Saga: Saracens vs Milites Christi

So I had my first battle with my Saracens today facing Mike's Milites Christi

Right after setting up we realized that Mike was playing with a 6 point warband and I was playing with a 4 point warband. I then grabbed the Daylami and Naffata dogs of war units that we nearly painted and added those to my force. I just used the Daylami as a regular warband but I fielded the Naffata as a dogs of war unit and split the 4 figures evenly between the two foot warrior units. It is a very interesting unit and, I think, could be quite effective. (The Daylami are also interesting but you are only allowed one dogs of war unit and I didn't want to deal with any more special rules anyway)

We were playing a mission Mike found on the web where there are 3 treasure tokens in the centre of the table and the objective is to get as many off the table as possible. We both moved forward on the first turn and I positioned my non-bow hearthguard to distract the knights (not sure why I thought this was a useful thing to do).

The knights along with the bishop (like some strange game of chess!) charged into my hearthguard wiping them out.

On the other side of the table my hearthguard with bows were picking away at the foot knights.

After a few turns the foot warrior unit with the Naffatum and some support from the horse archer warrior had dealt with almost all the mounted knights and the bishops.

We were both able to take one treasure but neither of us could move it off the table. I think I won a marginal victory on kill points (or maybe I lost but it was fairly close).

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For the second game we just played the simple Kill the Warlord mission.

We both kept the same force (I was tempted to drop the Naffatum and try Saladin but I think his special abilities are a bit tricky to use since the help the opponent as well). Showing a complete lack of common sense I moved the warlord forward with my horse archers. Mike's crossbowmen made short work of the horse archers and he moved his warlord so that I would have to charge his warlord if I wanted to move mine.

I had no luck with the archers on the left this time. Once the units around the warlord were wiped out the enemy warlord charged him with a unit of knights in support and killed him.

Overall I like this list and its battleboard. I am not sure of the best way to use the horse archers. The Naffatum are good and I think it is worth figuring them out -- they do need at least 2 foot units to be allowed. Next time I think I will use the Daylami as a dog of war unit and have another mounted unit (taken from the Mutatawwia warband).

Now I have to change gears and make lists for the Fate of a Nation tank aces game at the Ottawa Miniatures Gamers tomorrow.