Beaten by the potato clan!

At the club yesterday I had my first ever game of "Longship" by Peter Pig. I was playing against Matt (who was very pleased with the figures and not "Content" as I had speculated he would be. He thought that me calling him content was derogatory and It was not meant as such but I do apologise to him for thinking that! Please no one make any comments about this or I'll get an ear bent properly this time). Anyway Matt selected an Irish force, I think it was because they had war dogs), I had a Viking force!

I won most of the pregame and was the raiding force. This was my first mistake. I should have built up more pregame points and then defended! (Insert evil laugh of your choice here). Having now played the rules I now realise this would have been a better tactic! (Bet I will forget that next time!)

So here's how the game went. Yes Matt kept saying Potatoes in an Irish accent even though we both knew that they had not made their way to Europe yet. So the start of the game had most of my army on the board (I had to roll for a random unit to start off table..... yes it was my elite unit rolled for randomly). Matt started with a Random Unit as well as some skirmishers which were a real pain to me as they kept causing minimal but effective casualties on units throughout the game and they were hard to drive away.

My reserve of table unit arrived (which in most Peter Pig games is a feat unto it self). By this time my other units had captured 3 lots of loot. Some Livestock, some women and some strong ale that sounded like a beach party for the lads that night with people to do the cooking and tidy up afterwards.
Anyway my reserve unit started a long way up the table. (Green counters represent possible loot which I would need to search for. My second large mistake was that I set fire to one of the Irish villages. This alerted the surrounding aborigines and then lots more turned up. Lots more. let me say that again LOTS more! Seriously a LOT More.

Matt did bring a unit on close to my reserve unit who managed to beat them of in a single turn and send them fleeing off the board. But the middle of the bard became more of an area to squabble over. I did keep my weakest unit (which had the strong ale0 in the corner and out of the way formed into a shield wall to show that they were ready for action. (They never fought in the game).

 Here we can see Matt's most prolific unit. They were able to make one of my ultra butch Viking units from the field and they had to leave the livestock behind! Drat!

I was able to defeat Matts unit that had a general in it defending a hill. It was a tough fight as I was dragging some slaves along with me at the time and he was on a rough rocky hill. But win that battle I did and kept the slaves in order as well. But his Lord escaped and joined the unit above.

A second Unit came close to my elites (Now down to 4 bases. They did eventually beat me but due to losses we both had to flee the field in the end.

And then the game ended.
Matt and the Irish were declared the winner on victory points. But at the end I had 3 units still functioning and active while poor Matt had just 1. Still victory point calculations are victory point calculations. So just like the RCW game a few weeks ago victory did not go to the side that out fought the other. It's a strange Peter Pig rule so what can you do.

In My defence according to other club members (Graham as it happens) this was the most successful raid so far played at the club after 8 raids tried. Successful as at the end of the day I did have 2 loot counters (I lost the cows and was only left with the ale and the women) and I had a strong raiding force left, so I do wonder how bad the others must have been. Any way Matt won 60 VP to my 42VP.

I did like the way the rules worked. and would be happy to give this another go.

That's it for today all the best Clint.