Hello, Happy Easter.
The lack of new publications of the previous months was due to the intense activity in theTomahawk tipee, devoted to a new and important chapter in the history of Saga.
With The Crescent & The Cross we have explored the destinies of the Crusaders sailing to the Holy Land and the fight of their Muslim enemies, determined to fight with bravery the western invaders. With the new Saga book, we will go back in time, and look at the very beginning of the Dark Ages.
Imagine 6 new factions, depicting the Britons, The Saxon Invaders, the Romans, the Huns, the Goths and the Picts. To lead them into battle, larger than life characters as Aetius, Attila, Arthur or Vortigern. A time when the Roman frontiers were hammered by the flow of barbaric invaders. A time when the civilisation of the past was abour to be superceded by a new one.
New factions, new mercenaries to join your warband, a campaign system and a large figure range are all planned.
The last round of intensive playtest have been done some days ago by our devoted beta-testers. They tried to break the Battleboards, find any loophole in the 6 new scenarios and played the campaign, defending a border garrison against the barbarians.
Saga : Invasions has now entered the next step, its production.
When will it be released are you asking? Not before the end of the year. It is in the hands of the gods now...
8-)
With Huns and Goths featuring it's not particularly Anglo centric? Maybe there will be expansions to come?Ah well, but with Picts, Britons and Saxons (the latter probably designed to represent the ones fighting in Britain) it's already half the factions which didn't play any part at all in the events that occured in mainland europe. And that's where the bulk of the empire was, I was led to believe;)
Any idea if it is an expansion of the standard Saga rules or a stand alone book (which I believe Cross and Crescent was?)
Agreed on the strange mix of factions - I guess one could proxy 'Anglo-saxons' as continental Saxons, and (Romano-)Britons as continental post-Roman states
Truth to tell, I've been waiting for this since Saga first came out. Slightly odd mix of factions, perhaps, but I'll still give it a look when it comes out. Might even get me playing more regularly...
Finally!
Me too. Exactly the same feelings on it.
Probably biased as Late Romans is my absolutely favoured period but I'm sure this will become a great hit.
Always felt that SAGA and the late Roman/Arthurian period were simply made for each other.
And who knows what wonderful figure ranges will appear because of this!
Anybody point me to some Picts? I have seen the Foundry figures, not a fan. I quite like the Tanatus stuff but probably not enough to make a Saga warband. What are my options?
Anybody point me to some Picts? I have seen the Foundry figures, not a fan. I quite like the Tanatus stuff but probably not enough to make a Saga warband. What are my options?
Anybody point me to some Picts? I have seen the Foundry figures, not a fan. I quite like the Tanatus stuff but probably not enough to make a Saga warband. What are my options?
Gripping Beast? Didn't they have Picts in their original (Patten-sculpted) ranges?
Looks like this'll be the typical anglo-centric world view again. Nothing wrong with catering for the bigger audience but as the Doc already pointed out it's a rather odd mix. Would have preferred to have Romans, Vandals, Goths, Huns, Franks and maybe even Sassanids for a main book. One could have dealt with the island in a supplement well enough. That said I'll still have a look and if it's just to see if one can turn those island dweller batteboards into proper mainland european germanic tribes ;)
I'd like some day to see a set of rules with merovingian franks and proper figures to go with it.
Clovis is contemporary to the Arthurian era and franks fought post roman britons, amongst many others, on the continent in Britanny.
They are scarcely covered in rules and figures are few, which i regret since they were distinctively looking and and of major importance at that time...
It has probably to do with sales. I'm sure Gripping Beast know very well which dark ages armies sell well and which not so much?
All the companies that do Dark Ages ranges do basically the same armies. Apparently it's what the public wants.
Report please Willie, once you have your copy! (After you have had a tremendous day at your show, obviously :))
85 pages, includes the basic rules?
No, the basic rules are not included. You still need a copy of SAGA or preferably C&C;Thank you.
I heard there were a few small translation issues and details that needed ironing out on the back of the initial test print run (which were sold at Crisis). Presumably those tweaks are being made before the package goes into full production. Suspect it will be a while...
Having gotten the book at Crisis (although still not actually read the entire thing!), I can confirm there certainly are a some typos and textual mistakes, although that's hardly new in SAGA. That said, I haven't seen anything so far that was unclear because of those mistakes; they merely make the book a bit less pretty than it could have been. Not sure if I had gotten the book already if a better version would indeed be released some time after, but ah well, at least I have it.
If you want to know any army specifics which may influence your choice armchairgeneral, feel free to ask away. That said, I bought a box of plastic late Romans alongside the book, and still haven't even decided whether to mainly use them as Romans or Britons...
The Huns! Tell me about the Huns!!!!
If you want to know any army specifics which may influence your choice armchairgeneral, feel free to ask away. That said, I bought a box of plastic late Romans alongside the book, and still haven't even decided whether to mainly use them as Romans or Britons...
I get the impression Britons versus Saxons won't be that different to Anglo-Saxons versus Vikings? The Romans do seem interesting with their artillery and I believe they get cataphracts?That's probably a pretty fair assessment, at least the impression I got from looking at the boards. I suppose that tends to be the strategy of raiders and island dwellers! Then again, they will behave quite differently in terms of set-up (big units vs close deployment) and thankfully (as my opponent is growing his Saxon horde) the invaders have no access to crazy berserkers with a massive hoard of re-rollable dice! Anyway, the Romans can have cataphracts indeed; hadn't looked at them much as they're a 'named' unit, but they're pretty interesting: aside from being a bit tougher, they also allow warriors in the army to be mounted, but more importantly, all abilities on the board that reduce the impetus value will do so by 1 point less, which is rather a massive boost. Don't suppose GB's next plastic set will be Late Roman cavalry? Because I have a sudden desire to have a pile of them...
Any commentary on the Picts, think they appeal to me as a painter more than anything else, but would like to know how they play too.Haven't looked at them into any great detail (guess I'll have done a full review before too long after all!), but they're along the lines of Welsh and Irish as a skirmishy force that likes terrain, if you're familiar with those. Very much melee oriented however (although one unit of levy can have crossbows), with some offensive and defensive abilities, as well as various tricksy movement ones. The most eye-catching aspect is the ability for a warlord to ride into battle on a chariot! A more commanding presence (increased We Obey range), but no Side-by-Side. An additional benefit is the ability to retreat L after a lost combat - heroically running away, I suppose...
As usual GB has under-produced the new Romans and Britons dice. They are sold out everywhere. This seems to be a continuing refrain with Saga that is really disappointing. When the game first came out I had to wait 8 months for the dice to be available. By now one would think they had enough experience to match their manufacturing with demand. Anyone have an extra set they want yo sell? ;)