The Shieldmaidens are in action. Two Saga AARs

On Sunday I finally got my Bad Squiddo Freyja's Wrath Shieldmaidens onto the table in an all-Scandi pair of battles against Clive's Anglo-Danes.

In the first game my force was as follows;

Freyja (War Leader)

One group of 4 Berserker Hearthguards

One group of 8 armoured Hearthguards

Two groups of Warriors

One group of Shieldmaidens (4 warriors led by a Valkyrie, plus a warrior with a War Banner)

My lack of ranged attacks left me at a clear disadvantage and my plans were massively disrupted by losing all my Berserkers to archery. From then on, I just had to attack, using Ullr and Thor abilities to maximise my hits. Unhappily, Clive was able to use the defensive abilities of the Anglo-Danes to pretty much negate my ability to score hits.

Net result: a win for the Anglo-Danes. Here are the pictures of the first battle. i think, from looking at these that my initial deployment was terrible.

Here are my short-lived and ineffective Berserkers.

Some spear-armed Warriors.

My main strike force. desperately trying to get into a better position.

With the Berserkers gone, Clive's defensive line starts to look like a problem.

My large Hearthguard unit gets ready to attack.

The Shieldmaidens led by the Valkyrie are completely useless here.

After two rounds of combat, my Hearthguards vanquish one of Clive's groups of 6 Hearthguards, but I am left in a weak condition in a dangerously exposed place.

Clive's bow-armed Levies and a group of Warriors combine to cause havoc to my spear-armed Warriors. After six rounds of play, I am defeated.

Here is the second game. I decided to replace the Berserkers with 12 Levies with bows.

I have retained the Shirldmaiden unit and have two groups of Hearthguards, one of 4 and the other of 8.

My other unit is one of 8 Warriors.

Things start off much more equally, with my archers targeting one of Clive's groups of Warriors.

I send my Warriors into melee with the archers. This is quite a success, forcing them to retreat.

Elsewhere, the two battle lines watch each other warily, no doubt exchanging insults and expletives.

My Warriors were attacked by Clive's Warriors. I use Ullr and am victorious. His Warriors are destroyed, but once again, I am left weakened and in range of the bow-armed Levies.

Battle is soon joined in the centre. My large group of Hearthguard charge in and destroy one group of Clive's Anglo-Danish Hearthguards, but are then themselves wiped out. 

I send in the Shieldmaidens, who are all killed except for the Valkyrie. However, they have weakened Clive's line. My smaller Hearthguard group charges, but is defeated. The battle is over. The Vikings have lost again.

I wasn't too upset at losing both games, because they were fun to play. The Vikings really do have to attack and try and cause maximum damage, which I generally managed to do quite regularly, but the real strength of the Anglo-Danes comes from their abilities to roll a lot of Save dice, which they also managed to do pretty regularly.

My main mistake was the way I used the Loki ability. I kept on forgetting to make it the first ability, but when I did, it really helped make a difference in melee.

These two armies are pretty much two sides of the same coin. One attacks ferociously and the other defends doggedly.