The Free Companies

Another game of Saga, and this time we are back to Age of Chivalry. This time it was the Free Companies versus the French Compagnie d Ordonnance. This was my first time playing the Free Companies warband, so it was going to be a learning experience.

As it turns out, the French battle board is a lot more aggressive than the Free Companies’ one. Going head to head with the French was a complete non-starter, and several of the Free Companies abilities were useless in this battle.

Rather than go for a random battle, we did the Prized Possessions scenario. This has one side trying to get three baggage carts across the table and off the board. The Free Companies were the defender, which meant they had to get their baggage train to safety.

The French went for two units of barded mounted hearthguard, three units of infantry hearthguard, a cannon and half a unit of warriors.

The Free Companies was a more mixed make up, with one unit of unbarded Hearthguard, two units of warrior infantry, a unit of bow levy and two units of infantry hearthguard.

Since the Free Companies like to have terrain for one of their abilities, I had the conflicting needs to have minimal terrain to I could get my baggage across the table quickly, and also to had sufficient terrain so I could transfer fatigue around.

I put down a field to give my archers protection from the French horse, and a hill to give me some terrain which wouldn’t slow movement. The French placed a steep hill and a marsh to try and stop my progress.

Turn 1

The Free Companies deployed half their warband before the game, then in turn one the second half came on the first turn. It was pretty simple to use Mob Violence to move two of my units, and I started progressing my baggage across the board. I had one baggage unit in the east, and two in the west.

All my Hearthguard were with the Eastern unit though, which may have been a bad decision. Baggage can use Hearthguard as bodyguards, so it would have been good protection to split them up. I moved the archers into the field.

The French used Full Harness which meant all their Hearthguard units moved short, but it also gave them resilience. Their cannon fired at my archers, giving them a fatigue. Other than that, the French stayed deployed across the board in a defensive formation.

Turn 2

The Free Companies made use of Den of Thieves to move a fatigue from my archers to a hearthguard unit, then my archers rested and moved up through the field, to give better cover to my western units.

Everybody else shuffled up, though kept out of the charge range of the French.

The French used their cannon again, giving my archers another fatigue and killing two of them. Other than that, they did nothing.

Turn 3

The game was progressing quickly, and the Free Companies used Mob Violence to move the eastern Wagon and its accompanying unit of hearthguards. I wanted to weaken the French flank on that side of the table, so my mounted cavalry charged in against a unit of French infantry.

The French deployed a large range of battle board abilities, and all I had was Cruel Slaughter and Villainy to give me a few extra attack dice. The French stood their ground and took no casualties, whereas the Free Companies unit was wiped out. Not a great start to combat,.

The French used Full Harness again, and shot their cannon at my archers, giving them another fatigue. Other than that though, they stayed where they were.

Turn 4

The Free Companies once again invoked Mob Violence to start getting their baggage along the edges of the tables. My plan at this point was to just rush the opposite edge as quickly as I could. In the East, this would be easy. In the West, the French had massed forces that would probably get in the way.

The French again went for Full Harness, and then I invoked Den of Thieves as an Orders/Reaction to remove fatigue from one of my baggage units and put it on my archers making them exhausted. They weren’t doing anything.

The French then actually moved, going around the back of the Swamp to block my baggage from exiting the board there.

Turn 5

The Free Companies used Den of Thieves again in my Orders phase to shunt around more fatigue. It was probably going to be a bad idea, but I wanted to try and weaken the French western flank. So a unit of warriors charged the French cavalry.

The French suffered one casualty – which because I used Deception they would have to take it on a different unit within M. They had a choice of the hearthguards blocking my baggage (which would just use their resilience to soak it) or on their cannon. They took it on their hearthguards. However, they inflicted six casualties on my warriors.

The French were getting really good saving rolls in every combat. 4 hits, they saved 3. For me, I suffered 9 hits and only saved 3. The attack hadn’t gone as well as I’d hoped, and hadn’t done anything to clear the way.

My eastern wagon made it off the board (it was exhausted at the end, but it was off the table by that point so it didn’t matter). My wagon near the western edge – they couldn’t get past the French cavalry since they needed to exit the table more than S away from the short edge.

My expectation was that the French would attack them, and then I’d hoped that I’d survive and maybe the French would fall back. This would give me room to get off the table edge.

The French used their cannon to kill a warrior, then invoked Flying Wedge, which allowed them to activate up to three units for a charge, all with bonuses.

Their first cavalry unit killed 3 more of my warriors, who were forced back after closing ranks.

Their second, as expected, charged my wagon. I was hoping that the wagon might hold its ground, but it suffered five casualties against it. Even with resilience, it was wiped from the table.

The French warlord then moved up to get closer to my one remaining baggage unit.

Turn 5

The Free Companies put everything they could into moving the final unit of baggage. Through luck, and maybe a little judgement, it managed to wind its way between the marsh and the French warlord and get off the table.

This immediately ended the game.

Survival Points

Victory came down to survival points, with penalties based on the state of the three units of baggage.

The Free Companies had a total of 21 survival points.

The French has a total of 32 survival points.

However, the French had killed a unit of baggage, which mean the Free Companies suffered -6, which took them down to 15.

The Free Companies had got two units of baggage off the table, which gave the French -8 per unit, which took them down to 16.

The French won by the skin of their teeth.

My final mistake had been leaving my baggage unit to be attacked by the French cavalry. I was thinking that I’d lose points if I didn’t get it off the board, so was willing to take the risk of combat. However, I hadn’t considered that I’d lose fewer points if it was on the table and survived, versus it getting destroyed by the French. That would have given me -3 points rather than -6, which would have given the Free Companies the victory. If I’d known just how close we were in points, moving the wagon back to safety could have been a better choice. But then, the French may have blocked the other wagon

But that hadn’t happened.

The Free Companies really don’t have the same aggressive ability as the French do. They have some interesting abilities, but nothing that I was really able to use except for Den of Thieves and Mob Violence.

I really like Cowardice, which allows you to move an enemy unit which isn’t near Hearthguards or Heroes. But the French which were nearly all Hearthguards were immune to this. Renegades, which allows me to get figures back, also doesn’t work unless you can actually kill your enemy.

Making single attacks against French units meant that they could put all their melee abilities into a single combat, and therefore slaughtering my unit and taking nothing themselves. To Fight the French, I think you have to hit them multiple times in a turn – something Mob Violence could be used to do. Though their Flying Wedge is a better version of that.

In terms of troop types, the archers were useless (especially when the French go Full Harness every turn, giving themselves resilience 2 versus shooting attacks). I should have put hearthguards with my other baggage units as well, to give them protection. Attacking the French at the start had been a complete waste of time, and cost me the game (a few more survival points were all that I needed).

It was an interesting scenario, with a close result.