"What do I need to play SAGA?" Topic

When you buy the main SAGA book, do you get the materials (battle boards, dice) to play the game? What sorts of armies does the basic game support? British Celts, Saxons, Vikings? Or do you have to buy supplement packs for each army you want to field?

What if I want to play an army that GB hasn't statted, like my lovely Saracens? Can you point me towards some fan-made resources for unofficial factions?

You should try it, it's a lot of fun.

There's a forum and probably something for the Saracens on there:
link

In the basic set you get Vikings, Normans, Anglo-Danes, and Welsh. You need SAGA dice, but you can get by with d6s – there is a mapping.

You can get around the cost of the special dice by ordering your own blank dice and downloading the specific icons from the Saga forum. I am sure someone will be along in a bit with the links. I have played the game once and it is fun and a good way to get folks into Dark Ages gaming. Over all it is a well done game but I am put off by the special dice purchasing requirement.

And here's a link TMP link

NWS-Online sells the dice packs for $15.00 USD each. They also have a bunch of the other stuff for SAGA as well. I just got a rulebook and a Norman Starter and Viking Starter from them for a better deal than I found anywhere else on the web.

link

dont forget to grow a full viking beard! It helps you win tied die rolls for initiative haha

The game has the rules and battleboards.
It doesn't have saga dice. You can use d6, but it is a bit of a nuisance; it's easier to sue the dice with symbols.
Blank dice with indented sides are £2.50 GBP for a set of 8.
Download the stickers, stick them on the dice, varnish to protect, and your are good to go.

If you are not in a big hurry to get started they are releasing a stand alone Crusades book (all the rules plus battle boards) for SAGA in the undefined future (early 2014?) It is aimed to be compatible with all the previous SAGA stuff so it will let you play Saracens versus any of the pre-existing factions.

But then you would be missing out on months of SAGA playing and you might not be able to forgive yourself for that.

You're right, nochules. I want it NOW! Fortunately I have some minis from an Arthurian rpg that could double as Anglo-danes.

It's worth it to buy the dice. I would go for it. The miniatures are just skins for the battle boards. In my opinion you can use any figures you want within reason so long as the rules remain consistent. For instance, I could see using late Romans with the Anglo-Saxon board and Goths as Vikings. Or perhaps you could do Normans as Crusaders and Saracens as Byzantines or some such. Although I think there's also an Arab conquest board in Wargames Illustrated. The only place I see more people go to far is when they try to create their own battle boards. I tried play testing a few and they are often unbalanced. You are better off using established board with different figures.

I'm a bit confused. What do you mean by "board"?

In SAGA each army has a "battle board" that lists all the actions and modifiers that army can use as well as which dice you need to spend to activate it. It is a pretty innovative way to differentiate the abilities of each army without resorting to a whole bunch of special rules.