Building a Saga Anglo Warband the Warlord Way

By Troy Hill

One of the joys of moving to a new city, and finding a new group to game with is diving into the games they play locally. Here in North-East Indiana, the game that is second most popular in the group I game with is .

When I first encountered Saga, back in California, I was warned that I wouldn’t like it, for the same reasons I left another game behind. Too low of a point system, too many special powers and abilities. So I avoided it.

But then, after moving back to the midwest (of the USA), I found myself in a When in Rome, do as the Romans do… situation.

The local group that plays Bolt Action on the second weekend of the month, reserves the fourth weekend for Saga. Prior to the health crisis halting all play, the local players also dove into Warlord’s Black Seas and which I started demoing on the first weekends. When invited to play Saga, I demurred sinceI didn’t have any figures assembled or painted for that game.

However, we’re finding that as lockdowns ease here in the US, family takes priority (as it should) and many gamers are on a tight leash. Two weekends a month is about it for now. Once the family visits, vacations, etc get caught up, missed birthday parties are celebrated in style, etc, we hope to add back in that third weekend. So the group is back to only two weekends a month. Bolt Action and Saga.

But, when in Rome…

Or, rather, when in Strathclyde…

Seems the local gamers are playing . That’s eighth century to the Norman Invasion of Britain.

Hmmm…. don’t have anything painted for that period. Normally, for any historical range in the 25-28mm size, the first place I’d turn is Warlord Games. They’ve got historical ranges broad and deep. And I’m known to pick up figures for a period I want to play, even if I don’t have a game system or opponent lined up.

So, I checked the shelves of shame–figures I’d purchased but have yet to assemble. In that huge pile of unpainted minis, I found the This is one of the older sets from Warlord Games (that appears to be out of stock, but available in separate boxes for Thegns and . You might find a box or two at your FLGS.

A quick glance at the sprues showed I could easily make the eight hearthguard, and bunch of warriors. For Saga, hearthguard are basically fighters in armor. Warriors, less elite troops have tunics or padded armor. The Saxon starter army has both Thegns in chainmail, and Ceorls in tunics.

I could also get the third troop type of Saga, the Levy, out of the Ceorl sprues. The downside is that the necks on the heads are a bit long, and need to be filed down to avoid the giraffe effects. Easily done. The warband of 40-ish figures will be quick to build, and easy to paint. Most important, the set includes waterslide transfers for the shields. So no trying to freehand old Celtic designs! That’s a win for fast painting this force.

Additionally, Warlord Games has all sorts of minis in to fit any of the Britain or Viking factions. And, a lot of them should work for the upcoming Age of Invasions book for Saga as well.

“What’s this?”, I spied another box on my shelves of unpainted shame. The SPQR starter set. I hadn’t had time to paint it before lockdown. And the health emergency really sucked away my desire to paint. So now was the time. Out came the box…. hmmm… these Gaul figures could be Saxons…. or even Picts/Scots in the era we are playing.

And I found gold! The box contained some of the excellent Warlord Resin . Occasionally bare chested, doing what a good levy should, aim and fire.

Also, from the sprues there are a good mix of dudes in chainmail waving swords or bare chested dudes with mustaches poking spears/javelins at people. There’s even a head in the mix that makes the model look a lot like a certain gamer from Southern California with a background in commanding an armored brigade. I still chuckle every time I see the figure with that face. With Gen. John on my side, I’m sure to win! Right?

Hmmm… Seems like that later group is all bent over (in the photo on the SPQR starter box, arms wide, screaming at their foes. Better straighten them up. Since I was anticipating playing Anglo-Danes with this mob, I wasn’t sure if bare chested screaming was a thing for them.

Fortunately the legs were a separate piece from the torsos.

In addition, the SPQR Archers squad was just the size I needed. The box comes with 12 archers, and, in Saga, a point gets you 12 levy figures. Perfect! And I got a bonus figure from whomever packed the box. A bakers dozen of 13. That extra would come in handy later when I redid my force structure on the fly.

Next, I had to decide on which Warband to run. We already had a player in the group with Welsh. They seem to be a flighty shooty army, flinging javelins and running away. And another player favors the Viking factions. And another the Normans.

That left the Anglo-Saxons, the Anglo-Danes, and the Scots to scratch my need for something Dark Ages British (latter term used inclusively). The Anglo-Saxons rely on large units. With the way I roll dice, the units wouldn’t be large for very long.

