the French artillery.

The French cavalry break onto the Austrian objective,
 defended by two Austrian squares.

The game ended with the French winning the gap lessened now to  8 points with the Coalition being on 84 points and the French on 76 points.

                                     Jose's French played against Javi's Spanish

This time Javi defended the long
side of the table

There was some tough street fightingon
the Spanish right flank.

In the end it was victory for the French but with Jose's French being Guard Infantry he only gained 11 points and the Spanish 9 points. Therefore the gap was shortened to 6 points with the Coalition being on 93 points and the French on 87 points.

                                    The last game was Salva's Russian against Francois' French.

The Russians defending against
the advancing French.

The French attack the Russian left flank, whilst half
their army wait in cover behind the hill.

  I was very impressed by Francois use of smoke for disruption markers its cheap and effective and away of bringing the effect of smoke on the battlefield in a purposefull manner. The game ended in a draw so the Coalition side won the tournament by 105 points and the French finished on 95 points.

Conclusions

This was a little rehearsal for our actual Lasalle tournament in October, as always it was very enjoyable. However as I have mentioned in my own battle reports and it has been brought up before on the official lasalle forum. The end game needs slightly changing as we get the silly situation where the victorious force begins to pull back as not to risk anymore of his units being destroyed., and the broken army, instead of as in reality begin to pull back and retreat, it starts to attack with all its units trying to destroy enough units on the other side. Also a there is no penalty in losing more units because it is already broken so there is no incentive to discourage this tactic.
    On the Lasalle forum there has been a solution put forward that I favor which is if a broken army loses any more units after they have reached  their army breakpoint then these points are added on to the amount needed by the Army morale Check. So for example if the Army has broken and the player loses another infantry unit (2 points) this is added  to the game turn number  (13) making the the number greater than15 instead of 13 the player is required to throw, to pass the test.
    I like the idea of the team game, and after a little thought I feel we could make it into a viable quick campaign system that would last just a day, with players picking armies from one particular theatre of war and year. I will keep you posted.

Phil

Saga Tournament Alicante March 23 2013

A few of the members of the club have started to play Saga in the last few months, so we organised our first Saga Tournament. I had picked the Norman Army as my first army because I could also use some of them for a Robin Hood game I had simmering on the back boiler for about 5 years. I had played three games of Saga at the club before Christmas, but due to playing in a Lasalle tournament  and organising the two wargaming projects in my school, I havn't had time to play or even look at the rules for a couple of months.

The last two weeks have been frantic painting the figures and actually I quite enjoyed painting 28mm rather than the usual 15mm figures I use far better on my failing eyesight.

The tournament involved armies made of 6 points and being a fan of the longbow, I gambled on using 2 Levie units of bow. This meant I only started with 5 Saga Dice instead of the usual 6. My Army consisted of

1 Warlord

1 unit of Knights (Heathguards) 4 figs

1 unit of Knights (HearthGuards) 8figs

1 unit of crossbows (Warriors) 8 figs

2 units of bows (Levies) 12figs each

On the day six players turned up from a possible ten players who initially showed an interest. The Six were;

Myself with a Norman Army

Dani with an Anglo-Danes Army

Adrian with a Viking Army

Pepe with a Viking Army

Juan Marcos with a Jomsviking Army

Kevin with an Anglo-Saxon Army

We were playing three games out of the Saga rule book , first game was the Clash of the Warlords.

Initial Deployment, The Anglo-Danes are a bit closer than I had anticipated.

We diced to see

 who was playing who and my first game was against Kevin and his Anglo-Saxons.  We had all decided beforehand that we would play with an open list during the tournament, so Kevin decided to play with all mounted Hearthguards in three different sized units. The first odd result of the day happened now because due to deployment, the Anglo-Saxon Warlord was placed on the his own side of the table but the rest of his army was deployed on my side of the table. Due to the Anglo-Saxons being possibly placed anywhere on my flank or rear, I was forced to deploy in the corner.

View from the Anglo-Saxon side facing my archers. 

