Christmas Eve and Boxing Day

My whole family was home for a few days just before Christmas. Rob came home on the 23rd, Katie was already home, as were Beth and I, so we were all together for the festival day. Rob intended to be home for Boxing Day but he had to work and since he was being paid  time-and-a-half on Boxing Day and some bills had surfaced (like a 'gator in a swamp), we couldn't blame him.
On Christmas Eve, Beth and Rob played a game of SAGA - Beth's Welsh versus Rob's Vikings. It ended up being a fairly even match. I served as referee of sorts since my back was hurting a bit. 
Rob took a warlord, two units of hearthguard, two of warriors (Bondi), and two of levy (Thralls). Beth took a warlord (Arthur, of course), a unit of mounted hearthguard, three units of warriors (fielded as two units of 12), and two units of levy with bows and slings.

Rob's Ulfhednar hoody... worn for effect.

Viking warriors/Bondi and levy/Thralls. Since Rob's force is not complete he needed to borrow from my Irish faction force.

More Thrall and four female Hearthguard.

"Arthur" and his Welsh mounted Hearthguard

Beth's levy defend the house and wall while her warriors move to the attack.

Beth's Welsh warriors lurking in a wooded area.
(Late Roman or sub-Roman Briton figures by Essex, Griping Beast, and Old Glory)

Rob's Vikings move forward, His Jarl and Hearthguard are on the hill. Again, borrowed Irish but the Jarl was a Christmas gift to him.

A close-up of the Shield Maidens -
Wargames Factory huscarl bodies with Wargames Factory Female Zombie Survivor heads,
which work fine with a little filling.

Another view of the Welsh line of battle

 

The battle from overhead.
The Welsh hearthguard charged the Viking hearthguard and they each destroyed the other although Arthur survived.
The other Viking hearthguard - Berserkers all - charged into the flank of the Welsh at the wall and smashed them. The archers were destroyed to a man by the Berserkers with 2-handed axes.

The game was pretty even and neither side killed the others warlord. We went by victory points, which totalled up as Vikings - 19 to Welsh - 20. The Welsh won by points! Rob had to leave shortly after this for his girl-friends house for Christmas Eve, but both he and Beth enjoyed the game. His work schedule doesn't leave as much time as he'd like for this kind of gaming, but that could change over time.

On Boxing Day (December 26), we had scheduled a game of Traveller, d20 version -  a favourite RPG. Beth played her Darrian medical doctor with an interest in alien cultures. Katie ran her two characters - A Vargr ship's captain and a very interesting human noble with multiple personalities, a character tough to play but really adding a lot of fun to the game. DJ played his retired Imperial Marine Force Commander/Major who pilots the ship. Tyler had his human rogue/pirate with a scientifically enhanced monkey, while Ken played his "Quendi" rogue, a sort of space elf, for lack of a better description. (Rob's Aslan character was "on leave". Crew NPCs included a human drive lackey, an android, and two Unsine heavy weapons specialists - Yogi and Boo-Boo. All of these folks watched the ship while the party was away.) 
They joined an academic on an archaeological expedition to a lower tech planet to find possible Ancients artifacts. The Professor had a crack-pot scheme which put him on the "outs" with academia. When they arrived there as a security/assistant-ing/support team, the local aliens saw Ken's character and immediately went into religious awe! He was the Venerable One who was to fulfil the promises of the long-gone Fullness of Mysteries!

The party, the Professor, and his lovely assistant meet with the local denizens.

(If this sounds a little like The Man Who Would Be King award yourself a extra piece of Christmas gingerbread.) 
It ended up that the Venerable One (who told the rest of the party in his most venerable and revered voice, "Shut your cakehole now!") was to be thrown into the fusion reactor to join the Fullness of Mysteries... along with all his friends! For some reason, Ken objected to this and gave new religious commands that allowed him to "ascend" ("Shut up! I'm ascending!" and "Trust me; I'm your god!") with the help of flash-bang grenades, smoke bombs, an alien tractor-pressor projector, and his chameleon-configuration Combat Environment Suit. The Professor objected to this trickery, so DJ tranked him while his assistant put him in a choke hold. The party ended up gathering some really interesting alien/possibly Ancient goodies and high-tailing it into the next subsector. A good thing too, since DJ tired to blow up the Professor's ship, first by having his ship's AI hack into the Professor's ship (Failure #1!) and then planting an alien explosive aboard. (Failure #2!) As the ship's went their separate ways, the party (well, DJ anyway) notices hidden insignia on the Professor's ship - the open-eye insignia of the Imperial Bureau of Internal Security! Things could get interesting in the future. Beth's abilities to dope out alien equipment was vital in discovering what these alien gee-gaws could do.

In case you were wondering, it's wonderful to have a wife who games!

Beth, always wear a visor so you won't be blinded by science!

So? She's an alien.

I'm going to take it light between Christmas and New Year's. I hope my wife and I can get a Napoleonics game in, and maybe we'll do some small SAGA skirmishes. I hope you're holidays are all great.