Data Sphere

Have you tried this game? How is the game play?

http://www.studio-tomahawk.com/gb_saga.php

I enjoy it a lot. I think they hit a great level of abstraction vs detail, and the Battleboard is a great mechanism.

Dylan Gould wrote:I enjoy it a lot. I think they hit a great level of abstraction vs detail, and the Battleboard is a great mechanism.

Cool! a created an account on the official SAGA forum. Posted my interest to try a demo and... One guy answered. He lives 3 kilometres from me. Has multiple armies and a table at home. The funny part is that I used to play boardgames with him 5 years ago. We had lost contact a while back. So, I get to do a demo next week against someone I'm know!

Did my first game last night. Its a fun game. I'll replay.
Enjoyed the special dice attribution mechanic for orders. It gives the game depth without making it crunchy.
I'll buy the book.

Yeah it's a cool game. I'd say It's got a good balance of strategy, depth and fun(something you don't always get in historical wargames).
The fact that you don't need to paint up hundreds of miniatures makes it a lot easier to get into as well(again, some thing you don't always get with historical wargames).
Also, because the dark ages are pretty sketchy, you've got plenty of scope to paint the minis as you wish(again somethi...you get the idea).
I went for an Irish warband. I was pretty happy with how they came out.
PS there a tons of miniature ranges to choose from.

SAGA is probably my favourite game at this moment. It's deceptively easy, which is a breath of fresh air when you're used to the big fat rulebook that is Infinity.

And though easy, its tactical depth is vast. A very interesting game, which by the way is cheap to get into: historical minis might not be as sexy as Infinity models, you can sure buy a lot more for the same price!

I'm going to give this one a go, looks really fun and I love the idea of having an easy alternative for some chilled games.
The price to get an army going is also very tempting

Had the chance to play two other games with the same friend who has 15mm historical armies. Saga is a fun game. Very easy to grasp, everything you need to know is on the army board and the quick reference sheet. Decided to buy a 28mm Era of the Rus Princes army from Gripping Beast. A few Infinity friends are doing the same.

All starter packs are 4 points (a standard game is 6 points)
12 Archers, 8 Warriors on foot, 2 units of 4 Guards on horses, and a Warlord on mount.




Assembled and primed starter :


A few painted models :



The Army book - 16 pages. Comes with 3 army boards (Rus Princes, Pagan Rus and Byzantines




I also bought a Riders of the Steppes with short bows support pack that allows me to reach 6 points (37 models).

I got myself some vikings and have been playing 4point games. Lots of fun so far!
Your Rus are looking good Marc C!

I like the idea behind the game - plus, from what I've seen on Youtube, it seems to be a very, very simple ruleset.

It, apparently, requires more models than Infinity (on average, I mean). I wonder how would it work with 15mm miniatures...
On the other hand, I'm not eager to start another game - Infinity, basically, gets my wargaming itch scratched wel enough (and often enough).

Also, I feel my national pride hurt a bit - no Western Slavic warband there...? ...well, okay, I live within 100km of Jomsborg (or so it seems, exact location of Jomsborg remains undetermined AFAIK)...

I have 88 models and the rules sitting around unplayed for years now. I planned to have SAGA as an easy tabletop game to play with my wife. I have played SAGA several times and liked it. But being used to paint a few Infinity models, I cannot handle the conveyor belt style painting of vikings.

Errhile wrote:I like the idea behind the game - plus, from what I've seen on Youtube, it seems to be a very, very simple ruleset.

It, apparently, requires more models than Infinity (on average, I mean). I wonder how would it work with 15mm miniatures...
On the other hand, I'm not eager to start another game - Infinity, basically, gets my wargaming itch scratched wel enough (and often enough).

Also, I feel my national pride hurt a bit - no Western Slavic warband there...? ...well, okay, I live within 100km of Jomsborg (or so it seems, exact location of Jomsborg remains undetermined AFAIK)...

You need around 40-45 models to play a standard game. My first 3 games were in 15mm. Worked very well.
Standard table size is 4'x3'. Once you scale it down to 15mm the game is playable on a kitchen table.

I've been playing this quite a bit, and even though it seems to be really simple there's a surprising amount of depht.

It's an absolutely cracking game, as El_presidente has said above it is very easy to get into but has a lot of depth. I found this out when I played recently at a tournament and got taught 'the art of war' by some more experienced players! Always think its a sign of a well designed game if you think "well played, sir" rather than, "that was so unfair!!" after getting a pasting

Playing my first 28mm game tomorrow night. Standard 6 points with Russian Prince.
I payed 2 points to get the elite Black Hood nomads with small bows on horses.

A few pictures of our first official SAGA tournament in Montreal during the Chaos Ludik annual event. 8 players.

http://s1179.photobucket.com/user/shesh ... ark%20Ages

Do you need custom dice, or can you get away with standard d6s?

Section9 wrote:Do you need custom dice, or can you get away with standard d6s?

Yeah, the custom dice are at least strongly recommended. You can theoretically assign symbols to d6 values but it's a pain in the ass.
Sticker sheets and blank dice are a thing if you don't wanna buy the official ones though.

Pierzasty wrote:

Section9 wrote:Do you need custom dice, or can you get away with standard d6s?

Yeah, the custom dice are at least strongly recommended. You can theoretically assign symbols to d6 values but it's a pain in the ass.
Sticker sheets and blank dice are a thing if you don't wanna buy the official ones though.

QFT !

Studio Tomahawk has announced a new edition of SAGA for early 2018. This time the rulebook will be stand alone - as in there will be no army profils. Instead they will be publishing separate ERA books. Their latest book Aetius & Arthur (end of Romain empire) was designed with that in mind. Known eras books are : Dark Ages, Crusades, Joan of Arc. They even hinted at possible historical-mythical ERA books - as in Grendel and other iconic mythical settings. That is excellent news !

Press release :
http://www.studio-tomahawk.com/en/category/actualites/