Saga, Age of the Vikings

SAGA v2: Starting from the Mongols starter to

assemble 6 pts
September 26, 2018

Mongols

The arrival of the starter for the Mongols gives us a perfect opportunity to take a closer look at this faction. For a more
 general presentation, I refer you to the previously published article . Today we will be looking at the composition of the starter
and how to extend his 6-point strip from it.

 


 Composition
Please note: the gurines, sculpted by Robi Baker, have the characteristic proportions of this sculptor. They are quite large
and above all very round and thick, which means that they mix very badly with other brands, or even with other ranges of
Gripping Beast. My Hun riders mounted on their ponies look like dwarfs next to Mongol warriors. It goes even less with the
Fireforge gures which are rather thin and gangly.

The starter contains 1 Lord, 2 Guard points and 2 Warrior points. Once is not customary with Gripping Beast, this starter is
rather well thought out and will allow you to easily extend your 6-point tape without waste.

You will have noticed by reading the board, the Guards and Warriors form the heart of the faction's game. A lot of the abilities
are reserved for Warriors, and most of the other abilities are reserved for Guards, so you will need to draw from these two
types of troops. Since the board lacks offensive abilities, it is in my opinion almost essential to align a unit of 8 Guards to
compensate for this shortcoming: only one of your saga abilities allows you to gain conditionally attack dice, so it is better to
have at least one unit capable of sending a large number of attack dice by itself.

As for the Warriors, 2 points seem a minimum union: in addition to the usual role of harassment which falls to the units with
composite arcs, the Mongolian Warriors can ful ll a multitude of additional tasks like destroying the elements of ground with
Scorched Earth , forcing the enemy units engaged against your Guards to re-roll their defense dice with Preparation Shots , or
even engage in combat themselves with Plagues of the Steppes .

 
Okay, now you have 4 points. It's time to get down to business and expand your 6-point strip. I offer you three strip variations
that offer relatively different styles of play.

1 st option - versatile list

For this rst list, I offer you the classic choice of 2 points of Guards, 3 points of Warriors and 1 point of Levies. The Guards
form a large unit of 8 that can either harass the opponent under the effect of the Raptors ability , serve as a hammer to crush
the opponent or remain in reserve. A word of advice if you are facing Mutatawwi'a: do not hesitate to split your Guards into
two units to prevent them from being swept away by vile peasants mounted on camels. You also have three units of Warriors
to do the thankless work, giving you the exibility to sacri ce one if need be without sacri cing your stalking ability. Finally,
you have a Levy which brings you numbers, to compensate for the little resistance of your Guards and Warriors. This list
allows you, as you choose and depending on the situation, to advance aggressively, to wait for the opponent or to turn around
him. However, unlike the following two lists, it doesn't excel in either of these areas: its main advantage is that it allows you to
adapt to any situation.

Small note on Le Levée. The equipment you give him depends on the role you plan to give him. You can give it spears &
shields: in this case, its increased resistance makes it particularly effective support for your mounted Guards. These can
re ect losses on Levies thanks to the Human Shields  ability : if you line up your Levies with spears, your opponent will not be
able to easily sweep them away in one or two charges, leaving you more to sacri ce for your Guards. . If you plan to play your
Guards as a spearhead, this option seems the most interesting to me. You will therefore start by approaching your Levies to
the target you intend to attack, then send your Guards into combat, if necessary with the support of Maces of weapons to
increase their strike power: the reduction of armor that accompanies this ability. Doesn't matter to you, since the losses that
you will suffer will not come from your Guard unit but from the Levy which serves as their human shields ... You can,
depending on the circumstances, plan a withdrawal of your riders with Bracket down in order to retreat your Guards out of
danger. Also remember that Human Shields can be used in Orders or Orders / Reaction, which gives it some versatility: if the
target you intend to attack has a low volume of attack dice, it may be worth keeping the ability. to absorb the response during
your opponent's turn, which prevents you from withdrawing your Guards. Remember, too, that the Lord bene ts from the
ability as well: it will sometimes be helpful to sacri ce a Rising (or Warrior if you have no choice) model rather than leaving
your Lord exhausted.

