I copied this text from a French site and translated it using Google Chrome.
THE ORDERS PHASE
The Orders phase has been largely reworked. The generation of Saga dice is heavily modified:
- The Lord only generates one Saga die.
- Warrior units of less than 4 minigames no longer generate Saga die.
- Levy units of at least 6 minigames generate a Saga die.
- The mercenary units generate Saga dice just as any unit in their class.
Specifically, on a classic composition with 2 points of Guards, 1 point of Levées and 3 points of Warriors, you will generate the same number of Saga dice as v1. What will change is the speed with which you will lose them. No need to eliminate whole units, just reduce their numbers below the thresholds indicated above. It will now be rather risky to play small units of Warriors, except to have many. It will be necessary to think carefully of the articulation of his band in order to have enough dice Saga at the beginning of the game, all without presenting units too fragile that will lose dice Saga very quickly.
Some other major changes:
The limit of dice that we can throw goes from 6 to 8 . So if you have a band of small units, you can throw all your Saga dice at once.
The Saga dice you left on your board are no longer deducted from the dice you throw. This element will have its importance in play: you can consider keeping dice in reserve from one turn to another to use key abilities at the most convenient time.
However, you can no longer place half of a combination of dice on one ability in the hope of placing the other symbol on the next turn. You must place all the dice required for one ability at the same time.
The sum of these changes will often make it possible to roll more dice at the beginning of the game, especially during the second turn of the game where both bands will still be fresh and have been able to benefit from dice set aside during the first round; in return, the Saga dice supply will melt much faster, and we will think twice before making a useless fight for fear of his unit of Warriors falling below the fateful threshold of 4 figures ...
ACTIVATION PHASE
The Activation phase has also undergone some important changes:
To engage a melee, it will be necessary to perform a charge activation , which is distinct from the activation of movement. When you activate your unit, you must now declare that it activates for a charge and designate its target, which eventually allows your opponent to react accordingly. If, for any reason, your unit fails to engage its target, the activation of your unit is canceled. Your opponent will probably be less reluctant to exploit the Fatigue of your units to reduce their movement. Likewise, the Activation / Reaction Saga abilities that move one of your units before charging will become much more efficient since they will completely prevent the activated unit from moving.
Movement rules have been simplified. There is no longer a TC control zone around each unit. The obligation to charge an enemy located at C during a second activation, rule so often forgotten by the majority of players, also disappears . The only restriction is that all moves must be done in a straight line and that you can not place more than C figurines of the first figurine moved (forget the line of Levées which takes half the width of table). A slight flexibility is given to the cavalry who can use two M rglets instead of an L ruler to move around and thus avoid obstacles. Theload is also done in a straight line , including for riders who have in this case no option to use two strips of M.
These changes will allow players to solve their movement and charge activations more smoothly. You will no longer need to place multiple C and TC rulers around enemy units to make sure your unit will not have to load a unit you want to avoid; you'll just have to put your slider on the table and make sure it does not come into contact with an enemy unit, unless of course you want to load it!
Likewise, the fact that the charge is a specific activation will speed up the defender's decision-making for using the Attacker's Fatigue on Movement or Activation / Reaction abilities, since he will know exactly what his opponent wants to do. This will, of course, give the reactive player an edge, but that should help to smooth the game.
SHOOTING AND MELEE
Sequencing of shots and melee has been slightly modified. Now, players alternately play their Saga abilities, starting with the attacker, until both have passed their turn. The use of fatigue counts as the use of a Saga ability. This means that the order in which you use your Saga abilities will be even greater than it was in v1, especially if your abilities or those of your opponent depend on fatigue or armor value opposing. The consequence is twofold: on the one hand, a certain number of Saga abilities, which were useful only in attack (I think in particular to most capacities related to the absence of fatigue on its own units). In addition, it also implies that the defender can not wait to see what abilities his opponent will play before declaring his own.
The former Stage 2 melee, which allowed you to sacrifice attack dice to gain defense dice, has been modified. For the occasion, it was decked with a keyword: you will have to declare that your unit " closes the ranks ", which is much more practical than to say "I discard half of my dice of attack to win half of the dice discarded in additional defense dice ". Now you do not win any defense dice, but your unit has a solid cover, that is, it cancels the keys on 4+instead of 5+. This ability is also now restricted to units on foot that have no specific equipment, since riders and units equipped with shooting weapons are not allowed to close ranks. This restriction gives interest to pedestrians even when your chart tends to eclipse them in favor of other equipment. The advantage / disadvantage ratio is also much easier to calculate than with the defense dice gained in v1, which should speed up the decision on this during the game.
Now, all models have an aggression value, which refers to the number of attack dice they add to the combat pool (while we used to talk about generating attack dice). But, more importantly, the number of attack dice a unit can generate in hand-to-hand combat and fire will be limited: maximum 8 shooting dice and 16 hand-to-hand combat . You can, as before, earn additional dice with Saga abilities and special rules at the Saga ability-use stage ( maximum double your combat pool, so 16 shooting and 32 corps-to-combat). body ).
