Saga… why?

[huscarle 4559xp 1]

I like to see hand painted shields they just look more authentic to me.

[dugthefug1644 30188xp 0]

An overview of my Saga hobby projects so far…

I looked back over my Saga armies and had a mixture of emotions.

I was surprised that some of the shield designs were better and some were worse than I remembered. The same goes for the general paint jobs as I have slowly gotten better as a painter.

• Anglo Danes / Saxons

Saga – My Anglo-Danes

My brother bought me a box of Gripping Beast Anglo Danes a couple of Christmas’ ago. The plan was to use these to replace many of the Black Tree Design metal minis that I bought cheaply when seeing if I liked the game. I am wondering if I will repaint some of the force, the metal hearthguard for definite, and replace these with the nice crisp plastic ones. I think the less well armoured common warrior soldiers might be better represented without a ton of mail that comes with in Gripping Beast box Danes though.

I do have a Gripping Beast box of generic Dark Age cavalry that I might use, but I need to read the faction rules again to decide which force they should represent and how they should be armoured and armed.

• Vikings

Saga – My Vikings

I have a plan to have a warlord representing Ragnar, Lagertha and Rollo from the Viking TV series on the one base, using the gorgeous Hasslefree minis that look surprisingly similar them. I have only painted Lagertha so far. I also keep seeing lovely Viking minis and my old standard looking Gripping Beast plastics are lacking in dynamism to say the least. I have been an advocate of not dwelling on completed work because you only have so much time and so many minis and fresh projects to paint. I think you get more experience and advancement in painting when painting a new mini from scratch than you do going back and improving on an old paint job. That said I do think there will be some improvements to the paint jobs and some replacements over time. I also think that zombie vikings is a viable use for any units of Gripping Beast Vikings that get relegated from my Saga force.

• Normans

Saga – My Normans

I guess I should give up hating on my Normans and revel in how many battles my lovely painted models have won. 🙂

The last plan I have for my Norman’s is to have an all infantry Norman army and that will need me to paint up my lovely Wargames Foundry shield and sword infantry that I bought a while ago and so far have only painted one. These can be my Hearthguard, easily distinguishable from my warriors with their vicious pointy blooded spears (real blood).

If and when the Norman Victrix cav. and inf. plastics come out I will probably look at these and see if I want an upgrade on some of my Norman Conquest Games plastic minis.

• Irish

Irish SAGA

I am really happy with the Dark Age Irish Wargames Atlantic plastic box set. With a few additions and a bit of love and converting I have a 6 points war band from the box. There are other minis added to make that 6 points and the force is probably not a super competitive list, but I think the only additions to my force might be some more Hearthguard or cavalry of some description. Though again, I would probably play my Irish as they are, consult the rules and battleboard and see what I am not utilising there well enough after a couple of games.

So as you can see, there is still hobby to come from me for my Facebook group and to share in the project system for my Saga armies. The new Viking, Dane and Norman Victrix sprues look absolutely gorgeous and enticing to further develop and hone my collection. Depending how the wind blows and what I end up doing first, I might give some of my metal original minis (the painting revisited and given some TLC) as a give away thank you for people following my page. Not decided on which to offer away and when, but it’s a serious possibility.

Happy hobbying.

[dugthefug1644 30188xp 0]

Just for the giggles.

If you love Pagan Rus and have been offended by the above… I don’t apologise. You are not being bullied by this silly annotation / alteration and certainly not as much as you have bullied your Saga playing opponents countless times before with your heinous faction. Who is the bigger villain I ask you?

??

[mistahslyParticipant 253xp 1]

So reading this made me very curious about the game, mainly about the difference between the different sourcebooks and armies. Is there a good run down for factions and ages?

And why do I keep seeing people hate on the Normans or Last Romans and call Pagan Rus filth? 😛

[dugthefug1644 30188xp 2]

@mistahsly

The link above will help you with how to play and whether the battleboard mechanic, that drives the whole game, is something that you can take to.

We’re on a second edition of the game and not likely to hit a 3rd version for a while because the company seem to have plans for more source books and Covid slowed everything down. (If the Age of Hannibal book isn’t out already it will be this year for sure). You’ll need the core rules or access to someone who has them. And you’ll need to pick an “Age of” Book. We currently have:

AoV (Age of Vikings): Pagan Rus, Welsh, Scots, Irish, Norman, Viking, Norse-Gaels, Caroligians, Jomsvikings, Anglo-Danes and Anglo-Saxons, Late Romans

AoI (Age of Invasion): Romans, Britons, Saxons, Goths, Picts and Huns

AoC (Age of Crusades): Crusaders, Pagan People, Ordensstaat and many more

AoM (Age of Magic): Lords of the Wild, Undead, (Horde) and many more

A common very quick summary of the Age of Viking armies could go roughly as follows. (But obviously it depends on the dice falling right and the way you play them on your battleboard.)

