Saga is a game for playing Dark Age battles. The initially released armies and army lists centred around the British Isles and nearby countries. The main rules included Vikings, Anglo-Danish, Normans and Welsh.
Due to the popularity of the game, Anglo-Saxons, Bretons, Jomsvikings and Scots were added in a supplement called “Northern Fury”.
The second supplement is called “The Raven’s Shadow”. It adds Irish, Norse-Gaels, Franks and the Strathclyde Welsh.
The third supplement expanded the game east: to cover the Byzantines, Paga Rus and Princes Rus.
 |
 |
Saga typically uses 28mm figures, although of course it is possible to use any scale by proportioning the measurements. Special dice are used, although it is possible to use standard 6 sided dice.
Each race has their own “Battle Board” which gives special abilities and differentiates the fighting styles of the various races.
There are 3 pictures on each die. They appear 3, 2 and 1 time respectively, so this makes some combinations of dice rolls harder to achieve. The dice are rolled and then placed on your “Battle Board” to choose which abilities you can use. For example, some abilities add extra Attack Dice, some add extra Defense Dice, some push opponents away, and so on.
There are 4 levels of troops:
- Warlord. You must have a Warlord. He is free. He is the leader, of course, and is on a large round base. All the other foot figures are on smaller 25mm round bases.
- Hearthguard. 4 Hearthguard figures cost you 1 point. These are the picked fighters of the Warlord. They are usually armoured better tha the average fighter and are more skilful.
- Warriors. 8 Warrior figures cost you 1 point. These are your standard fighters. They will usually have some armour and some training but are not as skilled as the Hearthguard.
- Levy. 12 Levy figures cost you 1 point. These are typicall unarmoured or poorly armoured. They often have missile weapons (bows or javelins) as they are not as good at hand-to-hand combat.
A starter army is typically 4 points, with a standard game being 6 points.