SAGA Age of Magic-Confusion

Myself and Adam got in our first game of the new SAGA universe Age of Magic last Thursday, and although we made a few errors the game was a lot of fun. This is a superbly constructed new source book which has clearly taken a lot of time to put together. There are 6 new warbands all from the Fantasy World with multiple new abilities including the use of Magic!

I suppose what was really cool for me was that I finally got to field some of a large collection of LoTR figures that have never seen the table or were last used by my son Simon 15 years ago when there were still Games Workshop Stores in this area. The figures he painted years ago are of special significance as they got me into painting miniatures and subsequently into wargaming which has become a very important hobby for me.

I had some time to put together a warband and after some thought decided to go with the Masters of the Under Earth army. Adam decided  to go with a Great Kingdoms warband. We decided not to use magic in this game as there were a lot of new rules to learn and this proved to be a good decision as we never finished the game despite being at it for 4+ hours. We usually finish in 2 hours, but there are a lot of moving pieces and we were using the recommended 8 point warbands.

Game Set-up (BoB Chaos)

Scenery-Bleak Moor-(standard set up)

Deployment-Confusion (split the table diagonally with both warbands set up on their edge no closer than M)

Special Rule-Hostile Land (Uneven terrain becomes dangerous)

Victory Conditions-Show of Force (Survival points + bonuses)

Game Length-Unknown Length (5+ turns, no SAGA abilities in the first phase of the Attacking Player's first turn)

The Great Kingdoms (7 SAGA Dice)

Warlord
Captain (cost 6 Levies)
2 Paladins (cost 8 Warriors)
3 Hearthguard (half mounted)
3 spear-armed Warriors (-8)
2 bow-armed Levy (-6)
Sacred Ground-Memorial

Masters of the Under Earth (8 SAGA Dice)

Goblin King
Lieutenant (cost 2 Hearthguard)
Spawn of Cthulhu-Flying Scourge
3 heavy-weaponed Hearthguard-Grim Hammers (-2)
1 cross-bow armed Warriors-Uruk-hai
1 cross-bow armed Warriors-Moria Goblins (-2)
1 Destruction Team-Moria Goblins (cost 2 Warriors)
2 units of  Goblintown Levy
Sacred Ground-Underground Network

Adam has already written up an Action Report as you can see on his blog, but I thought I would post a few photos.

The Masters of the Under Earth battle line with the Grim Hammers to the left, with the Goblin Levy skulking behind them, Moria Crossbowman, more Goblin Levy with Uruk-hai Crossbowman with the Goblin King holding the right flank. You can see his Lieutenant, the tiny filthy goblin between the 2 units of Grim Hammers. The Destruction Team is in the forest.

Spawn of Cthulhu waiting to take flight

The Great Kingdoms battle line

Sacred Ground-Memorial

Goblin Levy advance

Star Spawn hoping to get an opportunity to smoke some warriors.

We totalled up the points and it appeared that the score was 30 to 29 points favouring me, however we made quite a few mistakes and I believe that most of them benefited the Masters of the Under Earth so I think that the victory in this truncated game should go to Adam. 

I have to say that I really enjoyed this iteration of SAGA. We both learned a lot and I suspect our next game will go much smoother.