Irish Curaidh and the Norse-Gaels. Thoughts on the combat of Champions.

Ok, so I just picked up the Raven's Shadow expansion to Saga and have been playtesting the Irish and Norse-Gael battleboards (both of which I must admit are too awesome, and I think more than a little overpowered against other infantry based factions like the Anglo-Danes or Vikings). I was so inspired that I spent half a night whipping up another point's worth of Hearthguard models that can double as Curadh for the Irish, as well as warlords if I split my now 8 point warband in two. Needless to say, (once I get a camera that works) I think they're my best work yet. My favorite is model is an Irish prince and his shieldbearer, meant to represent Ulf the Quarrelsome if I use him a Hero of the Viking Age according to the ruleset. Stripped to the waist (typical Irish madness) and wearing a black wolf pelt, he might also double as a Viking Berserker were he not wearing blue woad patterns on his body. His spear is painted blue-green based off of a passage I read recently from the Ulster Cycle of Irish myths about a warrior of the Red Branch fianna, one of Cuchulainn's friends. In Celtic culture, swords, spears, and even shields bore names illustrative of their characteristics and of the character of their owner. The most well known example probably being Excalibur, the sword of King Arthur (the most famous of all Celtic myth cycles).

His shieldbearer looks quite nice too, bearing a red and blue old Celtic style long shield with gold bejeweled patterns set into it. My other Curadh also doubles as Brian Boru, Ulf's brother, and High King of Ireland (Ard-Righ Eirheann). I used some old pewter miniatures I found in my attic the other day looking for more Warhammer swords and cloaks to use for my dark age warband. Got them from Disney World actually. Supposed to be from England. Mainly just a few pieces of Celts, Saxons, and Normans who'm I'm using indiscriminately for future villagers and noble maidens. The few warriors that I got with the packs are perfect for hearthguards and warrior units. Brian Boru has Saxon armor, (unfortunately the Celts looked a little too common for the larger hearthguard bases so I'm using them as levies and warriors.) and a Celtic bard playing a harp behind him.

So, finally after painting up my two Curaidh, I also went ahead and made two "maidens" to use in "capture the princess for ransom/vikingbootyslave". One "Irish" and one "Saxon/Norman". I also painted an unarmed Norman/Saxon noble for future assassination/kidnap scenarios. The princesses look alright, the Irish one looks more badass with her torc and sword, and leering old man/adviser/NOTdruid standing behind her. I even played a couple of scenarios with the new minis.

The first battle involved a Norse-Gael invasion of Ireland. I rolled and got the invading warband, my friend was the Irish chief defending his village at the river ford, not far from the coast where my Islesmen landed from their birlinn (a Gaelic variant of the Viking longship, much better at navigation with a rear mounted rudder vs. the older side mounted steerboard [from where we get "starboard"] invented of course, by Somerled, founder of Clan Donald.) and waded ashore to burn and plunder the Irish village. Of course, it wasn't as easy as I figured, once I crossed the river, my friend waited for me near a forest just outside the village with his two appointed champions, a spare point of fianna and a host of warriors/bonnachts (1 point's worth actually), while I came in with my 2 points of hearthguard/ostmen, and 1 point of bonnachts, and of course my warlord. After charging towards the Irish warband unsuccessfully, while being shot at from the woods by invisible Irish fairie folk. (I LOVE that ability on the Irish battleboard, but HATE it being used on me.) Needless to say, the challenges generally went well, except when I fought the Curaidh, which my friend augmented after a couple of lucky rolls with "Seed of Ireland" which allows him to inflict 4 automatic hits and "Blood of the Kings" which with the stag symbol, made his Curaidh almost near invincible, ignoring 3 hits instead of the usual 1. Of course, with my ostmen slaughtered, and my bonnachts caught up in the forest with the fairie curse (btw, the Gaelic word for fairy is "sidh" pronounced "seethe". They were originally the ancient Celtic gods of Ireland, but after the Christianisation of Eire, they became the "fairie folk".) my warlord found himself assailed by BOTH Curaidh, AND the Irish warlord. with two fatigues already incurred from previous melees. Needless to say, he fell beneath the blows and the Irishmen danced over his corpse in traditional Celtic fashion.

The second battle was a lot more interesting. This time we did a capture the princess scenario, with Heroes of the Viking Age for each side. My friend got defender again this time leading an Anglo-Danish warband under King Cnut, which meant he also got to use the Viking battleboard as well. The palace was set up at one end of the beach, with my Irish ship landing at a distance, with no intervening terrain in between the two forces. I had High King Brian Boru and his brother Ulf the Quarrelsome for my warlord/champion combo. Of course we changed the names to protect the innocent/dead. The story being my 80 year old Irish king leading a raiding party to capture the young, beautiful, Anglo-Danish princess Gertruda, whose beauty is famed even across the Irish Sea. Of course the Irish battleboard worked beautifully even without using all the shooting abilities. In fact it worked so beautifully, that, even with the death of both Ulf and my other Curadh, AND my bonnachts, King Brian was able to stand alone (for 5 more turns) against what was left of the Danes' 8 model huscarl unit (hearthguard), and his ceorls (warriors). For those readers who don't know, Brian's rules state that because of his advanced age, he only gets 1 d6 in melee/shooting and can only move 2 inches (Very Short) per activiation. The upside is that he can remove 1 fatigue for free from any friendly unit on the table. So he's like a super standar bearer with really horrible fighting abilites. Also he designates one of the champions as warlord for points purposes if said champion is killed. Which is a crappy rule to be honest, it just makes killing that pesky Ulf all the more attractive to the other player.

But, to my immense surprise, and delight, his Saga rolls (three dice for Viking Age Heroes) turned up mostly stags and geese (really good rolls on the Irish battleboard) and some snakes which allowed me to activate "Blood of the Kings" and the "Seed of Ireland" several turns in a row. I hardly had to roll that 1 die with Brian because he ignored between 2 and 3 hits and returned the favor with 4 automatic hits every turn. This on top of his automatic rest ability made him friggin invincible! A couple of multi activations propelled him into the last three standing ceorls which with another "Seed of Ireland" killed them all. The sad ending to this love story, unfortunately, was that after wiping out the entire Danish warband (did I mention that my warlord was also the last Irishman standing?), my octegenerian reached the top of the steps of the palace only to gaze on the buxom beauty, have a massive stroke, and fall back down the steps and so met his end. So Gertruda didn't have to go to Ireland after all, and was subsequently kidnapped by marauding Normans.

Cuchulain as depicted by Marvel Comics. If only they'd make him his own series, he'd be my favorite Marvel superhero.