You can also play your Levy with bows. In this case, they will be less able to serve as human shields, as your opponent will be
able to take them out more easily due to their reduced armor and their inability to close ranks. Even so, it's still a unit made up
of 12 models, and if your opponent chooses to deal with Levies before turning his gaze to your Warriors or Guards, you will in
most cases have a few pedestrians left to sacri ce to protect your elite. You will also have under the nose an enemy unit
accompanied by some fatigue, unless your opponent has planned a withdrawal costly in dice and fatigue. The Bow Leve is
also more threatening than the Levee throws due to its long range shot. Compared with composite bows Warriors, Exercise
arcs have more attack dice, and do not expose as much as they can get by staying over M . Also, they don't activate with the
same Saga dice, so you can get away with any Saga dice roll. For the same number of Saga dice expended, Bow Levies send
a far greater volume of shooting dice than Composite Bow Warriors: with two activations, if you fold your riders, you will only
roll 4 attack dice, while your Bow Levies will throw 12. After testing, Bow Lift turns out to be a great option for this list. You
won't destroy the enemy by the force of your re alone, but you will threaten them enough to force them to take risks to avoid
having their units shrink without being able to retaliate.

2 an option - the roller

This list is a variation of the tactic discussed above with Throwing Spear. In this case, you decide to play the human shield
card to the full, while your Warriors nd themselves reduced to a side role: you will win your games with the strength of your
Guards and the blood of your Levies. You will therefore need 2 Guards points in a large unit of 8, 2 Warrior points and 2 Levy
points. These can form two large blocks of 12, or 3 units of 8: this con guration makes your Levies less aggressive on their
own, but gives you a Saga die at the start of the game; moreover, it allows you to better distribute your Levy units on your
battle line, in order to offer more points of support to your Guards. When it comes to out tting your Levels, one of each can
give you a good range of options. If you go for 3 units of 8 Levels, two units with lance and one with bows will give you good
resistance and some long range shooting.

If you choose this option, Fireforge's Mongolian infantry box seems perfectly suited: 24 foot gures that can be equipped with
bows or spears for less than € 30. If you are allergic to plastic, you can use Gripping Beast's Mongolian Levy for your Bow
Levels (which is the same as Saracen and Huns Levy); As for the Raise lance, there is currently no really satisfactory option.

 
3 rd option - the horde of horsemen
This time, I suggest that you form your band with 2 points of Guards, 3 points of Warriors and a camel drum.

The latter option takes advantage of the Mongolian exclusive unit, the camel drum. Once during each of your activation
phases (if you do not know what an activation phase is, I invite you to return to your rulebook), you bene t from a free
activation on each of your units mounted L from the camel. By placing the latter wisely, you can activate your entire army for
free once per turn, which represents a fairly large saga dice gain. This will allow you to use your Warriors to their full potential,
all of whom will bene t from one free activation per turn. In addition, some Saga abilities that were quite expensive for a
regular warband become much easier to use, such as Scorched Earth and Preparation Shot , which use the same Saga die as
Warriors activations and are therefore di cult to use. In this case, you simply have to trigger the Drum Horde ability to
approach a unit of Warriors on your target and then trigger the ability. The same goes for Raptors  : normally, the Mongolian
board costs too much in saga dice to allow you to use this ability effectively. With the drum, the Saga dice you save on
activation abilities can be recycled into those abilities. Another positive point is that you will now have a second anchor point
for the Master of Men ability . And you won't have to worry too much about protecting your drum: with an armor of 4, the
Resistance and Bodyguard rules and the penalty that camels impose on units mounted on horses, your opponent will have to
invest considerable means to succeed in eliminating your drum.

