SAGA: Aetius & Arthur – new rules for the Late Roman period

[FierceKitty]

It's another case of a period that's overdone just because of publicity from extraneous causes, isn't it? King Arthur, and ignore everything else in the dark ages and late ancient arena; Napoleonic, at the expense of the far more important SYW; FPW, and disregard every other contemporary conflict....

[area23]

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.

[Mad Doc Morris]

Importance is in the eye of the beholder, so let's not argue about that.
Truth to be told, our British friends have managed to wrap their past into exciting stories. It also appears largely self-contained, neatly framed by natural boundaries. You can easily identify yourself with that – or at least develop a sense for being different. Borders and identities in mainland Europe may appear blurred in contrast. There's no unifying idea of our past, therefore less black and white but a lot of grey.
That's not to say, we have no exciting histories to be told. But they're probably less suited to the (predominantly) heroic style of current wargaming, which, like most of popular history, is stuck in 19th century narrative patterns and stereotypes. I like that for a good romp, but let's not take it too seriously.

[moiterei_1984]

Well, I'd say the Song of the Nibelungs for example should be perfectly suited for adaption in Saga as well... Hagen von Tronje and friends 

[Captain Blood]

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.

[NurgleHH]

I wonder if they take it serious with saga in the moment. Their new project - Congo - seems to be more important. For us in Germany we are in the lucky position, that stronghold-terrain with the German translation take it really serious. Only some new army-list would be not enough.

[armchairgeneral]

Finally!
Me too. Exactly the same feelings on it.

Just getting into Saga. When I leant the game I thought, with the feel of it, Arthurian would be its natural home so this great news. Don't quite see why it will be so long before it comes out.

[WillieB]

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!

[Captain Blood]

Well this has been promised almost since Saga first appeared, but I had almost given up hope of it ever appearing. My Saxon army is ready. Better crack on with the Arthurians I guess!
Wonder if there will be new dice. I guess the Romano -Brits could use the Celtic dice and the Germanic invaders the later Saxon dice? But I'm feeling they won't miss the moneyspinning opportunity of producing some Roman dice...

[Poiter50]

Roman Dice - drool! 

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!

[Studio Tomahawk]

Hi all,

As there were quite a lot of replies and heated discussions about our forthcoming supplement for Saga, I thought it might be helpful to highlight our intentions with this book.

Some have noted that it has always been our intent to produce a book and a set of factions for the Arthurian period. Saga takes its roots in the heroic deeds and stories of larger than life characters and the Arthurian fits the bill!

But we wanted also to expand it beyond the boundaries of the British Isles, and tell the story of the Roman civilisation being besieged and struggling against the so-called "barbarians". Hence the inclusion of the Romans (late romans in wargaming terms), the Huns and the Goths. They also offer their share of heroes, with Aetius, Attila, Theodoric and quite a few others. In the same way as with Crescent & Cross and the crusades in the Holy Land and in Spain, you have two sets of factions for two distinct geographic areas: The Britons facing their Picts and Saxon ennemies, and the Romans and their Hunnic and Gothic foes (and there are actually quite a lot a variant factions in the book, to present other protagonists of this period, using existing boards but with new faction rules).

So basically, Invasion is a setting that depicts the hopeless struggle of the remnants of the Roman Empire. The fall of the west simply said.

For the lack of Sassanids, it is basically a matter of focus. We wanted to stay focussed on the Western half of the Empire for this period as opening the East would have added quite a lot other factions to the list, and 6 factions is the maximum we can fit in a book. It doesn't mean that the Persians (and their nellies!) won't appear one day  but not in that one. 

For the question of the time it took to get this book ready (which isn't actually the case right now, though we are progressing), all I can say that the team working on Invasion has started the design work some 2 years ago. It actually takes a painfully long time to get a Saga supplement done, and much of this time is devoted to playtesting the factions, the interaction between them and balancing out everything. We do not claim this balance to be perfect, but it is something that we consider as really vital to keep the game healthy. Hence the long time, especially if you consider that all people working with ST do that on their spare time, with no full-time employee.

Regarding the question about the lack of love for Saga and the focus on Congo, all I can say is that the teams behind Saga and Congo are actually not the same, and the development of one has no impact on the development on the other. We have more stuff in the pipeline for Saga, we had a slow start after Crescent & Cross as we had new people taking Saga in charge, but now everything is back on track!

As for the commercial aspect all I can say is nobody at Studio Tomahawk is working on a full-time basis, and we produce basically what we want to play. If it sells well, we're happy fews. If it doesn't, we can live with it. We are first and foremost gamers ourselves!

Thanks for all the interest for this book.

[Captain Blood]

Thanks for taking the time to explain that, Studio Tomahawk. Always good to hear it 'from the horse's mouth'  

Thanks for coming onto LAF too. I hope you'll continue to keep the community here up to date with further developments.

[Nord]

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?

[Captain Blood]

Gripping Beast? Didn't they have Picts in their original (Patten-sculpted) ranges?

[Eric the Shed]

excellent stuff...

bought crescent and cross ...painted the figures and yet to play the game

suspect i'll buy this put together a late roman army and watch the dust build