I had the first go, so my Warlord and his unit of Knights charged after the lonely Anglo-Saxons Warlord before he could be reinforced. My archers and crossbows fired and brought a rain of death on the Anglo-Saxons killing four figures in one unit and two figures in the other.

Anglo-Saxons are forced to repulse against my brave archers.

Now it was Kevins turn, his right hand unit slammed into my archers, killing four of my bowmen. However my crossbow unit who must have been caught trying to slowly reload their crossbows because they were totally wiped out .  His warlord retreated away from my advancing warlord towards his other unit hurrying to reinforce him.

Starting to look a little better  with the frontal threat now down to 4 figures

 Due to my crossbow unit being wiped out on my second turn, I only had 4 Saga dice. I fired my archers and then charged (using the gallop ability) at the Anglo-Saxon unit threatening my archers. I lost two knights but once again forced them back with them also losing two figures. I now gambled by sending my Knights back who were accompanying my warlord to attack the other mounted hearthguards that had just made mincemeat out of my crossbows. They were successful and wiped out the Anglo-Saxons, however now my Warlord was all alone.

Now he's got some of his buddies the Anglo-Saxons Warlord is feeling braver.

Now it was Kevin's turn, from around the edge of the wood the Anglo-Saxon Warlord and the hearthguard unit came thundering into clash with my Warlord. I luckily managed to survive the combat managing to throw a 5 or 6 in a saving throw. 

  Having survived the close combat my Warlord was reinforced by his 2 remaining knights again. My other unit of knights that are screening my archers also move towards my stranded warlord to lend a hand. My Archers now having a clear target once again shoot and kill another two hearthguards. In the close combat that follows I kill both of his hearthguards and in turn he kills both of my Knights, My Warlord also survives on a saving throw once again.

The Anglo-Saxons Warlord final stand

Kevins warlord has no chance against my warlord and all my remaning Knights and is killed, My archers fire again and kill his remaning hearthguard. I have won my first game and have wiped out the whole of the Anglo-Saxon Army (25 points) although it could have easily ended in defeat if I had failed in the two saving throws and my Warlord had died.

The other first round the results were

Juan Marcos' Jomsviking win against Adrian´s Vikings

Dani's Anglo-Danes win against Pepe´s Vikings

My Knights hiding behind the building whilst my archers are ready to let loose their bows.

My second game was against Pepe and his Vikings, this scenario was "The Escort". A dice off resulted in the Vikings having the job of escorting the "baggage" across the table. Pepe lost the roll and so had to deploy first, therefore it was easy for me to block his path for his baggage. All I had to do was to stay in place and let him come to me.

Once again my archers were quite deadly  and caused quite a few casaulties in the advancing Viking ranks. My cavalry charged forward fron their hiding place behind the house and wiped out the warrior unit on his left flank.

It was now Pepe's turn, he attacked my cavalry with his Hearthguard unit and managed to cause a few casaulties an also push them back. From the other side of the house four Berserkers came rushing out and once again my crossbowmen were slaughtered. I realised I had been too confident and it wasn't going to be as easy as I thought the turn before.

On the start of the second turn my archers fired at the Berserkers and then my Warlord and his knights charged what was left of the Berserkers. I wiped them out but it was messy and I picked up a few fatigue points. There was one Hearthguard Viking figure left on my right flank so I decided to move forward to clear him out of the way to cut down the number of Saga dice Pepe could use.

It was the Vikings turn and his Levies archers rushed around the side of the house to finally shoot their bows, My warlord had now lost his bodyguards. The Viking Warlord who had been hiding behind the house now saw his chance and rushed out to attack my Warlord. Both Warlords died in the ensuing close combat, also my last remaining Knights unit with its 3 fatigue counters was lost as well. 

This meant both of my archer units were stuck as they cant generate any saga dice, however Pepe ran out of time trying to bring over his baggage train, only managing to take one over my table edge, the other not wanting to go around my archers tried to force their way through by attacking my archers (we couldn't find a rule that said baggage could not atack) but failed in the attempt.

Therefore it was classed as a draw so now I was on 4 points.