Anglo-Saxon – Large units

Welsh – Skirmish / Hit & Run

Normans – Shooting + Cavalry

Vikings – Aggressive / Melee

Anglo-Danish – Defensive / Apply fatigue to the enemy

The Last Romans – Lots of shooters with a few melee units

Norse-Gaels – Aggressive

Irish – Skirmish / Shooting

Pagan Rus – Defensive / Control the battlefield

Scots – Defensive

Carolingians – Reactive (abilities in opponents turn)

Jomsvikings – Defensive / Aggressive (wrath ability)

Feel free to ask a ton of questions on my Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1748859648777691) and we’ll find someone to answer them for you if I can’t myself. The rules are cheap, but you will need to factor in that the battleboards come with the faction books so you’ll want one of those. If you look through the projects on my Vikings and Anglo Saxons above, and take them back to the start, there should be plenty of tips and tricks to get into the game as cheaply as you can if you just want to try it out without committing too heavily.

Thanks for sharing.

[dugthefug1644 30188xp 0]

@mistahsly

For the hate side I went over some of that on page one of this forum. Some of the abilities that you can play on the battleboards are quite epic and the game makes you roll the D6 rare faced symbol (basically just your 6’s) and sometimes at least 2 of those dice to pull these feats off. Some abilities would be considered game breaking if it weren’t for the rarity of them being pulled off. I would say that there isn’t a faction balance issue in the game, but trouble is that people experience those days where the opponent crushes them by pulling off their coolest abilities and they remember that faction as one of their least favourites to face. I personally keep losing to my OWN Normans… (I paid for them, painted them and let my friends field them and beat me time and again with them… I didn’t realise until now that I may actually be a masochist. lol) …but I still love to paint these armies and play the game just for the fun of it rather than trying to get better lists or delve too deeply on how to get better.

[mistahslyParticipant 253xp 1]

After watching some of the videos, it definitely seems like something I’d love so I put in an order for the Corebook and the Vikings and Crusade sourcebooks. Going with the Baltic Crusaders since the excuse to dig into history I don’t know much about and the underrepresented and interesting location appeals to me!

Not sure about the Age of Vikings factions.

[dugthefug1644 30188xp 0]

Baltic crusaders sound fun. Loads of hobby fun there but I know little about that faction.

There could be a potential for multiple armies for one set of minis. Norman’s can be played as Bretons, and with a bit of a tweek can be played as Crusaders and perhaps even as Baltic ones?

[mistahslyParticipant 253xp 1]

I was thinking about picking up the Fireforge western knights since I like the looks of the models and could also use them as Poles or Levantine Crusaders with very little effort.

[dugthefug1644 30188xp 1]

One of us, one of us, one of us.

You’ll be hooked now. Lol.

I don’t have any Fire Forge stuff but it does look cool.

Also, if you’re looking for even more value… You can even use some movement trays of the designated size and field your Saga army as a Kings of War human army.

And down the rabbit hole we fall… ?

[dugthefug1644 30188xp 0]

Is Saga a historical game?

I am in two minds. When picking a forum to work under I did choose Historical which says something I guess. As said in earlier comments the Saga gameplay does lean on a more fantastical look to the battleboards, where pagan gods inspire your Vikings to superhuman marshall feats. The army building points mechanic is very simplistic and the uniform unit sizes across all the factions is based on balance not historical accuracy.

The accuracy and impact of history on your games of Saga does depend on individuals playing the game but there are a few areas where this is baked into the rules. The game does mention real life historical characters and tries to give them special rules that reflect their actions in life to a degree. The game has levy, warriors and Hearthguard, but tries to give you specific names from the age and faction to help improve the emersion. (Bondi, fyrd, Fianna etc.) The game tries to limit weapons like crossbows and war dogs to the nations that were known to use them rather than everyone.

When it comes to painting armies of the Dark Age, it is pretty wide open for interpretation because there is so little surviving from that era as proof either way. For my own armies I Google researched as best I could for shield design inspiration. I bothered to check what clothes dyes were available and what colours were strictly saved for the elite in society only. I checked for the consensus on what weapons were used the most by which factions.

I think there is an expectation that you field armies reflecting your faction as best you can. I think most people would categorise Saga as a historical game, but is Historical-lite as far as I would say. You don’t need to have read up on Dark Age history to enjoy or understand the game. The game is not trying to be a Dark Age battle simulator, rather giving you an opportunity to play a skirmish game with a Dark Age flavour.

[coxjul 13301xp 1]

I like Saga for various reasons:

1. As a ruleset it’s flexible enough for different settings

2. The number of models needed is manageable and paintable, (unless you want to go further).  Often the same models are usable with other good rulesets in that same era/genre.

3. The Battleboard force you to make decisions, but you can’t rely on what options you can make next turn.

4. Different factions need to use different playstyles to maximise their board.  Collecting multiple factions is affordable (see 2).

5, Did I mention it’s fun?

 

[dugthefug1644 30188xp 0]

@coxjul

Couldn’t agree more about being flexible and open to more settings in the future.

I think rather than going full Age of Magic I might use a dwarf side with Viking rules Vs some Saxons maybe.

Thanks for sharing.

[grognard-aged-n00bParticipant 117xp 1]

Anyone on here from Dublin, playing Saga? I live a 5min walk from Clontarf, so Saga has been on my mind for a while.

[dugthefug1644 30188xp 1]

@grognard-aged-n00b  Wish I did. Sadly don’t. I think in gaming circles Saga has a good following in France, Ireland and the UK. Check out the Facebook page and ask there. Hopefully you’ll find someone up for a game.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1748859648777691/?ref=share

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