OTHER CHANGES
This new version contains a number of other changes that tend to remove situations that generated rule problems.
Let's start with a profile that has evolved a lot, that of the Lord :
The We Are At Your Orders , which allowed to activate a unit for a movement with the Lord, now becomes an activation independent of that of the Lord. This solves many timing problems with Activation / Reaction capabilities, fatigue evaluation, etc. Incidentally, this rule now allows any type of activation (rest, shooting, charge or movement).
The side-by-side rule , which allowed the Lord to engage body-to-body with another unit, was removed . This rule was a real gas plant that caused a number of problems in interpreting Saga's body-to-body capabilities, exploiting fatigue, not to mention timing issues on Activation / Reaction capabilities or exploitation of fatigue on the movement. In compensation, the number of attack dice of the Lord goes from 5 to 8.
The Resistance rule no longer allows you to automatically cancel a key without compensation. It allows to cancel keys while undergoing fatigue by key.As soon as the Lord is exhausted, he can no longer benefit from this rule. In general, therefore, the Lord will receive the first melee better than v1, but will be extremely vulnerable after the slightest fight. It strikes harder and can potentially better cash, but will be more fragile over time, so it will be necessary to think carefully when exposing him to combat. Note that this rule makes him lose his quasi-immunity to small units and shots: it now becomes particularly interesting to shoot a Lord to inflict Fatigue before engaging him in hand-to-hand (in addition, his armor against shooting is no longer 6, but 5).
A new rule is emerging, Bodyguards , which allows the sacrifice of figurines in the place of the Lord (which was previously covered by the Resistance rule). Henceforth, only the Guards can be sacrificed, whereas previously the Warriors could also be sacrificed; in return the scope of this rule has been extended to C TC . Combined with the new version of Resistance , this tends to make the Lord more vulnerable than in v1, unless you take a lot of Guards - but killing a Guard earns a lot of victory points ... Lords may be seen playing on tables with small units. Guards who will truly serve as bodyguards (whereas before, it was the Warriors who did this job).
The accumulation of these changes therefore makes the Lord more powerful in battle, but more vulnerable to prolonged effort. Its use will therefore be more delicate than before, where it could be placed in the middle of a horde of Warriors to make it virtually invulnerable. In return, as soon as he hits, his action will be more decisive thanks to his 8 attack dice (it is really worth a unit on its own).
fatigue:
From now on, all the depletion thresholds are the same , regardless of the type of unit. It is set at 3 . The Levées gain at the change, the Lords and the Guards will be easier to exhaust (whereas 4 fatigues, it was sometimes long and complicated to reach in v1). And the Warriors are always equal to themselves.
The exploitation of fatigue is no longer limited : if your opponent has several fatigues, you can increase several times your armor, or lower several times his, while in v1 you could get each effect only once .
We can now exploit two fatigues of an enemy unit to cancel its activation .
The depletion rule has also been changed: instead of losing half of its attack dice, the unit suffers a -1 penalty on its attack dice .
A unit can not have more than 3 fatigues. So, if she is already exhausted and she should get a new tiredness, too bad for your opponent, she stays with her 3 fatigues. Nevertheless, this means that the abilities that grant an effect on the condition that the unit suffers X Fatigue do not work on an exhausted unit (like the Goth's combat pool!).
The equipment:
The equipment rules have been standardized. You will not have to refer to the rules of each faction to know if your unit has armor reduction or not: it is now linked to the generic rule of the equipment included in the rule book. This was particularly true for bows and javelins, which until now had been managed on a case-by-case basis.
The rules of composite arcs and javelins have been revised. They no longer generate a firing sequence that is part of a movement activation as before, which resulted in the misunderstanding of many players, especially regarding interaction with the Shooting and Shooting / Saga abilities. Shooting activations are now separate activations, which is much simpler.
To get into the details, when a unit equipped with javelins solves a movement activation, it receives a free fire activation immediately after its movement. In addition, the javelin grants an additional bonus: when a unit charges, it gains a +1 bonus on its attack dice.
Things are a bit different for composite arcs. This armament makes all the unit's fire activations free (they normally generate fatigue, of course). However, the unit can not perform two successive fire activations, it must resolve another type of activation before it can fire again. Management of archery shots on horseback will require a little more finesse than v1 where these units functioned a little too automatic.
In conclusion…
In general, this new version tends to remove all potentially problematic rule points, as well as various restrictions and limitations that could previously slow down the game. The game will gain fluidity and speed (but the parties will not necessarily more violent than before, contrary to what we have read in places), but at the price of certain subtleties of the game that have been put aside.
Another positive aspect: the redesign of the plateaus of the Viking Age and Crusades. Indeed, some plateaux suffered from the comparison with more recent releases, lacked attraction or flexibility (yes, the Norman style of play was a little frozen in V1 ...). This recovery makes it possible to put everyone on the same wavelength. In addition, the supplement Crusades will receive additional factions, some unpublished, increasing the number of bands that will be possible to play for tournaments on this theme.
And we look forward to the Saga Universes announced in the V2 trailer ..
