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Played my first game today and it was great fun.
I was losing badly as Normans vs. Vikings, but decided to charge my opponents warlord with my own. I charged through a unit of warriors, wiping them out, then activated again and made it to his warlord. I got lucky and barely killed him, winning the game (we were playing the "kill the warlord scenario").

Glad you enjoyed it, Its a fab game!

I'm really interested in starting this game, it seems really awesome. Can some one give me some basics about how the game works thougth?

There are some battle reports on wwpd to take a look at if you're interested.
http://www.wwpd.net/2012/07/whats-been-going-on-over-at-tapestry.html

Thanks a lot. That was really helpfull. I want to start it even more now!

SAGA also has its own Forum, full of good stuff and you get questions answered by the bloke who wrote them

http://studiotomahawk.freeforums.org/

Which miniatures did you use?

Crusader miniatures, Conquest games, Wargames Foundry, Gripping Beast, Old Glory and Wargames Factory are all in there. Did you want to know about any figure in particular?

Yeah, sorry, should have been more clear. What company(s)'s minis did you use for your Anglo-Dane army?

And how does the game play?

The Anglo-Danes are a bit of a mixture. Largely they are from the Gripping Beast Saxon Plastic set but have been modified using Wargames Factory parts to give more variety, lots of conversion work went into that force. There are a couple of Straight Wargames Factory plastics there as well. The Slingers are Gripping beast metals and the General is a Gripping beast Character figure that was Ltd edition when the book was on pre-order.

The rules simple to learn but give a very tactically complex game, you really have to think long and hard and plan moves in advance.

Awesome armies you've got there!

SAGA really is a great game, and it's really popular at our local club at the moment, probably because it's such a easy game to understand but still really challenging.

You've definitely inspired me to get on with painting up the rest of my forces and get some games in!

Sounds cool. I really want to start it now!

Well donne, great looking armies. Its always great to see such levels of detailed work

Are the models for SAGA from Gripping Beast 25 or 28mm?

I found these rather nice looking models from Essex Miniatures that are 25mm, and wondered if they would be suitable in scale?

http://www.essexminiatures.co.uk/collections/25mm-ancient-anglo-saxon-617-1014ad

I think the Gripping Beast figs are 28mm. Having said that, you can use what ever figures you want to build your army. An army made of Essex figures will work just as well as one made by Gripping Beast.

OK great thanks for that. Have also been looking at these from 'Crusader Miniatures' http://www.crusaderminiatures.com/list.php?cat=4&sub=12&page=1

Really like the idea of using Normans (and quite like their style with the chainmail hauberks), but do you know if they are very effective in game?

25mm isnt too bad with 28mm, you could always say "they're a band of shorties!"

Crusader minis are very good though too


Sigh....still waiting on Gripping Beasts to make more plastics. They have been very quiet on any news of more plastics

Sorry to necro this thread a little, but it seems a bit silly to begin a whole new thread, I am looking at branching out my hobby, into this game as a few guys from my LGS play it, and I am thinking of picking up the Irish faction, because of my heritage. Any one know of good models to represent these? Any points in the right direction much appreciated.

There's the plastic generic Dark Age warriors from Gripping Beast, you may want to start there.


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There's also the army bundles on their website.

Eldercaveman wrote:
Sorry to necro this thread a little, but it seems a bit silly to begin a whole new thread, I am looking at branching out my hobby, into this game as a few guys from my LGS play it, and I am thinking of picking up the Irish faction, because of my heritage. Any one know of good models to represent these? Any points in the right direction much appreciated.

Gripping Beast make Irish for the game (not that you really need to stay brand loyal to Gripping Beast...)



http://www.architectsofwar.com/sagairishwarbandstarter.aspx

Pretty sure Old Glory make some suitable figures too. Some of these would work (look in the Viking slayer section for sure).

http://oldglory25s.com/index.php?cat_id=204&catname=Dark+Ages Some of their other ranges will have useful figs too. http://oldglory25s.com/index.php?page=2&cat_id=196

West Wind have some in their Arthur line.

