Crescent & Cross Battle Report

Nearly two years ago, Grace, Dave and I placed a group order to Legio Heroica miniatures to get the figures we needed to make crusader-era Saga armies. Last night, we were able to get all three of our armies on the table together for the first time!

Some of Dave's Saracens.

My Hospitalliers.

Some of Grace's Saracens.

The scenario we chose was Last Stand, wherein the victory conditions are simple: if there is a single non-Warlord figure left of the defender's side on the table at game end, the defender wins. The slaughter must be complete! The attacker uses the Endless warband rule, meaning they can recycle their dead figures into new units, which can arrive from any table edge.

Which force is attacking and which defending is decided by bidding: the side that thinks they can wipe out the enemy army in the fewest number of turns is the attacker. We both bid the same number, seven, though, so we rolled off and the Hospitalliers were the high roll, and thus the attackers!

This caused some consternation on the Saracen side, because Grace was playing Mutatawwi'a, and most of their Saga abilities depend on sacrificing figures, something she was reluctant to do when each dead figure brought me closer to victory!

I had my own problems: I was playing an 8-point force against Grace's and Dave's 4-point forces, which gave me a lot of figures to use, but it also meant that I would have a hard time activating my troops: I only got the same number of Saga dice per turn that Grace and Dave each got individually, meaning I couldn't move all my troops each turn, and I couldn't afford many dice for Saga abilities.


Grace and Dave deployed first, and I had first activation.

Turn 1

End of Hospitallier turn 1

Dave had a group of eight archers on top of the tallest building (North in this picture), so I decided to ignore that side and focus on the other directions. I brought my combined Hearthguard unit, with the Warrior Priest, in from the west, a unit of mounted Sergeants in from the east, another unit of mounted Sergeants from the southeast with my Warlord, and my three units of foot Sergeants from the South.

On the Saracen turn, Grace charged my Sergeants in the east with her mounted Warriors unit. The battle was a draw with two casualties on each side.

There was some other adjustment of the troops, mounted units of Grace's and Dave's coming around from the north to engage. Besides that, not much action in the first turn.

End of Saracen turn 1

Turn 2

In the first turn, the attackers generate no Saga dice, so each unit gets one free activation to move onto the table. Starting in turn 2, though, I rolled Saga dice as normal, and I was able to drive forward with my big Hearthguard unit, led by the priest, and engage a unit of Saracen warriors guarding the west entrance to the compound. All but 3 of the Saracens were killed.

In the east, both of my units of mounted Sergeants were able to engage and destroy the rest of the Saracen warriors.

At this point Grace and Dave had a little conference, and the Saracen turn was mostly about running away to the North with their mounted Hearthguard units. I wasn't too concerned about chasing them: when I had had enough figures killed, I could just create a new unit out of the dead guys and bring them on wherever the Saracens had fled to, so there weren't many good places to hide on the board.

End of Saracen Turn 2

Turn 3

I mostly neglected my foot troops for the game, since I needed to use my activations on the mounted troops to chase the Saracens around. I was able to assault one of the buildings with Saracens inside, though it didn't go very well for me.

Meanwhile, my mounted Hearthguard were able to clean up the Saracens lurking in the northwest house.

Meanwhile, in the East, my mounted Sergeants were able to beat up on Grace's "princesses", her mounted Hearthguard on matching white horses, leaving only one alive to flee with her warlord.

Dave's archers shot some holes in my Sergeants in the east, and they mounted an ineffectual charge against the building.

Turn 4

I turned the attention of my (now half-strength) Hearthguard unit to attacking Dave's mounted Hearthguard in the northwest corner, but he was able to use some sort of sneaky Saracen ability to cancel my priest's action, so they ended up just standing there, looking like idiots.



Then, in the east, the charge of my Sergeants against the house full of archers was disrupted by another, different Saracen ploy and they ended up just running around the north side of the house (where they are hidden from the camera and from where I was sitting, so I mostly forgot about them after that).

I put together a unit of Hearthguard and a small unit of Sergeants from my dead guys (you can see them at the top of the picture), but I didn't have the activations to use them this turn, so they went back to the graveyard.

The Saracens continued their policy of evasion, forcing me to chase them around the table.

End of Saracen turn 4.

Turn 5

My priest and the remaining Hearthguard were finally able to come to grips with Dave's mounted Saracens and wipe them out, but at a high cost.

After that fight, I had enough dead figures to bring in some new units. A fresh unit of Hearthguard from the northwest corner was able to finish off Dave's mounted Hearthguard, while some mounted Sergeants tried to attack Grace's warriors but were stymied by more Saracen trickery. In the northeast, I was able to jump Grace's one remaining princess with some resurrected foot soldiers, but they weren't able to finish the job.

In the south, Dave's foot abandoned the buildings and fled across the courtyard to the buildings in the north, chased (slowly) by my own soldiers.

The one remaining horseman from Grace's mounted archers unit that I smashed in the second turn ran through a gap and fled to the west, alone.

End of Saracen turn 5.

Turn 6

The victory conditions required the attacker to destroy all non-Warlord units. This means I didn't have to kill Dave's leader to win the game, but there were still good reasons to do so: first, deny him Saga dice; and second, because he's a big jerk. I turned my Hearthguard unit to the task, and a lot of them died, but Dave's leader was finally dragged from his horse and put to the sword.

There was some fairly ineffectual back-and-forth among the houses, while I arranged my crossbow men to start hemming in Grace's lone horse in the west, and her single hearthguard and her leader ran around the hill in the east.

End of Saracen turn 6.

Turn 7

So I had my work cut out for me in the final turn. Most of the Saracens were dead, but there were still a few holdouts in the buildings and in the corners. The guys in the corners weren't too much of a concern, because I had enough deads to generate new units to attack them with. Digging the footmen out of the houses was going to be tough, though - or so I thought.