The other second game results were

Kevin´s Anglo-Saxons win against Adrian´s Vikings

Dani's Anglo-Danes drew against Juan Marcos' Jomsviking

So after 2 games there was three of us on 4 points and in contention for first place

After a nice meal in a Tapas bar near to the club, we arrived back to play the final game. I was paired up against Juan Marcos and his Jomsvikings. I made some changes to my army for this game. I put all my Knights in one unit and exchanged one unit of archers for a unit of warriors. This was so I could still start with 5 dice.

I ended my deployment first and so was able to throw my saga dice first. I did well and threw a flag dice a couple of more times to get a total of seven Saga dice. However I totally made a mess of it by giving away to many dice in activating my archers and crossbow men. They both fired twice but against a Warlord they need a six to hit. The few hits I managed to get on him, he easily rolled saving throws and so my archer and crossbow units were heavily fatigued without any reward.

My unit of Knights then charged and with 24 dice did a bit of damage, (I needed to get 12 hits to kill his Warlord) . I then used my Warlord and we obey rule to attack him again. My warlord threw 5 dice and didnt cause a single hit, my knight fared a little better and at the end of the melee his Warlord had 10 hits on him.

It was now Juan Marco´s  turn and his Jomsviking charged to rescue their leader. His Berserkers caused great casualties on my Knights and his Warrior unit caused 3 wounds on my Warlord. His Warlord was now out of harms way and I knew it would be dificult to reach him again. We then checked the victory condition to see what had happened if neither Warlord is killed. We both read the instructions wrong and thought that the Warlord with the least wounds wins.

            Knowing that with less wounds I was still in a good position to win, I moved my warlord quickly out of harms way, using my Knights as a rearguard.

         The Jomsvikings now advanced wiping out my Knights, I moved up my Warriors with spears to face the on rushing Jomsviking warriors who were attempting to reach my Warlord.

The spearmen did their job and held up the vikings with large casualties on both sides 

  

                      My Warlord was now safe hiding behind the woods in the corner of the table. It was now we found out from the other players that we had read the rules wrong and it was the Warlord who had suffered the most wounds and survived, was the actual winner. We had played it totally wrong and obviously I wouldn´t have been such a coward with my Warlord, but now it was too late to correct our mistake.

After finishing off my spearmen, his remaining warriors attacked my warlord but were too weak to make alot of difference. The game finished on turn 6

The other games finished

Kevin´s Anglo Saxons win against Dani´s Anglo-Danes

Pepe´s Vikings win against Adrian´s Vikings

Therefore the table finished as follows

	Points
Phil	7	65
Kevin	6	41
JM	4	67
Pepe	4	54
Dani	4	38
Adrian	0	62

Myself receiving first prize with my Normans

Second was Kevin with his Anglo-Saxons

Third was Juan Marcos with his Jomsviking

                                        A group photo of all the participants at the end of the day.

Conclusions:

This was a very enjoyable tournament, Saga is a great set of rules because they are relatively simple but hard to master (It was mostly luck not skill, that I won.) The games are relatively short and a lot can happen in one turn. You don´t need a large number of figures to play and there are plenty of different factions to choose from.
     For the next tournament I feel we are going to have to change the scenarios because some did not give a balanced play. Maybe we should use the Lasalle setup as an example.

Decide who wants to be attacker or defender.
Attacker has 6 points of troops and Defender has 5 points of troops.
 Defender chooses wether to choose which side of the table he wants and deploys first or lets attacker choose and deploy first.
Attacker places an objective in the deployment zone. Defender may move the objective slightly.
Units are placed on the table
If the attacker captures the objective or destroys the defenders army its a win for the attacker.
If the defender´s objective is not captured after turn 6 then it is a draw.
If the defender destroys the attacker´s army then it is a win for the defender.

   The Normans on the face of it seem to be a weak army because normal warrior infantry do not get any bonus and also the abilities seem quite expensive without much gain. However playing to their strengths archery and mounted cavalry, can win battles.

Thanks to everyone for taking part and hopefully we shall have more players in the next tournament.