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Bloody Succession - Saga scenario for 4 to 5 players

The scenario

While leading a raid the old king has been stricken with illness and is close to death. Local Warlords like wolves to a corpse hurry to where he lies dying, as they know the first to take the crown from him will have a strong claim to be the next king. However his son has eyes on the crown himself.

Layout.

The game is played on a 48"x48" table. In a 6" radius of the centre point set up one of the options below, depending on what scenery you have or just the layout you fancy.

A stockaded village/farm of 3- 4 buildings.
A fortified camp.
A ruin of some sort
A church/holy place within a enclosed burial area.

In fact any sort of lightly fortified area, where defenders can choose to make a stand. Each of the players can place 1 additional piece of scenery no more than 6" to the edge of the area. Dice for priority as usual.
You will also need tokens to represent the dying king and his crown.

Deployment.

All players have 4 point warbands with warlords and the game lasts 7 turns.

Deployment is exactly the same as in "A Feast For Crows", except the highest scoring player becomes the "Kings Faction" and sets up in the central fortified area, with the dying king token/figure. This can be placed secretly in one of the areas structures if so wished.

Special Rules.

As in "A Feast For Crows" except for these scenario rules.

Intense Rivalry-All Warlords wish to seize the crown for themselves. A unit must attack (if activated) any unit belonging to a rival warband that comes within S move distance of themselves.

Any warband within the fortified area ignores this rule concerning enemy units outside the defences.
Warlords Pride does not apply to Warlords within the defences concerning enemy Warlords outside.

Seizing the Crown. A warlord gains possession of the crown by moving next to the dying king figure (presumably engaging in a quick bit of regicide) and taking the crown token. A Warlord that is killed by another Warlord loses the crown to the victor. If a Warlord is carrying the crown and killed by another faction, the crown token is then placed on that spot until another Warlord can pick it up.

  • For a four player version, the old king might be a 'non player' faction with the old king being guard by eight loyal hearthguard. So, at the start of any turn they lose any fatigue they have acquired, and use an opponents fatigue automatically, first for defence and then for offence.


Victory Conditions.

The factions Warlord that holds the crown at the end of the game is declared the winner. In the case of the"Kings Faction"this means the dying king still has it or it has been recovered by the factions actual Warlord his son. Any other result is a draw.

Scenario Option.

One of the Warbands is loyal to the old king and his family. Before deployment let all Non "Kings Faction" players secretly draw a card from a group of 4 (3 black and 1 red) whoever holds the red card is secretly loyal to the old king Thus he can share victory with the royal faction. How the player handles this is up to themselves.

Our game:

We played with the extra scenario option where one of the four protagonists was actually allied to the dying kings family. In our setup we chose a church yard. We played Irish, Scots, Anglo Danes, Anglo Saxons with Norse Gaels as the dying kings protector.



As shown the Norse Gaels setup in the centre in the church yard with the King and a unit inside the main building. The other warbands setup in each of the corners, with only one piece of extra terrain near to the corners.


The Irish take position!!

Anytime we play a multiplayer it often starts a little cautious until the first is blood spilled then the slaughter begins. The Norse Gaels with their two handed axes and challenges we probably the toughest to hold the centre. Each turn they would hold onto those saga dice until someone was mad enough to come near those walls.

The first two turns saw the warbands move up and take position. But even at turn 2 the sneaky Irish kids loosed a blistering volley of javelins into a unit of Scots and killed 4 warriors. (The Irish used: Sons of Dana, Bansidh Whispers, Fir Bolg and Eagle Eye). Something the Scots never forgot in the later game. While the Anglo Danes intimidated the Anglo Saxons - much to their annoyance.


The Scots on the bottom right after a punishing  raid from Irish Sons of Dana.

The Irish on the top right near the house.

We decided that the churchyard provided the Norse Gaels with soft cover while there units were in any part the whole area, the defenders got a heavy cover bonus when defending the wall for the first contact in melee. Only the Church was considered a building giving hard cover and usual building Saga rules. But if an enemy was in the churchyard or on another round of combat then the cover bonus was lost. An issue came with Irish moving to attack the Norse Gaels  defending the wall. Since the first round the Norse Gaels got the hard cover save, the Irish won and force the Norse Gaels back into the churchyard away from the wall. The Norse Gaels attacked immediately the Irish unit outside the church wall, we felt that this did not give them a hard cover bonus because the scenario had the Norse Gaels in a defended an enclosed semi-fortified area. (If it was just a wall in a field or at a road then the Irish would have had the hard cover bonus). We considered the Norse Gaels were retaking their defence positions rather than running across open land to a defended position.

As the game played it was clearer that the Anglo - Saxons were taking on a defensive position and fending off the Anglo Danes. The Irish moved up to the wall and after trying out their javelins against the Norse Gaels - this time with less devastating affect but still kill one or two. The Irish persisted in being a pest to the Norse Gaels as they played hide and seek with the Heirs of Will that made them invisible to the Norse Gaels. It did not make the other Irish units invisible to the annoyed Scots who arrived on the Irish flank and took some revenge wiping out a unit of warriors and reducing another unit to 1 figure.

The Anglo Danes threw themselves at the Anglo Saxsons and both warbands were rather beaten up by turn 5. By this time after the Scots tried a suicidal jump at the Norse Gaels by holding the ruined building in the churchyard corner. The Norse Gaels responded by challenging them using Who's Next and others until the Scots unit is destroyed. The Scots responded with their warlord and another unit to wipe out a unit of the Norse Gaels. At this point it was clear the Anglo Saxons were on the Kings side, and with too much in house fighting caused by the clever scenarios requirement that any enemy unit within S must attack each other, no one was strong enough to threaten the Norse Gael stronghold in the churchyard. Nor was there enough time.


Near the last turn all four warbands are battered and beleaguered.

But the Norse Gaels still hold the centre and the objective.

In the last picture the Anglo Saxons hold the top right position near the hill. The Anglo Danes just below them above the swamp. On the right-hand-side at the top the remaining Irish, and below them the Scots. In the final turn without even an enemy keeping a foot in the churchyard let alone touching the door of the church it was a Norse Gael / Anglo Saxon victory.


We all agreed it was a great scenario and look forward to trying it again. We did feel that it should be 10 turns rather than 7 as it took 3 turns just to get in position - or were we too cautious?







Source: http://Saga, Bloody Succession, Saga 4 player scenario, Saga scenario, Anglo Danes, Anglo Saxson, Scots, Irish
Category: Battle Reports | Added by: RMcN (17-Dec-2013)
Views: 1732 | Rating: 5.0/2
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