SAGA Huns and SAGA Steppe Tribes: Why so different?

[WuZhuiQiu]

Now that I have a copy of Aetius & Arthur, I am rather surprised that the Huns and Steppe Tribes are so different. Yes, they may have been centuries apart, but their nomadic lifestyle and fighting techniques ought to have been quite similar. Was SAGA's Steppe Tribes list too difficult to use?

Regardless, if transplanted to the Steppe Tribes list, the Hunnic Hearthguard could just as well represent Mongol Hearthguard. Have people done much hybridisation among SAGA lists?

[WuZhuiQiu]

I don't expect a simulation, but I was expecting some consistency.

Does anybody have a more helpful, less "strawman argument" reply?

P.S.: If I had really wanted to play a "simulation", I would not even have considered SAGA, but focused on something else instead, such as DBMM. The fact that I am willing to play SAGA implies that I am not necessarily looking for a simulation. Please also note how I wasn't asking some picky question about details, but simply why the overall impressions of both "impressionistic" armies are so different!

[Lt. Hazel]

I know exactly what you mean, because I had the same thoughts when I read my A&A copy for the first Time. Apart from your points I find the Chosen dice a bit odd, I think the brown dice fit better.
That said, as far as I know nobody really knows what a hun raiding party looked like. They included so many Other people that I would use the "official" huns list as well as the steppe Tribes list. And I See no reason why you couldn't transfer the nobles, just give it a try.

[WuZhuiQiu]

Agreed re. the dice, since the motifs on the Scots / Irish / Picts dice resemble both the symbols that have been postulated for Huns and Xiongnu art (I know, maybe unrelated to Huns).

Although the horse and spangenhelm may be suitable, the axe on the recommended dice seems odd for Huns, unless you view them as being like the lead singer of Tengger Cavalry (Nature G.) with his tomahawk...!

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm7359683/resumephotos?ref_=nm_ov_resph

[ayak333]

I dont have A&A, and I was under the assumption that the Huns would play like the Steppe Tribes as well. Are they more melee oriented? Whats the unit composition/types available?

[SteveBurt]

The short answer to why they are so different is because it makes for a more interesting game to have differences between the battleboards. There's nothing stopping you fielding your Huns as Steppe Tribes if you wish.

[Mad Doc Morris]

Also they come in separate books, and there would've been an uproar if they had simply recycled an existing list.

As always, use whatever takes your fancy.

[axabrax]

What does it matter? The beauty of it is you can use your figures  with either list depending on your mood or your opponent.  Don't look a gift horse in the mouth 

[Bowman]

The short answer to why they are so different is because it makes for a more interesting game to have differences between the battleboards.

This.

Might as well ask why the Vikings, Jomsvikings and Norse-Gaels are different. It's a game and provides some interesting differences in gameplay where none may have been existed in reality.