But what is the counterpart? The camel costs 1 point: it is a point that you cannot spend on combat units. This can be
decisive, especially for a faction that has relatively few means to protect its troops. The Mongolian strike force also depends
mainly on the size of its units, given its lack of offensive capabilities. In order to make the most of the rules of the drum, even
if it means investing a band point in this unit, you will not have any Tricks (at least not in a 6 point game), which means that
the Human Shields ability will lose a good part of its interest: sacri cing Warriors is much less pro table than Levies,
especially since they lose their Saga die very quickly. You will therefore need to take maximum advantage of the mobility of
your mounted units, increased by the Drum Horde rule : turn around your opponent, shoot arrows at his key units (your
opponent's Mounted Guards are a suitable target) , if possible charge its vulnerable units before retreating; above all, avoid
remaining static and being surrounded in a corner, because if your opponent corneres you, your units will have little means to
defend themselves, for lack of Levies to sacri ce, and you will curse your decision to spend a band point to take a drum when
you could have had a ghting unit in reserve instead. You will therefore nd that this option is radically opposed to the
previous two.

The banner
Let's nish this dissertation on the Mongols with a note on the banner. Too often overlooked, this equipment is in my opinion
indispensable to the Mongols: not only do they have no Saga ability to deal with fatigue, but in addition, they tend to generate
a lot of it themselves due to their composite arcs. The banner allows you to automatically manage fatigue free of charge on
each of your turns, which is a considerable advantage, not to mention the ability, more circumstantial but nevertheless useful,
to purge yourself of all your fatigue by giving up on activating yourself. during the turn - believe me, if you are playing against
Moors, you will be very happy to be able to do this.

But to whom should we entrust the banner? It depends on the style of play you want to adopt. If you decide to use your
Guards as your primary threat, either as a hammer in the rst or second option or by harassing your opponent by taking
advantage of the Raptors ability , they will be the go-to recipient of your gang's banner.

If, on the contrary, you opt for an optic of harassment with Warriors (for example by playing the rst list with a unit of lifting
bows and warriors who go back and forth between your lines and those of your opponent, while your Guards are only a
reserve unit), making a unit of 12 Warriors with a banner may be wise. Harassment units tend to accumulate fatigue quickly
due to the need to withdraw; You can moderate this with the Bow and Spear ability , but it constrains your placement and can
only be used once per turn. Banner therefore allows you to remove fatigue from a second harassing unit, or perform two
movement activations with the same unit before pulling it back without fatigue with Bow and Spear and removing fatigue at
the start of your next turn. Another notable advantage is that the banner allows you to take better advantage of the Plagues
of the Steppes  ability: this ability prevents your unit from resting, which will often offset the +1 bonus on charging attack dice
conferred by the capacity. Because banner fatigue removal is not a rest, it sends your unit into battle with less fatigue, which
can be the difference between a successful charge and a failure!

So think carefully about your banner depending on the style of play you want to give your gang. But above all, play a banner!

The auxiliaries
The choices of auxiliaries available to the Mongols are very limited compared to other factions. They are more di cult to
integrate into a 6 point band because of the tension on the different classes of troops. The rst band option is where they can
most easily integrate as a replacement for a Warrior unit or the Levy. Only two of them seem to me to have an interest in the
Mongols. The Path nders, in a band oriented towards light riders, will make it easier to maneuver on a table loaded with
scenery. As for the men of the outskirts, they bring you two advantages: they give you a unit with a strong strike power in a
faction that is somewhat lacking, and give you the possibility of occupying and cleaning the elements of the ground, a task
that your horsemen will have a hard time accomplishing, even though the Scorched Earth ability makes the Mongols a little
less powerless than other horsemen when facing people hiding in the woods. You will nd that both are used to face tables
loaded with decorations, which means that they will not always be useful, especially as factions of the Age of the Crusades
tend to play a lot of games. horse riders and therefore little like rough terrain.

These are just a few examples of bands to give you a taste of the styles of play that can be developed from the new
Mongolian starter. This is by no means an exhaustive catalog, and I invite you to experiment for yourselves when you put
together your band in order to nd the composition which will suit you best. However, keep one thing in mind: this is one of
the most di cult tapes of all the Saga universes combined, possibly the most di cult, and you will need a number of games
before you can play. 'get to get something out of it and nd the right direction for you. If you just want to roll Saga dice and
move your miniatures, go your way and head to another faction. Otherwise, if you like a challenge, this is a big one. Good
game !

Fabien

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Julie and Fab

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