Tuesday 25 October 2011

First Play: Saga

Our second game of the week was our first chance to try out the new Dark Ages rules from Gripping Beast, Saga.  We decided on the first scenario and Lenin took command of the Welsh with me taking the Vikings.

The rules suggest starting with a 4 point force rather than the typical 6, so that's what we did.  We took slightly differing approaches to the construction of our warbands with Lenin deciding to include some levy, something I decided to avoid.
It took a little while to learn the different abilities on each of the faction battle boards and I am sure it will take a few games to really master any one faction.  But we managed to get into the game fairly quickly nonetheless.

The Welsh decided to take the hill in the centre straight away and I, somewhat unwisely, decided to rush in a push them off it.  The fatigue I gained from the multiple actions really gave the Welsh the edge in the fight and my Vikings were thrown back with some serious casualties.

I decided to regroup and attack again.
This time the combination of a couple of abilities and some lucky dice rolling carried the day.

The melding of modern boardgame mechanisms and traditional wargame rules might seem a little odd at first but we found it provided a fun game with the right feel for the period.  As a result I can see these rules coming out again!

5 comments:

  1. Looks interesting Al, never really heard of them before, but that's not surprising for me...
    :)

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  2. The rules are a little pricey (especailly if you buy the custom dice) but I really like them. Which gives me a chance to get my Dark Age digures to the table - which is something I have been meaning to do for a while.

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  3. Looks great, I was going to but didn't buy the rules at our last show we visited, the price did put me off a little so did the price of the dice that you need, but there is a site (Sorry, not sure of the address), where you can download the pics of the dice, then stick them on normal dice, this saves lots of dosh!!!

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  4. You can use standard dice (they provide the conversion information) and you can download blank battle boards to make your own. So there are a number of options to reduce cost and/customise. But I do think the dice add to the thematic feel even if they are a little on the expensive side (and assuming you can get them!)

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