 CptJake wrote:

Eldercaveman wrote:
Sorry to necro this thread a little, but it seems a bit silly to begin a whole new thread, I am looking at branching out my hobby, into this game as a few guys from my LGS play it, and I am thinking of picking up the Irish faction, because of my heritage. Any one know of good models to represent these? Any points in the right direction much appreciated.

Gripping Beast make Irish for the game (not that you really need to stay brand loyal to Gripping Beast...)



http://www.architectsofwar.com/sagairishwarbandstarter.aspx

Pretty sure Old Glory make some suitable figures too. Some of these would work (look in the Viking slayer section for sure).

http://oldglory25s.com/index.php?cat_id=204&catname=Dark+Ages Some of their other ranges will have useful figs too. http://oldglory25s.com/index.php?page=2&cat_id=196

West Wind have some in their Arthur line.

Thanks for the response and the links, but I should have been more specific, I am in need of UK based suppliers,EU at a push.

West Wind and Gripping Beast are UK based.

 CptJake wrote:
West Wind and Gripping Beast are UK based.

Awesome thanks, I'll check them both out.

Any good models for the Scottish does anyone know?

Huzzah, a saga thread!

^Gripping Beast's Scots are great. I'm a big fan of warlord's celts, too.

I play Welsh, although with Raven's shadow (acquired today, my heavens it's tasty) I can run strathclyde and Irish off my extant force:


These were speed painted and dark shaded. Army in a week

Irish get wolfhounds as an alternative to one unit of warriors; I already planned on mixing up my levy with dogs for variety. The only niggle is Irish don't get armour, so chain mail dudes are out :(
Strathclyde are all mounted, which is how I run my welsh anyway. Also, they can have units appear from off table. Oh, plus one of their specials turns them into quasi-Romans: all on foot, with tortoise formations (a really great piece of historical representation of Wales as last bastion of roman empire).

Franks are bizarre and complex, and come in 3 flavours on the one board.
Norse-Gaels are magic Christian Vikings. Bit weird.

Raven's shadow also allows larger units to take banners at no extra cost. They are awesome (allows units to res more than once a turn) and potentially a must have.

All in all, it's a great expansion, although not really for beginners.

Incidentally, a great alternative is to use Arion Games' paper historicals. I wouldn't recommend Wargames Foundry's plastics - mould lines down the middle of faces poor.

Anyway, great to see a place here to chat about one of the greatest games out there!


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Oh - if anyone's going to Salute, they will be there with pre-release copies of the ancients rules!

Motograter wrote:
Any good models for the Scottish does anyone know?

I have just finished a 4pt Scots war band for a forthcoming club event. I bought the Gripping Beast boxed war band and the figures are beautiful, they look like they could walk away at a moments notice... :-)

The boxed set comes with a warlord, two units of hearth guards "thanes" and two units of warriors. All have separate weapons and shields. Very well made and a snip at approx. £33

Hope this helps you.

Motograter wrote:
Any good models for the Scottish does anyone know?

Schletrum does really good figures at good prices: http://www.scheltrum.co.uk/loti281.html

ETA: And I played my first game of SAGA the other night, amazing game, easy to pick up and very enjoyable! Does anyone know if they'll also cover later Medieval periods?

I've heard from someone who works for Gripping Beast that there is a lot more coming..

Actually that's my hope as well.. I would love to see this system expanded into an early or mid-medieval period. Although I realise that it might present difficulties to accurately represent, in terms of the forms of warfare they employed then, and the use of longbows and things like that on a board (I mean.. I find that it completely destroys the illusion of reality to have modern artillery pieces on a table at 28mm scale, unless they are objectives.. something like a Welshman with a longbow or a Parvisse Crossbowman is only marginally better!)

Motograter wrote:
Any good models for the Scottish does anyone know?

Irish and Scots can easily be represented by the same miniatures, afterall the Scots were essentially Irish in this period. Picts and, to a lesser extent, Welsh can be used as well. Vikings and Hiberno/Norse can also be used to represent nobles and Islemen.

My WAB Scottish army is mostly Gripping beast with a smattering of westwind.

Likewise, my welsh serve as strathclyde/Irish. Warlord's plastics are excellent.