Ish

I know there are PDF copies out there… But I don’t think I’ve seen any for sale. If you take my meaning.

@Painglove and I will be getting some Necro all mixed up with our Munda.

I’ve always wanted to play both games, but own no miniatures and haven’t played either one. By inclination, I think of myself as a historicals wargamer. But for simply pragmatic reasons, I only ever seem to play WH40k and the occasional fantasy game.

It’s all there for me…? My Gang

Oh? What’s missing?

The core rulebook is about $15.00 USD direct from Gripping Beast; the various Age of ______ supplements are all about $40.00 USD. You have to have at least one of the Age of ____ supplements in order to play at all and obviously need to have the appropriate one for each period. Age of Alexander covers Alexander’s conquest of the Achæmenid Persian Empire (c. 334 BCE); Age of Hannibal covers the Punic Wars (c. 264 to 146 BCE); Age of Invasions covers the Migration Period and the fall of the western Roman Empire (c. 375 to 568 CE); Age of Vikings covers the Viking Age (c. 793 to 1066 CE); and Age of Crusades covers the first several crusades into the Levant (c. 1095 to 1291 CE) and the Northern Crusads (c. 1147 to 1410 CE). Age of Magic isn’t a historical period, obviously, but takes the same basic mechanics and turns it into a fantasy game with wizards and dragons. There’s long been rumors of supplements for either Japan’s Sengoku Period or Genoei War; China’s Three Kingdoms or Warring States Period; or possibly the golden age of pirates. Nothing official has happened with that though you can find fanmade supplements. Mechanically, there’s really no reason you can’t have a game between different eras. It’s anachronistic as hell, but you can totally have a game where Hannibal Barca gets into a scrap with Saladin.

Saga: Age of Vikings has twelve factions available: The Vikings (‘natch), Anglo Danes, Anglo Saxons, Carolingians (a.k.a, Franks), Irish, Jomsvikings, the Last Romans (a.k.a., Byzantine Empire), Normans, Norse-Gaels, Rus, Scots, and Welsh. Each has their own unique play style and the core rulebook does a very good job of explaining the strengths and weaknesses of each. Also a page or two long historical overview of the people the faction represents. Of course, if you want more detailed “fluff” you can just look them up on Wikipedia or the History Channel.

I actually used to be a herald in the SCA. More than happy to help plan any paint schemes you want to make for your shields.

Well, the Victrix set I linked to is sixty models, so… I guess that’s sixty dudes to paint. They’re pretty much the same as any plastic miniatures you’d buy from GW, so nothing really special is needed if you’ve already got the tools to paint GW models. “Dark Ages” clothing was usually a lot of natural materials, earth tones, and muted colors. So you can get really great results with just the basic “block base colors and sepia wash” speed-painting technique.

That’s what I love about historical games; No one can claim “intellectual property” over something like ‘10th Century Norse Guy with Spear” or “16th Century German with Zweihander.” which means no one miniature manufacturer can really lock any competitors out… Which means prices tend to be very low compared to games like Star Wars or Hamwarmer 40,000

Saga is usually played at the 6-Point game size. With 4-Point games recommended for learning the game and 12-Point games being reserved for big epic clashes. The point system is pretty much the same across all the various games: One Point buys you four Hearthguard (elite soldiers), eight Warriors (mid-tier average soldiers), or twelve Levies (the crappy guys). Everybody gets one Warlord to lead their forces for free. (There’s a couple optional things that can monkey with this formula, but this is still how 95% of armies operate). So a 6-point army will consist of a minimum of 25 to a maximum of 73 miniatures. Usually something closer to 30 to 45. [Gripping Beast](https://www.grippingbeast.co.uk/SAGA_Age_of_Vikings_4_Point_Starter_Warbands--category--11.html) has 4-Point Starter Warbands that range in price from $30 to $100, if you want a sort of “one stop shop.” But the absolute best value for your dollar is probably [Victrix](https://www.victrixlimited.com/en-us/products/vikings?variant=32093015703651). Their Vikings set has 18 unarmoured figures, 24 armoured figures in chainmail, and 6 figures in padded armour. Use the unarmored and padded armor guys as 24 Levies (two points), use sixteen of the armored figures as Warriors (two points), and eight of the armored guys as Hearthguard (two points). Find a cool Viking hero figure from Reaper Minis or wherever for your warlord. Bam! Six point Saga army for about $35 dollars.

The crossbow is optional, but the mail coif is required.

Martok ‘24! Make Qo’noS Honorable Again!

I agree with @Brother Glacius, “flat pack” terrain sounds great on paper but is a bit of a drag when repeated assembly and disassembly ruins the paint job. Stackable would be good, nesting would be even better.

List for perusing: https://yaktribe.games/underhive/gang/d.a.r.e._to_keep_kids_off_cults.440450/

Using our sesquipedalian loquaciousness, abstruse jargon, and sibylline patois in order to elude interpretation and eschew cognizance is a well-documented aspect of geek culture.

In my (limited) experience, mêlée in Necromunda is a very high risk, high reward play strategy and it requires a very keen tactical eye for reading the terrain. You want to try to engage in combats where, once the target it dead, none of his friends have LOS to your newly exposed attacker… Or at least, their LOS is obscured or very long range. Most of my play experience has been with the Palanites. Who are a short ranged shooty gang… They get stomped in mêlée and have very little that can reach out beyond 12”. Escher, Goliath, and Corpsegrinders are the bane of my existence.

As a general rule, the Compendium factions tend to be less flexible than the bespoke factions, often being very strong in one or two areas of gameplay, but as they tend to have very “same-y” rosters they usually do pretty poorly in some other areas of the game. None of them are truly *bad* in the game, but they’re mostly solidly mid-tier. A few of them (such as Talons of the Emperor, Compendium Space Marines, Compendium Imperial Guard) are so damn good at the things they’re good at that they jump out of the middle-tier and can hang with the top tier teams. (The Compendium Kroot team is pretty bad, but the bespoke Kroot team is great and can easily be proxied without buying their specific Kill Team models.) Basically, if you just want to have fun and play using the toy soldiers you’ve already got, the Compendium teams are fine. Player skill and a kindly dice god will matter more than the list. If you have visions of yourself holding the LVO Trophy aloft in glory and want to eke out every last +0.015% of points efficiency, then you probably want one of the bespoke teams.