I sent my mounted Sergeants against the last holdouts of Dave's warriors in the north buildings, and they were able to get most of the job done.

I brought in a new unit of Hearthguard in the East to kill off Grace's remaining princess and her leader, which they were able to do. After, they turned to the remaining footmen in the house and finished them off.

So the game was pretty much in the bag! There was just the one wimpy archer remaining out of the entire Saracen force, the last survivor of the first unit I attacked at the start of the game. I brought in a new unit of Sergeants from the west to finish him off.

...and they couldn't! The Sergeants couldn't get that one last kill and finish off the only Saracen figure left on the table. I think some demotions are in order!

The End

So, at the end of the game, the Hospitalliers were unable to achieve their victory condition of killing every Saracen figure on the board, so victory went to the Saracens!

Here are some photos of Grace with the undisputed hero of the day.

This was the closest game of Saga I've played, and probably the most fun.

Hospitaller Hearthguard complete, project done!

Last night I put the finishing touches on my 2 units of Hospitaller mounted Hearthguard for Saga: Crescent & Cross, gloss varnished them, matte sprayed them, and took some photos.

As with the standard bearer, I was unsure about adding pennants to the knights' lances, but it serves as a good way to distinguish the Hearthguard from the Warriors - and as a nice visual indicator to my opponent that they are in really big trouble.

I used wire spears on these guys again, and I'm much happier with these than the cast pewter spears that came with the unit. They will be less prone to bending, and they are properly stabby. Don't go reaching for my miniatures without due consideration, or you're likely to end up perforated.



With these guys finished, my 15mm C&C warband is complete. I have figures enough to field any reasonable size force, with good flexibility to refine the composition as I learn the particulars of the force in the game. The Saga rules regarding miniatures are loose enough that I could field any of my figures as Warriors or Hearthguard, depending on how big a unit I want and how many points I want to use up.

Here's a (slightly dark) photo of the whole force together:

From front to back, I have:

- Warlords, a priest, and a trumpeter;
- Two units of mounted Hearthguard and the standard;
- Two units of foot Warriors with spears and one with crossbows;
- Pilgrims and two units of mounted Warriors.

More Hospitallers

I have been diligently continuing work on my 15mm Hospitallers for Saga. This time, I have a unit of levy Pilgrims and some command/character types.

First, the Pilgrims:

A levy unit in Saga is twelve figures. A pack of peasants from Legio Heroica is six figures, so I ordered two, giving me the twelve I needed. Astute viewers will notice that one of the figures in a pack of peasants from Legio Heroica is a pack horse, so yes, my pack horses will have to do their part in the war against the heathen!

Knights Hospitaller are not actually allowed to field levy in Crescent & Cross, but I wanted a unit in case I decide to switch things up and play my Hospitallers as plain Crusaders at some point.

Next, some commander types:

I have here three mounted men brandishing swords (any of which I could use as a warlord), a flag bearer, a priest, and a trumpeter. Crescent & Cross has rules for troubadour and priest characters, as well as adding standards to units. All of these figures should see action at some point, though I doubt I will use the trumpeter much - too bad, because I think the Maltese cross I painted on his back is probably the best one I've done yet.

That big red flag will be the only bit of bright colour in my regular forces and I think it will look out of place, but that's what Osprey and the internet tells me they used, so that's what they get.

So all I have left to paint for my planned Hospitallers force at this point is two units of four elite cavalry. After what I've done so far, eight more horsemen will be a snap. These last two units will bring my force total to nine: two points of Hearthguard (8 figures), two points of mounted Warriors (16 figures), three points of foot Warriors (16 spearmen plus 8 crossbowmen), one point of Levy (12 figures), and a Priest for one point (one figure). I doubt I will ever field a nine-point army, but this gives me the flexibility to swap units in and out to make up whatever sort of force I feel like playing.

New Year Catch-up: Knights Hospitallers

I have been a bit neglectful of my phlog recently, so it's time for a bit of a catch-up with some of the miniatures I have been painting recently.

I have been working on a band of Hospitallers for Saga: Crescent & Cross. This is a project I've been talking about for a while. My wife, Grace, and I both planned to paint up forces, but it took us a long time to decide if we were going to do it in 28mm or 15mm, and then what warbands we wanted to build, where we would get our figures from, etc. We both actually bought 28mm forces (Fireforge Templars and Mongols) before we decided to do it in 15mm after all. In the end, we put in a big order to Legio Heroica miniatures in Italy, with our friend Dave ordering a batch as well. Grace and I have been diligently painting our figures since we got them just before Christmas, and we both got quite a bit done over the holiday. Here's mine.

Two units of foot Warriors.

Two units of foot Warriors.

One unit of Crossbowmen.

Two units of mounted Seargeants (Warriors in Saga), plus some sort of leader-type.

Two units of mounted Seargeants (Warriors in Saga), plus some sort of leader-type.

With these guys, I tried something different than what I have done in the past: instead of painting the metal parts with metallic paints, I just scraped and filed off the primer to expose the bare metal of the pewter miniature beneath. The result is that the metal is really shiny and bright, much nicer than anything I could expect with the paints, if that's the effect you want. The effect is diminished by the Dullcote I always use, but a bit of gloss varnish on the metal bits brings it back.

The Sergeants come with pewter spears, which aren't bad in their own right, but I elected to add some wire spears. I think they look a lot nicer, and they are properly stabby - I have poked myself a dozen times already.

I was torn about whether I should order some Little Big Men transfers for the shields, but decided to just freehand them. It's a lot of work, but I think they worked out fine.

The Legio Heroica figures are really nice, maybe the nicest 15mm figures I have seen (though there are so many great choices out there, it's a tough field).