"Tell me of SAGA..." Topic

A friend and I are looking at getting into SAGA. I have a couple questions that I hope you might be able to help guide us on…

I see there are supplements and a version 2 of the game. How do I tell the difference? Are they named something slightly different, different covers, etc? I want to make sure I don't accidentally buy the wrong (older) rule book.

What about the supplements, are they specifically for version 1 or 2 and how do I tell the difference?

Are the dice sets required when starting out? It looks like they are standard D6s so could we just have a chart to figure out what rolls mean what? I've seen people have made their own custom dice, any recommendations for that?

The new version is called Saga 2.

There are a few compatible supplements all the others are being re-done.

link

You can either make your own dice or else make a copy of the "battle board" and change the "runes" from symbols to numbers, or you can make your own dice.

You can get by on the dice with normal d6. It's easier with the real dice, but they are not required.

The older books have a different cover. The new edition has black covers. The rules are a separate soft cover book. The period supplements, which come with the battle boards, are hard cover books.

The first edition has a few different periods. Vikings, Crusades, and Late Roman. The books have a redish cover.

Having played both editions, there is a bit of a difference in the feel of the game but not much. If I were starting and had no plan on playing tournaments, I would buy the first edition books. They are cheap right now and the game is very playable. The new edition didn't really fix things that were broken so much as tweak around the edges.

That being said, the new edition is going to have expansions for fantasy and non-European armies.

I'll be going with V2. What's "broken" and is there anything we should avoid that might ruin it if we are playing non-competitively?

Does the V2 book contain Battle Boards and army lists, or do you have to buy the expansions for all that?

Can you mix the periods, like if my buddy wants to play Vikings and I want to do Late Romans?

The V2 rule book is just the rules; to play the game you would have to buy the Age of Vikings or the Age of the Crusades supplements which both come with the battleboards. You could also buy the Aetius and Arthur supplement as well as the updated battleboards. From what I understand the factions are not really balanced between the supplements.

v2 is simpler and has cleaned up some of the murkier areas in v1. The factions are probably a bit more balanced, too; some of the later v1 factions were much better than the older ones.

Having played both (quite a lot of SAGA1 and maybe 5-6 games of SAGA2), and if I was starting from scratch I would definitely go with SAGA2.

No question about it in my mind, buying the SAGA1 material at discounted prices will end up being a false economy.

What John said, if starting out fresh I'd go SAGA 2. The new layout is very clean and the game is structured for plenty of expansion into different genres. You need the core rule book and the expansion book for the era you are interested in. These two books will contain everything you need to play, including the battle boards. When you know what faction in that era you want to play, it's a good idea (but not essential) to get the relevant Saga picture dice. Each set of dice can be used for several factions.