High Country Holmgang 2022
The High Country Holmgang was held May 7th near Boone NC. This Saga tournament was organized by Nicholas Mahalas. Due to bad weather and a scheduling conflict with App State graduation, a few participants were not able to make the tournament.
My son and I attended. He played the Welsh and I was playing the Spanish. Warbands were fixed and allowed for one merc unit. I fielded 12 crossbow levy, 10 foot warriors with warbanner, 2 units of 4 jinete, a unit of 5 jinete, a unit of 9 jinete and a warlord with lifeguards.
In the end, the Spanish won all three games and I was the winner of the tournament. My son was second, getting more slaughter points with his pony army. The competition was fairly high with some talented players. Nick did a great job with selecting and modifying scenarios. His Cattle Raid scenario was excellent to play.
Game 1
Spanish vs Vikings
Tale of Challenges
The scenario was Tale of Challenges. Mike and I had chosen “We shall die to the last” and my second choice was “invincibility”. I don’t remember the second challenge Mike chose.
I was having a terrible time rolling dice during turns 1-3. I rolled all commons twice with my saga dice, as well as, low dice rolls with attack and defense dice. Mike was rolling too well with saga dice and had one turn with too many rares.
I had managed to place two fatigues on his 8-man HG unit, but could not capitalize on it. The Spanish foot warriors did well, adding fatigues and reducing his warrior unit. Mike made an attack on my crossbow unit after exhausting it. Although I made some shots with the crossbow unit, I wasn’t able to do much with it since I couldn’t load Hidalgos. I wasn’t able to retreat the unit after becoming exhausted and had to go into melee against 8 HG. I almost conceded the game on turn 3. It looked hopeless with my saga dice roll. Nick talked me out of it.
Turn 4 swung my way with a good saga dice roll. I still had most of the jinete units intact and was able to make a major dent in his HG unit. By the end of turn 5, I had killed all but 1 levy, eliminated half his berserkers, and more warriors.
I pulled back out of his reach. He was ahead on points, but not as much as before. Now things looked more even with several of his HG dead. In the end, he had killed more figures, but I killed 70% of his figures. I was able to make my “We shall die to the last” objective and he didn’t make either of his objectives. This turned the points into a victory for me, a close 14 to 11 game.
Game 2
Spanish Vs Normans
Ambush
The Normans fielded crossbow warriors, bow levy, 8 mounted HG, 4 mounted HG and 8 warriors for the ambush scenario. He wasn’t using javelin. I was using the same lineup.
My dice rolls were better this game and I loaded Treachery with Desperate Maneuvers early. The baggage carts weren’t moving fast this game at all. Normally, it is better to deploy at the far board edge. I had placed my crossbow unit in a woods on the far edge from the baggage. I would regret this.
I double activated my foot warriors to intercept the closest baggage unit. The attack was not successful in claiming the baggage cart, but put some fatigue on it. The Normans countered by doing the same with their foot warriors on the closest baggage to them, but also used a 4-man HG unit to charge my foot warriors. I had a fatigue and could not play Treachery. I played Desperate Maneuvers and gave them a fatigue. He used an ability to gain more attack dice. I had closed ranks knowing that I couldn’t play Treachery … then he spent my fatigue. I capitalized on the move and played Treachery. He had to discard all his attack dice. I only rolled 4 attack dice and didn’t kill any HG, but he now had 2 fatigues, and used a melee ability. I was set up well for the next turn.
On my turn I had two objectives, kill his HG unit and capture 1 or 2 baggage carts. I removed a fatigue with the warbanner on the foot warriors and charged his HG unit. He was now exhausted and I killed one HG. I followed up with a charge by Jinete on his HG unit and a baggage cart. Both were successful. This opened up LOS for my warlord unit to charge the second baggage cart. It was successful. Now I had two baggage carts.
In response, the Normans charged my foot warriors with an 8-man HG unit using abilities. They scored 14 hits. I rolled poorly and only cancelled two. The unit was wiped out. However, the foot warriors did their job and the HG unit was exhausted. On my turn, I moved the crossbow levies within range and shot using Hidalgos for a +4 to hit. This autohit on the HG unit for 6 hits, killing 3. I eliminated the unit with a Jinete charge.
This was the pivotal point in the game. The Norman warlord made a charge on my warlord in an attempt to claim a baggage cart, but I had used Chaos to move all the fatigues off the warlord unit. It was unsuccessful. Also, I had maneuvered my other two jinete units away from his crossbow warriors before he could shoot. The fight was over and I had claimed 2 baggage carts. The final score was 13 to 27.
Although the foot warrior unit was eliminated, they played a key role in eliminating 3 points of HG. I feel they should have survived the last attack and were only eliminated by a bad defense dice roll. The Norman player played well, but was surprised about autohitting with Hidalgos and crossbow levy on his HG. I felt this was the most enjoyable game I played that day.
Game 3
Spanish vs. Last Romans
Cattle Raid
This was a scenario developed by Nicholas where the cattle are placed in two separate groups on the center line, L from both short board edges. There were 5 cattle so this resulted in a group of 2 and 3. Deployment was within L of the center of the long edges.
The Last Roman went first and managed to begin moving cow using maneuvers liberally. I decided to focus on the group of three cows on the right flank. I moved towards the right cluster of cows by double activating my foot warrior unit and a small jinete unit.
On the left flank, I had a front line of a unit of 4 and 5 jinete backed up with a unit of 9 jinete. This battle would have two fronts. I would have to adjust my strategy of using the foot warriors to lay fatigue on opponent’s units.
The Last Romans made a move to block me from the left flank. He moved his warlord in and activated a cow to move towards his board edge. This gave his warlord a fatigue. He then moved a unit of 4 HG alongside the warlord. This limited my access to cows and only gave me a unit of 4 and 5 jinete to attack with. Now 3 cows were controlled by the Last Romans and I felt the need to change my focus from stealing cows to attacking units. I loaded DM, BW and Reconquista. I charged in with 4 jinete against 4 mounted HG. I had 4 attack dice with 2 bonus dice and a +1 to attack. I played DM then BW leaving the fatigue on. I killed one, he killed 3, leaving a single jinete that would prove useful later.
Next, I charged with 5 jinete. The remaining HG were exhausted and within S of the warlord. I had 7 dice with a +1 to attack and the Last Romans had 6 dice with a -1 to attack. I raised my armor to 4 and lowered theirs to 3 using the fatigue. Hitting on 2’s, I made 5 hits and they did not cancel enough eliminating the unit. The warlord gained a fatigue and now had two. With the HG out of the way, I had a clear path for the 9 jinete. I move to within range and shot, killing the warlord. I still lost the cow because of random movement, but had killed a unit of HG and his warlord this turn and only lost 5 jinete.
This turn combined with the foot warriors decimating the bow warrior unit made for enough survival points to secure victory. I changed plans, focusing on moving two cows off the board and backing off since I was the 2nd player. The final score was 29 to 32, a win for the Spanish.
The Spanish won three games and were the tournament winners. My son claimed second with his pony faction the Welsh. I was very proud of that. It was an enjoyable tournament despite the weather and made more so with the people who attended.