The other factions all seemed a bit more than I wanted to dive in with on my first foray into this game. These other factions include: The Last Romans..(Byzantines!) The Norse-Gaels….. The Irish….The Pagan Rus…..The Carolingians…. and The Jomsvikings…

The good news, no matter which faction I chose, I’d have a heck of a start on the Gauls for my SPQR set. With a bunch of extra figures from the Saxon box to fill in the odds and ends I might need in either game system.

Three days later, I had it all assembled and painted. Forty-some figures. Some bare chested, but none bent over screaming. We’d call them Anglo-Danes. That Battle Board seemed to fit my play style the best.

At the local game store, we set up three boards. Played on three-foot by four-foot tables, the game seems deceptively simple.

After all, each unit only costs a point. Twelve levy troops… one point. Eight warriors… one point. Four hearth guard… one point. AND, the warlord is FREE in points!

I pulled out my Levy, three units of warriors, two units of hearthguard, and my warlord with his standard bearer. And I was one figure short!

Didn’t drop it… not in the carry tray… Ah! I had used a dude to be the Warlord’s standard bearer (to help fill out the bigger base for the warlord). I forgot to build another dude to replace him.

 

My opponent for the day, Mark, loaned me a figure. I won’t comment too often of the state of Mark’s naked Normans. Not naked in the Celtic way. Just bereft of paint. Mostly. His levy with the double range bows, and his warriors with cross bows were painted. But the mounted hearth guard, and other warriors were either silver, or primer-black.

After playing through four-and-a-half turns, I am amazed at how simple the rules are (the core rulebook is only 50 pages long). Alone, that book makes a very beer-and-pretzels game.

The complexity comes in warband specific battle boards, and the Saga dice rolled for each player’s turn. As on Saga, each unit above a threshold number of models (depends on the type of unit) gives the player one saga die. So right off the bat, I’d be rolling seven dice for seven units. These dice have symbols on them. Three sides have a common symbol, two side have an uncommon symbol, and the final side has the rare symbol.

Players then store unit activations, as well as warband special abilities on the battle board. This mechanism is a refreshing change from pre-purchasing abilities and meta-gaming your force before it hits the table.

Well, since my brand new Anglo green Saga dice had heard how well I roll, they kept providing commons, and a few uncommons. The rare rare symbols usually got spent to roll additional saga dice… which came up commons.

Activating hearthguard units are easy. Any saga die will snap them to attention and send them where the warlord dictates. A common or a rare will activate warrior units, but only an uncommon or a rare die will activate the levy. Seems they’re more interested in foraging for food than shooting at those blokes across the field.

Fortunately, I could keep my warlord within range to issue an order directly and get them to fire at whatever mounted unit Mark sent after my force. They slowly whittled down his force. But Mark’s Norman Levy with bows had Volley Fire, which used an uncommon die on his battle board. That ability doubled his bow’s range. He could plink my archers, but I’d have to advance to return the favor.

Since our forces had to come to blows, I was able to use my uncommon dice, often, on the Determination battle board rule. That allowed my unit to gain three extra attack or defense die (or a mix). And, they’d get an additional die for each fatigue on the enemy unit attacking them.

The critical reason the battle board/Saga dice system appeals to me is that there is a random die roll mechanism built into the system. Players don’t pull the three or four abilities that best suit their force design. In Saga, the forces are very similar, but it’s the random roll of Saga Dice, and the fluid tactical structure to build your attack or defense on the battle board– based on how Lady Luck treats your Saga dice roll.

The strategy of the battle boards is to build either attack abilities, or defensive abilities. Since the troops are fairly generic across the various factions (a warrior is a warrior –only the allowed weapons might be different) it’s the strategy and luck of the Saga Dice and battle boards that give the player the ability to form strategy, or abandon it when the saga dice don’t favor your plan.

I enjoyed the game immensely. The key to that being how simple the rules are, yet how fluid and complex the strategy is. It will take many games for me to learn to to best use my faction’s battle board. Even then, I’ll still need to learn what the various other battle boards allow the other forces to do. And the Saga dice goods may favour one player over another, despite how the attack and defense dice roll that day.

Simple, yet utterly complex. It’s a fun game. I think I should expand my force. And flip to the Scottish battle board. Yep. Solid defensive play on that board. That’s my style. Beer and pretzels with some depth and a lot of luck.

 

Troy is a longtime gamer, and the occasional author of fantasy books set in the dark ages of Celtic Britain. Since this battle was set a century or two after the time he writes about, none of his fictional characters appeared in this battle. When he’s not catching typos in stories on NDNG, he’s making typos of his own in his upcoming fiction.