Learning Hunnic Tactics with Solo Saga

Thanks to Rodge and his warband challenge, I had my most productive year of painting.   I completed two warbands, the Republic Romans from the AoH and the Graeculi from AoH.  I had time and decided to start the Huns from AoI, a warband that had sat on the shelf for almost a year.  I completed the project, well most of it, a few weeks ago.  I still have a unit of mounted levy and warriors to finish.

                The completed 6pts of Huns consist of two points of mounted Hearthguard, which is the only HG option.  I painted 3 points of mounted warriors, again the only option for warriors with the Huns.  Finally, I painted one point of the standard levy.  Levy provides the only options for variance.  You can recruit the standard board and spear, bow levy, or the very unusual mounted levy.  The mounted levy is equipped with spears and lacks ranged options.  To me, the mounted levy seems like a nice option.   I have a point of them to paint, as well as one more point of mounted warriors.  However, since I had 6pts, I wanted to get them a test drive. 

                I used the solo saga rules to play-test them, but I made a few changes.  First, I did 6pts not 4.  Second, I used a full-sized battlefield with two small terrain pieces placed somewhat randomly.  I wanted to see how well the units moved around cover and how they would deal with units in cover. 

                After playing a couple of turns, I realized I kept looking for an ability to enhance the shooting.  To be honest, this was a little frustrating.  Both of the most prominent composite bow factions in history, the Mongols and Huns, lack any saga ability that enhances the shooting.  The Saracens in AoC and the Spanish in AoC both have abilities that enhance shooting.  Not sure how the author missed this, but it seems like the board should have something.  The only shooting ability adds a fatigue after the shot.  To be fair, that is great.  However, you can’t spend it to improve the shooting, and composite bows aren’t the greatest to charge in with.  The Spanish are using javelins, which get a +1 when they charge in melee…which is nice. 

                Enough about that shortcoming.  The Solo Saga rules are good but can be challenging for mounted factions.  If the dice rolls are good, the generic army moves fast and limits fatigue, basically they activate twice with no fatigue.  Not good for a faction that utilizes fatigue.   The Huns were not fairing well, good rolls were making the opponent’s units move fast and punch hard.  I got units caught without escape routes while I was trying to figure out how to position them to play Encircle.  I was trying to slip two units in the gaps of their line, but it failed miserably. 

                I also was trying to play Rain of Arrows early, but it seemed not to make much difference in the early game.  I did use Death from Above and found that to be a go-to ability.   I played it almost every turn. However, it didn’t save me, I lost the first game…easily. 

                One takeaway from the first game was I kept looking for ways to enhance dice, a +1 here or a reroll there, but there aren’t any.  The board mechanics is a dice generator, not an enhancer.   Another player I know, who is good, says that dice enhancement is better than dice gained.  I agree.  Most of the factions that I play well do more dice enhancement than generation.  I had a sinking feeling that I may have spent a lot of time on a warband I wouldn’t enjoy.   I need to change my thought paradigm. 

Game Two

                This time I had a better feel for the board and waited until the generic warband had moved forward, but not too long.  I flanked right with one unit after the typical hit-and-run skirmish.   I parked them behind some cover making it difficult to reach. 

                The next turn I proceeded to do the skirmish routine, but with a twist.  I moved the unit hiding clear around to the backside.  Now I moved forward with the front-line units and have a perfect setup, the units in line for Encirclement.  Three fatigues dropped down with of the two units already having one fatigue.  As luck would have it, there was still substantial fatigue left when I started my next turn.  Now I moved in with a warrior unit, stopping short, I set up for a shot.  I triggered “Weak Spot.”  Playing Death from Above, I dropped another fatigue on the unit giving it two, which was augmented with Lassos.  I moved one fatigue from an adjacent unit onto the target unit, it was exhausted.   Time to charge with mounted bow warriors and see what happens.  The shooting was triggered with “Weak Spot” which added one attack dice.  Still didn’t have any casualties, but the charge was triggered by this ability and therefore got 6 bonus dice.  I didn’t need to gain any more dice since the dice cap was nearly maxed out.  The exhausted unit had a -1 to attack so my armor was effectively 4 at the start.  I raised my armor once to five and lowered theirs twice to a 3.  I lost some figures, even with the 4 armor, but the unit was eliminated. 

                I think that was a better way to play the Huns.  Moving fatigue and adding it when you can.  Their abilities look good on paper, but the board is dice-hungry.   I found it difficult to function below 5 saga dice.  The ability that gains the most dice, Weak Spot, is a two-dice ability that costs a rare.  I played it three times in two games with only one time did it make a big difference and that was when the target unit was exhausted.  What did work was the “Barbarians of the East.”  This was a fantastic ability and made the levy a formidable force.  All in all, the abilities that I found the most utility were Death from Above, The Endless Horde, Fear is Our Armor, and Barbarians of the East. 

Lesson Learned

It is difficult to play a faction that uses composite bows.  The range is short, only M, so it is difficult to get a large group of eight or nine figures close enough to get all your shooting dice.  Because of this, most of the time one will use smaller units for mobility, therefore taking fewer shots.   Not effective against armor 5, especially when it cancels on 4’s.  To counter this, I started pairing a warrior unit with a Hearthguard unit of 4.  They hit harder and have better armor.  Originally, I planned on only having one unit of Hearthguard, but now I may stay with two.  I do not feel that a big unit is necessary with the number of dice you can gain and the small unit is more mobile. 

                The routine of activate to move, shoot for free, followed by “Endless Horde” will predominate your early game strategy.  One will have to look for ways of putting fatigue on the Hearthguards and warlords, the armor is too good for shooting.  Positioning will be key to laying the fatigue and striking the tougher units.  Taking down Hearthguard units with the shooting will be difficult unless they are mounted.  One will need to go into melee.

I enjoyed learning the tactics, but now want to play someone with them.   A real opponent will be the true test of the tactics but also see how much enjoyment I will get out of the faction.