SAGA

[Luddite]

I suppose it wouldn't be that different for 10mm, my only worry with doing this in 10mm would be representing hero figures?

They're the ones with the eyebrows painted on?   

[Steve J]

I would have thought that the command pack figures would work well as heroes and be distinguishable even in 10mm. Maybe brighter colours to make them stand out as well?

[Kassad]

I suppose it wouldn't be that different for 10mm, my only worry with doing this in 10mm would be representing hero figures?

You can add scratchbuild mantles to commander figures.

[Gandalf]

Fair enough but i don't agree...

Fine.  We'll leave it at that then 

[Kassad]

I bought SAGA yesterday. The warlord could be mounted on bigger base than followers so no identification problem I think.

[AndyT]

I paid for a set of Saga rules from Maelstrom six weeks ago but they've only just posted them to me. Until they arrive I'll just read this thread rather than join in 

[Kassad]

Played yesterday, first scenario (a simple "kill the boss.. or how many enemies you can") with 4 points warband. Great ruleset for me. My friends and me had a lots of fun. We used 25mm mnis but, in my opinion is quite easy use 10mm soldiers in game, the simple rules about LoS, area terrain and base to base contacts in melee helps.

[Nosher]

http://nosherswargames.blogspot.com/

My Anglo-Danish warband which has been distracting me from two things:

1.  The One True Wargaming Scale

2.  My Lead Mountain - where I promised not to be distracted by any new shinys...

SAGA is definately worth a go - could easily be done in 10mm and the dice issue can easily be got around. There's also a new supplement coming out including 4 new factions which will improve things dramatically giving more options in terms of game play.

And no I'm not on commission...   

[Luddite]

Down at Burton for Badcon (Burton FoG Doubles) tournament a week or two ago i popped into Spirit Games (highly recommended if you ever find yourself in the otherwise pretty grim city of Burton).

Aside from nearly pushing over a rather attractive young lady in a wheelchair, and then purchasing SG's only shelf copy of the game she was after 5 minutes before she got to it ( ) i did find myself with the SAGA rules in my hand.  I've heard good things, but just couldn't bring myself to shell out £25...not sure why...

I think i just sort of instinctively objected to the GW-style marketing ploy of 'needing' all the peripherals like dice etc.

[Nosher]

The *dice* are genuinely not an issue. And they are always out of stock anyway which would be frustrating if I ever felt the need to pay £12 for 8d6.

I kitbashed 8 dice I had with the stickers available on the website and they work perfectly well.

I have also bought some very cheap blank dice off ebay which when I have time I will hand paint the symbols on.

£25 notes is steep for what is an awful lot of fluff, but it seems to be the going rate for most rulesets nowadays.

[Luddite]

I noticed that actually Nosher.

£25-30 seems about the going rate whether its a 350 page epic ruleset (like the recent Waterloo rules i bought), or something evidently 'bashed out on a photocopier' like SAGA.

Wierd.

Personally i get very annoyed with 'padded' rules.  Most rulesets can be distilled down to about 15-20 pages of actual rules (crunch) when you take out all the fluff and 'wargames pr0n' pictures...

I also think that most i've bought recently have been exceptionally poorly written, imprecise, under-developed, dreadfully indexed, and generally overstuffed.   

IF you're going to include fluff, fine, but sidebar it, or put it in an appendix.  I'm waiting for the hallowed day when i read a clear, concise, well written ruleset in a format that's usable at the table.  Floppy A4 comb-bound, or 4lb of thermal-bound foolscap cardboard are neither.

[fred.]

I don't think you can really accuse Gripping Beast of GW style marketing - while the Saga dice are very nicely produced, they are expensive, but, and it is a significant but, GB have made several PDFs of the dice symbols available on their website, which can be downloaded to make your own dice. And in the rule book it explains how to use standard d6 to represent the symbols. Blank dice are available for less than £3, putting the stickers on is a bit of a faff - for the Viking dice its much easier just to paint the rune symbols on.

The Saga rules are pretty much just rules, with examples, there is little if any filler in the book - as part of the price you get the 4 heavy cardboard battle boards, which I'm sure will have pushed up the production costs.

The different battle boards for each faction are what makes Saga, the basic rules are quite straight forward.

I've been considering the Pendraken range for a set of 10mm Saga figures - you could probably do all 4 factions at 6pts for not too much. The Welsh are the only tricky ones, and Late Romans will probably fill most of the requirements.

[geoffb]

Just picked up the rules and they really do look fun.
The price of £25 is indeed steep so it comes down to whether they will have durability and I think the answer looks to be yes.
I am going the 28mm route and will just pick up a pack a month (anything from £2.50 for a warlord figure to £12 for a 12 man unit) until I have them all painted and ready. I think you need about 3 units and a Warlord for the smallest games so only about 3 months for me to play. As I intend to paint up a unit alongside my usual stuff it will be a nice diversion and give me time to prepare for a game.
You could easily do it in 10mm and halve the distances or use cm. It only requires a 3x4 foot table in 28mm so you are talking a DBA sized board or smaller at half distances or substituting cm for inches.
I don't think they are a serious set for recreating dark ages games (although TooFatLardies are working on an post-roman set that should fit that bill) but look to be a great skirmish game taking about an hour or so in a nice compact space.