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SAGA: Aetius Arthur


Koyote

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With this supplement, you are invited to discover a new era through your Saga games. After Viking expeditions in Saga: Dark Age skirmishes, and the crusades in The Crescent and the Cross, you will be invited to enter the Great Invasions era.

In 406 AD, some Germanic tribes cross the frozen Rhine to invade the Western Roman Empire, plundering Gaul, Spain and finally North Africa. Four years later, in 410 AD, Rome is plundered by the Visigoths of Alaric. To counter those exceptional threats, the Roman army is forced to leave Great Britain. The local populations are now alone to face their own opponents, Picts and Saxons. Meanwhile, a new threat appears in the east. The Huns subject many barbarian tribes, and then follow their advance to the Roman Empire.

This century is particularly rich and eventful. It is full of great historical, sometimes nearly legendary figures as Attila, Aetius or Arthur.

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New Factions

Obviously, you will find new factions for this new period. Six new battle boards are contained in this supplement, so you could play the fall of the Western Empire on the continent, and the invasion of the island of Britain. On the continent, you will find the Romans themselves, the Goths (you will have the choice to play an Ostrogoth or Visigoth warband) and the formidable Huns. In Britain, there will be Britons (the heirs of Roman civilization), Picts and Saxons. Of course, you can play all those factions against each other (some of them were equally present in Britain or on the continent) and against factions from other supplements.

 

New mercenaries

Aetius & Arthur contains some mercenaries, who can be hired only by factions of the Great Invasions era. You will see again some old friends, like the steppe nomads, but also new ones as Roman deserters or Foederati.

 

New options for existing factions

A chapter is entirely dedicated to some already existing factions. They are given new game options for the Great Invasions era. It is some kind of sub-list for the concerned factions: it gives them a new Hero or Legendary unit, an access to some mercenaries of Aetius & Arthur and, for some ones, new equipment options.

 

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  • 3 months later...

My copy of Aetius Arthur arrived in the mail yesterday.  I've only had time skim through it, but I love what I've seen so far.  They've done some really clever stuff and added some fun new units and rules.  

Basic Rundown:

Aetius Arthur includes 6 all new factions:  Romans, Britons, Huns, Saxons, Goths, and Picts. They've also included 5 additional factions that, with a few tweaks, use Viking Age faction rules and battle boards.  These are the Salian Franks (Franks), Eastern  Romans (Byzantines), Scotti (Irish),  Art Clut & Manaw Gododdin (Strathclyde), and Cymry (Welsh).

AA also introduces 3 types of new equipment: the Francisca (Frankish throwing axe),  War Chariots ( Scotti and Picts), and the Manuballista (Romans).  

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The new Mercenary units are the Steppe Warriors, the Foederati (barbarian auxiliaries), the Sea Wolves (Scotti, Frank, and Saxon raiders), Hounds (yes, everyone now gets doggies), Vascone Scouts (mountain scouts). Guides (locals who know the lay of the land), and Deserters (ex-Roman soldiers turned to banditry).  

The campaign rules are designed for two players, one plays a Roman garrison on the frontier, and the other represents the barbarian invaders.  

For this book, the special characters are called Heroes of the Invasion.  And yes, if you play Britons you can play Arthur Pendragon.  His army may include only Hearthguard and may not include Mercenaries. There are some abilities on the Briton battle board that can only be used by units within 2" of the warlord.  Arthur removes the 2" requirement.  As a beloved chief, each model sacrificed by Arthur's Resilience rule absorbs 2 wounds instead of 1.  Arthur's skill and "supposed magic sword" grant him 6 attack dice and prevents enemies from using Arthur's fatigue to increase the enemy's Armor value.

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The Designers Notes are quite interesting. Aetius Arthur was not written by the regular Tomahawk guys, but instead the authors are SAGA fans who had made their own rules for this period and were approached by Tomahawk to turn those rules into an official supplement.  My guess is that this introduction of new blood into the SAGA design is why this book feels to me like such a big leap forward in design and flavor.
 

 

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SAGA Dark Age Skirmishes plus all of the current FAQs & Errata will provide you with a complete, updated set of the core rules. If you buy the 3 paperback supplements and download the Steppe Tribes and Skraeling rules, you will have all of the rules for the Dark Age factions.   To complicate matters even further, there are a number of Swords for Hires (mercenaries) and Heroes of the Viking Age (special characters) that are not in any of the books.  Thse must be downloaded (for free) from Studio Tomahawk or, in some instances, if you purchase the Gripping Beast models, the blisters contain a small rule card.

 

A couple of years ago, Studio Tomahawk released SAGA: The Crescent & The Cross.  This book contains a compete, updated set of core rules, plus the rules for all of the Crusades equipment, units, and factions.

 

Last year, Studio Tomahawk release SAGA Age of the Wolf.  This book contains campaign rules for playing in a Dark Age setting and some new scenarios but no core rules or new units.

 

SAGA Aetius & Arthur is brand new.  This book contains the rules for a Roman vs Barbarians mini-campaign and all of the rules for Great Invasion equipment, units, and factions, but no core rules.

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  • 8 months later...
  • Jay unpinned this topic
  • 1 year later...

Studio Tomahawk is teasing on its Facebook page the next edition of Age of Invasions.

The new edition is rumored to include all the original factions (i.e., Britons, Picts, Saxons, Goths, Romans, and Huns) plus two new full-factions.  We know that one of these is Franks.  The other remains a mystery.

Below is a shot to Tomahawk's FB page, depicting a large scale game of Romans vs Goths and Franks.

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  • 3 months later...

The new Age of Invasions book (aka Aetius & Arthur) is scheduled for release in September.  Studio Tomahawk previously teased that the new version will include the original factions plus battle boards for the Franks and an additional surprise faction.  The photos accompanying today’s Studio Tomahawk Facebook post seem to confirm that the new faction will be the Sassanids. Elephants!!!

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...
16 hours ago, Nellie said:

Sad there are no leaks for the battleboard of the House of Sasan! I guess I'll have to wait another month to see what they have in store.

This battle report linked below provides a sneak peek at the Sassinids and the Franks.

It looks like cataphract armor is a new equipment type.

The batrep mentions a new few abilities.  Once lets the Franks move or rest 3 units, and another that lets them receive no fatigue after a melee.  The Sassinids have an ability that allows their elephants to activate and do damage to units within S.  Another Sassinid ability appears to give comp bows the ability to shoot like regular bows.

" Having played the Sassanids now I feel there build is a rather unique one in SAGA. While they are all mounted with composite bows they dont feel like a skirmish faction. They feel very much like a list that can control the table would be the better build. Having pondered this theory i shalll be trying them again veery shortly in the following build. My warlord shall be in his cataphract armour with 2 points o f hearthguard also as cataphracts. I shall try the elephant again although I am considering a point of levy with bows. I shall then take 3 point of warriors split into 2 units of 10 and a unit of 4. I will include a unit into one of the warrior units as well. I feel this will allow better use of the abilities that want to focus on one unit at a time. While another rests. "

https://northerntempestnews.wordpress.com/2021/08/22/age-of-invasions-battle-report/

 

 

 

 

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