Saga - Age of Invasions question

[WorkShy]

Hi,

Hoping someone might know this. Just got copy of Saga Age of Invasions (AoI) book. Comparing with Aetius and Arthur (AoA), I note the Cymry (in the Old Friends, new enemies section) don't seem to have any option for mounted troops anymore. Just infantry. In AoA, they could have mounted Warlord, Hearthguard and Warriors. Moreover, they seem to have lost the ability for both Warlord and Hearthguard to carry javelins.

Is this change correct? It's a pretty big change.

[Ogrob]

Yes, the tables in the book should be correct. I think compared to V1 and A&A you have plenty of options for mounted Welsh, just play the AoV version (AoV and AoI play just fine against each other) or the Ap Cluth welsh on the page before.

[WorkShy]

Thanks for the reply

This is where I get a bit confused. So I can use AoV Welsh vs. another AoI faction such as Britons/Picts/Scotti etc? Or even AoV Welsh vs. AoI Cymry? Are AoV factions balanced to play against AoI?

The stats for the Cymry Warlord and Hearthguard are a bit better than for the equivalent Welsh to make up for the lack of javelins. Nonetheless, I cannot see why I would take the Cymry faction as is since it lacks mobility and missile capability. Or am I missing something? Mercs help to balance that? Meanwhile the Alt Clut option has to take too many mounted!

Apologies for these being dumb questions but had Saga books for ages but never really played it.

[Ogrob]

Right, so there's a couple of different answers to the question "Can I play against a faction from another book?".

The short answer is yes, any historical books can pretty much play against each other. Age of Magic is probably best left as its own thing.

In my experience the imbalance is not really between Ages but just that some factions are a bit stronger than others.

The slightly longer answers is that Studio Tomahawk stated recently that their intention is three eras that they think are balanced internally, being Antiquity (Alexander, Hannibal and the upcoming Caesar), Early Medieval (Invasions and Vikings) and Late Medieval (Crusades and the upcoming Chivalry). Different groups and tournaments vary how they pair factions together, but for casual play my opinion is it's better to just have people play the faction they are exited by and have more opponents.

As for your Welsh, I reckon the vanilla Welsh seem the strongest unless you really want to play with the AoI mercenaries. They have so much more flexibility with equipment options. I would rate Alt Clut second as mounted javelin welsh is a strong build, but hampered by terrain, so you are less flexible in your deployment then the regular faction. Cymry seem counter to what the battleboard really wants you to d, so very situational.

[WorkShy]

Since I've only got AoI and AoV then as long as they are broadly balanced then that is good enough.

I agree with your view. I don't really get the Cymry option. It's pure infantry and not "shooty", yet uses the Welsh battle board that is based around a more shooty, more mobile composition. It would be better off with the Saxon board! I suppose mercs are the way to help rebalance that.

Thanks for the comprehensive reply