For father's day this year I finally took the plunge and ordered Saga 2 - complete with Viking Age and Book of Battles. I had prevaricated about this for over 12 months as I'm the only one in the club with Dark Age miniatures. In addition, we already have lots of games in our mix and players are flagging in enthusiasm ... but I'm not. I always thought Saga was great and I just thought ... why not.
The only problem are my figures are not based individually any more - there are FAR too many for that (around 200+ 28mm Vikings, Saxons and Britons.) But, there must be a solution there.
My friend Nick kindly came over for a game and we both enjoyed the rules. We played a game with just four points and only using saga dice for activations and bonus combat dice then played a six point game with the full board. This slow intro worked very well and Nick picked up the Anglo Saxons and their abilities without any problem.
I played the Vikings - which I usually don't - as I love the idea of classic Viking Saxon match ups. In the 6 point game the large 12 man Anglo Saxon units really had the edge in combat against the smaller 8 man Viking units. The addition of a 12 man levy unit with bows also gave the Vikings considerable pause. The Viking decided to loop around a forest to try and shield them from the shooting.
This left the action happening on the far side of the board. We played the standard scenario from the main book. Victory was determined by 'carnage' points (I've got that wrong ... the one where you gets points for killing stuff - 1 for a hearthguard, 1/2 for a warrior and 1/3 for a levy.)
The Viking threw their warrior units forward in an attempt to whittle down the larger Anglo Saxon units. I did note how much better levy seemed in this version of the rules. After taking many losses it was down to the Viking huscarls and warlord to face down the Saxon commander.
The Vikings had one more hearthguard unit than the Saxon and these held stoically. A final Viking unit double moved, shook off its fatigue and hacked into a Saxon unit in the final turn.
These actions saw the Vikings sneak ahead on points for a narrow or minor victory. The raven and the wolf were pleased and the saga of Guthrum grew. Ruin has come to the shores of Angleland but its brave defenders were not cowled by fear and will gather their strength to oppose the foe soon.
Ah ... I do like the Dark Ages ... all you need to do is listen to one Saga Thing episode or read so Beowulf and whoosh ... off you go into thrilling adventure. Time to do some homework with the Book of Battles for a Saga campaign and try to snag some enthusiasm for this rich period.
The final thing worth saying is about Saga itself. Dark Age gaming, especially when using commercially successful Ancient and Medieval rules, is a very static and grinding game with little to make it exciting. The Saga rules and battle board does that - even though most walk away feeling it wasn't quite historical as the saga moves feel a bit 'exaggerated.' BUT ... it does give the impression of playing a Dark Age battle and this is important - emersion (but not complete.)
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