Saga Tournament at the OMG

This past weekend we had a Saga tournament at the club. Because my painting had been slower than planned (big surprise!) I had planned to take a Saracen warband rather than the Mutatawwi'a list but Mike convinced me to use my camels so I went with the Mutatawwi'a (but I had not really read over the battleboard, and I think it is a tricky one).

Before I get to the details of the games, here is a recap of the mistakes I made with the rules (or at least the ones I am aware of).

Melee vs Melee/Reaction -- Both "Suicidal Charge" and "Allah Provides" are Melee abilities which means I shouldn't have paid for them (by sacrificing units) until after the attack dice are calculated (contrasting with Melee/Reaction which are done before the attack dice are calculated). This would have meant I was more likely to kill the unit I was attacking. This also makes the "Fatal Blow" ability much more appealing

Naffata -- This I got completely wrong (my only excuse is that someone made a similar mistake in a battle report I read and I find the rule book hard to read without my reading glasses which I had left at home).  I was using them as a melee unit where they should only get a ranged attack every time their unit moves. This attack has range S and does the 1-3 dice with "1"s killing the Naffata (the part that I did get right). If the defender takes any hits they also take 2 fatigue (3 if mounted) and the unit the Naffata is with takes a fatigue.

I played 3 games, the first against Stan's Crusaders the second against George's Vikings and the last against Nick's Anglo-Saxons

Game 1

The first scenario was the one where you have to kill the opposing warlord. At this stage I had no real idea what to do with this force but moving forward always seems to be a good strategy.

I had used the "Move Like the Djinn" ability to move my foot troops up quickly but then realized that they should be fatigued if they don't end up in contact with the enemy so I ended up resting them on the second turn so it ended up not being as useful just for moving up.

This was my first try at the "Suicidal Charge" ability -- it was quite devastating to the enemy but it is probably not really cost effective to trade 7 of my Hearthguard for 4 enemy Hearthguard!

With the left flank looking bare, I moved up on the right.

At the end my Warlord facing off against Stan's Warlord and his Warrior Priest.

This was the only game I won (and I think I was quite lucky at the end to win it).

Game 2
The second game against George's Vikings, I don't remember the mission but the victory was based solely on slaughter points,

For this game, I used the camel hearthguard as 2 units of 4 rather than one of 8 but kept everything else the same.

Again, I moved forward as quickly as I could.

The most exciting part was our warlords in a fight to the death which I won after many rounds. My warlord fell to George's hearthguard the following turn and I lost on slaughter points but it was still an exciting game. I had a slightly better grasp on my battleboard this time but George knew how to use his Vikings.
Game 3
 In game 3 against Nick's Anglo-Saxons we had to bid to defend the village. Neither of us wanted to defend so we diced off and I ended up defending.

The defender has to end the game with one building so I put one foot unit in each of 2 buildings and left the third one empty. I probably should have concentrated my mounted troops but I had visions of them galloping (if camels gallop) around the fence and striking the Anglo-Saxons as they reached the buildings.

Nick moved up to attack the first building and drove back my cavalry (it would have been smart to put them more than M away from the Anglo Saxon start line)

My camels moved up to the fence as the first building fell under the Anglo-Saxon attack.

After the Anglo-Saxons attacked one of my camel units and then the other did the "Suicidal Charge" (this time with "Allah Provides") there wasn't much left of the forces that weren't involved in the fighting for the second house.

The house managed to hold out (with one figure) until the last turn but couldn't last that turn. I think this would be a very hard battle to win against a foot force.

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I really enjoy Saga and should play it more (at least enough  so that I can use at least one faction well -- I don't think I have played any faction more than 3 times). This tourney has kickstarted my painting as well, finishing of my camels and working on the rest of the Mutatawwi'a.